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Imagine you’re an IT leader and one of your sales directors just hired a team of 20 new salespeople to join your organization – woohoo! 

First things first, you’ll need to make sure they all download the appropriate security apps on their phones to ensure they’re not risking compromising sensitive info. Next, they need to download an app for their benefits, as well as an app for their retirement savings. Then, they’ll need an app for training, an app for chatting with coworkers, an app for schedule management, and so on. 

Uh oh – 4 people didn’t download the security app, so now you need to track them down. Oh no, 5 other people didn’t download the right insurance app, and you’ve got 8 emails in your inbox with people asking questions about the email app – yikes. All of these apps can quickly turn into a major headache for employers, especially as the company grows. 

Now, imagine that as you hire new employees, there is a single source of truth for all things onboarding. One place for setting up, training, and managing employees. 

Think it sounds too good to be true? Thanks to superapps, a streamlined experience is possible.

What is a superapp?

Superapps are applications that provide end users, such as employees, partners, or customers, with access to independently created mini apps from one central user interface. In short, a superapp is a collection of mini apps all in one place. 

This means that users don’t need to toggle between digital experiences to achieve various business functions. The core application contains essential functionality, such as authentication info and payment details, while the mini apps can add on additional features as needed. 

How superapps benefit employers

In a previous piece, we examined how superapps can improve the employee experience. Superapps can save employees countless hours wasted switching between applications to get things done. That benefit directly translates to employers as well – all that time saved is time put toward growing the business, rather than switching apps. It’s estimated that businesses hemorrhage up to $375,000+ annually through poor application integration, so streamlining doesn’t just benefit employees.

In addition to the massive cost savings, there’s a time savings factor as well. As a manager, you may need to go to 5+ apps to do everything from approving timesheets to clocking time off to completing payroll. With superapps, all of these functions could be combined into a single platform, enabling you to focus your time and energy in one place. That time saved can go toward business critical tasks rather than just waiting for pages to load. 

Superapps are also a great option for businesses looking to scale and grow. As the company grows, so can the app. Through the addition of mini apps, the functionality of the superapp can be extended as needed. Whether you want to add payment processing or add a chat app, all of that can live within a single digital experience. Development of these mini apps can happen in parallel asynchronously, so teams that are distributed can work together without interfering with each other. One Ionic customer in the health and beauty space is doing just that. 

“With a superapp approach we can develop micro applications in parallel by different teams and build them seamlessly together. And have a continuous deployment mode where we just keep releasing new features. Low implication on existing features because we have multiple locations. For example, we have a team in China, developing one mini app and in the Netherlands and in Hong Kong.” – Heath and Beauty Retailer, Ionic Superapp SDK customer

A leading portable storage solutions company has also discovered the power of superapps for their workforce. Drivers, field service technicians, and partners all had various applications that they needed to use, which the company ultimately needed to manage. The process was clunky, so they sought to unify those digital experiences into one. The company was able to consolidate eight different applications into a single one, which also let them scale and add new applications as new personas were created. The new application features role-based access, so each user only sees mini apps relevant to their specific job function. As new personas are added or removed, the digital experience can easily be tailored to fit their needs.

Ready to build a superapp? 

If you think superapps may be right for your business, we’re here to help. A micro frontend architecture is one of the most straightforward ways to build a superapp, and we wrote an entire ebook on it! This ebook can help you decide if micro frontend architecture makes sense for your project, team, and company. If it does, the ebook also covers various options and considerations for getting started. 
We also have dedicated specialists who are eager to help you harness the power of superapps – get in touch today!

The post Superapps for Employers appeared first on Ionic Blog.

Read more https://ionic.io/blog/superapps-for-employers

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When it comes to building software, we understand that keeping your tech stack up to date is key. When tools don’t update until the last minute, that can mean long nights and hectic mornings trying to avoid potential breaking changes while attempting to minimize disruption. 

In our ongoing effort to provide a better experience for developers, we decided to update our release cadence to better serve the community. Let’s dive into the changes and see what future Capacitor releases will look like.

Why the change?

