Wearable App Development Guide 2024

8 min readApr 5, 2024

Dive into wearable app development: trends, crucial features, and cost insights with a simple development guide.

With growing fitness freak, people are leveraging all possible technologies to track their health. One of the emerging technologies is wearable apps and devices.

In 2024, businesses and investors will focus more on wearable app development to explore untapped opportunities and enhance user experience through personalization. You need advanced digital solutions to secure a place in an ever-evolving industry. From healthcare to fashion, every industry is leveraging wearable app development solutions.

In this blog, we have addressed all aspects of starting your wearable app development journey, and how OnGraph can help you with no-cost consultation.

What are Wearables?
Wearables are devices that people wear, like accessories or clothing. You can connect to smartphones to access information.

Understanding the Wearable App Market in 2024

The worldwide market for smart wearables may reach $142 billion by 2030, as people are choosing smart wearables, abundant advancements in consumer electronics, rise in remote work, and prioritizing health monitoring during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wearable App Market by Type-

Wristwear dominates the market, accounting for over 49.45% of total revenue in 2022. Headwear & eyewear, the second-largest segment, will accelerate from 2022 to 2030, leveraging VR & AR headsets in multimedia and healthcare industries.

In 2022, the consumer electronics application segment led the market with over 48.95% revenue share, with wearable gadgets like fitness bands and AR/VR headsets.

Apart from healthcare, wearable apps are expanding their benefits across different industries.

Real-world Wearable apps

Business Benefits of Wearable App Development

Wearable apps have the potential to unlock new business opportunities and help you compete in this dynamic landscape. The Wearable App Development Service helps you compete on app stores and search engine results pages (SERPs).

By integrating wearable technology into your mobile app, you can experience several other benefits.

New revenue stream

By developing a wearable app, you can generate new revenue streams by expanding your reach to new user segments. Users will access your app from their wearable devices without switching to their mobile devices.

For example- if they want to see directions for a specific location, they do not have to turn to mobile to access Google Maps.

Improve Customer Experience

A wearable app can significantly improve the customer experience with its seamless and easy-to-use platform. Ensure that the user can easily navigate and access essential features in a few taps. Tailoring the app and its functionality is important to drive personalization at the individual level for a more engaging experience.

For example- if the user is consistently tracking their yoga regime, then you must ensure they get the necessary notifications for that.

Brand recognition

76% say that wearables improved their performance

To stand out among competitors, you must ensure personalization, and incorporate essential features that drive potential customers back to your brand.

You must ensure a sense of freedom among users to tailor their experience based on their preferences from their wearable apps, get personalized notifications, and customize settings to connect with brands.

Boost customer retention rate

Wearable apps make it easy for customers to access services from their devices, keeping them engaged and satisfied. By sending personalized notifications and offering tailored experiences, businesses can build stronger connections with users, encouraging them to stick around and use the app again.

How To Create a Wearable App in Simple 5 Steps?

Developing an engaging and highly-featured wearable app involves strategies, and research, from initial setup to its launch and maintenance.

Step 1- Market research and idea validation

Define concept- Start with understanding what you want to achieve from your wearable app. Determine what type of wearable app you want to develop to stand out efficiently.

Conduct market research- Research the wearable app market and available products to understand the existing pain points of your target audience and how can you offer a solution to overcome them. Leverage tools like surveys, and focus groups, and analyze competitors’ performance to drive necessary insights to power wearable app development.

Validate idea- Ensure that your app idea will solve potential challenges and will be accepted by user groups. Analyze feedback and consult industry experts like OnGraph to refine your concept and bring it into reality.

Step 2- Find a Wearable App Development Vendor

Integrating smart technologies requires skills and expertise in relevant fields. The next, step is to find the right wearable app development vendor that suits your budget, aligns technologies with your business goals, and helps you scale. Based on these factors, you can find a nearshore outsourcing company.

If you are starting, look no further than OnGraph, a leading nearshore wearable app development company near you.

Explore OnGraph’s on-demand fitness wearable app development services.

Step 3- Designing a Wearable App

Design UI/UX- Designing a wearable app is different and challenging from traditional mobile app development, as it requires a small screen resolution. While designing UX/UI for a wearable app, you must focus on simplicity, and intuitive UI, ensuring seamless navigation and readable content.

