10 Ways to Speed Up Your Mobile App Development Timeline

We have completed over 120 mobile app development projects. Every time, the first thing that our clients ask us about is pricing, we have covered the detailed answer for it here. But the second question is always, “How long does it take to make an app?” 

It’s not surprising because the app development timeline can vary a lot. Many factors influence it: the complexity of the app, the number of features, the platforms you’re targeting, and yes, even which mobile app development company you hire.

But the good news is that there are always ways to shorten this timeline while making sure that you don’t compromise on quality. While there’s no universal timeline that fits every project, there are proven ways to shorten your app development process. In this guide, we’ll share 10 actionable app development tips we’ve learned firsthand that can help you reduce time to market, improve team efficiency, and deliver a high-quality product faster. Because we know how important it is to set an app development timeline to meet the client’s requirements. But first…

How long does it take to make an app?

Before we explore strategies to speed up your app development process, it’s essential to understand the baseline: how long does it take to make an app in the first place?

We’ve answered this question in detail in our recent blog, but let’s take a quick look at it here.

On average, a simple mobile app can take 2-4 months to develop. An app with moderate complexity might require 6 to 9 months to develop, whereas a highly advanced features, integrations, or custom designs can stretch beyond 12 months.

However, these are just rough estimates. Your exact app development process depends on several key factors:

1. App complexity (number of features, screens, user flows)

2. Platform choice (iOS, Android, or both)

3. Team size and expertise

4. Third-party integrations and APIs

5. Testing and review cycles

6. Post-launch requirements

While these factors can’t be avoided entirely, they can be managed smartly, which is where the right tips and strategies come in.

In the following sections, we’ll provide 10 practical and effective tips to help you accelerate development without compromising quality. Let’s jump in.

10 Proven Tips to Shorten Your Mobile App Development Timeline

Tip #1: Embrace Agile Development

When we say "embrace," we mean it in the literal sense. Since we started using Agile development methodologies, we haven’t looked back — every single one of our mobile app projects now runs on Agile.

Why? Agile is designed to prioritize speed, adaptability, and ongoing progress. Instead of following a step-by-step approach (like the old waterfall model), Agile breaks the app development process into smaller sprints that deliver working features fast. This means we can quickly adjust based on feedback, prioritize the most valuable tasks, and keep projects moving without getting stuck.

Almost three in five Agile practitioners report being satisfied because of better alignment with business needs (according to the 17th State of Agile Report). That’s a huge win when you’re trying to shorten your app development timeline without sacrificing quality or direction.

Our tip: If you want faster progress and better outcomes, make Agile your foundation. Combine it with smart project management tools like Jira or Trello, and you’ll see just how much more efficient (and quicker) your development process becomes.

Tip #2: Prioritize Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

One big reason for app projects getting delayed is that teams try to build everything at once.

We have learned that focusing on a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is the smartest way to move fast without drowing in complexity. Instead of aiming for a fully polished, feature-packed product from day one, we work with clients to identify the core set of features that deliver real value to users.

By launching an MVP, you can:

1. Get your app to market faster

2. Collect real-world user feedback early

3. Avoid wasting time and money on features people don’t need

Prioritizing an MVP helps you test assumptions, validate demand, and avoid building in the dark. Don’t think of the MVP as a “cut-down” version. Think of it as the smartest, most focused version of your product that sets you up for faster success.

Tip #3: Leverage Cross-Platform Development Tools

By not building the same app twice for a different OS, you can literally cut your app development timeline in half.

No doubt, some clients want native apps to be built particularly for iOS and Android. Cross-platform development tools are a breakthrough, as they enable you to create apps that work seamlessly across both platforms with a single codebase.

The impact is huge:

1. Faster development cycles (no need to maintain two parallel codebases)

2. Reduced expenses (due to shared resources and minimized repetitive tasks)

3. Consistent user experience across devices

Evaluate whether your app truly needs platform-specific native features. If not, tools like

1. React Native (great for dynamic, high-performance apps)

2. Flutter (ideal for pixel-perfect UI)

3. Xamarin (strong .NET integration)

can supercharge your speed and efficiency. It’s one of the most effective app development tips we can recommend for moving faster without sacrificing quality.

Tip #4: Prioritize UI/UX Design Early

When it comes to mobile apps' success, UI/UX is one crucial aspect that shouldn't be overlooked at all. And by investing time early in UI/UX design can speed up the development timeline. Because clear, user-centered designs prevent costly rework later.

When designs are vague or rushed, developers end up making assumptions, and you risk burning time on back-and-forth corrections.

Here's how you can approach it:

1. Involve designers and developers together during the design phase, so technical feasibility is always considered.

2. Use clickable prototypes (like Figma or Adobe XD) to test user flows before a single line of code is written.

3. Get early stakeholder feedback on the design, not after development has started.

4. Prioritize usability, it's faster to fix confusing navigation or screens at the design stage than post-development.

According to reports, every $1 invested in UX brings up to $100 in return, and not just financially, but in saved time, fewer revisions, and faster approvals. Good design makes the app successful in the long run. It reduces friction throughout the entire app development process.

Tip #5: Outsource Non-Core Tasks

When you are developing a mobile app, you don't need to do everything in-house to deliver a successful app. Outsourcing tasks is one of the most effective strategies to speed up the app development process that is not at the core. For example, specialized design work, QA testing, backend integration, or even certain development modules that don't require deep internal knowledge.

By doing this, you:

1. Allow your core team to concentrate on essential features by freeing up their time

2. Bring in specialized expertise without long-term hiring costs

3. Move faster by running parallel workflows

Don’t look at outsourcing as losing control. Look at it as gaining momentum. Partnering with trusted vendors or development teams can dramatically shorten your app development timeline and help you deliver a polished product faster. Do not rush. First, consult with the company (Opt for companies that provide free consultation) and then decide deciding if outsourcing is the right choice.

