COVID-19 affected millions of businesses around the world, and while some industries were hit hard, others experienced an unprecedented boost. One fact we can't deny though is that the pandemic became a driving force for global digitalization, software, and mobile app development.
For example, web conferencing and telemedicine industries experienced a 627% and 613% increase in app downloads respectively at the beginning of 2020. The popularity of mobile app development services also increased by 366% in Q1 of 2020.
So, in case you want to join the wave of entrepreneurs investing in digital technologies, here's a list of some coolcovid-19 app ideas that you can use for your startup.
Top Five Covid App Ideas for Startups
Isolation apps
For many, staying alone by themselves for quite an extensive period of time may be frustrating. In order to help people decrease pressure, developers can come up with corona mobile app ideas for a product to help users track their self-isolation periods. The app can also show who else — among the app users — is currently on the self-isolation and even provide users with some motivational content to keep them cheered up.
Healthcare apps
The pandemic has changed the way we track our health and take care of it. The healthcare industry has significantly evolved as well, allowing for more advanced communications between doctors and patients with the help of digital tools. Apps that track health records, book an appointment in a hospital, and offer other medical services will be in high demand in the upcoming years.
Book sharing apps
These solutions will be useful for those who love to read but don't want (or need) to buy a monthly library membership. Such app ideas for covid-19 would be especially beneficial for smaller communities as they will help to establish stronger connections with the neighbors by exchanging books, opinions, and ideas regarding a particular novel or story.
Mental health products
Major lockdowns caused a strong effect on the mental health of many people. Lack of social networking became the driving force for the development of excessive anxiety, loneliness, and depression. To help people cope with negative emotions developers can explore covid mobile application ideas to create unique meditation solutions, introduce mood-improvement products, behavioral therapy tools, etc.
Fitness apps
Once the pandemic hit the world and thousands of gyms closed their doors, people faced the problem of how to stay active and fit. For many, apartments became their fitness studios where people train via digital workouts and classes. Here, not only apps can assist in facilitating such sessions but also in keeping track of the current progress, calories spent, etc.
Trendy App Ideas During Lockdown
Work-from-home apps
The 'work-from-home' agenda has been around for quite a while already, and it's highly unlikely that it will leave our lives anytime soon. This is why tools that help to organize and manage remote workplaces will be in great demand even after the pandemic is officially over. The trend for developing apps for work management, time tracking, communication, and collaboration within teams has just started to gain momentum.
Grocery apps
Food delivery was among those few niches that instead of experiencing precipitous decline actually got significantly boosted during the pandemic — grocery ordering wasn’t considered the first necessity quickly became vital. Many people have gotten used to ordering food online and don't want to switch back to brick-and-mortar stores.
E-learning apps
The list of coronavirus app ideas wouldn't be complete without edtech apps. The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped the traditional education system and taken all learning activities online. K12 facilities and higher education institutions were forced to look for new ways — and tools — for delivering education to their students. This, in turn, has stimulated demand for virtual classroom software, solutions for online exams, proctoring, digital tutoring platforms, and e-learning apps.
Virtual traveling projects
In order to compensate for the inability to travel internationally and domestically during COVID-19, people started to look for traveling possibilities online, which has led to many helpful digital projects. From apps that offer 360° video tours of favorite places to highly immersive travel adventures in VR — all these products help users experience the world during self-isolation or quarantine.
Consulting apps
This might be one of the best covid app ideas since people were quite limited during the lockdowns with their face-to-face communications and most consulting services became unavailable in the offline format. This is where apps can come into play and connect users with lawyers, psychologists, doctors, and other specialists of their choice.
Post-Covid App Ideas to Keep an Eye On in 2022
Dating apps
More and more people prefer to look for their soulmate online since doing it offline became a challenge for many (long before the pandemic started actually). Making friends and meeting soulmates online, on the contrary, is much easier and faster, and online dating is the segment that is projected to grow in the upcoming years — by 2026, the number of users for this segment will amount to 501.7 million people.
Event planning apps
Even though many countries have already started to loosen their COVID restrictions, chances are that in the mid-term perspective particular recommendations regarding the public gatherings will be preserved in some regions. Here, app ideas during covid-19 can be used for the development of products that help people organize their events, control the number of guests, track those who have vaccine certification, etc.
Reservation & appointment apps
These apps help people to return to normal life faster, as well as provide restaurant owners with the technical means of controlling foot traffic. This, in turn, will help to avoid crowds and long lines outside the restaurant and maintain reasonable social distance between customers during the late stages of the COVID pandemic.
