There’s a rapid increase in mobile apps launching every year. But not all of them have the ability to stand out in today’s competitive market. As, users are looking for more than just a mobile app's usability. They want something entertaining, something that keeps them engaged. And, if your app fails to have that, there are high chances of it failing right away.

Now, there are various strategies for driving user engagement and user retention. For example, personalized experiences, discounts, social media management, etc. And, these have remained known as the traditional approaches to making an app exciting and stand out in the crowd. Whereas mobile app gamification often needs to be addressed. However, in this article, we will be discussing mobile apps using gamification. 

What Is Gamification in Mobile Apps?

This is the procedure of adding game mechanics to a mobile app and encouraging frequent mobile application usage. If you do it right, adding games to your mobile app can attract more users and keep them interested in your services. 

The whole process is based on simple psychological principles. For example, Gamifying mobile apps lets people compete with each other or reach their own goals, which is a fundamental part of human psychology.

Gamified elements help users feel like they're making progress and reaching a milestone, and this encourages them to use your app more often. Adding a gaming experience to an app that isn't a game will also increase user satisfaction. 

Why Is Gamification in Mobile Apps Important?

Before you decide to gamify your application, you should spend some time researching the advantages mobile app gamification will have for your business, and how it can enhance user engagement.

In addition to that, gamification can affect and encourage people in the following ways:

Curiosity Stimulation

Curiosity helps to motivate users, allowing them to progress and receive greater rewards. 

Competition

Scoreboards displaying the accomplishments of other users motivate players to achieve more and compare their results to their competitors.

Freedom of Choice

Nobody enjoys being compelled to do something. Therefore, gamification's primary objective is to give consumers control and allow them to choose the next milestone they look forward to achieving.

What Are the Gamification Features in a Mobile App?

Before learning how to gamify your mobile app, it's important to know the features of mobile apps using gamification. A gamified mobile app can be for recruitment, learning, health, or entertainment purposes. No matter the niche, there are certain features of gamification. 

The following are the features of a mobile app using gamification:

In-App Games

Yes, you can include actual games in your application. In addition, you can add some aspects of a game or a unique gaming feature within the application. Especially if you've developed an educational application, this strategy enhances user learning, and makes studying more productive. 

In addition to that, you can add creative storytelling to provide the user with a narrative experience while using the application. Through creative storytelling, the user learns through engaging audio and visuals, making learning about a particular topic easier and more enjoyable.

Progress Bar

It is a great technique to demonstrate how much progress a user has made. It gives the learner a gratifying experience and encourages them to continue learning. For example, the process of practicing a given assignment and the entire coursework can be represented by progress bars. 

Visually, a progress bar is better than standard alerts or notifications; the user does not require a second thought to comprehend how far they've come.

In-Game Competition Charts

Adding a competitive element to an application motivates users to strive to surpass one another. Unsurprisingly, this is a significant determinant of learning efficiency. So, there could be separate leaderboards based on the number of courses/countries/departments you wish to stand in competition with.

It is essential that the leaderboard highlight people's accomplishments but not their failings. Otherwise, it can have a reverse impact and drive customers away. 

Achievements, Rewards, and Giveaways

Reward systems are popular because people enjoy receiving them. So even if all you get in return is a nice picture on the Internet, it's still worth it. 

For example, in the form of achievements, you may reward your user for exemplary behavior. Such as consistently devoting time to study (10 days in a row) or error-free completing 15 tasks. This is rewarding (like receiving a gold star in elementary school) and practical because it motivates users to engage in activities that are good for their education.

The accomplishments must be carefully thought out. If not, they risk encouraging students to engage in activities that add fun to their study time in exchange for user retention on your application.

Badges

These are a graphical representation of the user's progress and accomplishments within the program. Some fitness trackers, for instance, reward users with badges reflecting the total number of steps they've taken while using the app.

7 App Gamification Examples That Boost User Engagement

Many different types of apps now incorporate elements of game design. E-commerce, e-learning, physical fitness, productivity, economics, marketing, and sales are just a few examples. 

Here's a list of the best free app gamification examples that are used worldwide:

Gamification Apps for Education

No longer does learning something new mean being bored and doing the same thing over and over. With the rise of mobile apps using gamification, educational activities have transformed into gamified e-learning. Conclusively, technology is used to make learning more accessible and fun.

Here's a list of the top e-learning apps that use gamification:

Khan Academy

You can use this app to learn about almost anything, from history to science. Here's how it turns learning into a game.

Skill tree: The subjects you can learn at Khan Academy are set in a constellation. This makes it easier for the application users to see their learning path.

Badges: The app has many badges that are all about planets and other things in space. The badges are put into the following groups based on how complex the subject matter is: 

Patches for a meteor, the moon, the earth, the sun, and a black hole.

Each type of badge has a fun, creative name, such as "Mad Scientist" or "Geek of the Week."

Chart of Progress and Points: The app has a galaxy-themed achievement system that shows your progress and gives you energy points when you finish a level or get a badge.

Duolingo 

Most of us have or are using Duolingo, and we definitely admire the app's innovative features. While you've used the app, you must wonder, "is Duolingo an example of gamification?" Yes, it is, and here are the following game features that are incorporated into this language-learning app:

• Lingots: The in-game currency that the learner can earn by performing specific tasks
• Concurrence: Users can vote on the translation they think is the best
• The fulfillment of a set number of skills, the addition of a set number of friends, the expenditure of a set number of lingots, etc., all result in being awarded a badge.

