Eyeing up to develop an indoor navigation app for a large building? Check out the development process, features, tech stack, and cost estimation of the app development.

With the rapid advancement in technology and smartphones in hand equipped with a GPS system, wayfinding has become far easier for travelers. In modern life, where users are often occupied and constantly moving from one place to another, outdoor navigation apps seem like true blessings for the users. However, for all the good, GPS outdoor navigations only help users finding their ways to their destinations.

Now the question is, how effective are these apps when you go out in the crowded shopping centers or traditional markets? Do these GPS outdoor navigation apps help you find your favorite cafes, restaurants, or shops inside the large buildings? or Any particular place that you love to hang-out with your friends? The simple answer to these questions – NO.

You need an indoor navigation app that works in a similar way as GPS outdoor navigation apps do. So you must be wondering how indoor navigation apps are different from outdoor navigation apps?

Well, the matter of the fact is, GPS outdoor navigation apps are working with GPS satellite signals that usually get lost in crowded places or inside the large buildings. However, indoor navigation apps are specially developed for smaller areas working with Augmented Reality that displays your location by simply accessing the integrated GPS maps. By accessing the inbuilt GPS maps, they offer the shortest routes towards the destination. 

According to the statistics, the global indoor positioning and navigation market was valued at $6.92 billion in 2017 and is projected to grow to $23.6 billion in 2023. Even, the USA is the major market for indoor navigation and positioning apps and accounting for a 40% share in the global market.

If you are one of those who have been wondering what exactly Indoor positioning applications are then you have landed at the right place.

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What Exactly is Indoor Navigation Applications?

If we put the things in simple words to explain indoor positioning apps, then these apps work like a GPS system and in the same way, as an outdoor navigation system works but with the indoor settings. The indoor navigation apps are useful in locating people, objects, shops inside the building by simply using the mobile device. Unlike outdoor GPS systems, indoor positioning apps are leveraging advanced features which ultimately make this app a popular choice in various domains such as hospitals, airports, shopping malls, or other buildings where navigation and location-based services are required for easy access. 

Are These Indoor Navigation Apps Beneficial for Businesses?

Yes, businesses can put this service for good use and add great convenience to the users. The simple idea behind launching this app is to benefit both visitors and facility owners and allow them to locate things inside the large buildings, where GPS signals don’t work. 

In the field of GPS navigation applications, Path Guide is one of the leading indoor positioning and navigation apps. If you are already impressed with its design and functionality and wanted to create an indoor navigation app like Path Guide, then you need to understand that these are based on Augmented Reality technology to create detailed indoor maps. The major functionality of these navigation maps is positioning, navigating, and sending notifications. Let’s dig deep in details to understand its every purpose:

Positioning: It helps in finding the exact position of any place inside the large building whether it be a shopping complex, hospital, camp, or any person standing in the parking.

Navigation: This helps in finding the shortest possible ways to help users reach their final destination in a quick time frame without any hassle. 

Push Notification: It notifies users about the locations or places by simply sending notification on the user’s mobile. 

Apart from these functionalities, indoor navigation apps can offer a plethora of benefits to the businesses including:

Data Gathering of Visitor: For any business, user data is important. And, AI integrated indoor navigation apps can help them in collecting visitor’s data and keep track of the number of visits, time spent in a particular place, and how often they visit their favorite places. 

Send Notifications: By utilizing and analyzing the visitor’s history, businesses can generate trigger-based events and send a notification to those visitors who often visit that particular place. The app can flag up discounts or pop up a notification when visitors head towards any particular place or passing through those stores. 

Why Do Visitors Like Indoor Navigation App?

Of course, these indoor navigation apps are useful for the businesses but now it is time to see how beneficial it is for the users or visitors. 

1. Easy Search: Since indoor navigation, apps are integrated with Augmented reality and inbuilt maps, therefore, users can use maps in real-time for easy navigation without bothering any hassle of GPS satellite signals. 

2. Simple Processing: The indoor navigation apps usually use voice search commands, therefore finding ways through this app can be highly simple and easier for the users. 

3. Shortest Routes: The biggest benefit of using this app is, it evaluates the map and help users to find the simplest, shortest, and fastest routes for any place located inside in the building. 

Now, many businesses are in a dilemma: how do indoor navigation applications work? Let’s understand it in a simple language.

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How Do Indoor Navigation Apps Work?

The indoor positioning systems usually leverage the internal sensors of the smartphone to calculate the indoor positioning of the device by simply using complex mathematical algorithms. It then combines the incoming data coming from the sensors in an astute manner to calculate the accurate position of the device and avoid any latency. To deliver the accurate positioning result and smooth user experience, the indoor positioning system platform relies on three major elements as mentioned below:

• Underlying dynamic positioning system platform
• Beacons broadcasting signals received from the smartphone 
• Serving signals to the positioning system

All these three elements help in combining in collecting data from various resources and calculate the exact position of the user. So basically for the smooth functioning of the indoor positioning app, it requires a unique set of features as discussed further in the next point.

