Choosing the right colors for your mobile app is far more than a cosmetic decision—it's a strategic one that directly impacts brand recognition, user trust, and even purchasing behavior. With studies showing that color can boost brand recognition by up to 80% and influence 95% of subconscious purchasing decisions, getting your app's color palette right is essential, yet many creators struggle to translate color psychology principles into a cohesive, professional design.
The good news is that building a visually stunning app with the perfect color scheme doesn't require a design degree or months of development time. Adalo is a no-code app builder for database-driven web apps and native iOS and Android apps—one version across all three platforms. AI-assisted building and streamlined publishing enable launch to the Apple App Store and Google Play in days rather than months, giving you the freedom to focus on perfecting your brand colors and visual identity without getting bogged down in complex code.
Why Adalo Is Perfect for Designing a Beautifully Branded App
When it comes to building an app that reflects your unique brand identity—including your carefully chosen colors—Adalo is a no-code app builder for database-driven web apps and native iOS and Android apps—one version across all three platforms, published to the Apple App Store and Google Play. This means you can design your color scheme once and see it consistently rendered across every platform where your users discover you.
With Adalo's intuitive design tools, you have complete control over your app's visual appearance, from primary brand colors to accent shades and background tones. Whether you're launching a consumer app that needs to stand out in a crowded marketplace or a business tool that must align with corporate branding guidelines, having your colors display perfectly across iOS, Android, and web ensures a cohesive brand experience that builds recognition and trust.
Brand colors: What are they?
Brand colors are a palette or a set of colors used to represent your brand – the colors on your logo, creatives, social media, business cards, or app design. A consistent and thought-through use of brand colors is extremely effective because it can help improve brand awareness and recognition.
Think of an app: In a crowded app store, your brand colors can help you stand out, communicate who you are, and ultimately help people connect with you. Your brand colors form a part of your app’s visual identity, which is a combination of graphic and visual elements that help form a personality around your brand.
Why do colors matter?
Here are some interesting stats about colors that point to why they make such a big difference!
A signature color boosts brand recognition by upto 80%
Blue, red, and black are the three most common logo colors
95% of all purchasing decisions are made subconsciously, and color plays a big role in this response
Color isn’t just about aesthetics – your app colors are a powerful branding tool that, when used properly, can improve your app experience dramatically! There’s a reason the world switched to color TV and media – it grabs your attention, it’s appealing! It’s a great way to differentiate yourself from competitors and help you stand out, whether it’s in the feed on an app store, on a poster, or placed on a shelf.
The other reason why color is so impactful is because it can influence your mood. If you want your app to be associated with a particular emotion, color is a great way to do it! Interestingly, a study conducted by Virginia Tech found that the color red on web page backgrounds influenced people’s willingness to bid during online auctions.
How should I pick out colors for my mobile app?
Step 1. Pick your brand personality traits
What do you want your app to be associated with? Is it a particular mood, feeling, or expression? How do you want people to feel about using your app? Here’s a quick list of brand personality traits that you can use to get started.
Step 2. Choose colors that will help communicate your brand personality
According to Dribbble, “Knowing which colors are most popular and which emotions are evoked by each color are vital. The most popular favorite color
in the world is blue, which helps explain why it’s such a popular color for many brands.”
According to a study of the world’s top 100 brands, a lot of successful brands have only one or two brand colors, so don’t be afraid to keep it simple and stick with that core brand color. You can use this guide to figure out which colors correspond to particular emotions or feelings, but remember that a lot of these associations are cultural.
Red:Red often corresponds with bold or intense experiences. It can represent indulgence – like the obvious associations with love, anger, danger, passion, or prosperity.
Yellow: Yellow has a reputation for being cheerful, bright, and uplifting. It reminds people of summer, which is why it’s often associated with warmth.
Blue: Blue is one of the most prominent colors in nature. It’s associated with water and air, which is why it’s tied to calmness and tranquility. Along with it, blue is often used to symbolize stability and trust.
Green: Green symbolizes abundance or freshness, and has become popularly associated with peace, environmental consciousness, and wealth.
Orange: Similar to red and yellow, orange is considered bold, fun, and playful.
Purple: Purple represents power, wealth, and royalty. It’s often linked to mystery or magic.
White: Universally, white is connected to light, purity, or cleanliness. It’s associated with simplicity and modernity in design.
Black: Black is associated with power, elegance, and sophistication.
Step 3. Pick a color scheme for your app
A color scheme is simply the way colors are combined or arranged. There are a few combinations and schemes you can choose from based on the color wheel.
Analogous color scheme
This is a popular choice for designers. It’s a combination of colors that are located next to each other on the color wheel. Generally, one color will be dominant, while the others form the accent colors. This type of color scheme is generally quite pleasing to look at.
Monochromatic color scheme
This color scheme uses one base color, along with its shades or tones as an extended palette. It gives your app a cohesive and elegant appearance.
