What Should your App Include in Settings?

One question that may not come up as a hot topic when planning out a mobile app roadmap, yet which matters very much to the user experience is:

What should be include in an app’s settings screen?

The settings screen is where users will go when they are confused and looking for guidance, making this screen vital to retaining users who are having trouble with an app. Providing a useful set of options or settings can produce improved retention, fewer angry reviews and more valuable feedback, all of which are required to improve an app’s performance, from a design, development and marketing perspective.

So what should go in your settings screen? Here are a 5 examples of settings screens in diverse, yet popular apps.

As you can see, many apps opt for a two-stage settings experience by presenting users with more important options relevant to the app after tapping a profile/hamburger menu UI element, with more general, less important options stored behind the actual settings cog or equivalent UI element. While the answer to the question posed at the start of this post will naturally depend based on what product/service the app offers, there are some generally applicable settings to keep in mind, such as:

• Cross your ts and dot your is with a terms of service/privacy policy.
• Account/login/logout/password recovery — funny enough, sometimes apps forget to let people disconnect from their app or reset their password! If your…