Planning a Major Update to Your App? Two Things to Consider

In the first part of this series, BeQRious gave you tips on how to go about updating your app and also how to correctly name the revision number so that your users would not be confused.

When it comes to major updates, here are the things you should consider:

1. Build a new app or just give your current one a major update?

When you have a major update, it means that you have changed your app’s features, user interface and maybe even some of its functionalities. Instagram, the popular iPhone camera and photo editing app released its version 2.0 and gave its users a lot of new features, filters and high resolution photos.

But you might gain some advantage if you just build a new app instead. This will give you the opportunity to start anew and perhaps improve on your first app in terms of marketing and adoption. If the new version would mean a very drastic change to your existing app, then you might as well consider a new app. Plus, if you offer a new paid app, that would mean more revenues!

But if you have an already very popular app, a new app might dilute your user base and the new app might not have the same success as your first.

2. Go for an in-app purchase?

If you have a major update planned and you want to earn money from it, you might want to try an in-app purchase.

This is very common with games. Developers allow users to download their apps for free, but for certain levels or to finish the game, they must buy it. Be careful, however, when you do this, you might turn off some players. Let the players finish the game and just add some additional levels for purchase.

You could also offer some functionalities for sale on an app. For example, you can let people use your camera phone app for free, but in order to upload it to their social networking site, they must pay a minimum amount.