Best Effective Ways To Optimize & Reduce App Load Time
App load times are one of the most significant factors in determining the success or failure of your application. Users have short attention spans and expect things to load in as little as two seconds before they become frustrated.
As an app developer, you’re forced to walk a fine line between a limited amount of resources, creating an app that has great content, and creating an app that loads instantaneously. Here are some of the most effective ways to optimize and reduce your app’s load time.
Use Application Performance Monitoring
The benefits of using application performance monitoring (APM) will not only impact the load time of your app but your business as a whole. In relation to loading times, APM has numerous benefits. With the right tools in place, you’ll not only be able to determine what’s going wrong but know how to fix it quickly. You can also use APM to set alerts. These alerts will tell you when something has the potential to go wrong, based on previous incidents or changing performance metrics. Furthermore, you’ll be able to set up some quick fix protocols for the system to enact when a problem arises, keeping things running smoothly until you can correct it properly.
Your business will also be improved outside of app performance. Having APM tools in place will improve the productivity and morale of your team by reducing stressful situations and freeing time to focus on other things.
Revisit Your Code
The cleaner the code, the better your system will run. Unfortunately, finding that healthy balance between speed and clean code can be tricky. Programming languages like Python tend to be slower than others, despite producing beautiful code. Additionally, certain languages work better with app operating systems than others.
Circle back and look over the code you have in place, and consider hosting a code review. During a code review, team members review each other’s codes for potential mistakes and make helpful suggestions regarding how to simplify. It’s a learning opportunity and team building exercise for all involved in your app development projects.
Optimize Your Images
Ensuring your images are optimized is one of the simplest ways to improve your app’s loading time. This means uploading images that are already sized right, rather than allowing the system to resize them to fit. It also means determining which photo format (jpeg, png, etc.) works best for your app and uploading the images accordingly.
There are various ways to optimize your images. The main objective is to make the upload file size as small as possible without distorting the image. This may mean resizing the image with the photo editing software on your computer or using a web tool like Smush.it. Smush.It also integrates with WordPress via a plugin if you’re looking at other ways to streamline processes across the board.
Change Your Data Allocation
If you have a data-rich app that will inevitably take a long time to load, look at how you can reallocate the loading experience so that the user isn’t waiting at the beginning. For example, if your app takes a minute to load, look at how you can reduce that time to 30 seconds while incorporating another 30-second wait when a different function is loaded. The more you can shorten and disperse the wait times, the happier the user will be.
In many ways, reallocating your data load is a psychological experiment. The user will ultimately be waiting the same amount of time-- perhaps even longer-- but the shorter bursts will make it feel as though they aren’t.Keep Ads Simple
Ads are a powerful revenue driver for applications, but they also impact the overall load time of an app. For many businesses, it isn’t feasible to remove ads without compensation while keeping the app operational. To find the balance between load time and ad revenue, keep the advertisements simple.
Video ads will be more involved than stills, and interactive apps will be even more involved than video. See what your app can withstand and sell advertising space accordingly. Try and keep the duration of the ads to a minimum, as viewers don’t consider ads a part of the app loading time, but they do see it as a nuisance that detracts from their experience.
When you make a decision about your app’s performance, always keep the user experience in mind. It will ultimately be the deciding factor in your overall success.