A location-based app gives you the power of location to meet users’ demands in the future.
Think of Uber, Google Maps, Foursquare, Dark Sky, Target, MapMyFitness, Waze, Curbside, and even PokemonGo. All these mobile apps have brought revolutionary changes in transportation, social networking, gaming, retail, and other sectors.
But what is the driving force of these applications?
They all use location-based services (LBS) or technology.
We all remember the time when GPS technology was the newest and the best thing to make our driving or traveling much easier. And today, location-based services are exploding everywhere.
Whether you want to find or get to a local place, let others track your movements, or simply know your current location and what is around you, location-based apps have the potential to make extraordinary changes in people’s life.
Foursquare was probably the first entertainment startup to introduce location-based services through a mobile application. Later on, PokemonGo fueled a new wave of location-based app development concepts with augmented reality technology.
Taking into account the smartphone penetration rate, developing a location-based app could expand your business reach to over 200 million potential users in the US alone. This market is expected to reach $40 billion by 2024 according to the MarketsandMarkets report.
There are countless ideas to provide location-based services like finding one’s car in a parking lot area, movies and concerts, fitness centers, or jogging paths.
Business ventures, startups, new companies, and enterprises are always in search of great business ideas. But any business concept becomes successful when it is able to solve people’s problems which may come across in the future as a great business idea is always a problem-solver.
Here in this article, eSearch Logix has come up with 10 location-based app ideas that could solve people’s problems in the future.
What is a location-based app?
A location-based app is a software or mobile application which collects data about users’ current location. This type of mobile app enables businesses to provide customized services based on where the user is currently is, where he or she is going, or what are some specific places nearby the user’s location.
(Image source: Journal of Location-Based Services)
These location or geolocation apps use satellite imagery or GPS signal, cell tower data (like UMTS or GSM), or Wi-Fi to figure out the device’s whereabouts.
Types of location-based apps
1. Location-based social networks
These applications allow end-users to share information with their friends, uploading geotagged content, photos, videos, and recorded routes, commenting on an event at the place where it is happening, sharing the current location, and get alert when they are nearby.
Examples of such apps are Foursquare, Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and Instagram.
2. Location-based gaming
It basically maps real-world environments into a virtual world, where players have to must move in real life to explore the virtual world, like a mix of augmented reality and location-based technology.
Examples of such famous apps are Geocaching, Ingress, and Pokémon Go.
3. Location-based fitness monitoring and healthcare
The demand for healthcare apps is already booming in the market. When location-based technology is integrated into healthcare or fitness tracking apps, it gives a wonderful application to users who want to monitor and track their health & fitness. These apps often use other sensors available on smartphones such as accelerometers and pedometers.
In recent years, there has been a trend in combining LBS with other wearable devices, giving enhanced health monitoring features on mobile applications. Maybe, this could be the reason why the smartwatch is boosting the demand for wearable apps.
Examples of these apps are Running app, Runkeeper, Moves, Health Infinity.
4. Transport location-based service app
Transportation and location services are an inseparable union. These apps heavily rely on LBS to provide routes for drivers, real-time traffic information, vehicle management, and logistic tracking.
In the past few years, the demand for location-app development has expanded to various aspects. Examples of these apps are Parkbob, Citymapper that guide drivers in finding available on-street parking spaces.
10 Location-Based App Ideas That Will Solve People’s Problems
1. Enhanced Navigation and Mapping Maps
How many times have you been bothered about being lost in an unknown city or place? How many times have you been worried about heavy traffic and jams? Yeah, we have all been there. For this, location-based apps can predict potential obstacles.
Google Maps, with more than 154.4 million unique users in the USA, it is the most popular geolocation app. Google Maps is the favorite choice of top Android app developers in India when it comes to API integration for location-based services.
Waze is another app that provides route details and travels time calculation, following Google leads. Maps.me is also a famous mapping and navigation mobile app.
Utilizing GPS coordinates, the app locates users on the map and provides step-by-step navigation to any location. Travelers prefer this app because it even works in offline mode.
These apps are mainly used for outdoor locations. So businesses can come up with enhanced services for outdoor locations like telling users about restaurants, govt. offices, parking areas, that help people in their core needs while traveling outside.
Along with this, they can also focus on creating apps for indoor navigation apps for large hotels or resorts, university campuses and hospitals, malls, city councils, and business centers, etc. Even a local business can also utilize this concept to find more customers.
2. Location tracking and safety apps
Most iPhone and Android devices have in-built location tracking features. Smartphone users can rapidly find if the device is lost or stolen. The demand for location tracking apps is rising exponentially for many purposes such as women safety apps, child safety apps, etc.
These apps are empowered with geolocation functionality to immediately detect suspicious activity and protect user data from leakage. Microsoft recently launched its Microsoft Family Safety app, a location-based app that provides features to protect your loved ones online.
Here, business leaders can bring more advanced solutions with safety features that empower parents and women to protect their children, parents, or loved ones.
3. Check-in and reviews apps
Today, people actively use Facebook to let their online friends know where they had an awesome cup of coffee or where they took the worst pasta of their lives. It would be difficult to believe but Facebook wasn’t a pioneer here.
Before this feature was implemented on Facebook, it was already launched by Foursquare.
Foursquare is the best example that used the concept of location-based service in a mobile application that provides various features beyond just knowing the location. This app allows its users to search for restaurants, shops, nightlife spots, and other places in a location and write reviews for each destination to help others.
Mobile apps that allow users to share find their required or interesting places based on the reviews and recommendations have the chance to make something big in the market.
You can think about how your app can provide detailed locations about various places based on local reviews.
