Microsoft has outlined provisions for adding capacity to its Azure servers for key public and emergency services across the world as teams fight to contain the escalating COVID-19 crisis.

The company says it has been monitoring its services and usage trends 24/7 to ensure customers are able to stay online as businesses adjust to a sharp rise in remote working. 

However, Microsoft has said a cohort of key customers will be prioritised should there be capacity constraints, which includes retaining priority over new Azure cloud capacity.

With demand rising, higher priority will be afforded to first responders, health and emergency services, critical government infrastructure organisational use, as well as ensuring remote workers are up and running with the core functionality of Teams. 

“Over the past several weeks, all of us have come together to battle the global health pandemic,” the company said in a blog post. «We are working closely with first responder organizations and critical government agencies to ensure we are prioritizing their unique needs and providing them our fullest support.

“We are also partnering with governments around the globe to ensure our local datacenters have on-site staffing and all functions are running properly,» added Microsoft.

The tech giant has stressed there aren’t any cloud constraints at the moment, but concerns remain that the stress on the wider internet will increase as more of the global population moves online.

A host of streaming providers, including Netflix and YouTube, have in the last few days reduced streaming quality as a direct response to these concerns.

Microsoft’s brief warning about potential usage constraints with Azure cloud services may cause concern for businesses currently struggling to grapple with masses of employees adopting flexible and remote working patterns.

It’s currently unclear what these restrictions mean for businesses and organisations not deemed to be a priority, should Azure servers be faced with capacity constraints in any of its regions – it’s likely that some businesses could struggle to secure extra capacity if demand continues to increase.

The industry giant has said, however, that it would communicate any updates as soon as possible through its online resources and blogs.

Google has cancelled development of version 82 of Chrome and will instead skip ahead to Chrome 83.

Chrome 81, which was due for release on 17 March, is currently still in a beta channel and will stay there until 83 is ready to be promoted.

On Friday, the tech giant announced it had paused all work on new Chrome and Chrome OS releases as work schedules were delayed by the outbreak of COVID-19. On Monday, Jason Kersey, the director of technical program management at Google, announced that the schedule for 82 had to be dropped altogether to maintain stability.

«This is an update on our earlier decision to pause our branch and release schedule,» he wrote in a Chrome discussion group for developers. «As we adapt our future milestone schedules to the current change in schedule, we have decided to skip the M82 release to ensure we keep users safe and focus all efforts on maintaining stability.»

As a result, Chrome 82 is effectively dead, as Google will not be pushing its release to developers. It will no longer be tested or merged into branches or even be placed in beta. Instead, all efforts will go to moving the development channel onto Chrome 83.

Kersey added that there will be a further update later in the week with more information about future changes, which could be a regular update as the coronavirus continues to cause disruption.

Similar disruption has been felt at Microsoft, which has also paused the release of new versions of its Edge browser to remain consistent with Chrome. Version 81 was due to be released to developers on Tuesday, but that has also been paused due to COVID-19.

Both Google and Microsoft have had to force staff to work remotely, which may have limited their abilities to respond to bugs in new versions.

Google has said that security updates have been unaffected by the disruption and will still go through for Chrome OS as planned.

Cloud services have revolutionised the way we work, providing easy paths for collaboration over a distance and business-critical features such as automatic off-site backups and version control. 

However, potential issues range from not wanting to entrust data to the uncanny tentacles of global megacorporations, to very limited options for intranet-only deployments and the cost of per-user licensing for bundled services that not all users need.

Setting up your own cloud services can – in some cases – provide financial savings, but it will certainly provide greater control over the data you’re responsible for and the way your users can access it. 

That can be a distinct advantage when it comes to data protection and financial services regulation. Note, though, that you will be responsible for securing and updating the software that runs your cloud, rather than being able to leave that to a third party.

We’ll guide you through setting up open source cloud storage suite Nextcloud and Collabora Online, which adds online collaborative document editing to Nextcloud, as well as a few more common business cloud features. For brevity and convenience, we’ll be using containerised versions of the software distributed using Snap and Docker.

