What are the best methods for optimizing mobile app startup times?

Various strategies are involved in optimising mobile app startup time. Some methods are code optimisation, UI optimisation , monetisation strategy ,ads calling , assets and environment optimisation and app size can enhance app launch speed significantly.

A common trap everyone likes to fall into is probably the famous sentence: "This is all rubbish, we should rewrite everything!", or "This code is so bad it cannot be optimized". Sometimes it's true. You will spend more time trying to understand and fix something than just starting to do it from scratch. But, this doesn't always have to be the case. Try to keep it simple. Ask your team members to give you more insights on certain things like design, marketing, and strategy, and try to figure out together what could be measured, analyzed and improved.

To enhance your app's startup speed, start by carefully measuring and assessing how long it takes to load, display, and react to user actions. Utilize tools such as Android Studio, Xcode, Firebase Performance Monitoring, or even custom logging methods for this. Don't forget to conduct thorough tests on a range of devices and under different network conditions. This diverse testing approach will give you a well-rounded view of your app's performance and guide you in making effective improvements.

To quicken app startup, shrink its size. Trim unnecessary elements like surplus images, fonts, or libraries, and apply compression or minification. Opt for dynamic feature modules or app bundles to tailor the delivery of features and resources specifically to each user's device. This streamlined approach speeds up the process significantly.

From a design point of view, we as designers should take care that the assets and behaviour of our app go in favour of the user. For sure you can use compressed images, SVG icons & and assets, lighter combinations of design layouts etc. But one important thing to consider reducing or improving are animations and steps that need to be taken to do certain tasks. Putting everything on a single screen will make the loading time longer, however breaking flows into smaller pieces is not the happy case as well. What I like to do in my designs is try to optimize the amount of elements I have on screens, and make the flows that make the logical order (backed by user research). In the end, communicate with your developer. Make great things together.

Optimizing code execution is crucial for reducing app startup time, minimizing processing and memory demands. By eliminating heavy tasks at startup, like excessive network requests or complex calculations, and employing strategies like multithreading, caching, and lazy loading, the app runs smoother and faster, enhancing overall user experience and performance efficiency.

Add transparency, engagement and positive association to improve user perception while optimizing mobile app startup time. Briefly inform user why app takes time with simple text message. Try to show estimated wait time or progress indicator to prevent users from thinking the app is frozen. Showcase animated tips related to app's functionality or interactive elements into loading screen to keep users engaged. If possible, preload a small portion of the app's core functionality to engage with limited features while the rest loads. Mainly avoid heavy elements and resources that could further slow down the startup process.

1. Always ensure that long running, non-blocking tasks are started in the background thread. Off-load your on-create and try to move non-initialisation tasks to onStart() or onResume(). 2. Do not create a separate Splash screen activity. You can either use splash screen drawable as a background theme to achieve the same effect without any lag in performance or you can sue the new splash screen api, which does the same. 3. Use dependency injections. Libraries like Koin and Hilt really help bring down the initialization time