5 Software Development Trends to Look Out for in 2022

Despite the hardships brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the last year hasn’t been the slowest for software development. Actually, quite on the contrary — we’ve been seeing more and more new ideas and trends grow stronger and more popular. We present to you, our five predictions on what the year 2022 will offer.

Cross-Platform Development

More often than not, it proves to be expensive and inefficient to develop your software on an iOS-only or Android-only basis. The creation and then the maintenance of an app, made and remade to fit two sets of standards for different platforms, is incredibly demanding on both budget and staff.
In comes cross-platform development, made possible in recent years by the efforts of Google’s own software development kit — Flutter. First founded in 2017, this innovative SDK lets developers write iOS and Android apps simultaneously with a programming language called Dart, employing the same API for both. Statistics show that Flutter’s popularity growth shows no signs of stopping. At the time of writing, Flutter is the most popular framework of its kind, used by brands such as Alibaba, The New York Times, eBay, and many more.

Interested in learning more? Check out our blog post on the benefits and opportunities that Flutter offers.

Blockchain

We’re willing to bet that you’ve already heard all about blockchain. Despite how mainstream it may seem, it’s still one of the most promising and exciting developments in IT of the last years. And it doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere. The basic principle behind blockchain is a database that structures its data in blocks that are chronologically linked together in a safe, decentralized manner. This makes for a way to securely keep track of crypto transactions, share medical data, vote, and manage artist royalties (Yes, we mean NFTs). Considering the unseen security and openness that blockchain offers to the market — it’s no wonder how popular and in-demand it has become.

Scala

Scala is a functional programming language that runs on Java virtual machine. It can offer a safe and easy way to scale-up your systems without losing performance. Scala got really popular in 2008 when it was first adopted by Twitter. Now, there is a renewed interest in Scala, shown by large corporations such as Netflix, LinkedIn, and Tesla. The language can be highly adaptable to your needs and help create programs that run quickly and smoothly thanks to the way Scala’s Akka framework handles code reliant on many threads. We expect Scala to keep growing and growing as many software giants keep employing it in their projects.

IoB — Internet of Behavior

The software of major companies like Google, Facebook, or Samsung has for a long time used some sort of behavior-tracking technology to make for a personalized experience. This is called the Internet of Behavior (IoB). It can be used to track and analyze your individual activities as you work with your devices. In a way, it is a continuation of the Internet of Things, which gathers data from separate devices. An example of IoB is how YouTube shows its users a personalized feed of recommended videos based on how they use the platform. It is estimated that a whopping 40% of all people will have their actions tracked by some kind of IoB by 2023.

Considering the possibilities that such a technology can offer, we can’t overestimate how important this tech might be for your future development projects. If you’re interested in learning how to make a likeable app fit for a personalized experience offered by IoB, check out our blog post on app creation.

AI and TensorFlow

Artificial Intelligence has been making lists like this one for many years now, and we find it unlikely to stop. Big corporations, as well as smaller startups, have been investing in AI more and more each year. In fact, 2021 saw 56% of businesses use AI for at least one purpose — up from 50% of 2020. No wonder incorporating Artificial Intelligence into your software becomes less of a can and more of a must.

Being one of the leaders in this field, Google has felt this transition too and developed TensorFlow — an open-source platform for machine learning. This library allows developers to create large multi-layered neural networks, which can be used for various purposes. We think that this platform, which offers pre-trained models, data, both low- and high-level APIs makes it incredibly easy to build your own machine learning models and definitely deserves its top spot in so many AI tool surveys.

At Perfsol, we don’t just work with the old-but-gold — we strive to learn and keep up with the times. Interested in our help creating innovative software built to your exact preferences? Contact us anytime.