Think back to the last time you were in a place teeming with millennials: it was probably difficult to find people who weren’t tethered to their smartphone. For better or worse, a stereotype of the millennial generation is that they’re constantly connected. That connection happens through apps — ones that have integrated so deeply into their lives that they can’t imagine living without them. If you’re thinking of building your own app, it’s important first to know which ones are reining in the popularity points. Without further ado, here are some of the apps that have the highest concentration of millennial users, according to Statista’s 2016 report on the matter. Social Media While currently in a tumultuous period, Vine remains an incredibly popular app, with millennials making up 78% of its 200 million monthly users. The app is a micro-entertainment platform where anyone can share six-second looping videos. As of January 2017, Vine has rebranded to become Vine Camera, where users publish their short videos directly to mother company Twitter, rather than into a Vine community. Several video gaming apps also serve as hybrid social networks. Apps such as the PlayStation Official App and Twitch have social sharing and messaging functionality integrated into the app, allowing gamers to chat and live stream the video game they’re currently playing. Apps that target a specific niche market — in this case, millennial males who love gaming — have huge potential to be successful. Messaging Yik Yak is a social messaging app that allows users to scan their geographic area and anonymously chat with people in their vicinity. An online community center, Yik Yak users share news, photos, and questions with people around them in the form of “yaks.” They also have a say on the popularity of those yaks, casting an up or down vote for individual posts. Unlike Twitter, where anyone can chat in a specific area if they use a geographic hashtag (i.e. #NewYork), Yik Yak users must be located within a five-mile radius of where they’re chatting, guaranteeing that the commenters are genuinely in the area. Yik Yak has the highest concentration of millennial users for 2016 — 98% of its audience is within this demographic group. The popular GroupMe is a group messaging app that works across every platform — perfect for the millennial who is equipped with five devices. Three-quarters of GroupMe’s users are millennials, and the app makes it simple to coordinate dinners with friends or this year’s trip to Coachella. [gravityform id="9" title="true" description="true" ajax="true"] Music SoundCloud is an app used by millennials to publish, listen to, and discover new music. Initially seen as competition for MySpace, SoundCloud’s advantage is that it allows users to reshare music and sounds via a specific link, making the app more social in nature. This shareability and its usability on the go is a reason why 74% of SoundCloud’s users are millennials. YouTube Music is another app with a high concentration of millennial users. It’s a standalone app that allows users to listen to the same number of tracks they’d be able to hear on competitor platforms. The app also creates a daily playlist for users and integrates other interesting features such as karaoke tracks and the ability to view live concerts. Finance When it comes to personal finance, Mint is the leading app among millennials. This could be because of its easy-to-navigate interface and its functionality: users can view all their financial accounts in one place, and the app automatically categorizes spending into categories such as groceries and utilities. Millennials recognize that budgeting is important, but are less likely to create a spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel. Mint puts budgeting and financial management in the palm of their hand. Venmo is excellent at simplifying the daily finances of a millennial. The app is a digital way to keep track of what is lent and owed money-wise amongst friends and family. Whether it’s buying festival tickets for a friend or splitting the cost of dinner, Venmo can be used to track those transactions. Once that information is entered into the app, Venmo users can securely send and receive money using the app, saving friendships from a potential slog of IOU lists and reminders. Millennials clearly find the app useful — 94% of its users fall into this age category. Reason for Popularity Amongst Millennials Each of the apps above tap into a different part of a millennial’s daily routine. What they all have in common is a simple interface and the ability to enhance a user’s social behavior. When creating or improving an app, consider how your app will integrate into a twentysomething’s daily routine. If you can’t picture them pulling out their phones and intentionally opening up your app or talking about it with a friend at least once a day, it’s probably not going to be a hit. If your app is shareable, provides deep value, has a chic look, and is easy to understand, it will have a greater chance of success among this population.

When you can’t find existing software suited to optimize your company’s unique workflows, it’s time to take matters into your own hands with a popular solution that is quickly catching the eye of Fortune 500 companies — developing your own internal app. Also called enterprise apps, internal apps give you the option to create a custom app that is designed to support the unique aspects of your workflow, and potentially make your employee’s lives easier. But, creating the app doesn’t automatically guarantee more productivity and efficiency — you have to make sure you’re developing an app your employees will actually use. Before you invest a lot of time and money, let’s discuss what to keep in mind and do when developing your enterprise app so your employees will use it. Your Employees Come First Unfortunately, employees won’t use an app simply because it’s there (even if you’ve built it specifically for your company). This thinking takes mobile use for granted: apps that deliver a poor experience or don’t meet user needs will be abandoned. In fact, the rise of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies highlights that employees will use their own devices (and, by extension, the apps of their choice) to make work easier. The first step to avoid app abandonment is to consider who your employees are and what they will use your app for. Are they office workers who work from their desks all day? Are they on-the-road field workers? Do they work in warehouses or deliver goods cross-country? With your employees in mind, you next need to identify problems they face. For office employees, this could be coordinating schedules for meetings and project collaboration. For warehouse employees, it could be communication with other warehouses or those responsible for completing orders. Once you have identified their problems, you can start sketching out the solution your app will offer to improve their working experience. User Experience is Everything Developing an app that meets your employees’ needs is only part of the solution. An app that has a clunky or confusing interface will turn users away. According to a recent survey on user experience with enterprise apps, 83% of users think apps