Codecademy 

Codecademy is an online resource for creating and maintaining computer programs. Codecademy Go, a mobile app, was launched by the company in 2018. To add a gaming element to the app, the application awards users badges of different categories.

There are currently four different kinds of badges: 

• Exercise completion 
• Programs 
• Specific courses
• Promotions

There's also a tracking dashboard displaying current and upcoming classes. Every time you finish an exercise and earn points, you move up a level.

Gamification Apps for Fitness

There are several healthcare apps that allow users to keep a health track record. These health apps are mainly for fitness and nutrition, medication, emotional health, rehabilitation, etc. Here are a few healthcare mobile apps using gamification.

Fitbit

Fitbit is a fitness tracker that you can wear. It connects to an app that has the following game-like features:

Badges: When users finish a specific task, like walking a certain number of steps while using the app, they get a badge to track their progress. For example, you get the Serengeti badge after traveling 500 miles, which is the same distance as the Serengeti National Park.

Social engagement: You can find friends who also use Fitbit and compete with them in different challenges related to sports.

Original challenges: With Fitbit, you can walk through the streets of any city you want. This way, you can explore a new city and stay in shape simultaneously.

Mango Health

This application notifies users when it's time to take their prescriptions and keeps track of how much they've taken. 

Mango Health stands out among mobile apps using gamification because it offers its users tangible benefits in vouchers for in-store discounts. Other game-like elements include social features, such as comparing medication adherence to users with similar diseases and digital currencies that users can win for taking their prescriptions on time.

MySugr

For those struggling with diabetes, a healthcare gamification app has been developed. MySugr Junior is a tailored version of the app specifically designed for younger users. The disease is portrayed as a monster in this Tamagotchi-style app. Patients with diabetes have the monotonous task of recording their food intake and blood sugar levels. However, with the help of gamification features like progress tracking and rewards, MySugr can transform this mundane routine into something fun and engaging for its users. 

Gamification Apps for Productivity

The use of productivity applications has allowed us to "gamify" our daily lives and become more productive. These apps employ gamification to help us remember to do things we often end up putting off. The goal of these prompts is not to bother you but rather to encourage you to take on a new task. So let's move towards productivity mobile apps using gamification.

Forest

The central gamification idea in this example app is planting trees. Avoiding interruptions from sources like Twitter and Facebook is a considerable aid in maintaining productivity. In this mobile app, you "plant a seed" that could turn into a forest someday. If you give in to temptation and stop what you're doing, the tree may die. Your level of concentration determines how many trees you'll be able to plant, and those trees will eventually form a forest.

Which Companies Are Using Gamification?

Various mobile apps use gamification, and we've covered the seven best ones in the list above. However, those remain restricted to user engagement only. Meanwhile, there are companies using gamification as well. And here's a short list of them: 

Cisco

The firms that are better able to use social media to their advantage will have a distinct advantage in today's highly interconnected business environment. In light of this, Cisco has funded a worldwide social media training program to improve the company's workers and third-party contractors' social media competence. However, this lofty endeavor resulted in a program that included 46 courses.

Microsoft

The software company required a mechanism to ensure that language translations were accurate and made sense in light of the numerous language localization requirements for its extensive line of products. Microsoft's "Language Quality" video game was developed using Silverlight software to complete this challenging goal. Microsoft employees from all over the world were able to watch the game's screen and verify the game's linguistic accuracy in real-time. 

Google

Does Google use gamification? This remains a common question; to answer that, yes, it does. 

Google "gamified" the cost procedure to get staff to submit their travel reimbursements faster. Employees who did not use their travel allowances were given the option of having the money added to their next paycheck, saving it for a future trip, or donating it to a charity of their choice. Google's compliance rate for its gamified travel expenditure system hit 100 percent within six months of its launch.

FAQs

What Is Gamification in Mobile Apps?

Gamification is the process of applying diverse gaming elements in a mobile application. It’s a powerful tool designed to acquire, engage and retain users.

What Are the Common Gamification Features of a Mobile App?

A gamified mobile app is generally used for recruitment, learning, health, or entertainment purposes. The following are the features of a mobile app using gamification:

1. In-app games
2. Progress bar
3. In-game competition charts
4. Achievements, rewards, and giveaways
5.   Badges

What Are the Best Gamification Apps for Fitness?

However, there are several healthcare and fitness apps available in the market designed to simplify the health tracking process. A few of the top ones are:

1. Fitbit
2. Mango Health
3. MySugr

Wrapping Up 

By incorporating familiar gaming mechanics into non-game contexts, gamification can boost user engagement by making a mundane task more enjoyable. It works because the human brain is always looking for new challenges; thus, it has already made its way into many different fields, including productivity, healthcare, and education.

Still, need to implement a gaming system into your app? Give it a chance today and see how that works for you. Meanwhile, if you're looking forward to mobile app development companies helping you develop mobile apps using gamification, let's drop a hint here. Finding the best mobile app development companies is quite exhausting. Instead, a B2B service-providing company can help, and Distinguished is one of them. Where we have a list of top development companies that come with a clientele that verifies their experience in transforming unique ideas into reality.

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