4. Banking apps
Sharing your location with your bank sounds like something new and unusual, right? But, it gives a lot of benefits to both financial institutions and customers. Revolut is a mobile application that uses geolocation to transfer money to another who is somewhere nearby. These geolocation apps may serve several marketing purposes:
Once customers enter the bank, a mobile application can send them a greeting and assign a number in a queue. It may offer a more personalized experience by analyzing a user’s daily location-based activities.
5. eCommerce location-based apps
Customers love the idea of “order, pick up and go”. It means they order required online and come to the physical store or warehouse to pick it and leave. No crowds, no lines, no need to wait for delivery, simply just the fastest and easiest way to get what people want or need. An app like Curbside deals with a variety of brands and offers pick-up services.
Here entrepreneurs can create an eCommerce app that can speed up sales for companies by allowing their customers to order products and offer fast pickup and delivery services. Not like Amazon which takes up to 2-5 days for delivery.
In this type of app, you can find out which shops customers prefer and where and when they walk. By identifying these patterns in behavior, you can target users with personalized offers.
6. Retail apps
Leading retailers like Walmart, Target, IKEA, and Starbucks use geolocation tracking apps to enhance their in-store experience. By using GPS data, they help their customers find the nearest store or choose a convenient pickup or delivery location.
Here, entrepreneurs who want to establish their business venture in a retail business, can use location-based technology in retail apps that provide enhanced in-store experience, help customers find nearby stores, search for the desired product in a big store.
Besides this, businesses can create a mobile app for retail stores which can make their small business into a bigger one. To know more about this,
Read our blog: Do You Own a Retail Store? Use Mobile App to See How Small Business Grows
7. On-demand apps
With the constant growth in eCommerce and online ordering services, the market of on-demand app development has increased significantly. And after the crucial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, it has forced businesses to provide more services online or through mobile apps.
DoorDash, NetPincer, UberEats, and many other similar on-demand delivery apps are providing customers with everything they need during a pandemic time.
Well, the concept of shipping and delivery apps is not new. Long before, Grubhub already utilized the idea of online food delivery, and today it is one of the top-grossing apps in the USA.
Here startups can learn from the success story of Grubhub.
Read: What Made GrubHub America’s Top Food Delivery App: Important Lessons for Startups
Think of some on-demand services that people will need in the future. For example, an app for ordering vehicle repair services. People usually encounter issues in their cars, buses, bikes, or other vehicles in the middle of the road.
When they don’t find any car repair shop, they eventually have either walk and take lift or leave the vehicle at the location. Think is there would be an app where drivers can simply call technicians available to their nearby locations and be available with a few minutes or hours to figure out the issue.
You can also develop an Android app for such countries or markets where such apps are still unavailable in many regions. (Not everyone can afford an iPhone, right?)
8. Cab or Taxi apps
Uber has brought a revolution in public transportation service. It developed a concept that enables people to book a ride from their mobile device and giving job opportunities to drivers to earn more. And today, Uber is the world’s largest company that provides ride-hailing, food delivery, package delivery, couriers, freight transportation, just through a mobile app. Fascinating isn’t it?
Currently, there are many cab/taxi booking apps that are providing ride-hailing services across the world and generating billions of revenues. Uber has proved a taxi booking app has the potential to make you a billion-dollar company.
But, ride-hailing or sharing services are not the only things you can provide on-demand. Using the same idea, you can develop a solution for finding local plumbers, engineers, contractors, and vendors who can simply come to users whenever they book on the mobile app.
9. Fitness and healthcare apps
The covid-19 pandemic has certainly demonstrated how important maintain fitness and health. Not only in this critical time, but even when the pandemic will get over, people will be more aware and conscious of their overall well-being.
Today, the mobile app is penetrating the healthcare industry with a big impact. Doctors want medical apps to track their patient’s health progress, patients want healthcare apps that could help monitor their health. And normal people want fitness tracking apps to keep track of their fitness, running strength, endurance, etc.
| Read also: Healthcare apps are becoming a great startup idea
While there are many apps currently running in the healthcare app market, businesses leaders can think of unique features that solve people’s health as well as fitness tracking in their specific needs. For example, Strava is a running and cycling app that engages more than 42 million users.
So you can create apps for athletes dedicated to cycling, swimming, biking, and other sports where people need an app that could assist them in improving their athletic performance.
10. Location-based games powered with AR technology
When a mobile app is integrated with powerful technology, it can create marvelous things, and SkyView is the perfect example. It is an AR-powered app with geolocation functionality that helps users know our universe better and identify celestial objects.
PokemonGo is another example that created a sensation on the Internet through its amazing idea of integrating gaming, augmented reality, and location-based features into a mobile app.
Businesses can utilize the same concept to provide effective solutions via mobile apps. You can develop applications for the real estate industry that allows homebuyers to visualize and customize their interior design, for product selling companies whose customers can visualize or modify the product according to their personal interest and choice.
| Read also: Use the Powerful Features of AR App That Can Boost Your Sales
Conclusion
A location-based app is not a magic tool that will double your sales or make thousands of new customers. You only need to develop an effective solution that has the potential to solve people’s problems or needs in the future.
Keep in mind, a great business idea is always a great problem-solver. A track record from 20 industries proves that location-based apps could work for almost any type of business. They can attract new customers, boost sales, and increase user engagement, making a traditional business model into an advanced profit-making system.
You can use the above ideas or combine them from successful examples in new ways or simply implement them in other industries or niches.
But turning an idea into reality requires intelligence and relevant industry experience. You should think:
- How can you apply the idea to your niche?
- How can you improve them?
- How it will solve user’s problems?
For this, you need a trustworthy company who can give your idea a real shape. And eSearch Logix stands out as the perfect destination, a premier mobile app development company in India, who utilizes location-based technology smartly and effectively.
Book a free consultation and discussion your app concept.
