Complete Guide On Food Review Mobile Application Development

Trip Advisor, Urbanspoon, Starbucks App, and Yelp are some of the most common food review mobile applications found on one’s smartphone. 

Why? Because!

• 92% of diners read restaurant reviews before visiting. 
• 77% of restaurant-goers trust peer reviews rather than critic reviews.
• 33% of consumers refuse to go to restaurants that have fewer than a four-star rating
• 35% of diners say that online reviews help influence their decision when choosing a place to dine. 

Why User Reviews Are Important Today?

User reviews are more significant than ever for businesses these days and a growing number of registered users and reviews on apps like Yelp prove it too. 

One of the most interesting things about these review-based apps is that customers voluntarily share reviews evaluating businesses and their products or services. Personal experiences with a particular product or service listed on an online feedback system containing reviews and ratings indicate the level of customer satisfaction. 

But most of the existing applications for food businesses are more restaurant-focused and lack food-specific reviews and ratings that a foodie is actually after. 

Apps like ‘FreeBeer’ – a food review mobile application is a solutions to this problem. The app smartly addresses this issue by providing a platform for users to write quality and authentic reviews focused entirely on food.

How An App Development Idea For ‘FreeBeer’ Came Into Existence?

Our client came up with the idea of free beer when he and one of his associates met for a business meeting in London. They quickly realized their joint frustration of an unpleasant experience with the traditional review websites and apps. 

They simply searched over a search engine for the best meal in town for lunch, and it displayed the results of restaurants with five-star ratings and not food. 

You must be thinking why would search engines show the wrong information about a place or property? Because the search engine gets the right information from users, for example – a reviewer might doll out a five-star review just because it is their birthday, and they got a complimentary cake with their name on it or because they got on really well with the waiter that day.

“The problem is, if you’re looking for, let’s say, the best cocktail in the area, it’s difficult to get a review that focuses solely on the quality of the cocktail and nothing else.

When you are just after a certain type of food or experience, you just want that food and the best possible version of it. 

FreeBeer is developed as a food review app that provides you with a way of finding just that.  

How Does A Food Review Mobile App like Free Beer Works?

Food review apps enable people to search and share their favorite dishes and drinks in town by taking pictures, tagging the location, and sharing it within the app as well as other social channels using the in-app sharing features. 

The app also allows people to share reviews and experiences by food type. That means the foodies can satisfy their cravings by finding multiple reviews from real customers, pertaining to the specific meal they’re after.  

A food review app like FreeBeer combined experience of software and the culinary scene.    

What we mean when we say the culinary scene is the importance given to the front-end design. As software specialists, we were concerned more about business logic aka the back-end – but we also understood the significance of the front-end as this is the only way, people can see how good the meal really is. 

Front-end of the app allows users to upload real food pictures, and it only takes 30 seconds because you’re not telling a huge story about the restaurant, but just the meal. 

Let’s start by understanding the

Importance of A Food Review Mobile Application.

A five-star review of a restaurant might be all you need to get convinced to visit the restaurant and delight yourself with your favorite food. But if you are just after a great meal or drink, simply a five-star rating does not help. 

People share ratings based on several factors such as location, ambiance, service, cost and food, and many others. Ratings do not provide you enough insights into the served food, and it can prove a little misleading to visitors and they leave with an unpleasant experience. 

This is the problem that FreeBeer – a food review app is attempting to solve.   

FreeBeer is a food review app that allows users to find the best food and drinks served in town. 

FreeBeer is one of the amazing mobile apps developed by the highly talented and skilled developers of OnGraph. Within a short span of time, this food review mobile application has developed a robust user base for itself.

In the following blog post, we are going to discuss why food review apps are important today and how it is shaping up the industry for both diners and restaurants. 

Read till the end as we are also going to discuss How To Build A successful Food Review App and several monetization methods for the app.

Key Features Of Food Review Apps

If you want to create an app like FreeBeer, it is important to list down the core features that the app must-have. We are listing down top features here that are essential for a similar food review app. 

Review and rating system. It is the feature that has the most impact on users. A user not just looks for reviews to decide what to eat and where, but also the ratings of the served food and services from his personal experience. 

Geolocation and location-based search are essential for a user as it helps them find places near their existing location. The app automatically picks up the user location to provide multiple food choices near them, this increases the in-app experience.

Social login. Login through social media accounts like Facebook simplifies the registration process for the app as well as lets users share their experiences of food and the application on social accounts. It gives the app a word-of-mouth promotion.

Push notifications have several roles to play for restaurants as well as diners. They provide information as per user preferences and creates personalized offers for the users. The app also uses information from check-ins and reviews for a highly personalized experience.

Photo/video uploading. This is the crucial feature of the app as it enables users to share their dining and food experiences visually through photos and videos in their reviews.

User accounts. The app has two types of users; and thus, two types of accounts. User accounts for individuals and business accounts for restaurants and food providers. 

Analytics. A food review app like FreeBeer also provides analytics to users to track and compare their activities and engagement with other users. Business owners, on the other side, use analytics to track the activity on their business page.

It helps the app owner track overall in-app engagement, and improve performance & experiences based on shifting user preferences.

How To Make Money With A Food Review App

There are several ways to monetize a food review application. All you need is to build your monetization strategy in advance so that you get to build the features and functionalities required to make money. However, here are the popular methods used for monetization of a food review app:

1. Advertising:

The app can be used to provide free as well as paid advertising to promote relevant products and services. Advertisements can be placed within the mobile application as well as on the website. Targeted advertisements help businesses get profile enhancement, and add to their revenue.  

2. Transaction Fees 

Another exciting and highly successful source of monetization for a food review is getting a commission through transactions like advance table booking, ordering food, and online payment. Though, this would only be possible once you have loyal app users.

You can consider the option for future implementation after building a reliable user base and popularity.  

3. Discounts and Deals

You can let the restaurants create promotional offers and provide discounts on check-in and other methods to attract more customers. You can charge fees on the sold deals. The exclusive deals also help the app attract new users. 

4.  Premium Features

Here you can implement freemium techniques which means you allow users to use the premium features for free for a limited amount of time. The idea is to attract them with premium features that they wouldn’t find anywhere else and once they are hooked they will be willing to pay for it. Just make sure your premium features stand out from competitors and deliver a unique and enhanced user experience.

Want to develop an app like FreeBeer Food Review?

We are proud of the results FreeBeer is generating for our client. FreeBeer offers geo-location-based services and therefore delivers an enhancing experience to users. The app is dedicated to local businesses, and its features are built accordingly. Find a table below and understand what it takes to create amazing food review apps like FreeBeer:

The Application Solution Experience

People like to visit new places and share their experiences. For this reason, online food review mobile applications like FreeBeer will remain highly popular in the near future. By effectively using the above-mentioned monetization techniques, a food review app can receive significant profit from users. 

If you are looking to develop a similar food review app for your startup and are looking for a development team to implement the project, we are here to help.

Let me know if you found this article helpful in the comment section below.