Create an MVP- Start designing an MVP to visualize the entire user journey and interaction across the app. Ensure to put effort into designing a prototype as it will help you with better feedback, making necessary improvements for engaging wearable apps.

Step 4- Wearable App Development

Choose the right tools and platform- it starts with deciding whether your app will be native to a specific OS (Android or iOS), or it will be cross-platform. It helps you decide on the relevant tech stack to start with.

OnGraph offers expertise in the latest tech stack, tools, and technologies to build a perfect wearable app for your business.

Features to Consider- to stand out, you must consider the following features and functionalities while developing your wearable app.

Wearable Tech Trends to Consider in 2024- staying ahead of industrial trends gives your business a competitive advantage. You must consider the following tech trends to improve user experience with seamless integrations.

What is the future of wearable app development?

5G Connectivity: Wearables with 5G transfer data faster, have shorter delays, and connect better.
Edge Computing: it will help wearable apps to process data closer to its location, instead of only using distant clouds.
Wearable AI and ML: integrate AI/ML to improve the overall app experience for your user.
Augmented and Virtual Reality: integrate immersive experiences.
Biometric Authentication: Wearables use advanced methods to ensure only the right users can access them securely.
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE): to communicate efficiently with mobile devices.
Cloud Services: to store and sync data across different devices using cloud services.
Sensors: leverages sensors like accelerometers and heart rate monitors to refine health tracking.
Push Notifications: offer personalization with timely updates and reminders.
Contactless Payments: ensure easy ePayments, benefiting eCommerce, restaurants, banking, and finance industries.
Data Safety: Wearable app development prioritizes security measures to counter cyber threats, ensuring suspicious data is limited to prevent risks.

Also read- Emerging Technology Trends in 2024 and Beyond

Step 5- Test, Deploy, and Maintenance

Conduct consistent testing, and debugging to optimize performance and user experience across devices and OS. Collect timely feedback to understand changing preferences.

Make final adjustments based on the feedback and deploy your app on all platforms, complying with app store guidelines.

After deploying, monitor user reviews and feedback to identify areas for improvement. Provide consistent updates to your wearable app to address ongoing bugs and issues. Ensure to offer add-on features that are in demand as per the latest market trends.

How Much Does It Cost to Create a Wearable App?

The cost of wearable app development depends on several factors, including app complexity, features, development platform, trends incorporated, and geographical location.

Below is the rough estimate for developing a full-functioning wearable app in 2024.

Factors Affecting Wearable App Development Cost

You must consider additional features to develop a cost-efficient wearable app.

Development platform- choosing native app development platforms (watchOS or WearOS) over cross-platform tools can be costly.
App complexity- integrating more features means more cost involved in designing it. Advancing UX/UI comes with challenges and time to build it.
Developer’s location- based on the location and expertise of developers, the cost will significantly vary.

India- $10 — $75
Eastern European region- $20 — $110
South American region- $25 — $120
Australia- $35 — $150
The UK- $35 — $175
North America- $20 — $250

Updates and maintenance- ensuring ongoing support, fixing bugs and compatibility issues, adding new features, and others involve additional costs, so you must consider it.

What are the challenges faced by developers in wearable app development?

Wearable app developers encounter challenges before and after deploying the app, but they can overcome them with innovative strategies. To provide successful services, developers must tackle these challenges.

Addressing Battery Life: Many wearables have poor battery performance, so developers need to create apps that consume less power.
Modifying User Interface: Wearable devices have small displays, requiring developers to make flexible app designs.
Ensuring Security: Wearables connected to the internet pose security risks, so developers must ensure dual security for user profiles.
Addressing Poor Functionality: Sometimes apps perform poorly even after testing, leading to decreased user interest and engagement.
Selecting Platforms: Developers must choose between deploying apps on specific platforms like Android and iOS or creating cross-platform apps.

Connect with an experienced wearable app development company for seamless wearable app development services.

Choose OnGraph for Wearable App Development

Exploring wearable app development opens up opportunities for innovation. Understanding market trends, app categories, key features, and development strategies is crucial. The demand for wearable apps that improve lives and simplify tasks is growing.

At OnGraph, a leading mobile app development company, we specialize in various app domains. We offer expertise in Flutter app development and wearable technology.

Let’s collaborate to shape the future of wearable apps together.