What are the Must-Have Features to Develop An Indoor Navigation App?

As the indoor navigation apps like Path Guide are processing with complex functioning therefore it requires a detailed set of features. However, since every business has different needs and requires different levels of apps to meet their requirements, therefore we have divided features into two major segments – Basic and Advanced Features.

Basic Features of the Indoor Navigation App

• Positioning: By using the different positioning systems and mathematical algorithms, positioning features helps in locating the exact location of the user in real-time.
• Mapping: This feature of the app shows the easiest possible routes to the users. Mapping feature in the app also provides analytics of the number of visitors present in the building at the time.
• Administrative Capabilities: It help managers to maintain the beacons and allow them to set up promotional campaigns for the businesses.
• Navigation: It is an important feature in the app as it guides users the shortest and fastest route to the users with high-end accuracy.
• Analytics: It is an integral feature of this app as it provides information on the number of visitors inside the building whether it be a mall, hotel, hospital, or a shopping complex. You can hire  app developer in India to customize the feature according to your business needs and avoid hassles.
• Push Notifications: The app sends a push notification to the users to guide them to the exact location of the destination.

Advanced Features of the Indoor

• Voice Command: This feature adds great convenience and comfort to access this app. By using the voice command, users can find the exact destination of any particular place inside the large buildings.
• 3D Map Visualization: For 3D Map Visualization, it is important to use augmented reality technology that allows users to view the map with 3D effects.
• App Login Using Social Media Accounts: Make the sign-in procedure simpler and easier for the users by allowing them to log in to the app using social media accounts or email IDs.
• Custom Design: Indoor navigation apps are customized as per the inside structure of the building and places located in the building. However, for the accurate processing and functionality of the app, you can hire a mobile app development company to customize the design as per the interior of the building.

In the Nutshell: The average cost to develop an indoor navigation app with basic features can be starting from $10,000 to $50,000. However, the development cost of the indoor navigation app with an advanced level of features can be starting from $20,000 and can go to any expensive price.

Rest the cost of the indoor navigation app development is affected by various factors including the complexity of the app, functionality, cost of the development development, technology, and so on. Hence, we have given a rough estimation of the indoor navigation app developed with the basic feature set.

What Are The Major Factors Affecting the Development Cost of the Indoor Navigation App?

Answering this question has never been an easy and straightforward task for the developers. The development cost of any app is depending on multiple factors including functionality, features, app design, app size, app platform, and the team of developers you choose to hire for the app development. Since every project has different requirements and needs different skills to meet the needs, therefore there is no online calculator that can reveal the exact costing of the indoor navigation app.

Let’s get into the details and understand each parameter contribution to the app development cost:

App Platform: The cost of the app development is depending upon the choice of platform on which you want to launch your app. If you are a startup and running short of the budget, then it is better to go with one platform that is Android/iOS Native apps and once you get successful with the one platform, then it’s good to move to another platform. However, if you are an enterprise, then you can choose to go for cross-platform apps to target both platforms Android and iOS with a single app. 

UX/UI Design: To lure the user to your app, make sure your app is attractive and well-designed with all the necessary features. Hiring the Android app development company for the app designing may cost you a bit more, but with the best design practices, you can attract a large number of customers and can save on other things.  

App Size and Complexity: The cost to hire an app development company is depending upon what functionalities you need to include and what level of complexity you need for the app. To develop an app like Google Indoor Maps, you need to hire an app developer in India that can customize the app with the latest features and can attract new users.

App Development Team: The cost of the app development is depending on the developer’s location, expertise, experience, and skill level. Developing an app like Google Indoor Maps in India is comparatively cheaper. 

If you choose to hire iOS app development company, then you basically need these below mentioned members in your team:

• Project Manager
• UX/UI Designer
• Android App Developer
• iOS App developer 
• Backend Developer
• Quality Assurance Engineers

The App Development services in India are generally starting from $18 to $30 per hour depending upon the skills and expertise of the developers. Rest the costing of the app development can vary greatly according to the technologies and methodologies you choose to integrate into the application. 

Ending Note

To end this post, it is worth to mention that developing an indoor navigation app is not rocket science, all you need to understand is its working model, technologies on which it is based and the team of professional app developers who can understand your needs and able to bridge the gap between your success and goals. 
If you are planning to develop an indoor navigation app for your hospital, shopping complex, hotel, camp, exhibition or any other large building, then we recommend you to hire mobile app developer that can help with the process. If you are still stuck in between any doubts, then our team of highly skilled developers are here to guide you.