Contents
- Introduction
- What is mobile app performance?
- Why mobile app performance is important
- How do you improve your mobile app’s performance?
- Prioritize quality
- Code Optimization
- Use a CDN to accelerate APIs
- Native Experiences
- Load first things first
- Cut down unnecessary features
- Improve UX and device’s memory management
- Test app’s functionality on weak networks
- Minimize app launch delays
- Establish an offline mode
- Address users’ feedback and fix the errors
- Limit energy and memory consumption
- Test your app across multiple devices
- Optimize images and videos
- Conclusion
Introduction
Today, mobile apps have become an integral part of our daily lives, and with the rise of smartphones, the demand for mobile applications has increased significantly. However, in mobile app development, it is common to prioritize user experience, design, and app promotion while overlooking other important aspect, i.e. performance of a mobile application is a crucial determinant of its success. An application that exhibits suboptimal performance is likely to experience user attrition and eventual failure. Monitoring and optimizing the performance of your mobile application is crucial for ensuring its success and the prosperity of your enterprise.
The performance of an application is dependent on various factors such as launch and load times, app size, frame rate, compression, and many other aspects. Optimizing various aspects of app performance is crucial to enhancing the user experience as soon as possible. By concentrating on a few tactics, developer teams can make a significant impact. Ensuring the flawless performance of a mobile application is not a one-time task. As your product gains a larger user base and additional features, maintaining its initial level of responsiveness becomes increasingly difficult. This blog highlights crucial factors that mobile developers and other stakeholders must take into account while developing mobile apps to enhance their performance and ensure sustainable business growth.
The growing trend of outsourcing IT systems is prompting businesses to reassess their priorities in order to secure sustained success. Unfortunately, there is no universally accepted path for evaluating cloud service providers, and as expected, no two providers are indistinguishable. When it comes to selecting a cloud computing provider, there are several market leaders to consider, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). However, there are also smaller, specialized companies that focus on specific services. Given the multitude of options that vary in distinct ways, it can be a daunting task to identify the most suitable one. The primary objective is to seek out a competent cloud service provider (CSP) that can efficiently manage the cloud infrastructure, thereby enabling you to concentrate your efforts and resources on developing applications and managing data. Given the plethora of cloud providers available, what is the optimal methodology for selecting the most suitable option? The solution lies in a well-defined and carefully executed process of selection and procurement that is tailored to suit your individual requirements.
What is mobile app performance?
Typically, mobile application performance pertains to the technical aspects of an application’s functionality, specifically its ability to operate effectively on a mobile device across diverse circumstances. What is the initial launch time? What is the loading speed of the system? How fast does it respond to user interactions? What is the amount of energy your app uses and what is the frequency of its crashes?
The performance of an application is contingent upon several factors, including the device, server, network, and programming of the application. These are the factors that product teams should monitor closely. Monitoring these factors can be challenging in practice. A comprehensive comprehension of the app’s response to specific circumstances, encompassing user conduct, is imperative. Despite conducting extensive testing, it is possible for users to interact with an application in unforeseen ways, thereby revealing previously unknown flaws in the product.
Why mobile app performance is important
In today’s fast-paced world, users demand seamless and optimal performance from their applications. Any glitches or delays can quickly test their patience and lead to frustration. The success of your mobile app is closely linked to its performance, which plays a crucial role in ensuring prolonged usage and user retention. With the advent of smartphones, consumers have been presented with a plethora of options to choose from, owing to the vast array of models available on the market. If an application fails to deliver a satisfactory user experience, it risks losing its user base.
Ensuring optimal mobile app performance should be a top priority in your strategic planning, as it is crucial to retaining users and maximizing profits. Without a clear strategy in place, the risk of losing users due to poor performance increases significantly. The success of your mobile application is ultimately determined by the user experience it provides. In order to guarantee user satisfaction, it is imperative to give careful consideration to the performance of your mobile application. It is worth noting that the majority of users tend not to report issues even when they come across them. Users tend to switch to a different application rather than wait for a solution from yours. In order to retain users on your application, it is imperative to promptly address any issues that arise.
