Turbocharge Your App's Load Times With These 5 Essential Tips

Picture this: you're at home, excitedly opening a new app that's all the rage, your finger hovering over the icon. But wait! It’s taking forever to load. You're left staring at the spinning wheel of doom, contemplating whether you should just pick up a book instead. You wonder what could’ve been if the mobile app development company had just put a bit more effort into optimizing the app’s loading times. Frustrated, you delete the app and warn your friends not to bother downloading it.

We've all been there, and it's not fun. If you're an app developer, you need to know how to avoid this phenomenon and its disastrous outcomes. Slashing your app's load times is crucial for boosting user retention and enhancing their experience. It's also great for App Store Optimization (ASO), which can massively improve your app's exposure, reduce user acquisition costs, and increase credibility. What is ASO, you ask? Read on to find out, along with a bunch of other useful tips to make your app the talk of the town!

   

The Benefits of Decreasing App Loading Times

Higher User Retention

Simply put, users hate waiting ages for an app to load. Even a page load time of 3 seconds can increase your bounce rate by 32%. In the age of instant gratification, users won’t tolerate extended load times, no matter how many useful features your app offers. Short loading times are a hallmark of good app performance. The better your app performs, the more likely users will be to keep coming back.

Improved Conversion Rates

Faster load times don’t just keep users from abandoning your app; they also significantly impact conversion rates. Take an e-commerce app, for example. Extended load times can send customers running for the hills, with 57% abandoning purchases if the checkout page takes 3 seconds or more to load. To make matters worse, 80% of these customers won’t come back.

Better App Store Rankings

To achieve top rankings on the App Store or Google Play Store, you need to master a little thing called App Store Optimization (ASO). Your app’s quality and performance are major factors in ASO, and since load times are a critical component, reducing them can help you climb the charts on your app store of choice.

Tips for Speeding Up App Loading Times

Optimize Images and Media Files

Images and other media files can get pretty heavy, so they naturally take up a huge chunk of the processing power required to load your app. You can’t avoid using these types of files entirely, but what you can do is optimize them by using the right file types and compressing them. For example, JPEGs are relatively small images, allowing you to decrease loading times without having to use overly compressed, low-quality images.

Minimize HTTP Requests

Each element on your app’s page necessitates an HTTP request, and the more HTTP requests it initiates, the longer it’ll take for the page to load. You can minimize these requests firstly by reducing the number of elements, but more importantly, you should consider using CSS sprites for images or combining all CSS or Javascript resources.

Implement Lazy Loading

Not every element or resource has to load as soon as the app is opened. Certain non-critical resources can load as needed through a process called “Lazy Loading”. This reduces the initial load time and saves bandwidth. The page itself is technically taking just as long to load, but perceived loading time is greatly decreased. To put it another way, users think the app is loading faster than it actually is, which basically guarantees the same result!

Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)

If your app is fetching content from a single server, the user’s distance from that server can cause some serious latency issues. CDNs are global server networks that distribute content much more efficiently, so the user will receive content from the nearest server and experience faster, more reliable loading times as a result.

Leverage Browser Caching

Repeat users will require many of the same resources each time they access your app. Downloading the same resources for each visit is really inefficient, and can unnecessarily increase loading times. The great thing about browser caching is that it can store all this frequently used data on the user’s device, providing repeat visitors with a noticeable improvement in app loading speed.

How to Monitor Performance

Use Performance Monitoring Tools

Tracking load times is a given, but you should also keep an eye on response times and error rates. This allows you to identify bottlenecks and areas for improvement. Use tools like Google’s Firebase to gain some insights into how your app is performing and make adjustments accordingly.

Regularly Test Your App

You should conduct speed tests either weekly, biweekly, or monthly depending on how frequently you update your app. Regular updates require more frequent speed testing, but if your app is relatively stable, one speed test per month should do the trick. Make sure to do one right after major updates, because this is when loading times are at the greatest risk of being affected.

Collect User Feedback

Since your users are the ones that are getting the most hands-on experience with your app, it makes sense to ask them for their feedback. They can act as your QA testers in a sense, identifying performance related issues that might’ve slipped through the cracks. Conduct surveys and encourage users to submit reports if they come across an issue.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Ignoring Backend Performance

It’s not all about making cosmetic changes to eke out faster speeds. Server side upgrades are also important for efficient processing of database queries, and any API integration should come with optimized calls and data fetching. Basically, you need to adopt a holistic strategy towards improving app load times.

Overlooking Mobile-Specific Issues

Not all mobile phones are the same. Some have processing constraints, others have limited battery life, and others still might have less screen real estate to work with. In order to make an app that’s efficient, fast, and responsive across a variety of devices, it’s important to work these factors into your design process. Consider leveraging mobile specific features for optimal results.

Neglecting App Updates

Outdated apps aren’t just slower, they can also cause compatibility issues, security vulnerabilities, and frequent crashes. Regular updates help you maximize your app’s performance, ensuring the best loading speeds possible and allowing you to continually introduce new features that’ll keep your audience hooked.

Ready for Peak Performance? Let Us Optimize Your App

When you’re trying to capture and retain an audience, every second counts. That’s why optimizing loading times is essential for a thriving digital product. At Content Development Pros, we know how important it is for you to put your best foot forward and give users a 5-star experience.

That’s why our team of engineers work tirelessly to identify and resolve performance bottlenecks, ensuring your app loads lightning-fast and keeps users coming back for more. Whether you need help optimizing a pre-existing app, or if you’d like us to build you a new, super fast app from scratch, our app development team has got you covered.