PONS Translate, a mobile translation app
PONS Translate stands out as a comprehensive translate app, offering users quick and reliable translations with access to over 50 dictionaries—all integrated into one app.
About PONS
PONS Langenscheidt GmbH is one of the leading language publishers in Germany. Initially a publisher of printed dictionaries and language learning materials, the company expanded into digital products more than 15 years ago, offering online courses, mobile apps and e-books to meet the changing needs of language learners in the digital age. With the launch of “PONS Translate” as a new app, PONS has further expanded its digital portfolio.
PONS launched this mobile app in 2012. Evolving over time, PONS Translate now features over 50 PONS dictionaries and text translation for 40 languages. The dictionaries are developed and regularly revised and updated by native speakers, guaranteeing quality translations. The app can translate arbitrary texts, live conversations and text in photos, among other functions.
Now available for iOS and Android, it serves a wide range of users worldwide. The app is written in Kotlin and Java for Android, and in Swift for iOS.
PONS Langenscheidt GmbH
FromGermany
How we improved subscription & payment model and ad performance
The application met the developers’ rigorous requirements as well as the demands of the market. It was consistently rated 4.5 stars or higher on various app marketplaces for years. However, some parts of it started to get relatively subpar as time went on, and some improvements were called for.
Existing challenges & issues discovered
- Subscription and payment model within the app left room for optimization, as well as user flow bottlenecks disrupting the subscription and payment process. These greatly lowered user retention and revenue growth.
- Dated design and a UX/UI that was no longer state of the art led to worse engagement.
- Customer retention issues due to users installing the app but soon abandoning it during the onboarding process, resulting in uninstallation.
- Stretched-out and inefficient onboarding process (5 steps long) without user-friendly UI.
- Ads displayed in a non-optimal manner due to incorrect configurations and errors in the IDM SDK ad library – the tool for presenting ads to app users, provided by IDM Group.
1. Improvements to the new payment system and the translate app subscription model
With the high importance of properly functioning subscriptions and payments in mind, Applandeo got down to completely redoing how they work. On the basis of design and technical specs provided by PONS, our development team:
- added new pricing models, payment flows, and the new onboarding process, thus improving user retention and increasing revenue;
- adapted the app to meet the requirements set by Google Play and Apple Store, thereby ensuring its high ranking on these marketplaces and minimizing the risk of the app being rejected;
- used the latest technologies/libraries recommended by Google and Apple, which resulted in better security, improved bug fixing, and acceptance by those marketplaces;
- followed the latest UX/UI trends and guidelines and revamped the design so that the app ended up looking more pleasant to the eye, and easier to navigate;
- adjusted the backend, configured the design for the latest Material U, and added libraries recommended by Google and Apple, which ironed out the overall performance and allowed for the new features to be implemented in the app.
Immediately after going live, it became clear that the new subscriptions were very well received. All days so far with the new No-Ads plan have been above the peak of the previous 365 days in terms of revenue. For Premium subscriptions, the app signed almost more new subscriptions in the last seven days than in the three previous weeks together with the offline plans. So the new UX and the new subscription plans are taking revenue to a whole new level.
2. Improvements to the onboarding process for offline translation
Realizing the need to take a wholly new approach to application onboarding, the Applandeo team set about smoothing the process and addressing customer retention challenges. We reduced text and focused on actions that would demonstrate to prospective users the app’s value. In the process, our team:
- Moved focus to helping users perform their first translation as soon as possible, thus encouraging them to stay on the app longer.
- Reduced the number of steps and views to be taken from 5 to 2.
The changes introduced by Applandeo lead to a significant increase of retention.
3. Improvements to the multilingual ads library
PONS discovered several issues with its Ads library. These significantly affected ad revenue. To fix these issues, the Applandeo team:
- Upgraded to a newer version of the library.
- Updated other libraries supporting the project.
The outcomes
The changes implemented by Applandeo resulted in a smoother and more intuitive process for subscriptions and payments, improved customer retention, led to better visibility and user trust, and a high code standard overall. Thanks to the fixes to the onboarding process, users are now only three clicks away from accessing the part of the application that brings them the most value. This resulted in higher customer retention.
As a result of the changes to the ads library, implemented by the end of 2023, there was a notable increase in ad revenue, significantly exceeding initial expectations. The number of in-app purchases, especially during peak months like March-May and October-December, regardless of app development cycles, grew too. Applandeo team’s efforts on updating libraries also resulted in improving application stability, as evidenced by metrics tracked in Amplitude and the Google console.
Interested in improving your app? Feel free to contact us and discuss how Applandeo can seek solution to your problems.
The Client’s opinion
Jan-Philipp Söhn
PONS Langenscheidt GmbH
Computational Linguist and Product Owner
We’ve been collaborating with Applandeo for our app development needs and have been thoroughly impressed. Their team consistently delivers top-quality products, and their knack for crafting creative solutions to complex challenges has been particularly valuable. We appreciate their professionalism and flexibility, making them a trusted partner in our journey. We happily recommend Applandeo to others seeking top-notch app development services.
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