The latest version, Nextcloud 18 Hub, includes support for an integrated OnlyOffice editing environment on the same server. This is bleeding edge stuff, so for both this reason and because the OnlyOffice Community Edition it uses supports just 20 simultaneous open documents, we’ve opted not to use this approach for our tutorial.

Instead, we’ll guide you through setting up the current stable version 16 snap release of Nextcloud and the more fully-featured Collabora document editing environment on a dedicated server, as this is more appropriately scaleable to the needs of most businesses.

In our example deployment, we’ve given Nextcloud and Collabora’s servers each a dedicated VM. The required spec will vary depending on how many users you have, how much they need to store and how frequently they’ll access storage and edit documents.

A very basic setup – suitable for a small business or department of three to ten people – works smoothly with a single core and 1GB RAM for the Nextcloud server, and two cores and 2GB RAM for Collabora. The extra memory is particularly important here if you expect multiple users to work on their documents at the same time.

Unless you have very high storage capacity requirements, we suggest using an SSD-based system to improve responsiveness. This tutorial was written using virtual servers hosted on Vultr and that service’s default Ubuntu 18.04 image, but applies to any comparable virtual or hardware server configuration.

Nextcloud installation

Set up an Ubuntu 18.04 server. If your install image doesn’t prompt you to do so, create a new user, add them to the sudoers group and update the server. You’ll be logging in as that new user, rather than as root, whenever you need command line access to the Nextcloud server.

adduser username adduser username sudo su username sudo apt update sudo apt dist-upgrade

Now, we’re ready to install the Nextcloud snap package, which packs in all required dependencies.

sudo snap install nextcloud

To configure your Nextcloud, connect to your server’s IP address in a web browser and follow the prompts to create an admin account. Congratulations, you now have a basic cloud storage server.

To make it easily accessible and appropriately professional-looking, we’ll want a domain name for it – either a new domain or a subdomain of your existing web address will work well.  

With an appropriate domain name registered or subdomain selected, create an A record in your registrar’s DNS management portal pointing at your new Nextcloud server’s IP address.

Now we’ll have to tell your Nextcloud instance what its domain name is. Log in to the server at the command line.

sudo nano /var/snap/nextcloud/current/nextcloud/config/config.php

Add your new domain name under trusted_domains, save changes and you should now be able to immediately access your Nextcloud from that URL.

With that done, it’s time to run through Nextcloud’s recommended server security tweaks, most importantly HTTPS support.
 
The Nextcloud snap comes with built-in support for generating a LetsEncrypt certificate, so just run:

sudo nextcloud.enable-https lets-encrypt

Then follow through the certificate creation process for your domain name. The Nextcloud Snap includes an integrated auto-renewal routine, but you can also renew your certificates at any point by re-running the creation command above.

Configure Nextcloud

Nextcloud needs to be able to communicate with your users for everything from registration emails to editing invitations, so you’ll need an SMTP server that it can send outbound emails through.

In this example, we’re integrating Nextcloud with a business that uses G-Suite, so we’ll use Gmail as our SMTP server. However, third-party SMTP providers of this kind may require some extra configuration on their end to work. In this instance, we had to reduce security to allow access. If users aren’t allowed to manage their own less secure apps, you’ll have to grand them this permission in the G-Suite admin panel’s Advanced Security Settings.

If you’re testing Nextcloud and using a standard Gmail account for SMTP, you’ll find the same setting in your personal Google Account Security options.

If you run your own mail server, you’ll want to create a user for Nextcloud and point it at that. 

At this point, you should add a recovery email address and ideally enable two-factor authentication for your admin account. Once you roll Nextcloud out to your users, you should strongly encourage them to do the same.

If all you need is online storage, you’re ready to invite users, but if you want to provide more advanced cloud services and apps, such as document editing,  you’ll want to add a few more features.

Click on your profile icon and select Apps. Here, you’ll see all the default features of Nextcloud, such as its gallery display for images, plain text editor and PDF viewer, as well as any pending updates for them. 

