A mobile application’s success extensively depends on its UI-UX design. The better the application interface design, the better the user experience. The app’s performance and user experience are shaped by a wide range of diverse elements that are integrated into it which includes smooth page navigation, captivating design and quick loading.
Mobile app speed and load time are the most important metrics for a high-performing mobile application, which is why it’s vital to maximize these metrics. You can determine the app’s speed and load time by counting the seconds it takes for it to open and respond.
Why Is It Important to Accelerate App Loads?
Mobile app load time can be referred to as the time taken for an application to fully load before the UI appears and makes the application interactive. The length of time it takes for a mobile app to load serves as an indicator of how quickly the app loads and how it responds to requests.
According to statistics, a mobile app’s load time should be no longer than two seconds. Research also suggests that 53% of consumers leave a mobile page that takes longer than three seconds to load. An unreasonably long load time makes users impatient thus increasing their chances of leaving the page.
Several enterprises strive to improve user experience by implementing the best UX solutions. Increasing app performance and decreasing the app load time are vital:
- To maintain a user’s interest in the app for longer durations.
- To boost the app’s overall performance.
- To improve user experience and increase traffic.
- To decrease churn and app abandonment rates.
- To increase revenue and retention rates.
- To integrate brand reputation and app quality.
Strategies to Improve the Mobile App Loading Speed and Responsiveness
1. Choose Only a Native App
Using native tools when creating a mobile app will yield better results in performance and user experience. They work with the device’s interface and offer a user interface that is streamlined. This can improve the overall user experience by boosting the app’s visual attractiveness and usability.
Native apps run better and utilize device power and resources more effectively since they are created exclusively for a given platform and are programmed in the native programming language and APIs. This helps them to take advantage of the device’s hardware and software capabilities.
2. Select the Proper Server and Utilize Caching
A mobile app can use the device’s storage memory for information in a consolidated form. This helps apps to load quickly without affecting other components. Recent web pages can be temporarily cached in web browsers with caching technology.
The caching function is crucial as it speeds up page loading, minimizes bandwidth consumption and lowers browsing expenses, thus enhancing the web browsing experience.
3. Consider Content Delivery Networks
A content delivery network (CDN) is a distributed network of servers spread over several places that makes sure that information is delivered effectively to websites all over the world. Its goal is to speed up content delivery by replicating and storing content throughout the CDN so that users may access data that is kept in a location that is physically close to them.
To reduce the distance that requests and responses must travel, CDNs cache material that is physically close to their users. As a result, websites load more quickly for users, thus increasing conversion rates. This also reduces the load and bandwidth requirements along with reducing costs.
4. Optimize the Images and the Material
Images, graphics and videos take up a lot of space in a mobile app. They give the user an engaging and simple-to-understand experience and to achieve this they consume more data transfer and speed up app loading. Visual content optimization is essential for accelerating content loads.
The optimized graphics and graphic elements allow the app to run smoothly and also boost the loading speed. It also allows you to look through the site’s visual material, including its photos, videos, animations and infographics. For the best page load performance, it’s ideal to keep the picture size under 100kb.
5. Prompt Installation of Updates
Apps often receive regular updates to address issues and boost performance. Your app will slow down and perform less effectively if you don’t get the most recent update that is available for it.
Though updates are designed to address application-related problems, numerous app updates are occasionally disregarded. An application’s slow speed may be caused by specific issues related to updates and once it is updated these issues will be resolved.
6. Reduced HTTP Requests
An HTTP demand is a request made to the server to deliver the appropriate response. HTTP requests consume about 80% of the loading time for mobile apps. As a result, progressive web apps outperform others in terms of performance.
To prevent many photos from loading at once, position and set the main image first. The visuals can be combined into one that can be used on several occasions by using a CSS sprite.
A CSS sprite is a group of images compiled into a single file and accessible through an HTML document. This will help you to load the single image that you want to restore multiple times without ruining the layout of the page.
7. Control Plugins
A mobile app’s loading speed and responsiveness can be impacted by adding additional plugins and using too many plugins can compromise security and damage its performance. By introducing more database queries and additional HTTP requests, plugins can make your site load slower.
As plugins are a quick-fix solution and some of them need special scripts or styles that require the loading of additional JS and CSS files, adding too many can slow down and hamper load times. Additionally, you can run a check on the modules and external resources and remove outdated modules and the ones that are infected.
8. Maximize Server Response
Giving an application the right environment and resources is the primary responsibility of an application server. Thus it is crucial to use a good server with a powerful CPU and plenty of storage space.
9. Reduce Code Complexity
A limited amount of code will result in better application execution and also reduce the stacking time. It essentially means building a specific number of data using some of the best computer languages such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
With more and more people shifting to mobile apps, it’s become necessary to ensure app performance optimization. An increase in the app’s load time and responsiveness will lead to more uninstallations, negative app store reviews and eventually a loss of user confidence in your business. Utilizing the above strategies will help in increasing the responsiveness and loading time of mobile apps.
