If phones had browsers to access the internet, these browsers were used for little more than spot searches. Gradually, the use of smartphones and tablets has become as natural as any other day-to-day activities. Nowadays, mobile searches increased to exceed searches on computers and the appeal to mobile applications has increased significantly.

There are applications for everything: shopping, services, finance management, catering, etc. Many even work offline, that is, they do not need internet access to work. According to mobileappdaily.com, in 2017, 254 billion applications were downloaded across multiple platforms. These numbers tell a lot about the use of mobile applications nowadays.

Next, we point out the main trends for mobile app development in 2018, with the most attractive features and most used features.

1. The Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence

The "Internet of Things" concept defines the network of day-to-day physical devices (vehicles, home appliances, etc.) connected to the Internet that allow these objects to exchange data. Examples of popular embedded applications related to the Internet of Things are:

BlueSmart App- Luggage location from any location, free of charge.

U by Moen - Personalization and control of the shower through the smartphone.

Ring Video DoorBell - Allows you to open your door from any location.

Artificial Intelligence is another of the growing trends and is in many ways connected to the Internet of Things. Artificial Intelligence is already present in our daily lives, even without our noticing. The spell checker on your smartphone or your phone's GPS, which we use every day, are perfect examples of this. Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in a statement that the technology company is changing its approach from Mobile-first to Artificial Intelligence - first.

At this time, many mobile applications incorporate chatbots with Artificial Intelligence. According to Forbes, the investment in Artificial Intelligence by companies will reach 30 billion dollars by 2025.

2. Applications in the Cloud

Cloud computing allows you to reduce costs in hosting services, more space to store files, data, etc. and more user retention capacity. Applications that use cloud computing can run anywhere, as long as there is an Internet connection. Some examples of Cloud applications we already use today are Adobe Creative Cloud and G Suite.

Adobe Creative Cloud is the cloud version of the Adobe suite. The platform stores the job whenever it stops, much like what happens with files edited in Google Drive. The G Suite is one of the best services available to businesses, including email, calendars, messaging services, among others. Cloud storage allows you to have an office anywhere in the world as long as you have access to the internet.

It is estimated that the number of applications in the Cloud will increase significantly in 2018, being one of the tendencies most pointed out by the experts.

3. Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality consists of combining digital data with user environment in real time. There are still a few applications that have gained users' attention for resorting to Augmented Reality, but some of these examples are SketchAR, Ikea, Starbucks, Google Translate and of course, PokémonGo.

Augmented Reality is logically tied to e-gaming, and the number of users of this type of technology is expected to increase significantly by 2018, as well as the development of this type of apps.

These are three of the most important trends in mobile application development for this year, which our team finds very interesting and would like to explore on projects in the near future. We will address other trends in a future article