Geolocation is probably the most contextually effective signal that any business can use in their App to make the promotion and delivery of their services very very effective. The huge business success of location based apps like Uber, Swiggy, Pokemon Go etc. affirms the fact. So, if you are contemplating to develop one such location based apps, then this article is for you. Happy reading!
Source : Pew Research Centre
Also, Technavio says Location based services (LBS) will witness a CAGR(Compound annual growth rate) of more than 43% by 2020.
OK, now that you are excited about the enormous potential of location based apps, it will be the logical next step to figure out what are the broad domains where location based apps can be a huge success. So here are some attractive domains and related location based app ideas which have a huge potential :
1. Navigation app
Have you ever searched for ‘ATM near me’ or ‘Restaurant near me’ on Google Maps? I am pretty sure you must have. When we talk about geolocation, we tend to think about google maps. But strangely this isn’t the only one.
Say, for example, Waze- a navigation app that comes with amazing and useful features that one can explore. In fact, Waze, after Google Maps, is the second-most popular navigation app in American apple store and have almost 110 million monthly active users.
These navigation apps can give you the information about the hotels, restaurants, parks, visiting places etc. taking your location into consideration. Aside from this, navigation apps can provide you with the reviews and rating of the places you want to visit.
Before developing one such app make sure your app is multilingual such that it becomes convenient for a wide range of users to use the app. Also, take special care about UI/UX before developing these apps as these apps have heavy interaction with users and even small improvement in UI/UX of these apps can make a big difference to the success of these apps.
2. Weather app
It's always a perk if you can predict the weather before making an outing plan, no? Gone are the days when you get to hear the weather forecast in a radio or news channel.
The substitute for this now-a-days is Weather Apps. These weather apps can help you get the most accurate weather forecast for a specific location and not the whole city.
These location based apps on weather can:
- Predict the weather of your location
- Let you know about the trends in the weather,
- Drop up-to-the-moment specific updates of the weather
- Alert you if any severe weather conditions like hurricanes, storms, cyclone etc. is detected.
There are a number of weather apps available in the play store that one can choose from. If you want to make yours stand out, your app should incorporate features like rain prediction, wind predictions, humidity, visibility, UV map, sunset and sunrise time, push notifications etc.
Example: Accuweather, The weather Channel
Read more: How to create location based service app
3. Travel apps
Majority people want their holidays to be planned and thought out and not random. Their initial search starts from the places to explore, the hotel to stay in, the food they will eat etc. Everything is pre-planned even before the journey starts just to make sure the travel is hassle free.
Travel apps like Airbnb, Go ibibo, Make My Trip etc. comes with all the features that a traveller would look for, be it booking hotels, flight tickets or online mode of payment.
The geolocation feature can assist the users with recommendation of the places they can visit near their location and can direct them within the app.
Weather forecast, currency convertor, time convertor, location based emergency services etc. are some of the functionalities a travel app must have to reach out to the crowd.
Example: TripAdvisor, Airbnb
Read more : How to create a successful travel app?
4. On-demand apps
When hunger strikes, you open a food delivery app to place an order and there comes the food at your doorstep. On-demand apps leverages the GPS technology and act as a mediator between the users and the provider.
Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, GrubHub are some examples of on demand app that aims providing instant service to the users.
How on-demand app works:
- You place an order
- App connects with the provider
- Provider accepts your request
- Payment accredited
- Service is delivered
- Delivery confirmation from customer end
- Payment deducted for the provided service
GPS is one of the most prominent features that an on demand app should have. Apart from this, notifications, payment gateway, reviews and ratings, wishlist etc. are some of the features that an On-demand apps should comprise of.
Know more: How geolocation app development works
Example: Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, GrubHub
5. Dating apps:
Finding a real partner can be a chore. Dating apps redefined this concept.
Source : Pew Research Center
Tinder is a dating app that has gained a high market value over the last few years.
Geolocation feature is utilized to make the people find their perfect match based on their location and common ground.
Your dating app should be user friendly and interactive. Matching algorithm, swiping left right, in-app messenger, notification, gamification are some of the other requisites of a dating app.
Example: Tinder, Bumble, OkCupid
Read more: How to create a dating app
6. Gaming apps
If we talk about numbers then according to Techjury, 62% of the people install gaming app within a week of purchasing the gadget. This is huge, I know!
If you think that geolocation has got nothing to do with games, then hang on.
Source : Statista
Remember Pokémon GO?
In the year 2016, Pokémon GO conquered the world. Soon after this, the market got flooded with gaming apps. There are an endless number of stories of gaming apps like Angry bird, Clash of Clans, Candy Crush that became insanely popular among the crowd.
Apart from Geolocation, social login, leaderboard, challenges recommendations, in-game call or chatting are few of the features that one should target before building location based gaming apps.
Examples: Pokémon GO, Yelp Monocle
7. Health and fitness apps
According to Coherent Market Insights, the global market for health and sports app is anticipated to have a tremendous CAGR of 20.4% from 2019-2027. There are mobile apps for weight loss, diet and nutrition app, work out apps and so on.
Geolocation can help track the activities of the users like running, cycling, swimming etc on a day-to-day basis and provide the overall progress. These apps will provide the data to the users like the miles they have walked, the duration of the jogging session they did, the steps count, the speed etc. and the user will be able to keep track of them in the app.
Your health and fitness app should allow users to create an account, set their own targets, notify them with the updates, track progress, wearable integration etc.
Wrapping Up:
As you can see by now, location based apps have huge potential to be successful and there are enough examples in the market where location based apps became hugely popular and brought in bounty for the app owner. So now the ball is in your court, put on your thinking cap and conceptualize your next killer location based app.
Binaryfolks has 7+ years of experience in developing location based apps for many of our startup and enterprise clients. If you want to create one such location based app or have another app idea in your mind and looking for some consultation, contact us and we’ll be happy to help!
