Top 9 Answers to Question: How to Make Apps Load Faster?

App loading time is one of the crucial factors affecting the popularity of any app. Users do not like apps with longer loading times at all. The mobile app loading time can affect users psychologically. It can lead them to frustration, and hatred for your app. 

To prove that statement, let’s have a look at these insights. Think with Google says, if your app takes 3 seconds instead of 1 second to load, you will have a bounce rate 32% higher compared to fast apps. And, if your app touches 10 seconds to load somehow, the bounce rate increases up to 123%.

Currently, smartphone devices come with hardware of increased capabilities. Therefore, developers have more freedom to integrate better features and UI. But with better features, the requirement of apps increases in terms of hardware. However, to offer a better mobile app design, you need to focus on the app loading time.

Why does mobile app loading time matter?

App load time is directly related to the user experience. As mentioned above, the more app load time, the lesser user satisfaction. Moving forward, Let’s discuss a few statistics to understand how mobile app loading time is crucial for the goodwill of your app.

If you look into the graph mentioned above, there are a few key points mentioned for your reference:

• 16% of users do not like to wait more than 1 to 5 seconds, and users with the patience of waiting for 11 to 15 seconds have the same ratio;
• 20% of users lose patience after 20 seconds;
• Moreover, 30% of users prefer to wait only for 6 to 10 seconds, which applies to the highest number of users;
• There are 3% of users who do not even want to wait for a single second before leaving the page.

Now, curious about how to make your apps load faster?

Did these statistics make you worried? Well, you do not have to. With a few alterations and precautions, you can build a perfect mobile app that your users love. With a keen eye on mobile app statistics, you might find many useful ways of improving the user experience. If you are new in the industry, moving further, you might find the tips mentioned below useful. 

So, keep reading to effectively reduce the app load time!

1. How to get apps to load faster with other in-app tasks?

It is more like a trick to get users busy to stop them from getting annoyed because of the app load time. The trick is to make sure that your app users are not waiting hopelessly to see the result of an action they made through the app. Keeping them busy with an important task, might distract them before they lose their mind. The app design inspiration you are considering should be useful to keep the user calm.

Take the example of Instagram, the app, when a user tries to upload the content, it shows the page where users have to fill in the title, tags, and other details. Now, the trick is, while users get busy in filling details of the content, Instagram uploads the content on the server in the meantime. Later, as soon as the user comes on the final screen, they feel that the content was uploaded instantly. Cool right? 

2. How to get an app to load faster with the lighter code?

Well, a minimized code will result in a better performance for the app. Accordingly, the loading time will reduce as well. From the light code, we do not mean to build a simple app or app with only basic functionalities. It simply means using one of the best languages for mobile app development such as CSS, JavaScript, and HTML to build a limited number of files. This way, optimization of the database will be easier. 

3. How to make an app load faster by optimizing images?

If you ever go through the tips shared by an expert UI designer, you will figure out that almost everyone suggests focusing on reducing the size of graphical contents included in the app. Optimizing images can help you in react native performance improvements as well.

Now, the real question is, how exactly would you do it? Here are a few tips:

• Well, you can begin by compressing the size of your images;
• Try to reduce the size of pictures, but not too much, or it will ruin the quality;
• Instead of using too many images to decorate your app;
• try to add color palettes and other lighter elements;
• Use tools such as Online Image Optimizer, SuperGIF, JPEG & PNG Stripper, Smush it, or any from the best picture editing apps

4. How to make an app load faster by reducing animations?

Reducing the number of animations will surely create an impact. But it does not mean you should not focus on adding animated transitions, or your app should look dull. Currently, using animations is one of the main tricks UI experts from top app development companies recommend. However, keeping them in a limited number is healthy for the app.

The main logic behind using animations in mobile apps is to improve the user engagement ratio in the app. Moreover, it makes the navigation part interesting as well. 

5. How to make apps load faster with CDN?

Content Delivery Network (CDN) is used to spread the app data across various geographical locations. The network is useful to approach users who are not in the coverage area of your server. Moreover, CDN delivers your app data to such users by reducing the traffic on servers. Choosing one of the best mobile app backends with CDN can have a crucial impact on the performance of your app. 

• Cloudflare;
• Amazon CloudFront;
• CDN77.com;
• Gumlet;
• Microsoft Azure CDN;
• StackPath CDN.

6. How to make your apps load faster by disabling plugins?

Adding too many plug-ins can result in the slowed performance of the app. Therefore, you have to make sure that your app does not have any unnecessary plugins installed. Too many app plugins can also be a cause of security breaches, app crashes, and slow loading speed among others. According to TorqueMag, your app should have a maximum of 20 plugins. However, for apps with shared or budget cloud hosting, not more than 5 plugins are advised.

7. How to make apps load faster by optimizing app startup time?

Your app will start losing users even if it takes more than a second to load. Due to frustration, users prefer uninstalling the app and look for an alternative, instead of waiting for a few moments on the same app. The reason behind that action is the impression your app made. Users think it is a repetitive process and they might be true about it. So, maintaining the app startup becomes crucial for the app. With the help of the best cross-platform app development framework, you can use the automated feedback and suggestions as well. 

The best technique is to control the initialization process going on in the background. Moreover, you can also use dependency injection libraries to write less boilerplate code. Now, with the code generation technique, these libraries reduce the app loading time. 

8. How to make an app load faster by using the cache?

Your app can use cache memory of the hardware to store the temporary data. It will help the mobile app in loading faster. Every time the user opens the app, it will use cache data to initiate the responses faster. However, this process might have to get repeated every time the user cleans their cache files. 

9. How to get apps to load faster by optimizing the SSL and TLS?

Many modern apps and websites are using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) to improve the security of the data. Moreover, due to their popularity, Google algorithms consider them as one of the ranking factors. 

But, the fact that SSL and TLS slow down the app, can not be ignored. Therefore, it is important to optimize them for a faster app server response. One of the many ways is using OpenSSL. Or, you can also use standard commodity hardware to improve the app speed. 

Epilogue

Now, let’s move forward and wind-up the discussion. However, before we do that, let’s have a look at the summary of the discussion we had above.

• We got to know that there are 3% of app users, who do not even want to wait one second for the app to get load;
• If your app touches 10 seconds somehow, the bounce rate might go up to 123%;
• Optimizing image sizes can be handy for the app speed;
• Animations have a crucial impact on the performance of the app;
• Using cache can help mobile apps in loading faster;
• Start-up time can ruin the impression if it’s slow;
• CDN increases the speed and expands the target user area.

We hope that as a developer, you found this blog useful. If you are a new developer, or new in the industry, you can have a look at MobileAppDaily often to find regularly updated and interesting blogs related to the app development industry. It will surely help you in improving your understanding of the current app market trends and practices.

By Manish

Sr. Content Strategist

Meet Manish Chandra Srivastava, the Strategic Content Architect & Marketing Guru who turns brands into legends. Armed with a Masters in Mass Communication (2015-17), Manish has dazzled giants like Collegedunia, Embibe, and Archies. His work is spotlighted on Hackernoon, Gamasutra, and Elearning Industry.

Beyond the writer’s block, Manish is often found distracted by movies, video games, AI, and other such nerdy stuff. But the point remains, If you need your brand to shine, Manish is who you need.