Improving app experiences, including more personalised content, will be critical for developers’ ongoing success, according to Raj Aggarwal, CEO of app marketing platform provider Localytics.

Speaking to Mobile World Live, Aggarwal said: “A lot of these companies have users and the primary challenge is how to retain and engage users and increase lifetime value.”

With the app market getting more competitive, it is important for developers to cultivate the relationship with loyal users by getting the user experience right.

Localytics recently found that a growing number of titles are suffering from ‘app burnout’, in which users frequently access them for a short period before losing interest.

“People are going to spend more time in fewer apps,” Aggarwal said.

While saying push messaging and in-app messaging are good ways to retain and re-engage users, Aggarwal said that moving beyond pure messaging to provide personalised content and ‘micro experiences’ will be the next stage.

“You can’t just be a broadcast platform to spam your users. You need to understand who these users are and what will drive them,” he explained.

Developers that respond to these needs will make greater use of server side technology to go beyond the native capability of apps and provide relevant content to users.

“Ultimately, push messaging is just an extension of the core app,” he noted.