Outdated Mobile OS: The Hidden Enemy of Casino Apps?
Is your outdated mobile OS compromising your casino app experience?
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What do a PC, Chromebook, a tablet, and a smartphone all have in common? Software updates. These can be tiresome things at times, and it often feels like a device must be updated every few days. These updates are an inescapable part of owning a piece of technology, but at the same time, they are important.
Most people have them set up automatically, but others choose to determine when a system is upgraded, if at all. Older phones get to the point where they can’t even receive the latest updates. While the phone may still be fully functional for calls and making calendar entries, not having access to the latest software can leave it vulnerable.
Considering what the smartphone is used for in modern life, which is essentially everything from banking to playing no deposit games at online casinos, leaving devices open to security breaches can put you at risk. But an outdated OS can also cause a casino some headaches.
Why Do Casino Apps Care?
An online casino is in the business of making money. Casino apps are generally backwards compatible quite a long way, so it's not too common that a phone’s operating system isn’t going to support one.
It does happen, however, as some people do cling on dearly to old devices. It’s not so much the age of the device, it’s the limit of update capability, and when people don’t accept them on newer ones it can be problematic to online casinos from a monetary perspective.
Older Compensation
Casino apps themselves are updated often, adding new features, security protocols and little bug fixes here and there. Trying to maintain an app that covers as many people as possible, and going back as far as possible, costs money in maintenance. An app release can’t just run on the latest operating system because of a potential loss of custom due to exclusion.
Customers Go Elsewhere
Losing a potential customer because they can’t get an app installed on their phone would be a frustrating issue for any casino, as customer acquisition is crucial for business. So if a person can find a competitor’s casino app that does work on their non-updated OS, then that is where they are going to head.
Customer Support
If someone is trying to download and run a casino app but hasn’t got their phone fully updated, it can cause compatibility issues. The first port of call for the end user is then to spend time contacting customer support, which in turn may have to spend a fair amount of time figuring out the issue. That could be precious customer support time spent that instead could be helping a new customer sign up.
The Consumer Perspective
The bigger headache about not having an updated OS on a mobile device is, of course, on the side of the consumer. The app may download and install fine, if not a little laggy here and there. But it works, you can spin the reels and make deposits and withdrawals.
But how secure it is becoming the bigger question. Outdated operating systems have security vulnerabilities, which is the main reason why updates should be kept on top of. Security vulnerabilities leave the app and device open to being compromised, which can lead to seriously problematic things like unauthorised access and malware.
Also, to play at an online casino through a mobile app, transactions must be made. A player needs to deposit and withdraw their winnings. If there is any vulnerability in that link, then personal and financial information is at risk.
Performances and Features
Patches and updates happen to all operating systems, regardless of running iOS or Android. Operating System releases generally come with newly added features, so you could also be missing out on them by not keeping them up to date.
Not having the latest enhancements can potentially interfere with the running of the casino app and hamper performance. For sluggish-performing apps, it could also be that the operating system is struggling to perform modern, resource-hungry tasks.
For older phones it may not even be solely about the app software, it could be that the phone’s hardware isn’t up to the task of running the app.
To Be Updated or Not to Be Updated?
Various casino industry experts, such as Jack Hamilton, whose page can be found here: https://bstcasinos.com/author/jack-hamilton/, advise updating your casino brand's mobile app. If you're not struggling with phone storage, there's basically nothing to lose by updating. Ultimately, you gain new features, security updates, and other benefits. Sure, updates might change a design you've grown fond of, but when weighing design against security, it's better to opt for the latter.