In the pane on the left, a category list lets you view a full range of official and third-party Nextcloud apps. There’s a lot here, so you’ll want to take a look through everything to see what your users are likely to need.

Nextcloud’s app library includes Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and Dropbox integrations that can help users transfer files from third-party cloud services to Nextcloud, multimedia file playback and conversion, single sign-on and additional two-factor authentication support, web form creation, WebRTC-based video and voice conferencing, end-to-end encryption and real-time tracking of associated mobile devices, as well as more traditional office suite functionality.

For this tutorial, we’re going to add a calendar, task list, and contact management. Go to Office & text and select Download and enable on Calendar, Contacts and Tasks. You may be prompted to enter your password. Once you’ve added these and returned to the main Nextcloud interface, you’ll be able to access these via extra buttons that’ll appear on the interface’s top bar.

Nextcloud includes a simple integrated text editor by default, but if you need proper online document creation and editing, the Nexcloud Collabora Online app is an elegant solution. To use it, however, you’ll need to set up a Collabora Online server. 

Based on LibreOffice, Collabora’s features include full version control, commenting, collaborative document editing, and it allows you to create word processor documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Documents are saved in standard Open Document formats, and the synced versions that’ll be saved on users’ devices can be opened in any compatible word processor, although you only get access to collaborative editing via the web interface.

Collabora is available as a Docker image. As it can become rather memory-hungry if you’ve got lots of users editing documents at the same time, we recommend giving it its own server, which also makes life a little easier when it comes to setup and configuration.

Collabora installation

Spin up a fresh Ubuntu 18.04 server and update it. We’ll be expanding on Nextcloud’s official Collabora deployment instructions for this section and working on the assumption that Collabora will only need to serve a single Nextcloud instance.

While some previous iterations of Docker liked to run as root, which is reflected in the Collabora setup instructions linked above, you can and should use a normal user in the sudoers group. So, if your installation image doesn’t do this for you by default:

adduser username adduser username sudo su username sudo apt update sudo apt dist-upgrade sudo apt install docker.io sudo docker pull collabora/code sudo docker run -t -d -p 127.0.0.1:9980:9980 -e ‘domain=subdomain\\.yournextclouddomain\\.tld’ -e ‘dictionaries=en en-gb’ –restart always –cap-add MKNOD collabora/code

These parameters include British, as well as US, English dictionaries – you can add others as needed. The path specified in the docker run command above must match the URL that your users will be using to connect to Nextcloud.

You’ll also need Apache to act as a forward proxy for the Docker images. 

sudo apt-get install apache2  sudo a2enmod proxy  sudo a2enmod proxy_wstunnel  sudo a2enmod proxy_http  sudo a2enmod ssl

Before you can configure it properly, though, we’ll need to set up TLS certificates for the subdomain it’ll be using. We’re again using Let’s Encrypt certificates in this tutorial.

In this particular configuration, the easiest option is to stop Apache before using the Lets Encrypt certbot’s certificate-only generation mode.

sudo service apache2 stop sudo apt install certbot sudo certbot certonly –standalone

Enter the domain name you want to use for the Collabora server –  we suggest using a subdomain on the same domain you’re using for your Nextcloud server. Remember to create an A record in your DNS settings to point the subdomain at your new Collabora server before you try to generate the certificate.

Certbot automatically sets up a cron job to handle the required three-monthly renewals of Let’s Encrypt certificates, but we’ll have to make a couple of modifications to make sure it stops and restarts Apache properly. First, test renewal, as it’ll have to stop your server.

sudo certbot renew –dry-run –pre-hook «service apache2 stop» –post-hook «service apache2 start»

If that runs without any errors, we need to create scripts for those pre and post hooks into the appropriate directories.

sudo nano /etc/letsencrypt/renewal-hooks/pre/stop_apache #!/bin/bash service apache2 stop sudo nano /etc/letsencrypt/renewal-hooks/post/start_apache #!/bin/bash service apache2 start sudo chmod u+x /etc/letsencrypt/renewal-hooks/post/start_apache sudo chmod u+x /etc/letsencrypt/renewal-hooks/pre/stop_apache See if these are working by running sudo certbot renew –dry-run

You can also confirm that there’s a systemd timer in place for certbot thus:

systemctl list-timers

We’re using Apache as a proxy here, so you’ll need to enter the URL of the Collabora Online server – the one you just got a certificate for – and the path to the certificates we created earlier.

