Insights & Updates

The latest trends, build notes, and behind-the-scenes stories from across the PixelForce product and engineering team.

Latest articles

How In-App Messaging Can Boost User Engagement
5 Sep 2017 PixelForce

How In-App Messaging Can Boost User Engagement

In-app messaging is a powerful tool for connecting with users directly. Discover how this feature enhances engagement, boosts retention, and keeps users active within your app.

Native vs Hybrid Apps: Choosing the Right Platform
29 Aug 2017 PixelForce

Native vs Hybrid Apps: Choosing the Right Platform

Choosing between native and hybrid apps depends on your goals, budget, and timeline. Dive into the key differences and determine which approach suits your app project best.

What’s New in Android Oreo OS for 2017
22 Aug 2017 PixelForce

What’s New in Android Oreo OS for 2017

Android Oreo introduced new features and updates for smoother app performance. Learn how these enhancements improve security, efficiency, and user experience on Android devices.

AR: Discover the Potential for Your Business
22 Jun 2017 PixelForce

AR: Discover the Potential for Your Business

Augmented reality (AR) brings immersive experiences to life, transforming industries from real estate to retail. Discover the impact of AR on business engagement and growth today.

ARKit and Core ML, Nine Years On: What Apple's 2017 Bets Became
6 Jun 2017 PixelForce

ARKit and Core ML, Nine Years On: What Apple's 2017 Bets Became

At WWDC 2017 Apple shipped ARKit and Core ML on the same day, and we wrote about both. Nine years later one has been vindicated so thoroughly it disappeared into the platform, and the other was right about the technology and wrong about the form factor. This is what happened to each, and what it means for how you evaluate a new Apple framework.

Selling Into China: What You Actually Have to Build
26 May 2017 PixelForce

Selling Into China: What You Actually Have to Build

Most advice about entering the Chinese market is about marketing and culture. The part that stops projects is neither - it is that you cannot publish a WeChat Mini Program or a mobile app in China without a completed government filing, and obtaining one has prerequisites that take months. Here is the build-side checklist, in the order it bites.

2017’s Key Tech Trends and Shifts to Watch
7 Jan 2017 PixelForce

2017’s Key Tech Trends and Shifts to Watch

In 2017, mobile apps continued to evolve. From cloud integration to AI advancements, explore the tech trends that defined app innovation this year.

Five Signs Your Website Needs a Rebuild, Not a Refresh
1 Nov 2016 PixelForce

Five Signs Your Website Needs a Rebuild, Not a Refresh

Most websites that feel dated do not need a redesign - they need a rebuild, and the two are priced very differently. The distinction is not how the site looks but whether its problems live in the presentation layer or underneath it. These are the five signals that tell you which one you are dealing with.

Google Assistant Is Shutting Down: What It Means for Your App
18 Oct 2016 PixelForce

Google Assistant Is Shutting Down: What It Means for Your App

From 4 September 2026 Google starts removing Google Assistant from Android phones, tablets, Wear OS watches, headphones and Android Auto, and replaces it with Gemini. Anything in your product that depends on Assistant as a voice entry point stops working, and users cannot switch back. We covered Google Assistant here in 2016 when it was new - here is what a decade of that pattern has taught us about building on somebody else's assistant.

Four iOS Features, Ten Years On: Which Ones Survived
21 Sep 2016 PixelForce

Four iOS Features, Ten Years On: Which Ones Survived

iOS 10 gave developers four new ways to reach users outside their own app: iMessage apps, Apple Pay on the web, SiriKit and CallKit. Ten years on, two are still load-bearing, one has been formally deprecated, and one never became a channel worth building for. Here is the honest scorecard, and what it means for an iOS build in 2026.

Do You Need a Mobile App to Attract Customers?
31 Aug 2016 PixelForce

Do You Need a Mobile App to Attract Customers?

A mobile app attracts customers when it does something a website cannot - working offline, using the camera or sensors, or earning a place on the home screen through repeat use. If the app only wraps content people read once, a responsive website serves them better and costs far less. The question is not whether to build an app, but whether the behaviour you want is habitual.

What the Internet Made Cheap - and What It Did Not
24 Mar 2016 PixelForce

What the Internet Made Cheap - and What It Did Not

The internet removed most of the fixed costs that used to decide who could start a business - premises, distribution, and a marketing budget large enough to be noticed. What it did not remove is the hard part, which is finding people who want the thing you are building. Founders who succeed online treat distribution as a product problem rather than a marketing afterthought.

How Custom Web Apps Enhance Business Processes
29 Feb 2016 PixelForce

How Custom Web Apps Enhance Business Processes

A custom web application is software that runs in the browser and is shaped around how a business actually works, rather than forcing the business to fit the tool. It avoids app store gatekeeping and runs on any device with a capable browser. The trade is cost and ownership - you are commissioning software rather than renting it.

What Makes Good UX: Efficiency, Intuitiveness and Empathy
24 Sep 2015 PixelForce

What Makes Good UX: Efficiency, Intuitiveness and Empathy

User experience is how a person feels moving through a site, and it is settled long before anyone judges the visuals. Three characteristics carry most of it - efficiency, intuitiveness and empathy. Get those wrong and no amount of visual polish will keep someone on the page.

Responsive Web Design: Why It Still Decides Conversions
3 Mar 2015 PixelForce

Responsive Web Design: Why It Still Decides Conversions

Responsive web design means one layout that adapts to whatever screen it lands on, rather than a separate mobile site maintained alongside the real one. It stopped being a differentiator years ago and is now the baseline Google measures a site against. The work that matters now is not whether a site is responsive, but whether it stays fast and usable at every breakpoint.