Municipal Mobile App Benefits: Why Your Current Website Isn’t Enough

You already have a website for your municipality. It lists services, posts news and events, and gives residents a place to find information online. You may even have invested time and resources into making it mobile-friendly, but you’re still looking for better ways to communicate with residents, increase engagement, and deliver important updates more effectively. That’s where the question often arises:

Is a website alone enough, or should we be considering a mobile app?

Many municipal teams find themselves in this exact situation. Budgets are tight, priorities are competing, and any new technology needs to deliver real value. If residents can already access your website from their phones, it’s natural to wonder whether building an app is worth the investment.

To make an informed decision, it helps to understand the specific mobile app benefits that go beyond what a website can provide. While both tools are important, they serve different purposes. A municipal website hosts information that residents can look up. A mobile app delivers information directly to residents when it matters most.

In this article, we’ll explore how municipal mobile apps differ from municipal websites and break down the key mobile app benefits that can help local governments reach residents more effectively, improve engagement, and deliver a better digital experience.

What is a website?

While most of us use websites for hours every day, we don’t often stop to think about what a website really is. A website is a collection of web pages that are hosted on a web server and are accessed over the internet through a web browser.

Websites are typically created for a specific purpose, such as providing information, selling products or services, or offering a platform for communication and collaboration. For municipalities, a website is primarily a place where residents go to search for answers.

What is a mobile app?

A mobile app, short for mobile application, is a software application designed to run on mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, or smartwatches. Mobile apps are usually downloaded and installed from application stores such as the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.

Mobile apps can perform a variety of functions, including entertainment, productivity, communication, education, and more. Some examples of mobile apps include social media apps, games, weather apps, banking apps, and fitness apps. For local governments, a mobile app becomes a direct communication channel that reaches residents without requiring them to visit a website or search for updates.

If residents can access our website on their mobile phones, why do we need a mobile app?

When we meet with a new municipality to discuss the development of a mobile app, this is the number one question we hear.

Even though websites can be accessed through mobile phones, there are several ways that a mobile app differs from your website that can make investing in one a good decision. Here are the real mobile app benefits for municipalities:

• Convenience:
  Mobile apps are designed specifically for mobile devices and provide a more streamlined and convenient user experience. Mobile apps can be accessed with just one tap, while websites require users to open a browser and navigate to the website.
• User interface:
  Mobile apps generally have a more intuitive and user-friendly interface designed specifically for smaller screens, touch input, and mobile use cases. Websites, on the other hand, have to cater to a broader range of devices and screen sizes, which can make their interface more challenging to navigate on smaller screens.
• Offline access:
  Mobile apps can offer offline access to some features and content, while websites require an internet connection to function. This means residents can still view critical information even when connectivity is limited.
• Personalization:
  Mobile apps can offer personalized content and recommendations based on a user’s preferences, behaviour, and location.
• Functionality:
  Mobile apps can access the hardware and software features of a mobile device such as the camera, GPS, and push notifications, while websites have limited access to such features. This allows mobile apps to provide more immersive experiences and functionality that are not possible on a website.
• Push notifications:
  Mobile apps can send push notifications to users, providing real-time updates and reminders that may be more effective than email or other forms of communication. Unlike a website, which relies on residents checking for information, a mobile app ensures important messages are delivered proactively.
• Engagement and connection:
  Having a mobile app provides municipalities with an additional touchpoint to engage with their residents. In many ways, it becomes a true resident engagement platform, giving municipalities a direct and reliable way to connect with people in real time. This potential for more real-time communication can also foster a deeper connection and sense of loyalty and participation for the residents.

An additional channel of your website

Mobile apps are not meant to replace your municipal website. Instead, they work alongside it. Think of a mobile app as an extension of your website that helps make the information more accessible and relevant. Your website remains the central hub where residents can search for details and resources. The mobile app becomes the channel that delivers timely updates directly to residents’ phones, without requiring them to go looking.

Meet your residents where they are

There are over 6.3 billion smartphone users across the world. Mobile users spend a whopping 88% of their mobile time using apps. Having a mobile app allows you to meet your residents where they spend their time. If you ever question how to communicate with them more effectively, a municipal mobile app provides a direct, reliable, and immediate way to reach them.

It offers a more convenient, personalized, and integrated experience for residents to access your content on the go. You can communicate more directly with your residents, sharing information that’s most important to them at the moment it’s most relevant.

Endless potential for resident engagement

There are so many potential ways for a municipality to leverage a mobile app. Some of the most common ones include offering residents a way to report a problem, sharing meeting and event notifications in real-time and providing up-to-date policy information. Some municipalities also use their mobile apps to share emergency alerts and important public safety updates. Others use it to keep residents in the know about events or to conduct surveys or polls to gather feedback.

A mobile app can be a valuable addition to a municipality or an organization’s digital presence in so many ways. If you’re wondering how your city or town can take advantage of mobile app benefits, book a call to learn more about Info Grove’s mobile app platform.