<VirtualHost *:443> ServerName your.collabora.subdomain:443 # SSL configuration, you may want to take the easy route instead and use Lets Encrypt! SSLEngine on SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/certificate.domain.here/cert.pem SSLCertificateChainFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/certificate.domain.here/chain.pem SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/certificate.domain.here/privkey.pem SSLProtocol             all -SSLv2 -SSLv3 SSLCipherSuite ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:DHE-RSA-AES128-G$ SSLHonorCipherOrder     on # Encoded slashes need to be allowed AllowEncodedSlashes NoDecode # Container uses a unique non-signed certificate SSLProxyEngine On SSLProxyVerify None SSLProxyCheckPeerCN Off SSLProxyCheckPeerName Off # keep the host ProxyPreserveHost On # static html, js, images, etc. served from loolwsd # loleaflet is the client part of LibreOffice Online ProxyPass           /loleaflet https://127.0.0.1:9980/loleaflet retry=0 ProxyPassReverse    /loleaflet https://127.0.0.1:9980/loleaflet # WOPI discovery URL ProxyPass           /hosting/discovery https://127.0.0.1:9980/hosting/discovery retry=0 ProxyPassReverse    /hosting/discovery https://127.0.0.1:9980/hosting/discovery # Main websocket ProxyPassMatch «/lool/(.*)/ws$» wss://127.0.0.1:9980/lool/$1/ws nocanon # Admin Console websocket ProxyPass   /lool/adminws wss://127.0.0.1:9980/lool/adminws # Download as, Fullscreen presentation and Image upload operations ProxyPass           /lool https://127.0.0.1:9980/lool ProxyPassReverse    /lool https://127.0.0.1:9980/lool # Endpoint with information about availability of various features ProxyPass           /hosting/capabilities https://127.0.0.1:9980/hosting/capabilities retry=0 ProxyPassReverse    /hosting/capabilities https://127.0.0.1:9980/hosting/capabilities  </VirtualHost> sudo service apache2 restart

Your Collabora server should now be good to go. Log into your Nextcloud web interface as an admin, open the Settings screen and scroll down the left-hand pane until you get to Collabora Online Development Edition.

Click on that and enter the URL and port of your Collabora subdomain – your.collabora.subdomain:443 – and click apply.

User experience

With all your apps up and running, it’s finally time to invite your users. In the Nextcloud web interface, click on your profile icon on the top right of the interface and select users. 

Create new users by clocking the +New user button in the left-hand pane then filling in the account settings you want to give them in the entry that appears at the to of the user list on the right. 

You can set a password for them, which they should change after first logging in, and inform them of it. Alternately you can leave this password field blank and have them use the password reset feature to create their own password.

When they first log in, users should set their language and locale preferences in the Personal info section of the settings screen, again accessible by clicking on the user icon at top right. Locale determines the first day of the week for the calendar, which is set to the US Sunday-first system by default, and the language in which days are named.

As well as the website, client applications are available for Windows, Linux, macOS, Android and iOS. Users will be prompted to download these when they first connect, and they’re always available via the Mobile & desktop entry in the settings screen, accessible by selecting settings from the menu that appears when you click on your user icon at top right. 

Users can also search for Nextcloud clients in mobile app stores and link them by manually entering your cloud server’s URL. This section also includes links to information for syncing calendar and contact data.