Triadic color scheme
The triadic color scheme combines three colors that are located evenly across the color wheel (psst, we use this in the Adalo logo too!) Generally, the way to pull off a triadic color scheme for your app is to let one color be dominant, and have the other two colors used for emphasis or to highlight something.
Complementary color scheme
Complementary colors are located on opposite sides of the color wheel. Combinations like red and green, blue and orange – these colors have a strong contrast but often work quite well when placed side by side. Designers often use complementary colors if they want a particular element in the mobile app UI to stand out.
Compound color scheme
This is also known as split-complementary. This color scheme takes two adjacent colors on the color wheel, and pairs them with a color on the opposite side.
Helpful resources for picking your mobile app colors
Now that you’re an expert on colors, these awesome resources and tools will help you put all this information to good use so that you can pick the best color scheme and palette for your app.
- Colr.org lets you upload photos of color schemes that you like, and then generates color palettes based on those images.
- Check My Colors is a nifty tool designed to check whether the background and foreground color combinations have sufficient contrast. This is especially useful if you’re designing apps people that may have color-identifying deficits.
- Designspiration lets you choose colors that you love, and then generates images with that color combination so you can pick your favorite and save the hex codes for your brand.
- Coolors is a super fast color scheme generator that can be used to instantaneously create color schemes for your brand. With little experience, you can quickly explore color schemes created by other designers and copy them for your own brand.
- Canva’s color blog is a treasure trove of helpful information about colors, color trends, color schemes – you name it!
- Adobe Color lets you explore the color wheel and try out options and themes. You can then directly export these onto other programs like Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop, and get to work!
- Colormind is a great tool to explore and learn about colors while generating a color scheme. What’s great is that you can also see how the colors you choose will look with mobile UI components like buttons or tabs.
- Colordot is a cool color scheme generator that gives you the option to lay out your colors easily. It’s great if you have certain colors in mind already and just want to have a few more options.
We hope this guide on colors helps you with the process of building your mobile app. The colors you choose for your app will make their way throughout the design – from the homescreen, to the buttons, icons, and functionality. It’s worth putting in the effort to choose the right color palette if it means creating an exceptional visual experience for your users. Whether it’s a social networking app, a security app, or an app for kids, choosing the right colors will help you design a product that will attract a loyal user base.
FAQ
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Can I easily customize brand colors across my mobile app? | Yes, with Adalo's No Code App Builder, you can easily customize brand colors across your entire mobile app. Adalo's intuitive design tools give you complete control over your app's visual appearance, from primary brand colors to accent shades and background tones, ensuring a cohesive brand experience across iOS, Android, and web platforms. |
| Why choose Adalo over other App Builder solutions? | Adalo is a no-code app builder for database-driven web apps and native iOS and Android apps—one version across all three platforms. AI-assisted building and streamlined publishing enable launch to the Apple App Store and Google Play in days rather than months. Publishing to app stores is key to marketing and distribution, which is often the hardest part of launching a new app or business—Adalo removes this barrier so you can focus on building your brand and reaching users. |
| What's the fastest way to build and publish a branded app to the Apple App Store and Google Play Store? | Adalo is the fastest way to build and publish a branded app to the Apple App Store and Google Play. With No Code App Builder's drag-and-drop interface and AI-assisted building, you can go from idea to published app in days rather than months. Adalo handles the complex App Store submission process, so you can focus on your app's features and user experience instead of wrestling with certificates, provisioning profiles, and store guidelines. |
| What are brand colors and why do they matter for my app? | Brand colors are a palette of colors used to represent your brand across your logo, creatives, social media, and app design. They matter significantly because a signature color can boost brand recognition by up to 80%, and 95% of purchasing decisions are made subconsciously where color plays a major role. Consistent brand colors help your app stand out in crowded app stores and build trust with users. |
| How do I choose the right colors for my mobile app? | Start by identifying your brand personality traits—how you want users to feel when using your app. Then select colors that communicate those traits, such as blue for trust and calmness, red for bold experiences, or green for freshness and environmental consciousness. Finally, pick a color scheme like analogous, monochromatic, or complementary to create a harmonious visual experience. |
| What color scheme options work best for app design? | Popular color scheme options include analogous (adjacent colors on the color wheel), monochromatic (one base color with its shades), triadic (three evenly spaced colors), and complementary (opposite colors for strong contrast). Many successful brands use only one or two colors, so keeping it simple with a dominant color and accent shades often creates the most cohesive and elegant app appearance. |
| Will my brand colors display consistently across iOS, Android, and web? | Yes, when you build with Adalo, you design your color scheme once and it renders consistently across iOS, Android, and web platforms. This ensures your users have a cohesive brand experience regardless of which device or platform they use to access your app, building recognition and trust across all touchpoints. |
