Many mobile development firms work really hard to get people to use their apps for the first time. But a new report suggests they should also work hard to get people to use the apps a second time. In a recent study, vendor Localytics found 60 percent of people who don’t open an app within a week of the first time they use an app will never open that app again. The same is true for 40 percent of people who don’t use an app for the second time within a day of using it for the first time.
Second app usage is particularly important for certain app categories. For example, in the social and entertainment category, half of users will stop using an app if they haven’t used it for a second time within twelve hours.
“Getting a user to return quickly after the first taste of your app is critical, especially in the categories of Social, Entertainment and Lifestyle,” said Localytics. “While the ‘churn risk window’ may seem daunting, app owners will be in a much better position to act if they arm themselves with both the data on their retention patterns across dimensions such as sessions and the tools to combat churn such as push (and in-app) messaging.”