If you want your Android users to be able to edit documents from the Nextcloud mobile app, you should use your device management system to roll out the apk file that can be downloaded directly from Nextcloud or have them install the app from the F-Droid store, as the Google Play version is, at time of writing, lagging behind when it comes to support for Collabora Office.

 

The mobile apps’ Auto upload options allow you to select specific directories on your phone to be automatically backed up to Nextcloud, whether that’s your photo gallery or critical document folder.

Assuming you’ve enabled the contacts app for Nextcloud, the mobile clients will be able to automatically back up your contacts to the service every day, and you can use Bitfire’s DAVx5 app for real-time calendar and contact syncing – once added, Nextcloud calendars and contacts can be accessed via your preferred app. 

Tasklist management for the Tasks feature is supported in DAVx5 via OpenTasks for Android, which users are prompted to install. Sync schedules can be customised as needed, with features including the option of only syncing over Wi-Fi, and everything works seamlessly in the background.

 

The desktop clients let you configure file syncing and create a default Nextcloud folder, whose contents will be automatically kept in sync with your Nextcloud server. You’ll want to set it to launch on system startup. You can also apply bandwidth limits and throttling, which may be helpful to those working from home or on the road.

Nextcloud and its broad range of apps and connectivity tools have great potential for any business that wishes to either switch away from or supplement third-party cloud services. 

For a more customised installation or to support large numbers of users, you may wish to build from source once you’ve familiarised yourself with Nextcloud’s systems, but the containerised versions of Nextcloud and Collabora are regularly updated and meet the core requirements for a small self-managed business cloud.

YouTube is yet to say whether the imposed low streaming quality across Europe will also carry over to its Live service, something which many businesses may come to rely on during increased demand for virtual conferencing.

The company announced today that it will lower the standard of its streaming quality in the UK and EU in order to prevent a much-feared internet-speed bottleneck, as thousands are confined to their homes due to the coronavirus outbreak.

However, when we asked whether the decision also applies to YouTube Live, parent company Google failed to provide an answer. 

“While we have seen only a few usage peaks, we have measures in place to automatically adjust our system to use less network capacity,” said a spokesperson for the Google. “Following the meeting between Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, YouTube’s CEO, Susan Wojcicki, and Commissioner Breton we are making a commitment to temporarily default all traffic in the EU to Standard Definition. We will continue working with member state governments and network operators to minimize stress on the system, while also delivering a good user experience.”

YouTube Live seemed like a viable option for many companies looking to stream conferences and events that otherwise face cancellation or postponement, given that governments across the globe continue to advise against mass public gatherings.

The company added that the reduced quality of streaming in the EU and UK would last for around a month and was an action taken in cooperation with governments.

Europen commissioner for internal market and services Thierry Breton praised Pichai and Wojcicki for the move:

“Millions of Europeans are adapting to social distancing measures thanks to digital platforms, helping them to telework, e-learn and entertain themselves,” he said. “I warmly welcome the initiative that Google has taken to preserve the smooth functioning of the Internet during the COVID19 crisis by having YouTube switch all EU traffic to Standard Definition by default.

«I appreciate the strong responsibility that Mr Pichai and Mrs Wojcicki have demonstrated. We will closely follow the evolution of the situation together.”

YouTube is the second streaming service to announce that they are reducing their streaming quality due to the coronavirus outbreak, following Netflix’s decision on Thursday.

​In the current climate it has become incumbent on all of those who can work from home to do so. While some organisations are used to supporting remote working – whether from home or other locations – for many the current situation presents a significant challenge. There is much to consider, and very little time to put measures in place. 

Providing the technological means for remote working is not just about ensuring your people have adequate hardware and software tools. There is much more to it than that. We spoke to a number of organisations where flexible and remote working are already embedded to get their guidance for others who might be embarking on this for the first time, scaling up, or just looking to refine their approach. 

Freedom and boundaries

If the organisation is providing its people with tools such as internet access, computers, and software, there needs to be a measure of understanding around using these for non-work activities. Auth0 is a multinational organisation with offices in six countries and staff working remotely across more than 30 countries. Steven Rees-Pullman, International Vice President, tells IT Pro: “An acceptable use policy will help users and support staff know what is and isn’t ok when using your networks and software. It’s a simple step but clear guidelines will prevent easily avoidable mistakes that put your network at risk.”

