From Idea to Launch: A Timeline of Mobile App Development

How much time is needed to develop an app? Answering this question requires understanding the development phases and the variables influencing the mobile app development timeline.

So, let’s go over the following aspects while offering you a thorough time breakdown for each stage of app development:

• How long does developing an app from ideation to finished product typically take?
• What are the stages that take the longest time?
• How can the process of developing apps be accelerated?

Primarily, the typical app development timeline will be as follows when comparing apps with varying levels of complexity and feature density:

This is the bare minimum time required for an app development timeline. Often, custom mobile app development services envelops steps from collecting sufficient requirements, getting clarifications, design, coding the app, integrating input, and testing the finished version.

The global mobile app market was valued at $208.5 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach $777.4 billion by 2032. To stay competitive, a well-planned timeline is crucial.

After all, it’s crucial to determine your mobile app development timeline, ways to minimize it, and how much app development costs before diving into mobile app development. Though, we’ve already covered the latter question in previous blogs, here, we’ll learn everything there is to know about the first one.

So, let’s start!

The Roadmap Of a Typical Mobile App Development Timeline

Every app needs a varied amount of time, considering its complexity and the resource allocation aspect. Regardless of the specifications of the circumstances, the majority of the app development projects call for at least the following six phases:

Phase 1: Idea Formulation and Research (1 to 2 weeks)

The first and foremost step influencing app development timeline is choosing your target market and defining the type of app you want to create. Often, this phase takes one to two weeks, depending on the features you want to include along with other crucial details.

While it may be tempting for entrepreneurs and startups to jump straight into design and development, answering crucial questions upfront is equally crucial. These consist of:

• What is your app’s concept?
• Who is your target audience and what are their requirements?
• Which platform do you want to build for – Android, iOS, or cross-platform?
• Which project management approach do you want to use?
• How will your app solve the audience’s pain point?
• What’s the market size and user behavior of your app?

💡In addition, researching the app stores for similar products is inevitable. Use relevant keywords to explore both the app stores – Google and Apple.

Phase 2: Design and Pre-Development Stage

Next in the mobile app development process comes the designing and pre-development stage. This stages lays the foundation on how to create a phone app, where crucial decisions about the app interface, complete UX and features are made.

The key tasks include:

• Designing the app’s UI, aesthetics and elements.
• Outlining the app’s features and functionalities
• Determining the scope of work with clear tasks and milestones
• Identify the app’s objective, target audience and the pain points it addresses.
• Choosing the right development platform (iOS, Android or Cross-Platform)

This step also envelopes developing visual elements like the color scheme, fonts, logo and app icon. Wireframes and mockups can also be used to visualize the app’s design and test key decisions, ensuring everything from color hierarchy to typography aligns with the desired user experience.

In Case You Missed It – Why User Experience (UX) is King in Mobile App Development  

Phase 3: App Architecture

App architecture is an inevitable part of the app development timeline. This step involves determining the technical framework and choosing the best platforms and technologies to brace the mobile app. Indeed, app architecture defines the complete structure and layout of the app, consisting:

• How is the code organized?
• Defining the use of design patterns and framework.
• Ensuring scalability, simplicity and maintainability.

Though, this phase is a little daunting, especially if the mobile app needs to integrate with other apps or APIs.  Here are handful steps included in developing a mobile app architecture:

• Define technical requirements – Identify the operating system, device types, and specific hardware requirements for the app.
• Design the database – Establish the data model and relationships to structure the app’s data efficiently.
• Select the right technologies – Choose the most appropriate platforms, programming languages, frameworks, and libraries for development.
• Create a detailed technical design – Develop a comprehensive technical design that circumscribes the app’s data flow, algorithms and API integrations.

Phase 4: App Development

Considering the app development phase, these steps consist of coding and building the app. Once, design and architecture phase is completed, the app starts to take form.  Key tasks defining this phase include:

• Writing the code – Developers write the lines of code using programming languages and frameworks chosen during the app architecture phase, adhering to the established technical design.
• Integrating the user interface – The UI is crafted based on the design created earlier, consisting of app’s layout, navigation, and controls, to ensure a seamless user experience.
• Establishing the backend – In this step, the mobile app development team connects the app with the backend infrastructure – integrating the database, implementing APIs, and ensuring seamless data flow as planned.

Once the mobile app development outline is approved, the actual legwork kicks in. The framework consists of two crucial elements: the frontend and the backend.

The Fronted Development

Once the server and database structure are completed, the development team begins working on the app’s front end. The front end organizes and displays data from the backend. Developers leverage technologies like CSS, HTML, and Javascript to create the app’s layout, design and UI visuals.