Tip #6: Automate Testing and Deployment

If you want to speed up your app development timeline, this might be one heck of a tip. Manual testing takes time. While it is not a bad practice, why not use the tools that are available instead? Currently, there are many mobile application testing tools available.

For example, you can use Selenium or Appium to run automated functional and regression tests. Set up JUnit for automated unit testing of your app components. Integrate Jenkins, GitHub Actions, or Bitrise for continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD), so every time when you commit code, the system automatically compiles, tests, and deploys it. Plus, automation reduces human error and helps you deliver a more stable app.

Start by automating small, repetitive tasks — like unit tests or build deployments — and expand over time. Once you see the speed boost, you’ll wonder why you didn’t automate sooner.

Tip #7: Reuse Components and Code

If you have worked on dozens of projects, then chances are you already have most of the resources available at your disposal. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel every time you build an app. If you want to shorten your app development timeline, make reusability a core part of your development approach.

For example, you can:

1. Reuse UI components across screens (Buttons, modals, or input forms)

2. Leverage shared libraries for common functionalities like authentication, payment gateways, or notifications.

3. Tap into open-source packages from platforms like GitHub or npm to avoid building everything from scratch.

For instance, when we have a React Native app development project, we utilise React Native UI libraries. This way, time and effort are saved, and the product is delivered faster with quality assurance. Develop a mindset of reusability from the start. Build components modularly, document them well, and encourage your team to share and reuse wherever possible. It’s one of the smartest app development tips you can apply for long-term gains.

Tip #8: Streamline Communication with Collaboration Tools

This might be the silent factor of why some timelines need to be extended. Everyone has their own responsibilities to fulfil, but while doing that, collaboration might be lacking. Scattered email threads, missed messages, and unclear feedback all add up to delays and rework. That's why one of our top app development tips is to streamline your team's communication using collaboration tools.

Here’s what we recommend:

Use Slack or Microsoft Teams for real-time team chats and quick clarifications

1. Set up Jira or Trello for sprint planning, task tracking, and progress visibility

2. Adopt Figma or Zeplin for seamless design-developer collaboration, reducing back-and-forth over UI details

3. Utilize Notion or Confluence to centralize documentation and track decision logs.

A McKinsey report suggests that teams utilizing efficient collaboration tools can boost productivity by up to 25%, which translates directly to faster delivery.

When you introduce a new tool to the team, make sure to set clear communication norms. Define where tasks are tracked, where designs live, and where questions should be raised. The smoother your team talks, the faster your app development process moves.

Tip #9: Optimize with DevOps Practices

All the tips about automating testing/deployment and collaboration tools bring us down to this. Optimizing with DevOps practices in mobile app development means applying a set of tools, processes, and a collaborative culture to make the entire app lifecycle-building, testing, deploying, and maintaining-faster, more reliable, and more efficient.

Key Aspects of DevOps Optimization:

1. Continuous Integration (CI) & Continuous Deployment (CD): Automate the process of integrating code changes, testing them, and deploying updates. This minimizes human errors and accelerates the rollout of new features or fixes.

2. Automated Testing: Use automated tests to quickly catch bugs and ensure consistent app quality across devices and platforms.

3. Collaboration: Break down silos between development and operations teams, fostering better communication and shared responsibility for the app’s success.

4. Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Manage infrastructure using code, making deployments more consistent and repeatable, and reducing the risk of configuration errors.

5. Monitoring and Feedback: Continuously monitor app performance and gather user feedback to quickly identify and resolve issues, ensuring stability and ongoing improvement.

Benefits:

1. Faster time-to-market for new features and updates

2. Higher app quality and reliability

3. More efficient use of resources and reduced manual work

4. Better collaboration and transparency across teams

In short, optimizing with DevOps practices transforms mobile app development into a streamlined, automated, and collaborative process that delivers better apps, faster.

Tip #10: Invest in Post-Launch Maintenance Planning

If you have already built your mobile app development timeline, then look at it again and make sure that it doesn’t end at the launch. Launching your app is not the end (and it shouldn’t be). Sustaining a mobile app is just as important as the development phase itself. That's why it is important to plan for post-launch maintenance early in the development process.

Here’s how you can approach it:

1. Allocate developer hours specifically for post-launch fixes and optimizations

2. Set up automated monitoring (with tools like Crashlytics or Sentry) to catch crashes and errors in real-time

3. Have a clear update schedule — not every fix needs an immediate release, but critical ones do

4. Prepare a feedback loop to collect user reviews and prioritize improvements

A strong maintenance plan can help you avoid user bounce rate and increase user engagement.

The Wrap

So, how long does it take to make an app? As you can see, there is no correct answer here. The app development timeline depends on everything from project scope and team size to the tools and strategies you choose. However, one important note that we want to convey is that the goal should not be to find a shortcut and deliver as fast as possible. The goal here should be to cut down unnecessary delays that jeopardize not just your timeline but your app quality as well.

Those were our 10 actionable app development tips we could give to streamline your process without sacrificing quality. The right app development process is more than just speed. It's about building something that works, delights users, and can evolve smoothly after launch.

If you’re looking for expert guidance to bring your mobile app to life faster, our team is here to assist you while steering clear of common mobile app development pitfalls. We combine deep technical expertise with proven agile development practices to deliver efficient, scalable, and beautifully designed apps.

Ready to Speed Up Your App Development? Let’s Talk. At Brilworks, we’ve successfully delivered over 120 mobile app projects, and we know what it takes to bring an idea to market faster without cutting corners.

Contact us today to schedule a free consultation, and let’s turn your vision into a market-ready app.