A key aspect of getting remote working right is to avoid micromanaging people. You’ll only get the best from people if you trust them. That doesn’t mean giving people a free rein to do whatever they like, of course. There must be boundaries, and these will be set by the nature of your business, collaborative working needs, time-scales, deadlines, and many other parameters.

Still, getting the right balance between freedom and control, and trusting people is crucial. This includes giving freedom around when and where people want to work. Digital marketing consultancy Croud employs more than 200 permanent staff across three countries. Director of Operations, Katherine Sale tells IT Pro: “Some people are most productive at home where there are no office distractions, whereas for others they need to be around people where they can share ideas and get immediate feedback. The more each of us as individuals can become self-aware of our working habits and the more organisations can be flexible and accommodating towards this, businesses are going to be more productive and efficient.”

Software and security

For those being pushed towards remote working for the first time at the moment, there is some good news about the selection of software. With so many strong collaboration tools available off the shelf, there may well be applications that fit your requirements ready and waiting for you. And they are as appropriate for small organisations of a few people as they are for large multinationals.

Sale tells IT Pro: “Keep it simple. There is no need for jazzy, expensive technology. We use Google Drive, which is a really accessible tool for lots of businesses, no matter what size they are. Using Google Drive means we all have access to relevant work and documents anywhere anytime.”

Maintaining adequate levels of system security remains vital regardless of where people are working. Auth0’s Rees-Pullman tells IT Pro: “When you ‘go remote’, your firewall effectively disappears, and you need to secure your remote employees as well as the third party software they use every day.” Getting adequate systems in place is crucial, and in addition Rees-Pullman also advocates having a backup plan in case something goes wrong. 

Pulling it all together

MediaCom is a planning and buying agency with more than 1000 staff, and is very experienced with supporting remote working. There is sage advice from Elaine Bremner, Chief HR and Talent Officer, when she told IT Pro, “It’s important to make sure you have a way to measure output, and this must be done through easy to use, real-time tech.” She is clear that organisations should measure “output, not presenteeism”, and that what’s needed is “A list of tasks with agreed deliverables and deadlines” – much as is the requirement when working in an office, in fact.

Organisations that get remote working right in the short term may find it extends naturally into the longer term, to the benefit of both organisation and staff alike. Steven Rees-Pullman told IT Pro “We believe work is something you do, not a place you go. So while we can absolutely quantify the benefits of remote working in terms of hours saved commuting or dollars in childcare, there’s also the intangible benefit of making work part of life, not a separate thing. Our employees have the freedom to do work on their own terms in a way that allows them to be most productive.” 

Amen to that.

Microsoft Teams gained 12 million users in just one week following a surge of remote working to combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

The communications platform reported 44 million users as of 18 March, up from 32 million on 11 March.

The figures came as the conferencing service celebrated its third birthday, but also just a few days after it suffered a two-hour outage – likely linked to the sudden influx of users.

Microsoft’s corporate VP for 365, Jared Spataro, said that the service had seen an «unprecedented» spike in usage in just seven days. He also suggested that the numbers might not drop when the coronavirus pandemic is under control.

«It’s very clear that enabling remote work is more important than ever, and that it will continue to have lasting value beyond the COVID-19 outbreak,» Jared Spataro, Microsoft’s corporate VP for 365 wrote in a blog post. «We are committed to building the tools that help organisations, teams, and individuals stay productive and connected even when they need to work apart.»

For its third birthday, Microsoft added some new features to Teams. The first is a function that uses AI to reduce background noise – which will certainly be welcome following the government’s decision to close all schools. There is also a button allows users to read messages while offline and a ‘raise hand’ feature to help get their questions across during busy video meetings.