make them more productive, yet only 30% of users said their work app was intuitive. Just over half (52%) said their app was reliable or stable. The survey highlights the need for companies to focus on areas that enhance the user experience (UX). when developing their apps, which include: Functionality: Apps need to be intuitive to use. This includes a clean, simplified interface and easy navigation. Reliability and Stability: Employees need to know they can rely on your enterprise app to not crash or freeze. Speed: One study by CA Technologies found that 68% of consumers surveyed expected an app to load in six seconds or less (more than half expected a loading time of less than three). Apps that take longer are more likely to be abandoned by users. Usefulness: As we’ve already discussed, enterprise apps need to solve the problems of your employees. The Product Delivery Chain So what’s the best way to develop an app that equally addresses employee pain points and the user experience? App development has typically followed the delivery funnel approach, where product development takes top priority. Employees won’t see the app until it’s in the final stages of development. The end result is an app that might work but doesn’t necessarily meet the needs of end users. Instead, enterprises should focus on soliciting feedback along the way, which promotes collaboration from all departments along the entire development process. At Barefoot, we solicit feedback at almost all stages of development: we start with user interviews through a discovery phase, collect user feedback through the architecture and taxonomy descriptions, and finally build a functional prototype to demonstrate how the app will function, which we also use to solicit user input. Including feedback at every stage is complicated, but it’s necessary. Keeping communication channels open means that employees can explain their needs to developers and designers. Companies that take this approach will see less changes to the app, and higher adoption. Employees will feel valued knowing their needs are being addressed from the get-go. Ultimately, you’ll deliver an app that employees will enjoy using. Closing the Need Gap Companies need to consider the user experience and the development process before getting started on an enterprise app. Making changes after-the-fact can be costly in terms of development time and re-acquainting employees with changes. With apps playing an ever-growing role in our lives, companies are presented with a huge opportunity to provide true value to their employees and fix problems unique to their workplaces. Yet the current gap between employee needs and app quality is wide. By taking an employee-centered approach, you can take the lead in closing this gap. Your employees will thank you. Considering developing an enterprise app for your employees? Get in touch with us today for a free consultation.

Ah, the highs and lows of high school. Sure there was excitement around football, rallies and dances, but the technology factor compared to today was sorely lacking. Remember when the TI-81 was hip new technology right next to the greatest game ever, Oregon Trail? That was only until the TI-83 came out. Minds blown, it seemed like robots were right around the corner, and Marty McFly’s skateboard would be mainstream by junior year.   Yet as we look back today we realize yesteryear’s technology wasn’t even an iota of what it is today. This is even more true when reviewing and building today’s most innovative apps. Every now and then we’ll stumble across the next viral app in excitement..but then a little bit of jealousy will wash over. “Why didn’t this exist when I was 16?!”   Here are some of the greatest, and most jealous-worthy, apps that those lucky scoundrels today get to have at their fingertips.   PhotoMath   Some people look at an algebra, calculus, or arithmetic equation and the numbers come right to them. Those people are called asshats, and many of them work here at Barefoot. For the rest of us, solving equations takes a little more effort, coffee and possibly aspirin. Yet today we have PhotoMath, the mobile app savior for people who struggle to complete homework on time or for adults who use math in their everyday lives. The app functions by uploading a snapshot taken of a particular mathematical equation. From there, the app solves the problem and the user can go on living their life.   Study Blue   Flashcards are a requirement to survive language, science, public speaking, any class that requires memorization. Remembering to carry those cards around isn’t always the easiest, and the hassle of going to the drugstore to pick up a new pack can be a chore delayed indefinitely. Study Blue is the solution for this issue, as an app that provides users with sleek study cards on a well organized user-friendly platform. Students can even share cards with each other, create checkpoints and quizzes, and track how well they are doing with the subject matter.   Audible   The importance of understanding literature and taking time away from the world to read will always be a value. This notable fact can however backfire, fueling the overly ambitious English and Lit teachers who assign an overwhelming amount of books to read, leaving you little time to complete the assignments themselves. Audible would have been a great option for completing assigned readings when you were out walking the dog, shopping alone, or simply taking the car out for a drive. Had this option been available, perhaps we wouldn’t have overused the then-valuable Cliff Notes, and would have been able to enjoy the collections in their entirety.   Duolingo We recently dove into why Duolingo is a fantastic language learning app. Well we really mean it and think as teenagers we would have loved it then too. The app functions like a video game, unlocking levels as you learn new vocabulary and pass tests. Don’t be scared at the word “test,” though. The lessons function with varied games, testing your speaking with puzzles and guessing sequences to sharpen your language skills in different ways. From there, the app sends daily reminders to keep you on track and to keep the Owl - the cartoon friend who guides you through the language learning journey - happy. Even as an adult you’ll love it too and hablas español before you know it.   Tinder   Well...come on. High school is basically a giant dating forum. While you do have to be 18 to use Tinder, if you turn 18 in high school you’re likely ready to meet some new people outside of your class anyway. Those who attended smaller schools or are 17 and under could argue the lacking need for Tinder. But what about when you were hanging out at the mall on Friday night? Or went to another school’s football game and wanted to see what kind of talent existed beyond rivalry walls? Tinder could have been a great way for teenagers sich of their own dating pool and curious to see who else they could ask to homecoming.   High school may bring you a host of fond memories or a wave of recalled embarrassment. Either way, there’s no doubt that the mobile apps of today could have helped your life in some way as you meandered through the halls of youth. Have an idea that could be applicable for today’s teenagers? Let’s get it started.