Typical scenario will be: considerable amount of time and money is invested in the development of an app only for it to lose traction shortly after its release. This scenario is also true for app reskins. Most reskins rely on popular trends to boost its visibility in the app stores. As the trend wanes, the reskin’s popularity also wanes making it almost a disposable commodity. But how long would it take for a reskin to be considered stale? Is there a benchmark that can be used for comparison?
Sadly there isn’t any concrete studies that specifically focuses on app reskins and their lifespan or shelf-life. Most benchmarks are averages for regular apps without any allowance for seasonal and promotional apps. It is said that an average app’s lifespan is 14 months with at least 2-3 updates and redesigns before the tanks and loses retention. Even with the short lifespan most apps doesn’t actually experience a sudden decline. Let’s examine available data on app retention decline and learn its implications to reskinned apps.
The Rate of Decline of Mobile Apps
According to a study conducted by Kantar, 38% of the 12,971 sampled Android users uninstalled an app just 24 hours after downloading it. The most critical time would be ten minutes after download. A staggering 26% of those who uninstalled their newly-installed app did so just after ten minutes, with each passing minutes and hours diminishing the user’s inclination to uninstall the app. Users on average uninstall paid game apps after 31 days and the free versions after just 15 days.
Flurry on the other hand presented figures on the half-life and decay of apps post-peak. The concept of a half-life is used to denote the point where an app lost 50% of the monthly active users (MAU) from its peak. More than 50% of apps experience half-life within the third month from its peak MAU. The fourth month is the important benchmark since this is when the decline slows downs until it plateaus off in the 10 months. Apps that did not achieve half-life by the benchmark of 4 months tend to have longer lifespan; majority of these apps are those that peaked at 10,000 MAU or more, only reaching half-life 4 months after apps with lesser peak MAU.
On average, 13.69 app sessions occur monthly with more than 75% of apps assessed at least 7 times. Most of these sessions last for only 5 minutes with just 13% of the sessions lasting more than 10 minutes. This means that retention is quite difficult even for regular apps and with the app’s half-life just an average of 4 months, it is important to make the most out of the app’s short lifespan.
The Sticky App Phenomenon
Some apps are designed to have a short shelf life. Most of these apps aim for downloads and not user retention but still some apps inadvertently fell out of favour almost before it could gain a considerable number of users. This may be due to poor design, marketing or a whole other plethora of reasons. But according to the same study on app half-life conducted by Flurry, app category may be the biggest factor in the longevity of apps.
News apps lead the pack, only declining into the median of half-life after 7 months from peaking in MAU. Health, fitness and medical apps follow with 6 months half-life with social apps in second to the last with 3 months half-life and games in the dead last with just 2 months half-life. This indicates that utility apps gains higher user engagement than interactive apps like games and social apps. This data doesn’t include the discrepancy between paid and free game apps when it comes to uninstall rates. This makes the half-life of games, especially those with a freemium model even shorter. So what is often said that a month is the average lifespan of a reskin is actually true.
Reskins are generally not meant to have a long shelf-life especially that it is usually trend-driven. But there are also other factors that affect a reskin’s lifespan and can even prolong its lifespan by a few months.
Practices that can Prolong a Reskin’s Lifespan
- Ease of use. Apps that have intuitive UI and design tend to have higher retention rates.
- Reskins built upon the concept of the top 10 apps would almost certainly have a short lifespan.
- Building around the concept of an app portfolio instead of focusing on a single reskin can lengthen the lifespan of the apps in the said portfolio.
- Community engagement. Having a community of loyal users can keep the app alive even with minimal user acquisition. Community-created content can also lengthen the lifespan of the reskin.
- The practical use of updates and expansion packs. Updates especially those that fix bugs and introducing/removing features.
- Focus on user retention and re-engagement. A budget should be allocated for acquisition and retention even before the launch.
- Design the reskin to survive past the trend but not for long-term use. The reskin won’t be viable for more than a year and any technological advancements can’t be predicted that far.
App reskins aren’t viable in the long run but this quality also allows reskins to appear in different incarnations. App reskinning extends the life of an app that’s supposed to be retired, creating a cycle of constant recreation.
