Estimates suggest that as many as 99.5% of commercial apps fail each year. User retention, engagement, and long-term satisfaction are essential ingredients for making it into that coveted 0.5%, which is why mobile app onboarding has never been more critical for iOS and Android publishers.
As mobile usage continues to dominate the world of apps, delivering effective onboarding experiences has become a top priority for product teams.
In this article, we’ll examine why mobile onboarding matters, explore some of the most common challenges in mobile UX, explain why traditional help methods fall short, and discuss how Usetiful’s mobile onboarding solution addresses these issues with an outstanding range of benefits and proven results.
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| Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik |
Why mobile onboarding matters
If you thought the statistics about 99.5% of mobile apps failing each year were terrifying, wait until you hear that 77% of daily active users (DAUs) abandon an app within the first three days after installation. What’s more, the same data suggests that only about 5.7% of users remain active by Day 30 across app categories.
As any app publisher will tell you, getting downloads isn’t easy in a saturated market. Thanks to rising customer acquisition costs (CAC), it isn’t cheap to get new users either. So, when you look at that alarming drop-off by Day 30, it’s clear that probability is against you. So what can you do to beat those odds?
Effective onboarding has a tangible impact on user retention, with some studies suggesting that it can increase retention rates by as much as 50%. To put that into context, if average 3-day retention rates are 23%, effective onboarding can bring that figure to 46%, which dramatically changes the complexion of your CAC spending.
Of course, there are other significant benefits to getting iOS and Android onboarding right. Some of the most important include:
Setting the right tone for a long-lasting, loyal relationship driven by user satisfaction.
Helping users get to your products “aha moment”.
Ensure that users get value from your solution, which makes your app more “sticky.”
Onboarding generates measurable data that you can add to your analytics stack to help you identify and address pain points early.
Reduce CAC by focusing more resources on retention.
Common challenges in mobile UX
Another reason for the dismal average retention rates with mobile products is that several challenges exist that make onboarding mobile users uniquely challenging.
Let’s look at some of the most common challenges facing mobile app success regarding user experience.
Small screen sizes: Mobile apps are delivered on phones and tablets. Limited space demands concise, clear communication without overwhelming the user, which can compromise the quality and comprehensiveness of onboarding content.
User expectations: Users expect smooth, intuitive flows; any friction or deviation from these high standards leads to frustration and app abandonment.
Performance sensitivity: As many as 90% of users stop using apps due to poor performance or bugs.
Personalization: Research by Adobe suggests that around two-thirds of users will abandon a product if experiences lack personalization.
Notifications and ads: Around 28% of users will uninstall apps if notifications are excessive or the app features too many ads.
In short, there are so many apps out there that users can afford to be fussy. If performance or workflows are sub-par, you don’t attempt to personalize UX, or you annoy your users with ads or notifications, you’ll struggle to retain users, especially when compared with rival apps that have got their UX right.
But perhaps more importantly, traditional user manuals and help centers are less effective on mobile because they are static and disconnected from the user’s current context. In most cases, users just ignore this help content because they want real-time, in-app guidance that helps them learn by doing, thereby significantly reducing cognitive load and frustration.
Why in-app, real-time guidance can turn your mobile app around
In-app guidance for mobile apps is one of the surest ways to take your mobile app from the 99.5% to one of the cherished 0.5% spots. As we mentioned above, when users download an app, they don’t expect to have to download a manual or search around for tips on your site or messaging customer service. Instead, they want it just to work.
In-app onboarding delivers contextual, interactive support exactly when and where users need it. Some of the benefits of this approach include:
Accelerating the user’s “aha moment” by showing immediate value.
Reducing churn by guiding users through critical activation steps.
Minimizing support tickets by empowering users to self-serve.
Enabling personalized experiences based on user behavior and preferences.
When you get UX right, it feels almost invisible to the user because they’re getting support, but they don’t feel like they need it. That’s the power of well-timed, contextual help.
