We are genuinely specialized in IoT Application Development Services since a decade. So much so that we are dedicating half of our team to only IoT Development. Here’s our story with IoT App Development that started 13 years ago:
We created our first IoT App back in 2013 and the project is a famous tool in the world of supply chain known as “Smart Gladiator Scan Guns system” . It was a project where “Ring scanners wearable” was to be connected with an industrial cased “iPod” to exchange scanning information in real time without the user (in a warehouse setting) to manually update it while all information was gone to the secure inventory management server on Unix, Linux and plenty of more environments. A fairly complex project that was for those times, we did it successfully and Smart Gladiator is a very successful and renowned business now.
Fast forward 2021 , we partnered with Swaralink Technologies to create Mobile Apps and SDks (for other developers to use) for the Swaralink Cross Platform Middleware, that simplifies and reduces the cost of developing high-quality IoT products that use Bluetooth Low Energy technology. We created the App for all technologies – iOS Native using swift, Android native using Kotlin, React native, and flutter for cross platform integrations and still update them time to time.
Technologies made by us are empowering big innovation in the IoT and BLE wearable world, Moncole Open source eyewear is powered by Swaralink platform and many other BLE and IoT startups are utilizing it.
An incredible story of Agicent IoT Application Development Company in collaboration with Swaralink for their IoT BLE App development that is empowering open source eyewear like Monocle and other smart devices. And also past success story of our collaboration with Smart Gladiator IoT wearable for Supply Chain.
SwaraLink is the ideal solution for demonstrating, developing, and testing the advanced capabilities of the SwaraLink Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Platform. This cross-platform middleware simplifies the development process and reduces costs, making it the perfect choice for creating high-quality products utilizing Bluetooth Low Energy technology.
Comprised of two middleware components - the peripheral library, "swl_periph," and the central library, "SWLCentral" - the SwaraLink BLE Platform offers a seamless user experience while ensuring interoperability with iOS and other mobile operating systems. Its power-optimized design maximizes battery life, while its high-throughput capabilities offer over 600 kbps application data transfer with an iPhone.
Effortless pairing and unpairing procedures, along with built-in security features like encryption with secure key exchange and access control, ensure your device is secure and protected. Additionally, the platform offers over-the-air firmware updates and built-in exception handling for remote debugging.
The SwaraLink app provides full access to the SWLCentral mobile API, allowing users to take advantage of all the platform's features and functions. Every function call and event generated by the library is displayed in a timestamped log, making it easy to track progress and identify any issues.
Whether you're an embedded developer or simply looking to test and validate your device, the SwaraLink app is the perfect tool to help you achieve your goals.
Following is the standard rate card for different Exp and skill levels of On Demand IoT App Developers. Besides this, we can also create a custom on Demand App Team and optimized the monthly rates based on your specific needs or provide Fixed Price IoT App Development Services.
Exp. Level: 2-5 Years
Exp. Level: 5+ Years
All of Mid-level Exp +
IoT Apps for Different Industries
Creating IoT Apps for wearable devices and that can include smartwatch apps, fitness nd health trackers, smart eyewear and glasses, smart clothing, smart shoes and sports accessories (Tracking EMG activation etc). These devices are becoming increasingly integrated with other technologies such as AI, VR, and 5G, creating new opportunities for innovation and growth in the wearable IoT market.
Creating IoT Apps such as telemedicine, remote patient management, diagnostic Devices App and more.
Developing IoT Apps to control household appliances, security and surveillance systems, Smart Entertainment systems, Smart home office, Smart Electricity and lightening control and more.
Creating IoT Apps to smartly manage supply chain process, logistics, Schedule maintenance and repair and overhaul, handle transportation and more.
Like any other software development project, creating a solid and scalable architecture is the most important step before starting the IoT App Coding process. The IoT App tech architecture should consider data modelling and flow modelling, as well as the identification of necessary third-party libraries (open source or proprietary). Another important step is to identifying the method for data processing, storage and security. For the front end, figuring out the UI Strategy is a must too which means identifying which parts are to be created using stock features and UI and which ones using the custom code. Identification of other critical libraries like payment processing, OCR, AR/ VR is an important step too. Essentially, even if you are to create an MVP IoT App it is important to have a larger vision for the product growth and future and hence decide on things that can keep it easily scalable.
There can’t be a good IoT App if it is difficult to use even if it is loaded with super advanced features. Which means, the App should be absolutely easy to use, self explanatory and must have right cadence of alerts and notifications to keep the user well engaged and convenient.
There are a range of IoT or BLE devices available in the market and each comes with their own integration protocol or APIs as we call them. Depending upon the business requirement of BLE App development project, you should consider integration and then testing with a range of IoT devices and also leave scalability to integrate with their advance versions and also new devices and chipsets.
