5G has already arrived, making the 4G(VoLTE) network ‘the new 2G’ – the fundamental network to avail the essential services like voice calls and data, just like 2G did for the 3G network. Switching to 4G brought a lot of changes to people’s lives and the biggest change among them was the increase in the popularity of SmartPhones, which is currently used by more than 3 million worldwide users. 4G, a stupendous jump in the network potentialities, revolutionized the use of smartphones, powering, and promoting video streaming, photo sharing, online shopping, social networking, remote working, etc., expected to be taken forward by 5G.

By 2025, 5G is expected to account for 15% of the mobile industry globally, i.e. approximately 1.4 billion 5G connections, and will continue to add $2.2 trillion to the global economy in the coming 15 years. – BusinessWire

The 5G network, with its lightning-fast speed, congestion-free network, and better connectivity, has not only created an exhilaration among the users but also in the developers, as well as the companies, who have already started gearing up themselves for the change. Before we hop into the impacts of the new generation network on mobile application development, let’s understand what 5G is all about.

What Is 5G?

5G, the Fifth Generation of digital cellular network, is the successor of the 4G network which is coming with a lot of improvements as well as functionalities and setting up a new milestone for the developers.

The idea of 5G is to enhance the user experience through upgraded performance as well as open doors for new technological advancements such as the Internet of Things(IoT), Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and much more. The top highlights of 5G are as follows –

  • Network Speed (up to 10 Gbit/s)
  • Higher frequency radio waves
  • Increased bandwidth
  • Lower latency(less than 1ms)
  • Connection density(1 Million connections per square Km)

What Is 5G

Source:https://cellphoneboosterstore.com/tech-news-and-blog/why-5g-is-all-the-more-reason-for-cell-phone-signal-booster/

Impact of 5G on Android and IoS Applications

It is exceptionally evident to say that along with the users, 5G will bring new challenges and opportunities for the application developers as well, requiring them to explore and build advanced platforms as well as applications that are compatible with the network and the 5G enabled devices.

The biggest advantage of the 5G network for developers is the creative liberty that it gives to developers and designers, to create an intuitive application without agonizing over the size and loading speed of the pages.  They can add as many features as they want, eventually leading to better user experience as well as retention. This is just the tip of the iceberg, let’s dive deeper to check out the detailed impacts and advantages of 5G on Android and IoS Application.

  1. 1. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality

    AR and VR are no more new things; they are widely utilized in almost all the industries as well as by the users. However, the speed and bandwidth of the network have been the real challenge for the AR and VR based application as it needs to process a gigantic amount of data to function viably. 5G proves to be a savior here, allowing you to develop your AR and VR based application that functions seamlessly without any network performance concerns.

    Head to the Blog to check out the Best Tools to develop Augmented Reality Applications.
  2. 2. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

    With its tremendous performance, the 5G network has resurrected the AI and ML-based applications. Qualcomm, an American semiconductor company, considers AI as a huge priority during the 5G transformation, anticipating that it will move from cloud to an even broader level that is a distributed system, for which they have already started the preparations and creating the chipset.

    AI/ ML is all about collecting humongous data through manual input or sensors and processing it to serve and interact with the users just like humans, for example- Chatbots. 5G empowers the developers to use the sensors as per the requirement without any network load constraint.

  3. 3. Video streaming

    The popularity of video streaming is increasing all over the world and after the introduction of 5G, it is expected to grow even more which is indicated in the stats presented by IHS Markit Digital Orbit.

    75% of U.S. consumers admit that after the adoption of 5G in smartphones, they will increase the usage of video streaming applications. 

    The reason behind this is the spectacular speed as well as the lower latency offered by the network, allowing the applications to deliver an uninterrupted video streaming, which is great news for the app proprietors.

  4. 4. IoT(Internet of Things)

    The number of global IoT-connected devices is expected to ascend to 43 billion by 2023- Mckinsey & Company.

    The stats say a lot about the growing popularity of IoT and 5G has fanned the flames. 5G, as compared to the 4G network, provides higher connection density that is 1 million connections per square km, the most prominent factor, as well as an advantage for the IoT-enabled applications.

    Along with the increased number of connections, 5G also creates a considerable difference in battery consumption, which can again be ascribed to its speed and performance. The challenge here is that the improvement in connectivity and speed leads concern to the cloud as it has to handle more requests than 4G, requiring the developers to prepare the backend for the same.

  5. 5. Accurate Location Tracking

    Location tracking and navigation have become an important part of our lives, making us more informed, taking care of our security, providing us custom services and information, and a lot more.

    With the advancement to 5G, which uses a higher frequency ranging from 30GHz to 300 GHz as well as has a comparatively shorter wavelength than that of 4G, the accuracy of location tracking has become better than ever before. Hence, apps that provide custom services based on the locations or navigation, will function more efficiently and provide real-time tracking to the users.

  6. 6. Gaming

    From the global gaming market revenue of $152 billion, 45% of the revenue comes from mobile gaming applications. 33% of the total application downloads are projected to mobile games applications. – TechCrunch

    Gaming apps are popular among the users, however, the performance factors like speed, regular updates, upgrades, and fixes have been a concern for the users. 5G, with its upgraded features and speedy data transmission, perfectly fits here.

    Not only this, with its outstanding performance in Augmented reality, Virtual Reality, high precision positioning, and video streaming, 5G also enhances the user experience, creating opportunities for 3D gaming.

Want to Unleash the Power of 5G in your Application?

The mobile applications are progressing, including a lot more functionality such as AR, VR, and AI/ML. Each of these functions has to deal with a massive amount of data which creates a huge load on the existing network, affecting the app performance.

5G, with its faster speed, lower latency, wider bandwidth as well as denser connection capability, promises to upgrade the performance of the mobile applications and user experience. However, developing a highly functional and innovative mobile application as well as delivering a remarkable user experience involves substantially more than this, starting from the designing and developing to placing the app on the App Store or Google Play store.

There are a lot of challenges that come throughout the journey, it is better to seek an expert’s help, who will not only develop a fully-functional mobile application but also guide you through preventing the app store rejection. So without further ado, Hire a Mobile App developer and make your application 5G ready.

The 5G Effect Accelerating Artificial Intelligence and ARVR in Mobile Applications_cta_pointers