In previous iterations, major releases of Capacitor were based around ensuring that apps built with Capacitor would be compliant with the latest deprecations and requirements established by the mobile app stores. These releases often came just weeks before the deadlines associated with the requirements, giving developers minimal time to make the required updates to their applications. This caused a flurry of activity as plugin authors and app developers alike scrambled to get updates in place quickly to meet their own deadlines. 

We believe that Capacitor should instead have a much more proactive approach, which is why we’ve devised a new release cadence. The fundamental idea driving this change is to benefit both plugin authors and app developers who rely on Capacitor, to provide them the time and resources they need to be successful. While there will always be some level of flexibility built into our new cadence, this is what you can expect from us in the future.

What will the new release cadence look like?

In the pre-release stage, we will begin updating Capacitor based on the changes that are published in the upcoming Android and iOS releases. We will be identifying breaking changes to the plugins and adding new features where appropriate. Capacitor will remain in this state until after the final release of both the iOS and Android operating systems as well as the appropriate tooling updates required for these platforms as well.

A new major version of Capacitor will be published at this point and will be considered production ready. However, we will not make this new major version the latest tag at this point, and all new projects will continue to be created with the prior major release. During this window, we will be working closely with plugin authors to ensure that as many plugins in the ecosystem are updated to support the new major version as well as work out any bugs that surface due to the larger availability and adoption of this version. Developers may safely choose to upgrade during this stage if they choose to, with the understanding that many plugins may not be updated.

After a short period, we will then adjust the new major version to become the latest version of Capacitor that is installed on all new projects. It is at this stage that we will be encouraging developers to begin their upgrades to the latest version in preparation for the upcoming app store requirement changes. Our goal is to provide developers with a minimum six months upgrade window before the requirements are put into effect.

The prior major version will be put into maintenance mode when we make this change. All major versions will receive six months of maintenance support with an additional six months of support available through our enterprise support services.

Stay tuned

We hope that these changes bring consistency to our process that you can come to rely on and help Capacitor be an incredibly stable and integral part of your app development resources.

The upcoming release of the Capacitor 6 beta marks the beginning of our new release cadence for Capacitor, and we can’t wait to share it with you.

The post Introducing a New Capacitor Release Cadence appeared first on Ionic Blog.

Read more https://ionic.io/blog/introducing-a-new-capacitor-release-cadence

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These days, it feels like we have an app for everything. Managing your finances? There’s an app for that. Want to connect with friends halfway around the world? There’s an app for that too. Want a hot meal delivered to your door? Another app! 

Before you know it, you can easily rack up 50+ different apps on your device. That also means 50+ logins for you to remember, 50+ apps that need regular updates, and seemingly infinite screens you need to swipe through to accomplish various daily tasks.
What if it didn’t have to be this way? What if multiple services or products could be available in a single place? What if instead of disparate apps for every individual task, we had consolidated digital experiences? Superapps make it possible—and Ionic’s Superapp SDK makes it simple to build one for your organization.  

What is a superapp?

In short, a superapp is a single app that houses various digital experiences within it. They provide end users, such as employees, partners, or customers, with access to independently created mini apps. These mini apps are unified under a single umbrella application, so users don’t need to switch between screens or hop between digital experiences. The core application contains essential functionality, while the mini apps can add on needed features. 

Why build a superapp?

Whether you’re looking to scale your business, modernize your development strategy, or simply create a unified digital experience, then superapps may be for you. 

Superapps are all about consolidating disparate experiences into a single, streamlined one. Rather than switching screens and remembering yet another login, users can access everything they need in one place. This means less headache, less apps clogging up devices, and less chance of users abandoning your app as they switch to another and potentially forget about it. 

Development can also be simplified with superapps, as you can build core functionality once and reuse it across apps, creating a digital experience that scales and grows with your business. This reduces development overhead using a modular architecture, while leveraging web teams for feature development. Teams are able to ship features faster than ever, and app development can be expedited even more with starter app templates. 

Adopting a superapp architecture can also be a catalyst for modernizing your app development strategy. It allows development teams to work independently, building mini apps that replace disparate apps to provide users with a cohesive experience. New features can be delivered asynchronously, and live updates can be deployed directly to users’ devices. You can also implement app governance and development standards to apply across anything developed within the superapp. 

What goes into building a superapp?