The focus here is on creating the app’s user interface and visual components. Typically, this phase takes 4 to 6 weeks to complete the bare minimum of functionalities.

The Backend Development

Typically, the backend development takes 5-7 weeks to complete. This includes working with the app server and database to dynamically deliver data to the front end. Whether it’s an on-demand marketplace displaying product prices or a vehicle rental app displaying different vehicles, the backend assures data like prices, images, and descriptions are extracted and rendered on the app.

In essence, the server holds essential dynamic data, like product inventories, client accounts and many other crucial data. Thus, developing a backend system can be onerous, especially when comparing online vs. offline apps.

• Network connectivity – Online apps need constant connectivity, whereas offline apps must function without it, requiring additional logic and error handling for optimal performance.

• Data storage – Offline apps store data locally, eventually adding complexity in terms of data synchronization, security and conflict resolution, like data encryption.
• Limited resources – Offline apps should be optimized for optimal resources utilization like processing power, storage and memory.

In conclusion, backend development for offline apps is more complicated compared to online apps, as it needs optimal planning surrounding data storage, network reliability and optimal performance concern.

Phase 5: Testing

Next comes the testing phase.

Though, it takes place alongside the development to make sure issues are resolved without any delay. The core objective of testing is to confirm the app is error-free and works as intended. Also, it caters the specifications outlined in the planning stage.

Different types of testing can be done to ensure seamless app working. Here are handful of them:

• Integration testing –  Assures that different code elements interact smoothly.
• Functional testing – This type of testing assures the app’s functionality addresses the required prerequisites.
• Unit testing – Ensures every code unit functions optimally.
• User Acceptance testing – It includes real users testing the app to ensure it’s engaging and caters their needs.
• Performance testing – This testing assesses speed, responsiveness, and performance under different scenarios.

The testing phase can take up to a week, depending on the app’s complexity. Addressing bugs and issues can be  time-consuming.

Phase 6: Launch and Maintenance

This is the final stage of the mobile app  development timeline. Herein, the development team thoroughly reviews the app, ensuring it checks on every criteria and is error-free. Plus, any last-minute changes are made without any delay for a smooth release.

This step consists of  publishing the app on respective platforms like the App Store or Google Play and promoting it on different marketing channels.

To your surprise, app development is just the tip of the iceberg. Once, app is launched, the development team will continue monitoring and updating the app, addressing issues, and adding new features or enhancements to keep the app valuable and relevant for users over time.

Expert’s Tips to Save on Your App Development Timeline

As already known, there are numerous factors influencing the app development timeline. But, what you’ll read here will surely help you save on your time and speed up the process.

Let’s understand!

Tip 1: Create MVP of Your App

In today’s flooded market, having a strong product is the bare minimum.

However, launching your app with all the features isn’t always needed. Let’s take WhatsApp for instance – they started with the basic chat features. This is what we term as MVP (Minimum Viable Product), allowing you to release your app quickly and thus, iterate and upgrade based on user feedback.

This approach ensures a speedy app development timeline.

Next Step: How Do Successful Entrepreneurs Saves Money With MVP?

Tip 2: Wireframe Blueprint

Low-fidelity wireframes play a pivotal role in keeping the development process timelines on track. This approach offers a clear layout, helping developers and designers alike with the app’s architecture and functionality at an early stage.

Primarily, a solid wireframe streamlines the process by providing a visual roadmap, making sure everyone is on the same page.

Tip 3: Automated Testing

Automated testing proves beneficial in significantly reducing development time.

Plus, it ensures that your app is secure, especially in safeguarding customer data. Running automated tests in parallel speeds up the overall testing process, detecting issues early and keeping development on schedule.

Tip 4: Choose Hybrid Mobile App Development

Hybrid app development is a quick and pocket-friendly way to launch your mobile app across different platforms. Tools like Xamarin, Flutter, React Native and Ionic allow you to write one codebase that works well for different operating systems.

Adhering to this approach will not just save time, but will reduce the time needed to develop an amazing mobile app along with the time to market.

 Finally..

These tried and tested strategies significantly boost productivity, streamline communication and ensure your app development timeline delivers products faster than promised.

If you still have any further questions or want to explore excellent app development, Apptunix is here to help. With our expertise and experience in developing 300+ successful mobile apps, we nurture the perfect blend of  innovation with expert execution. Reach out to us, and we’ll provide a realistic estimate of your app’s development timeline in no time! Let’s bring your brilliant idea to life.