Security is a critical aspect of IoT app development, especially because IoT or BLE wearable devices are as personalized as it can be – think about medical devices or fitness or health trackers and you know what we mean here. Hence, the IoT App or BLE app should be designed and developed implemented encryption, authentication, access control across data transmission, storage, exchange.
Since IoT Apps or BLE apps deal with external devices all the time majorly via Bluetooth Technology and then also via internet as well, it is important to make sure that this integration doesn’t drain device’s capabilities like battery, RAM/ processing power and storage. The advancement of Bluetooth low energy device controls this problem to a larger extend but a great degree of optimization at the IoT app’s end is important too. At the same time, IoT Apps should be robust enough to do real time data processing seamlessly – now that is the point where you need to find a balance between performance and optimization as an IoT App developer.
Many IoT devices rely on cloud services for data storage, analysis, and processing. The app should be designed to integrate seamlessly with these services, allowing for efficient data transfer and processing via internet layer. Also the security of data exchange as discussed above has to be taken care of by implementing encryption over data exchange and storage.
Any IoT app should also act as a console to not only command control the IoT device but also to manage and analyse the performance of the same. Use should be equipped with enough data points in order to optimize their own usage of the said device, like hours they are connected, battery this device and IoT app drained, health of the device and so on.
Further to the optimization of the usage of IoT Apps by the users, we should also offer them ability to personalize their device and its usage. For example, they should be able to set the auto-switch on or switch off modes on the device and also be able to select the features they want out of the super set of the features.
IoT Apps when go NFC way, deal with a lot of critical third party services and that include as critical as payment gateways for digital transaction, social media integration, integration with bank account and much more. Depending upon the business case, the IoT app should be well integrated with these third party services for a better user experience and be able to updated time to time to keep up with the API upgrades by these providers.
Every App IoT or BLE or a regular App uses a variety of third party services and run on the device’s OS. So whenever there is an API update by the device OEM, or by the authentication API or payment gateway or location APi or updates from the Operating systems for iOS and Android – the App should right away be made compatible to the same by upgrading timely rather than waiting for the same. You’d need a regular App maintenance Team to do the same. Know how much does it cost to maintain an App here.
The devices and so as the Apps can behave funny at times, and enthusiastic users find out the fixes themselves unless something is as critical as needing a software update. A community of users/ forums on platforms like reddit or wiki or the App provider’s own community and blog should allow users to post questions and find out answers to the issue they face and also tips to make the most out of their IoT Apps.
By following these best practices, you can create an IoT mobile app that is intuitive, efficient, and engaging, and that provides users with a seamless and enjoyable experience.
Following are some of the common mistakes being done by many IoT App Developers that end up being problematic for future scaling or fixing. At Agicent IoT App Development Company, we just avoid these at any cost.
IoT Devices and their associated Apps are highly vulnerable to cyber attacks, and since they are highly personalized a great degree of security measures should be implemented onto the App and its backend. Security starts from as basic as applying Encryption and then can be made more tighter by implementing better authentication, facial recognization and also voice recognition, keeping data compliant to data privacy policies like GDPR and HIPAA, and making the flow of the App difficult to be hacked by the hackers.
IoT industry is booming with newer advanced devices every year, and rightfully so because modern IoT devices tend to give you more functionality and using less powers. So the IoT Application architecture should be created in a way that it can be easy to be scaled to integrated with new generation of devices with ease.
Every IoT Device whether in medical field or health tracking or home appliances generates a large amount of data and it should be stored and managed in the right way onto the cloud. Poor data management can lead to break the IoT app or make the device slower. It should be seamless and fast, and that can only be possible when data is stored in its lightest form and onto the cloud. Ofcourse one needs to scale up their hosting infrastructure to support the large amount of data storage.
Testing the IoT App for expected use cases is just not enough unless you thoroughly test it for the negative scenarios and track how does it behaves for those. A real user can use the App in way different scenarios than the App is made for, and it is critical for the IoT App tester to consider those scenarios, test the IoT App on those and then get the fixes done.
As explained above in the best practices point, UI and UX for IoT Apps is as important as it is for any regular app like dating or social App. The UI and UX should be intuitive, self explanatory and easy to use even for the seniors because most of the IoT Apps are into medical field and used by them. Making a technical console kind of IoT App won’t do any good, so make it like a simple button/ action oriented and also give easy customizations to the users to personalize the same.
No good App IoT or otherwise can be made perfect in one go, you’ve to keep on maintaining the app with regular upgrades, compliances and features enhancement to keep it relevant in the market. A periodical update is essential for any app and that is where App Maintenance Service comes into the play.