On the flip side, when an application is functioning optimally, it is highly probable that its users will exhibit greater engagement and increased spending. Several studies have indicated that there is a positive correlation between longer load times and increased conversion rates. Prioritizing the performance of your mobile application is a crucial aspect of any business strategy, as it directly impacts your conversion rate. Ensuring that your app runs smoothly and efficiently can significantly enhance your chances of success in the highly competitive mobile market.
How do you improve your mobile app’s performance?
Now that we understand the significance of mobile app performance and its direct influence on the success of an application, let’s explore some strategies and tactics that can help you optimize your app’s performance. By implementing these measures, you can improve the user experience, reduce application failures, and guarantee seamless functionality. Below is a comprehensive list of steps you can take to enhance the efficacy of your mobile application and provide users with an exceptional experience. Let’s dive in and uncover how to optimize the performance of your mobile application.
Prioritize quality
It may seem obvious, but it cannot be emphasized enough: when developing a mobile application with optimal performance as the goal, it is crucial to adhere to the best coding practices. Make sure that the project team is following these practices to ensure a seamless user experience. Best practices for ensuring high-quality software development include writing code that is easy to read and maintain, conducting regular code reviews and static code analysis to identify and address errors and vulnerabilities, and implementing test automation to ensure reliable and efficient testing. When it comes to optimizing mobile app performance, it’s crucial to have a forward-thinking approach. This means creating a mobile architecture that promotes sustainability and scalability.
Code Optimization
Although it may seem intimidating, undertaking the task of code optimization can significantly enhance the efficiency of operations. Optimizing code is a crucial aspect of app development that can significantly enhance performance and stability. Efficient resource utilization and the prevention of memory leaks and unnecessary calls are crucial for ensuring that your app runs smoothly and avoids crashes that can lead to user dissatisfaction. Decluttering your code involves retaining only the elements that are most important and discarding the ones that do not. Incorporating efficient algorithms into your application can significantly enhance its performance. Furthermore, when developing mobile applications, it is essential to adhere to clean coding practices. It is imperative to adhere to best-practice guidelines and strive for a code that is as succinct as possible. It is recommended to compress your code prior to deploying it to your website or application. Compression is a technique that eliminates unnecessary spacing and comments from the code, thereby reducing the app’s load time.
Use a CDN to accelerate APIs
In today’s digital landscape, it is common for modern applications to establish communication with other applications and servers. This enables them to receive relevant data, which can then be displayed to the user. APIs play a crucial role in facilitating communication and displaying data received from various applications. Whenever you’ve utilized a weather, traffic, or news application, an API was responsible for the complex task of retrieving and showcasing the third-party data that was transmitted through the native application.
Efficiency and responsiveness are crucial when dealing with data from various applications. Your app must accurately translate data into the relevant formats used by your app, while ensuring low load times. Ensuring quick access to crucial information can boost the user’s experience and confidence. Optimizing efficiency can prevent slow data connections and unresponsiveness on the user’s phone while ensuring proper app functionality. APIs may pose challenges related to delivery, reliability, and scalability, impacting the overall performance of the application. Any tool that may speed up the operation of an API is welcome, and CDNs serve this purpose admirably.
Incorporating a content delivery network (CDN) into your application is a highly effective approach to mitigating these concerns and optimizing API speeds, resulting in a significant enhancement of overall app performance. A Content Delivery Network (CDN) employs a network of servers distributed across a vast geographic region to enhance the speed and efficiency of API communication. This particular coverage has the ability to reduce the gap between a user and the source of data. Utilizing servers located in close proximity to individual users can greatly enhance app performance by reducing payload, latency, size, and round-trip time. This approach differs from the traditional method of each user receiving data from a single server location.
Native Experiences
It is recommended to prioritize native applications over other types, provided that they are within the allocated budget. Native applications are specifically designed and developed for a particular platform, utilizing the platform’s programming language and APIs. This results in more optimized and efficient performance as well as a better user experience. Other types of applications, such as hybrid or web-based ones, may have limitations in terms of functionality and performance due to their cross-platform nature. Therefore, selecting a native application can provide a more reliable and satisfactory outcome, as they exhibit superior performance compared to hybrid or web applications. Furthermore, native applications are specifically developed to operate on the operating system of the user’s device, such as iOS or Android. These applications are installed directly onto the device and are designed to function seamlessly with the device’s hardware and software components. Unlike web applications, native apps are not dependent on an internet connection to function and can be accessed offline. As a result of their optimized design and utilization of device features, these applications exhibit superior speed and user friendliness.