Although Teams is now far ahead of the competition, a leaked Microsoft partner video suggested the company is keen to thwart rival video conferencing service Zoom. An alleged internal company video, posted to Twitter on Thursday, suggests Microsoft sees Zoom as an ‘emerging threat’ to Teams as it is often used by businesses in tandem with Google’s G Suite and fierce rival Slack.

This week, Slack also unveiled a host of new functions and reported a spike in users due to the coronavirus. The smaller platform saw over 7,000 new users in just 47 days, according to TechCrunch. For context, it only recorded 5,000 new users in its last quarter report.

In 2018, Apple CEO, Tim Cook announced the App Store had over 20 million developers, with the App Store itself receiving 500 million weekly visits. The app, it seems, continues to be popular: in the third quarter of 2019, there were a total of 29.6 billion app downloads worldwide, according to market research firm Sensor Tower – a 9.7% year-on-year increase overall, with Google Play downloads growing 11.4% to 21.6 billion and App Store downloads growing 5.3% to 8 billion.

Mobile access to the internet is also growing: According to Ericsson, the total number of mobile subscriptions in Q3 2019 was around eight billion, with 61 million subscriptions added during the quarter. By 2025, 90% of subscriptions are projected to be for mobile broadband.

“Smartphone penetration continues to rise,” says Ericsson. “Subscriptions associated with smartphones account for around 70% of all mobile phone subscriptions. It is estimated there will be 5.6 billion smartphone subscriptions by the end of 2019. The number of smartphone subscriptions is forecast to reach 7.4 billion in 2025.»

With a massive install base of devices, is the app still the best way for businesses to reach this vast mobile audience? Mobile retail continues to expand, as consumers embrace m-commerce as they did e-commerce, with many familiar names profiting from this trend, such as Amazon and eBay, which remain the most popular sites for mobile access.

In its most recent annual ‘Global State of Mobile’ report, Comscore concludes: «Looking at a snapshot of the retail category in the US, retail apps reached 87% of the total app audience in 2019: a 16% increase since June 2017. Total audience tends to skew 25-54 and female. Interestingly, we still see almost a quarter of time spent consuming retail content on desktop, which may be due to the larger screen real estate that can facilitate a closer examination of online purchases.”

In-app purchases continue to be highly prevalent in one specific category of apps: Gaming. Research from Deloitte showed gamers, in general, will spend an average of £3.59 per month, or £43.05 a year, on in-app purchases. This rises to over £120 with the 25 to 34 age group. In-app purchases, though, outside of gaming are also accelerating.  

Consumers increasingly want integrated shopping experiences. Expect in-app purchasing, in general, to accelerate as m-commerce expands. However, care should be taken not to frustrate app users. In research carried out by Kantar Media for Ofcom, one male teen, for instance, told researchers: “I would download a free app and the next thing you know it is 69p to get to such and such a level, even though they said it was free in the first place.”

“Currently, when speaking on omnichannel, we often speak to a presence on each one,” says Sean Farrington, AVP of Interactive Development at LiveArea. «We have a native app, or two. We have a desktop app and also skill on Alexa. Each of these is unique and sadly, almost entirely independent. Technologies, such as PWA (Progressive Web Apps), Service Worker, and Notification APIs supported by personalised content and marketing, will prompt us to redefine our multichannel strategy.”

He adds: “Rather than focusing on a unique presence on each channel, we will begin to see this as a single application, unified across all the channels. This allows us to be more perceptive in how and when we engage with our customers and offers us a whole new world of touchpoints and possibilities. It will also allow us to provide intelligence when choosing the channel to engage upon.”

App fatigue and originality

With the app now over ten years old, are consumers still using the app as their primary channel for accessing services? According to research from Comscore, the answer is yes. In the UK, 86% of mobile minutes are spent using apps. Social media (88%), lifestyle (85%), and coupons and incentive (79%) are the top categories for mobile app usage.

The sheer number of apps available on the app stores has often been pointed to as an issue with regards to discoverability and why the longevity of an app on a user’s phone can be so short. Ofcom’s research suggests consumers are not ready to give up their apps.

