An app for pet owners - health, entertainment, grooming

03-01-24

Taking care of a pet is not only a pleasure, but also a daily task that requires a lot of effort and energy. Special mobile applications help to streamline such tasks – they can be both simple programs with one or two useful options, and multifunctional services that cover the maximum number of the owner’s needs. In this article we will give a full review of the functions that can be realized in a pet app.

Pet Profile

The application stores data about the animal – its name, date of birth, age, breed, color, and other characteristics. Basic medical information – allergic reactions, vaccinations, sterilization, diseases – is entered. The owner’s contact information is stored – phone number, address, e-mail, city. It is possible to upload an avatar of the pet and the owner. If there are several pets, a separate profile is created for each one.

Top 10 useful tools for pet owners

1. Calendar, Planner, Reminders

Visiting the vet, buying food, vaccinating, giving medication, ordering clothes… The number of things to do to take care of a pet never decreases. The task becomes more complicated when the owner has two or more pets. In order to never forget important things, there is a calendar where events are entered. You can set a reminder on a specific schedule, choose how you want to be notified, and easily accomplish everything you have planned.

2. Document Archive

Scans of medical documents are securely stored in the mobile application’s database. This archive can be used by veterinarians for treatment, examination and prescription of medications. Documents are always at hand and can be presented at the right moment. Structured storage of documents and search functionality by name allows you to quickly find a certificate, prescription, image, test results.

3. Feeding, Diets

Different breeds require different approaches to feeding. Forbidden food tracking, meal tracking, feed consumption planning, food diary – all these and many more tools can be implemented in the app to make feeding easier for the owner. This feature is especially useful for animals that require special diets.

4. Photo and video gallery

Every pet owner takes a lot of pictures of their pets, but the files get lost among the thousands of photos on their smartphone. In the application you can create a separate media gallery dedicated exclusively to your pet. Photos and videos can be structured and sorted by themes, periods, events. With this design, browsing through the catalog will become a pleasant family tradition.

5. Diary and Notes

Every day something interesting happens with the pet, but these moments are so quickly forgotten. To keep the memories alive, the owner keeps a diary in the app, where he or she writes about interesting events, new skills, joys and difficulties encountered every day. The owner can choose the style of the diary and add photos to the notes.

6. Search for Animal Services

To help the owner comes an interactive map where you can find useful objects nearby and around the world:

• Pet Stores;
• pet-friendly establishments;
• grooming parlors;
• Veterinary clinics;
• dog sitter contacts;
• pet hotels.

You can offer cooperation to establishments and develop a joint loyalty program – offer bonuses, discounts or cashback to customers who have found this or that service in the application.

7. Teaching, Training, Coaching

The application includes a catalog of training programs for different breeds. These are step-by-step algorithms that will help you teach your pet new skills and achieve training success. Instructions can be in any format – text, infographics, videos, pictures. The owner also receives a form to set goals, track success, and evaluate progress.

8. Community

Pet owners appreciate the support of like-minded people with whom they can share news, discuss problems, and ask for advice. Therefore, an interesting idea can be the creation of a community among users. The functionality can be realized on the principle of a classic forum, whose participants are registered users. Available options – creation of new topics, dialogs, photo sharing, notification settings. Developing the community helps to increase the audience, attract new users and popularize the application.

9. Knowledge Base

A mobile application can become a real encyclopedia of knowledge, where owners can get valuable information about care, health, nutrition, treatment. Examples of sections of the knowledge base include tables of feed composition, prohibited and permitted products for different breeds, advice from experts – veterinarians, groomers, cynologists. The information is divided into topics, the interface is supplemented with a convenient keyword search. The user can mark useful fragments and save them as notes.

10. Game Elements

Both owners and their pets can play in the app. For example, cats and dogs love to “hunt” for fish, mice, and insects on the smartphone screen. And the owner will enjoy relaxing with a themed crossword or puzzle in the app. This is an easy way to increase audience engagement and improve the behavioral factors important to mobile app promotion.

Application security features

1 – Search for a lost pet

A mobile app can be a very useful search tool if an animal is lost. A simple and effective way to implement this is to place a QR code on the address book. The person who finds the pet scans the code and gets all the information, including the owner’s contact information. At that moment, the owner’s smartphone receives a notification with geolocation of where the pet is now.

2 – Video surveillance control

The smartphone connects to the video camera via an app, and the owner can watch the pet online when it is left alone in the room or house. This provides a sense of security because the owner can see everything the pet is doing and come to the rescue if necessary. The app provides features for managing video surveillance and viewing recorded and online video.

Veterinary clinic integration

A mobile application can be created as one of the products of a veterinary clinic brand. The convenient “veterinarian in a smartphone” service has a wide range of functionality:

• Electronic medical records. Changes made by doctors are synchronously displayed in the application and the owner is notified. The card stores treatment history, information about vaccinations and other procedures, and test results.
• Appointment form. The user chooses a doctor, a free date and time. A few seconds – and the record is created. The owner’s and animal’s data are automatically retrieved from the database.
• Emergency call. If the pet suddenly falls ill, the owner calls a doctor at home using a button in the application. The clinic receives a request with the owner’s address and contact information, and the pet’s medical history is attached to the request.
• Video consultations. The doctor conducts an online consultation via video link in the app.
• Chat with the veterinarian. Any question can be sent to the selected doctor in text format. The specialist receives a notification and provides a quick response.
• Appointments. In a separate section, the doctor’s prescriptions are stored so that the owner can quickly order medication from the pharmacy.

Integration with online pet store

The mobile application can be synchronized with an online store that sells pet products – food, toys, clothes, etc. There are two ways of such integration:

• The first option is for two separate companies to work together, where the app becomes an additional channel for selling goods, and the companies help each other with PR, development, and audience engagement.
• The second option is to create the app specifically for the pet store as one of the marketing tools.

The integration of the two services can be implemented in different ways – for example, to fully synchronize the store catalog with the app, including the ability to buy in the app. Or offer users the opportunity to go to the online store and encourage the audience with pleasant bonuses, cash back and gifts.

How to monetize a pet app

Several sources are used to generate revenue from the application:

• Internal purchases – paid features, sections, tools;
• Subscription with regular payments;
• Premium package for access to the extended version of the application;
• Display of external advertising in the application;
• Fee for disabling advertising;
• Partnership programs with pet stores and facilities.

If the application is created as part of a marketing strategy to promote an institution or veterinary clinic, monetization occurs indirectly – by attracting new clients, communicating with the audience, popularizing services.

Today, pet applications are one of the most popular trends in mobile development. The competition in this niche is quite high, but the target audience is almost unlimited. Any application will find its users if it is really useful, high quality and professional. KitApp studio has such cases in its portfolio, we know well the peculiarities of this direction, so we invite you to cooperation for the realization of interesting ideas.