Load first things first
For the majority of mobile applications, the idea of loading all content quickly and efficiently may seem like a distant dream that is unlikely to be realized. When launching a system, it is important to avoid loading excessive amounts of data, as it can lead to various issues such as performance disruptions and system crashes. In order to effectively address this matter, it is recommended to first identify the essential data that must be presented to the user upon launch. Following this, it is advisable to incorporate preloading mechanisms for any secondary content while leaving any remaining content to be loaded at a later time. Incorporating a feature that loads data in the background based on anticipated user actions can greatly enhance the user experience and overall performance of a mobile application.
To provide a clearer understanding of the advantages of preloading, let us examine the case of Twitter. The automatic refreshing of users’ timelines is not a feature available on either the iOS or Android apps. The information regarding new tweets is displayed in a popup that showcases the avatars of the corresponding tweeting accounts. Upon tapping the notification, the latest tweets are promptly displayed on the screen. Thanks to preloading in the background, the process is smooth and almost imperceptible.
Cut down unnecessary features
When developing a mobile application, it is crucial to eliminate any unnecessary features to ensure optimal functionality and enhance performance. This means that non-essential features should be evaluated and potentially removed in order to optimize the overall performance of the app.
It is imperative to ensure that your application is swift and highly responsive. Incorporating excessive features can have a negative impact on app functionality, resulting in longer load times and decreased performance. When embarking on the development of your application, it is crucial to ensure that each feature included is essential to its overall functionality. It is recommended to eliminate any non-essential features to streamline the user experience and optimize the app’s performance. Your audience will express gratitude toward you.
Improve UX and device’s memory management
Ensuring a delightful user experience is crucial to retaining users for your app. By providing a seamless user experience, you can encourage users to stay and continue using your app. In order to ensure a consistent user interface for your application, it is recommended that your team of developers prioritize the delegation of resource-intensive tasks such as file system access and network data loading to background threads. Achieving a harmonious equilibrium while maintaining a uniform user interface (UI) encounter is crucial.
Insufficient memory is a primary cause of app instability and crashes. The reason for this is that every user possesses a unique device, and a significant number of your app’s intended audience have yet to make the switch to top-of-the-line mobile or tablet devices. It is advisable for developers to consider this factor while developing an application.
Test app’s functionality on weak networks
In order for various applications to function optimally, a reliable and speedy internet connection is often a prerequisite. Access to a robust internet connection is a prerequisite for end-users to utilize the application effectively. These applications encompass social media, gaming, streaming, and other similar platforms. In situations where network connectivity is weak, users may experience instability within the application, which can ultimately result in app crashes. A subpar and exasperating app encounter can lead to users abandoning and removing your application.
Mobile app testers and quality assurance professionals typically conduct their testing on reliable Wi-Fi networks, whereas end-users may be accessing the app on less stable connections such as mobile data or public Wi-Fi networks, which can be slower and less reliable. It is imperative for developers to conduct thorough testing of their applications over slow network connections. This will help identify any potential issues related to network quality and ensure that the application performs optimally under varying network conditions.
Minimize app launch delays
In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, users have become increasingly demanding and expect prompt results. Therefore, it is crucial to minimize any potential launch delays when developing your app. For optimal performance, it is recommended to ensure that all app activities remain resident in memory during the background startup process. By minimizing the need for repetitive object initialization, layout inflation, and rendering, this approach effectively reduces any unnecessary time consumption.
In addition, it is recommended that you eliminate any unused code frameworks to prevent any potential slowdown in download speeds. It is important to ensure that only essential elements are loaded when the first frame of your application is loaded. To minimize network congestion, it is recommended to run more resource-intensive processes in the background asynchronously.