IoT app development can be really complex due to the integration of various technologies, including hardware, software, and networking. A decent research is required whenever you are up to create an IoT or BLE App and it is advisable to create a Proof of Concept App before going full force into development.
Only encryption won’t just make your IoT app secure, the security needs to be across App’s front end, at device end, at backend and DB end and it becomes really complex if you don’t own the device as such or the device is not from renowned OeMs.
Achieving interoperability across variety of IoT Devices integrated with the App is a very complex process that needs continuous development, integration and release. This is a time consuming process.
IoT Apps rely completely on the IoT Devices and unless you’re the OeM yourself you can’t just do much about the device’s performance and its ability to run 24*7.
As the number of IoT devices grows, scalability becomes a critical issue. Ensuring that the app and underlying infrastructure can handle increased traffic and data volumes is a major challenge in IoT app development.
IoT devices are often battery-powered, making power consumption a critical issue. Ensuring that the app is optimized for low power consumption is a major challenge in IoT app development. Even though Bluetooth Low Energy devices (BLE) handle this power consumption issue to a great extent but you’ve to write a lot of back and forth code in order to optimize your IoT App.
IoT devices and their associated apps are subject to a variety of regulations, including data privacy, security, and data protection regulations. Ensuring compliance with these regulations can be a challenge in IoT app development especially in the field of IoT Healthcare Apps and FinTech IoT Apps.
The global consumption of IoT Technologies (Apps, software, devices) is going to reach a trillion US Dollars by 2025 as per various assessments and stats by renowned statistical data providers like Statista. We understand following as the future capabilities that we can explore and implement in IoT App Development:
IoT for Smart Homes is in its early stage since its benefit is not reached to mid to low income household groups. So we believe the IoT for homes would become cheaper and following are the examples of the same:
IoT devices such as wearable monitors and smart medical equipment will become increasingly prevalent in the healthcare industry. Some examples of IoT Apps in Healthcare and Medical Field are:
The first consumer devices that got connected via internet while moving are your automobiles where you could control your car remotely via Bluetooth or internet and now the future has more for the IoT in Transportation, such as:
The integration of IoT technology into the energy sector can help improving energy consumption, efficiency and also to better manage and reduce the waste products out of the energy sector. Here are some of the examples:
IoT technology along with AI can be further included in the manufacturing processes and help improving the efficiency and productivity. Some real life examples of IoT in Industry are as follows:
These are just a few examples, but IoT has the potential to revolutionize many industries and aspects of our daily lives ofcourse, and with more and more Open source adaptation in IoT it is going to be easily affordable by the general public along with the governments and the enterprises.
We’ve written a detailed blog post on App Development Cost that you can read here – How much does it cost to create an iOS App. However, IoT App cost is little difficult to predict even for a range because these products involve several external devices and hence, are complex. The cost of an IoT App depends upon many factors but primarily on the Device Type with which App is to work in pair. The better technology and software a device and its firmware/ middleware has the easier to create an App on top of it. You may write to us via sales@agicent.com and discuss your project in detail to know the cost of IoT App Development.
We create IoT Apps not just for BLE Devices even though BLE is a major communication protocol for Smart IoT Solutions, but also for devices that can be connected to the software/ App using wireless technology/ internet and may be also wired ones.
A 3 to 6 months of Tech maintenance is free from our side after going live. Post that you can hire us on retainer maintenance model for as low as $ 1000/ mo or more (depending upon how many hours you retain us for). About Cloud cost – the cost of storage is always nominal, what these hosting and infra providers charge is for exchange of data and for a slew of several other services like security, backup, API calls and more. Here is a dedicated post on “How much does it cost to host your App on AWS”.
Yes, some of them are publicly displayed on our website like Swaralink and Smartgladiator and if you want to talk one on one then feel free to email us at sales@agicent.com.
It’s a very subjective question, however these days cross platform technologies are as good as the native ones to an extend where integration with other devices come into play. In case of IoT, we’ve created Apps on native, react native and flutter but if yours is a new product it will be safe to create your IoT Mvp using native technology since native is better supported by even newest of the smart devices.
We create the exact use-case environment using the same IoT Devices and user roles so the App can be tested in live environment with live users. We test our eyewear App using the same eyewear as the user whole day so there remains no gap between dev environment and live environment. Also, we do standard Unit testing, UAT, Regression, Performance, and Security testing?
We follow secure coding practices such as input validation and sanitization, error handling, and encryption. We use secure communication protocols, such as TLS or SSL, to encrypt data transmitted between the IoT devices and the app and also use encrypted data storage.