AI/VR e-commerce apps
Online shopping became common in the last several years and in order to reproduce the in-store experience as closely as possible, retailers began to integrate AI/VR solutions that allow customers to visit digital showrooms, book virtual shop tours, and even get live presentations for the products of their interest. For example, companies like Cadillac, Ikea, and Poopsie's are already utilizing such solutions.
Video-calling apps
During the pandemic, the quality of communication became a real stumbling block for a lot of companies. For one, not all teams were ready for fully remote collaboration. They were also lacking the relevant tools to facilitate virtual communication effectively — all due to the fact that tools like Skype, FaceTime, etc. are too generic and do not always work well for business communications.
Even Zoom ended up not being the best fit for some industries. With that being said, the development of video apps that are fine-tuned for the needs of a specific niche will be a major trend and one of the viable post-covid app ideas.
Covid Related Apps Ideas for Your Businesses
Gaming apps
According to Marketing Dive, the number of game app installations during the pandemic experienced a 45% jump. Once people got stuck at their homes during the lockdowns, they started to spend more time on their smartphones, playing games in particular. The increase in downloads creates more possibilities for developers — in terms of monetization and user retention.
AI Chatbots and Robots
Creating human-like shopping experiences is the next huge trend in the e-commerce industry. Conversational AI chatbots and advanced robots that will be able to manage user requests in real-time can become a competitive advantage for companies, leaving them more time to improve underused areas of their businesses.
Logistics products
The consumer boom in e-commerce and online grocery shopping during the pandemic has prompted many companies to revise their current logistics infrastructure. In order to be able to process an increased number of orders, business owners had to introduce improvements, adjust supply chains, and get rid of ineffective procedures. Here, apps can help managers track shipping, manage fleets, inventory, and organize the entire workflow.
Time-management apps
The pandemic showed that the ability to effectively manage time became one of the most frustrating challenges for people around the globe. Bedrooms, kitchens, and other of our homes that became our workspaces and offices have wiped out the time management patterns we all got used to. This is where the use of productivity apps can help get us back on track with our daily routine as the world recovers from COVID-19.
Home service apps
Using a dedicated app to find an electrician, maid or plumber is much more convenient than trying to do it via Google or other platforms. On one hand, mobile applications bring households closer to service providers, shortening the time needed for hire to happen. On the other hand, they also may help to rejuvenate the home services market, which witnessed a negative impact due to the widespread lockdowns.
Consider Lunka.tech As Your Software Development Partner
At Lunka.tech we have vast experience developing mobile solutions from scratch as well as assisting our clients in redesigning or improving their existing products. One of the recent projects developed by our team was an app that merged the functionalities of a healthcare product and online booking software.
The client from Manchester approached us with a request to develop a product that would let users find and book tickets for their sporting events in the UK, get event attendance guidelines, and interact with the necessary medical documents (vaccination certificates and PCR tests) stored in the form of QR-codes inside the application.
By working in close cooperation 24/7 with the client we managed to successfully achieve all the goals that were initially set. We created an app that is GDPR compliant and safe, and used React.js, React Native, and Node.js for the project's tech stack.
Final Thoughts
The pandemic has changed the way we live our lives. Some habits have evolved, some have taken a deeper root, and will be hard to break even after the pandemic ends. One thing that we can say for sure is that society definitely started to rely more on their mobile devices. This created a lot of opportunities for development teams who came up with innovative mobile app ideas for covid and mitigation of self-isolation consequences.
We hope that you found this guide for pandemic app ideas useful. If you want to get more covid-19 mobile app ideas for your project, or simply are looking for a reputable partner, get in touch with Lunka.tech. You'll get a free consultation and a step-by-step development strategy tailored for your digital product!
FAQ
1. How much does it cost to develop an app that can help tackle pandemics?
- It doesn't really matter whether you're developing a pandemic-oriented product or want to create an app with another concept in mind. The budget needed for app creation depends first and foremost on the complexity of a future product, work scope, and the team you're developing a product with. Thus, the costs of app development can sit anywhere between $20,000 (for simple MVP) and $300,000 (for complex apps)
2. How long will it take to create my app?
- It all depends on your goals and project requirements. Obviously, the development of a basic MVP will take less time compared to a fully-fledged product. Generally, though, the creation of a mobile application may take between three and nine months. The timeline will vary depending on how many resources each stage of the production process take
3. Do you provide app maintenance services?
- Sure. Aside from the application development services we can also provide further maintenance and support for your product once it's released. Please contact our managers for more information in that regard
4. I'm not sure that my app idea is viable enough. Can you help?
- When starting to work on a new project, we sit down with the client to discuss their needs, vision, and project requirements. We also aim to analyze how the initial concept fits into the target market or audience, and assess its viability in the long-term perspective. So, yes, we can help fine-tune your concept if there's a need for doing that