Why It’s Important to Update your Apps?
Security revelations about new vulnerabilities both on our smartphones and computers seem to occur on a regular basis. The only way to combat issues such as these is to keep your software current, updating apps and operating systems as soon as updates are released — especially after a security issue has been identified. Software updates are crucial step in keeping your private information private.
Although some apps stay quiet most of the time, there are a handful of them that asks you to install updates almost every single time you use them. But are these prompts to update your apps really necessary? What importance do they have?
• Better Performance – App developers get feedback from their existing apps on a regular basis. Especially when users experience a glitch that causes them to stop using the app and its functions, you can just imagine how many complaints they get through email or personal message. These complaints and feedback are used by app developers to improve the way their products work, often eliminating the problem right from its source. It also allows them to add precautions in place to avoid the same problem from happening again in the future. So the next time you experience a major glitch on one of the apps that you use, expect the need to update your apps anytime soon.
• Tougher Security – As apps improve, a new string of threats would often follow. You know how a number of diseases would evolve and find new ways to break through your body’s immune system as the medication you take gets tougher? This is also how security threats work. As the app is kept more secure, security threats find loopholes within the system for them to use to attack. This is why there is a continuous need for you to update your apps, as developers try to toughen up your system while new and stronger threats emerge.
• Additional Features – Though your app is already one bright idea in itself, the developer would always have other bright ideas up their sleeves—ones that could actually complement the existing features and functions of your app. These are also added in the form of updates, giving you the chance to have an enhanced user experience. Update your apps to experience these new features.
For app developers, there are a number of things that you may want to take a closer look at to figure out what kind of updates your app may need. Remember that these updates may annoy your users for a few minutes, but once the updates are done, it could keep them happy for a longer period of time.
Google’s update policy with the Android Market allows developers to push out updates whenever they want. With Amazon, Apple and Microsoft, however, updates have to go through the same approval process as submitting an app to an app repository in the first place.
Apple has a policy in place with the App Store that allows developers to fast-track an important or crucial bug or security fix without having to wait as long as with a regular update. Still, these instances are reserved for situations in which an app is either crashing consistently or is potentially insecure.