Is WordPress A Good Foundation For Mobile Apps

Business site owners and bloggers can’t afford to ignore mobile. As PC sales stall and tablets and smartphones become ubiquitous, the revenue being generated from mobile interactions is skyrocketing. WordPress theme developers have been on the case for quite a while, with many responsive and mobile-first themes available that look good on devices of any size. But, even with responsive design, sites are missing out on many of the features that make mobile so powerful.

Is WordPress A Good For Mobile Apps

Without the ability to tie into a phone’s hardware, place icons or widgets on the device’s home screen, and access notification mechanisms, there are limits to what a site can do. To properly leverage the advantages of mobile, site owners should be thinking about mobile apps. But, mobile app development is expensive. Many businesses can’t afford to invest in the creation of a high-quality mobile application built from scratch by an experienced developer.

Is WordPress A Good For Mobile Apps
Is WordPress A Good For Mobile Apps

There have been plugins that can create an app “wrapper” for WordPress sites for some time. They solve half the problem: a web view of the site allows site owners to launch an app without having to invest in development, but this approach is seriously limited and usually doesn’t offer an experience for users that improves significantly on a visit to the site in a web browser.

AppPresser is a new breed of premium plugin that seeks to ease the process of making a WordPress site truly mobile without having to start from scratch. AppPresser is capable of taking a WordPress site and wrapping it in a native app, just like many previous plugins, but where it differs is that it makes available — for a price – extensions that allow the site to communicate with the phone’s hardware. For example, with the AppGeo extension, site owners can use a phone’s native geolocation tools, or with AppCamera, users can take and upload images to the site using a device’s camera.

Once the plugin has been properly integrated with the site, the app can be packaged ready for submission to the iOS app store or the Android Play Store. It’s a nifty plugin and out of the box it offers a range of useful features, but to get the maximum benefit it’s helpful to have at least some development experience. To make the most of AppPresser, you’ll need knowledge of JavaScript, which will allow you to use the Phonegap API that comes along with the plugin, writing your own custom integrations with the device hardware.

AppPresser is a clever solution for businesses and site owners who want to go mobile but don’t want to implement an expensive parallel development effort for a mobile application.

Converting WordPress Site to a Mobile App: Plugins Worth Considering

According to an online survey, Smartphone users around the world spend 85 percent of their mobile time in using apps. And so, no matter how great your WordPress website may function or look, you might not be able to drive good traffic to your site if you don’t have a mobile app. But, developing a mobile app can turn out to be challenging task even when you need to develop a small app (especially for the first time developers or technophobes). Fortunately, there are many great plugins out there that makes the task of turning your site to a mobile app a hassle-free process.

 convert wordpress site to mobile app

Mobiloud

Mobiloud
Mobiloud

If you’re searching for a plugin that help convert your site into a complete native app for iOS and Android devices, then Mobiloud plugin is worth a try. The plugin can be installed for free and allows you to design native applications for WordPress with ease, without the need of writing any code. In addition, you can even preview the app and test it on your device. But, you’ll have to invest a little to publish your mobile app on Google play Store or Apple app store.

Key features:

  • Help in updating your mobile app content automatically.
  • Allows customizing the app using your own custom styling options (like colors, icon, logo, etc.)
  • Allows automatic as well as manual push notifications and much more.

Worona

 

Worona
Worona

Want to turn your WordPress powered blog to a native app without spending a dime? Then, Worona will prove a suitable option. Worona is available in two different parts: the first one is the WordPress plugin (that sends your site content to the app), and the second one is the popular Corona SDK that helps code your native application.

Key Features:

  • It works in an easier and faster manner.
  • Help build native apps for iOS 7 and Android versions 4.1, 4.2 and 4.4.
  • The app built using Worona supports many different extensions including Push Notification, Rate my app, and Enhanced List. This help in enhancing the app functionality.

 

AppPressor

AppPressor
AppPressor

AppPressor is one of the leading app building tools that converts any WordPress site (like news site, e-commerce site, etc.) into a mobile application having native device features. It even allows compiling your app using the popular PhoneGap app development framework. Once your app is compiled with PhoneGap Build, it is being submitted to the iOS and Android app stores.

Key Features

  • Offer tools to customize your app.
  • Allow to update your app in real time.
  • Provides integration with WordPress features like content, plugins, etc.
  • Gives control on hosting the app just like any WordPress site.

Mobile App Convertor

Mobile App Convertor
Mobile App Convertor

This is another free plugin, which helps in converting a WordPress site to a fully-functional mobile app in just a matter of few seconds. Plus it doesn’t require you to have any coding skills. You just need to follow a few simple steps, for converting your site to a mobile application extremely using the plugin intuitive interface.

Key Features:

  • Help in publishing your app on app markets such as Windows Phone Market, App-store and Google Play.
  • Provide the ability to preview your site as a mobile app on your own device.
  • Offer the capability to hide elements of your app from visitors.
  • Provide complete professional technical support.

WiziApp

WiziApp
WiziApp

In case you want to mobilize your WordPress site, by creating a HTML5 mobile application for platforms such as Windows Phone, iPhone and Android, then WiziApp is the right choice for you. The best part of this WordPress plugin is that it is free to download.

Key Features:

  • It helps in building your own custom app with the help of a user-friendly wizard.
  • Allows previewing how your customized app looks in real-time.
  • Allows publishing the app on two most important app store, such as: Google Play Store and Apple app store.

WP App Maker

WP App Maker
WP App Maker

This is another great option for transforming your WordPress blog into a mobile application in just 5 minutes.

Key Features:

  • Enables you to monitor your app usage using Google Analytics tool for Mobile.
  • Let you publish your apps once you’ve created your account on AdWhirl.
  • Offers lot of customization options like customizing text color, background and more.

Conclusion

The need for mobile apps is only going to increase in the coming years, and thus it makes sense to prepare your WordPress sites for the mobilegeddon. And the best way to do so requires converting your site into a mobile application. Doing so, will also help you expand your reach to a large number of potential users. If you lack programming skills, but want to transform your WordPress site/blog to a mobile app, then the aforementioned list of plugins can prove useful assets for you.