Gone are the days when end-users had to put up with issues that affect app performance. As technology advances, a lot is changing, including the patience of users. For instance, research indicates that for every extra second it takes your page to load, your conversion rate drops by 7%, and around 48% of customers will uninstall an app if it’s too slow. If your mobile app is slow, here are the common culprits and how you can fix the issues.
The most common reason apps are slow is because they are obsolete and are not compatible with the current version of the operating system. Apps that run on older versions of an OS typically experience a significant drop in performance over time. The solution is to keep optimizing and updating your apps as newer versions of the OS are released.
Another common reason for the slow performance of a mobile app is server speed, which is usually because it is slow or overloaded. When your server is doing a lot, it may run out of memory and take longer to process requests. To address the problem, take some load off your server by providing an extra reverse proxy. You can also add a load balancer to distribute the traffic and make the server’s job easier.
Secure Sockets Layer and Transport Security Layer are vital during app development as they provide secure transit of data, but they can also cause problems if not optimized. For example, every time a new connection is formed, an initial handshake is required, affecting speed. Second, constant data encryption on the server and decryption at the client-side also affects speed. The solution to keeping things on track is to optimize these connections from time to time via en SSL and session caching.
As you’re probably aware, excessive data slows down the performance of apps, but that doesn’t mean you should eliminate a good chunk of your app’s data, sacrificing critical features in the process. The simplest solution is to compress the data. That way, you won’t tamper with the rich features of your app, and you will get a better loading speed.
The average mobile app processes great amounts of data on average. So when the server receives different requests to conduct a transaction on behalf of the person using the app, and it tries to load a huge chunk of data at once, its performance is bound to suffer. To solve this problem, always check the number of requests between systems where it is lined up with the network. Don’t forget to check out delays between requests too.
Using bad libraries and faulty development kits may also adversely affect your app’s performance. You may want to create a top-performing app, but the vendors’ libraries and SDK may have issues that need to be sorted out. In this case, review the application’s code to identify any errors or bugs and always use SDKs and libraries that are widely rated for stability, reputation and security.
The network’s speed plays a critical role in how fast an app loads. If the network is slow, the app will be slow too. To fix this, check the network speeds regularly and ensure that the internet connection is stable.
Speed is one of the most important factors determining a conversion rate, retention rate, and overall user experience. The above isn’t an exhaustive list, but it covers the basic reasons apps experience speed issues. If you suspect any of the issues above, just adopt the fixes to increase loading speed and overall performance.