Superapps can scale and grow into highly intricate applications, and can be complicated to build without the proper tools.. First, native teams develop shell apps for iOS and Android with core functionality, such as authentication or payments information. Then, web teams build mini apps with additional features and functions using any web technology stack or framework. The mini apps then need to be connected to the native shell. Mini apps can be automatically installed with the native shell or discovered within the superapp and downloaded separately. This entire process is simplified with the Superapp SDK. 

Creating a superapp allows native and web teams to collaborate effectively, leveraging the skills, languages, and experience of each. Teams can also move faster than ever, since there’s no need to learn anything new, and mini apps can be deployed across both iOS and Android—cutting down duplicate efforts and keeping uniform look and feel. The mini apps are seamlessly integrated into their native shells through the power of Ionic Portals. Portals removes the complicated work of moving data and instructions between the native layer and the web layer. Once the interface for communication is established, each team can continue to work autonomously.

Not only are the dev teams able to build separately, they can ship separately as well. Superapps created with the SDK can leverage the power of a cloud mobile DevOps—via the cloud service, dev teams can create both native and web builds on their own timeline. The native builds can be deployed to the app store as needed, while the web builds can be updated within the native shell whenever required. With Live Updates, mini apps can be changed in real time with over-the-air updates as well, ensuring users always have the latest and greatest on their devices.

The Superapp SDK has everything mobile development teams need to manage their superapp development lifecycle. If you’re looking to get started building your first superapp, check out our tutorial.

Superapps can revolutionize the workplace

Workforce engagement is always a challenge—with app overload making things even worse. 69% of workers were wasting up to an hour a day navigating between apps, and 36% of digital workers missed important updates due to a multitude of apps and the volume of data flowing through them. The best way to combat this app fatigue? With a streamlined experience via superapp. Having everything in one place empowers frontline employees to get the information they need when they need it, and eliminates the need for juggling numerous logins and applications. 

On the managerial side, superapps can help simplify administrative processes, saving time and resources in the process. It’s far simpler to manage everything from a centralized place as opposed to overseeing disparate processes across multiple applications. With superapps, managers have the potential to do everything from approving PTO to chatting with teammates from a single place. 

How one Ionic customer was able to ship a superapp in record time

A customer in the health and beauty space has been able to develop a superapp lightening fast thanks to Ionic’s Superapp SDK. In under 5 months, they created an app for employees to use in stores, showing them product stock levels, allowing them to order new products for the store, and integrating shipping/receiving technology. 

The customer notes that “with a superapp approach we can develop micro applications in parallel by different teams and build them seamlessly together. And have a continuous deployment mode where we just keep releasing new features.” They also highlighted how despite shipping new features at record speed, this has “low implication on existing features because we have [development teams working in] multiple locations. For example, we have a team in China developing one mini app and [another] in the Netherlands and in Hong Kong.”

Why Ionic

Building your own superapp from the ground up can be daunting, and DIY solutions are often clunky, lacking functionality, and aren’t highly secure. That’s why we created the Superapp SDK to be your superapp accelerator. 

Ionic’s Superapp SDK provides an entire library of tools to help web developers create a streamlined, centralized mobile app experience. An off-the-shelf design system with adaptive styling means your superapp will look and feel at home on mobile. Your app will always be up to date with the latest UI design, and it’s fully customizable to fit your brand and your needs. 

With native-like gestures and animations, such as swiping, entering, and leaving gestures, your apps will build off of experiences your users are already familiar with. Superapp SDK also gives you access to a library of 100+ UI building blocks and mobile-ready components by design, all of which are fully customizable. That means less time reinventing the wheel, more time driving the car. 

With Ionic, you’ll have access to build and deploy apps directly to the app stores, and you’ll be able to update your apps live – pushing critical fixes and updates directly to your users’ devices faster than ever. We also maintain SOC II Type 2 certification, so you can rest easy knowing that your and your customers’ data is safe. 

Learn more

Interested? We can help you build a demonstrable superapp proof of concept. Book a demo with one of our experts or download the datasheet to learn more about how superapps can revolutionize your development. 

The post Introducing the Superapp SDK appeared first on Ionic Blog.

Read more https://ionic.io/blog/introducing-the-superapp-sdk