Establish an offline mode
Incorporating an offline mode into your application ensures that your users can continue to access data even when they experience a loss of network connectivity. Frequently, users tend to continue utilizing the application instead of discontinuing it and potentially developing an unfavorable perception. This can ultimately lead to an escalation in the churn rate.
When it comes to offline mode functionality, it’s important to follow core best practices. This includes analyzing user behavior, saving in-app progress, indicating the network state is offline, and designing an empty state for offline usage. By implementing these practices, you can ensure a seamless and user-friendly experience for your app’s offline users.
Address users’ feedback and fix the errors
It is important to take into consideration the feedback provided by users and address any errors that may have been identified. Releasing an app to the market without undergoing extensive testing can result in an incomplete product, ultimately leading to a subpar user experience. This may be attributed to the tendency to rush at the last minute and other contributing factors. In order to maintain a loyal user base and provide a superior user experience that encourages repeat usage of your application, it is imperative to go beyond simply acknowledging errors and crashes. In order to prevent a high rate of app abandonment, it is crucial for your team to promptly address and resolve any errors that are reported by users. This proactive approach can help ensure a positive user experience and promote continued engagement with your app.
Limit energy and memory consumption
For mobile users, memory and battery life are of utmost importance, as these resources are limited on our phones. A seamless user experience is directly proportional to the app’s memory usage and battery consumption. Hence, the lower the memory and battery drain an app causes, the better the user experience it provides.
Memory consumption can be impacted by various factors, including memory leaks and push notifications. It is important to take into account the potential energy drains during the development phase of an app, as prolonged usage can rapidly deplete the battery life of a device. It is recommended to inform users about turning off features such as GPS and Bluetooth when not in use. This will assist in conserving battery life and establish your app as user-friendly and consumer-oriented.
Test your app across multiple devices
It is common for your intended audience to utilize an app on a lower-end device as opposed to a newer, high-specification device. Developing and testing an app solely on a limited number of new devices may result in compatibility issues and suboptimal performance on older devices.
Developing an app that is compatible with a variety of devices is a wise decision. This ensures optimal performance on any typical mobile device used by your target audience. Ensuring that your app is compatible with a wide range of devices offers numerous advantages. One such benefit is the ability to expand your user base and increase the visibility of your app. By catering to a larger audience, you can enhance the recognition and popularity of your app.
Naturally, it is impractical to conduct testing of your application on every single phone and tablet available on the market. Moreover, each user’s device is unique in terms of its hardware specifications, available memory size, and age, among other factors. By utilizing the services of an external mobile app testing and quality assurance provider, you can ensure that your app is compatible with a wide range of devices. This will help you avoid any potential bugs or errors that could lead to instability or the app crashing.
Optimize images and videos
Incorporating visuals is an essential aspect of mobile application development. Naturally, it is imperative that the images used in mobile applications are of superior quality. However, if your objective is to enhance the performance of your mobile app, then compressing, resizing, and caching are the optimal strategies to employ in managing these images.
Compression and resizing are related to the size of a visual in terms of bits and bytes, whereas caching pertains to the manner in which it is retrieved. The process entails transferring files onto the device’s storage, thereby eliminating the need to repeatedly access the network for viewing images or videos. The outcome is a reduction in loading time and enhanced performance, which is evident in both regular network conditions and instances of poor internet connectivity.
Conclusion
The performance of a mobile application plays a crucial role in determining its success. In today’s digital landscape, users have high expectations when it comes to application performance. They expect a seamless and optimal experience, and any hiccups or delays can result in frustration and ultimately lead to users abandoning the application. Prioritizing the performance of your mobile application is crucial for its sustainability and success in the market, especially for developers and stakeholders. To improve the user experience and increase your chances of success in the fiercely competitive mobile market, it’s crucial to monitor and optimize various aspects of app performance. This includes launch and load times, app size, compression, and energy consumption. By doing so, you can significantly enhance the overall performance of your app. It is important to keep in mind that achieving peak mobile app performance is not a singular event, but rather a continuous process that necessitates consistent monitoring and optimization to sustain the initial level of responsiveness. By implementing the strategies and tactics outlined in this blog, you can optimize the performance of your mobile application and deliver a seamless user experience that fosters engagement and loyalty.
