Allrecipes recently updated its Dinner Spinner application to integrate with Apple's iOS 7 and consumers' mobile devices.

The digital food brand relaunched the app in time for the holidays, banking on the festive time to attract users ? old and new. The Dinner Spinner is the world's No. 1 downloaded recipe app, according to Allrecipes.

"What is really important about designing an app is to have a very strong value proposition," said Cezar Kolodziej, CEO and president at Iris Mobile, Chicago. "What is going to encourage your customer to become a reoccurring user of the mobile application.

"The second piece that is equally important is promotion," he said. "Now with advances like intelligent handset detection as part of rich media messaging programs, brands can pinpoint which customers have handsets capable of using the app and incentivize them to download the mobile experience.

"That being said, if the experience is part of a connected conversation and the experience is sound, the result will be passionate users and strong brand loyalty."

Mr. Kolodziej is not affiliated with Allrecipes. He commented based on his expertise on the subject.

Allrecipes did not meet press deadline.

New ingredients
Home cooks and chefs alike have discovered mobile devices and increasingly use them when planning and preparing meals and entrees. At the same time, mobile device manufacturers are rebuilding and improving their devices, improving their speed and efficiency.

To keep pace with the trend, Allrecipes updated its Dinner Spinner app's features and design to integrate with Apple's new iPhone 5S, aiming to offer users seamless access to Allrecipes recipes from smartphones and tablets.

The new app enables users to find and share recipes, photos and reviews using regular and advanced search functions. An Android version is to be released soon.

All the recipes are created, tested and shared by Allrecipes' 10 million users.

New features include a recipe search based on ingredients and dietary needs. The app also enables users to share and save recipes among Dinner Spinner and other Allrecipes recipe apps.

Users can now adjust recipes to make more or fewer servings. They can add ingredients and items to their app-enabled shopping lists.

The new app features more than 1,000 mobile-friendly recipe videos, which offer step-by-step procedures.

Users also can share reviews, upload photos and pin and post recipes.

These are all activities that engage users and encourage them to interact with others via their mobile devices, on social media or in person.

Dinner Spinner app

Many cooks
Allrecipes' users readily search for and share recipes with others.

For example, last month on the AllRecipes.com home page, consumers can see the most Pinned recipes for that day. They can also click through to see the featured recipes, Pin a recipe themselves or click to follow Allrecipes.com on Pinterest (see story).

Marketers eagerly track these interactions.

In April, Allrecipes surveyed user and found that despite the many differences by country based on availability and pricing of data plans, 63 percent of global cooks find recipes online using an ever-evolving range of devices (see story).

Apps need to be user-friendly to attract even more users.

"As it relates to any mobile/digital initiative, accessibility is key," Mr. Kolodziej said. "As marketers we need to provide a positive user experience for our customers and as such we need to keep pace with new advances in technology so we can deliver the best brand experience to our customers."

Final Take
Kari Jensen is staff writer on Mobile Marketer, New York