“App users appear to have a strong functional reliance and emotional attachment to apps,” the report states. “As part of the research process, participants were asked to live without apps for a day. The absence of apps during this deprivation exercise left many feeling frustrated. Teens and younger adults, in particular, worried about being excluded from their social circle without access to apps.”

To reduce app fatigue and increase install rates, apps need to be useful initially, but the key to long-term connections is to ensure your business’ apps stay engaging and of practical use. Apps that are not updated regularly, don’t communicate with their users via push notifications, and don’t integrate with other areas of your business will be quickly uninstalled.

Speaking to Cloud Pro, Raj Bawa, operations director at JBi Digital says: «I wouldn’t consider app fatigue to be a major challenge for those using the app channel, as apps are there to make life easier for businesses. Apps go a long way in boosting the productivity of businesses, though it’s true there is a level of fatigue from a consumer perspective. To prevent such fatigue from taking place, developers need to consider providing application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow the software to be installed and maintained much more easily.»

If an app is an appropriate component of your business, making it as relevant and engaging as possible will combat app fatigue. Rob Sandbach, managing director at Manchester-based digital design agency Indiespring, says: «It’s a problem if your app performs the same task as a handful of identical apps and it’s an even bigger issue if your app does the same thing, but worse. App fatigue can be easily avoided if your app adds true value to the users’ day and does it better than any competing options out there. It comes down to user experience – you need to be constantly on the ball to protect that by measuring app performance and user engagement.»

An appy future

Analysis by Adjust shows, on average, apps will be deleted around six days after they have been installed. The highest attrition rate is for entertainment and lifestyle apps, with the best performers being in the e-Commerce, travel and health categories. Consumers want apps that not only fulfil an immediate need but that also, continue to be useful.

This approach is supported by Ashley Friedlein, founder of Econsultancy and Guild, who tells Cloud Pro: «Mobile usage is only increasing, as is app usage. It will be hard to break the monopoly of the ‘mega apps’ that take up the most app usage time. However, the success of Snapchat and now TikTok show that it is still possible to create colossal traction very quickly through apps. Alongside the mega apps there is always room for more focused apps that do a particular thing very well.» 

The accelerating development of 5G and its inherent low latency could open a new era for apps that require a constant and fast connection to the mobile internet. Where many apps in the past have been handicapped by low bandwidth, this should disappear if the promises being made for 5G become a reality for every user.

If your business has yet to invest in app development, or you are about to upgrade your existing apps, the Ofcom report offers some insight that can be used to ensure the new apps your company creates will find their audience. 

«App users stated various criteria that they felt described their ‘best apps’, including being quick and easy to use; being reliable and not crashing; performing the functions described, and having appealing aesthetics,” the report states. “When asked to consider criteria for their ‘best apps’, there was little mention of safety and security. These did not appear to be front-of-mind for participants due to a lack of negative experiences with apps.»

Speaking to Cloud Pro, Alex Froom, chief product officer and founder of Zipabout, explains: «Where do we currently stand with the native or web app debate? It’s horses for courses. Unfortunately, it was web-app capabilities that opened app development to organisations lacking the commercial capability to build good apps. The result: an oversaturation of rubbish apps. Rather than focusing on native versus web, what’s more of an issue is the ease of development and whether you need an app at all.»

LiveArea’s Farrington adds: «I think the recognition of the importance of the mobile channel, particularly within m-commerce, has already set upon us. Over the next year or two, I think the focus will be more around how a business can refine their brand, strategy, and marketing efforts to adapt to, and take advantage of, a wide new array of opportunities the channel presents us. Differentiation, amongst competitors on the mobile channel, will become the primary battleground, and it will be won by companies that put themselves in a position to understand their customer regarding their brand.»

From a business perspective, the ‘mobile-first’ approach is now the norm. No matter which category or market your business trades within, having a mobile strategy is critical. Accessing services from fast food delivery to travel, and of course, social media, the app continues to dominate all other access channels.