How Usetiful mobile onboarding solves adoption and retention challenges
Mobile onboarding tools, like Usetiful, are designed to meet and solve many of the adoption and retention challenges facing modern-day publishers.
If you’re wondering how to onboard users in iOS and Android apps, Usetiful’s no-code mobile onboarding solution provides a comprehensive and flexible suite of tools that can alter the trajectory of your app.
Product tours for mobile apps
No-code editor
Product teams can create, modify, and deploy onboarding flows without developer involvement, accelerating iteration cycles and significantly reducing costs.
Cross-platform consistency
Usetiful enables a unified onboarding strategy for mobile and web properties, ensuring you offer a seamless user experience across devices.
User segmentation
Easily segment your users to display tailored product tours. For example, if your product supports different subscription plans like Free and Premium tiers, Usetiful offers flexible ways to target specific user groups and provide a personalized onboarding experience.
In-app surveys and feedback
Capture user sentiment and pain points directly within the app, enabling continuous improvement.
Analytics and reporting
Track onboarding completion rates, feature adoption, drop-off points, and user progress to optimize flows continuously.
Real-time updates without app store delays
App store review processes can be fairly lengthy. One under-appreciated benefit of a user onboarding solution for mobile apps like Usetiful is that your onboarding content changes can be deployed instantly, bypassing the review process and removing any friction between users and onboarding guides.
How Usetiful tackles the main reasons for app abandonment
There is a fascinating essay by Andrew Chen, a partner at the legendary VC firm Andreessen Horowitz. It’s well worth a read, but one part stands out: the graph of the average retention curve for Android apps.
While it makes for grim reading, it shows how normal it is for apps to shed most of their users. But one particular quote from the essay is particularly important:
“Most of the leverage in improving these retention curves happen in how the product is described, the onboarding flow, and what triggers you set up to drive ongoing retention.”
As you can see from the graph, the first 3 to 7 days are critical.
So, let’s think about the main things that cause users to abandon the app.
Poor onboarding: Long or complicated sign-up processes cause about 25% of users to use an app once and never again.
Lack of immediate value: If your app doesn’t offer immediate, tangible value, users will look elsewhere to solve their pain points.
Technical issues: A QualiTest Group and Google Consumer Survey found that 88% of app users said they would abandon an app due to bugs and glitches.
Excessive ads and notifications: As mentioned earlier, 28% of users will abandon apps if ads or notifications are too intrusive.
While onboarding tools for native apps can’t solve technical issues within your app, they can address the other problems because lean, well-structured onboarding experiences help demonstrate your product's value. Additionally, features like slideout act as an alternative to push notifications.
It all comes down to getting past that 3 to 7 day drop-off rate. A big part of that process is whether users will complete your onboarding.
For example, one of our clients, RoHealth, saw a 47% increase in onboarding completion rates within one month after integrating Usetiful’s interactive tours. This improvement was linked to users receiving clear, actionable guidance that helped them understand how to use the app effectively, reducing confusion and drop-offs.
There is no secret trick. It just comes down to delivering content that guides the user towards solving their problem. You built your app to help people; you know they need a solution because they download your app. Holding on to those users is about getting them to that point with minimal friction.
What to Expect Next with Usetiful Mobile Onboarding
Usetiful is actively expanding its mobile onboarding capabilities with a roadmap focused on:
Continuous feature enhancements: Including microsurveys, mobile-native content and actions, such as carousel and permission request.
Supporting Flutter for product tours: Enabling mobile onboarding installation for Flutter applications.
Final thoughts
Usetiful now supports React Native mobile applications for onboarding. If you want to improve mobile app retention with onboarding, sign up for a Usetiful free account and test it out for your use case. Mobile onboarding without coding is accessible, cost-efficient, and packed with features that are proven to drive user adoption and retention. With your feedback and use cases, we can take mobile onboarding to the next level and start eating away at the 99.5% annual failure rates for new apps.
Also, if you are interested to learn more, be sure to check out our past webinar on Onboarding Flows for Native Mobile Applications for more insights on optimizing your onboarding experience.