Android App Startup Time

Measures the app’s launch time, known as Time to Initial Display (TTID), which is the time it takes for the app to show its first frame after launch. Calculated by terminating the app and launching a fresh session.

There are following kinds of app startup time :

• Cold Start Time : which occurs when the app is launched for the first time since the device boot or since the system killed the app
• Warm Start Time : Occurs when the app is launched after being recently closed App is launched after it has been recently closed.
• Hot Start Time : Occurs when the App is resumed from background

How does it impact user experience

Content loading and responsiveness are key aspects that influence user’s perception of app performance. App Startup is the first impression of app performance and should be delightful and decreasing it improves the user experience.

Threshold Guidelines

Recommended thresholds are :

• Cold startup takes <= 3s
• Warm startup takes <= 2s
• Hot startup takes <= 1.5s

How to improve App Startup Time

Following are the recommendations to improve App Startup Time :

• Simplify the view hierarchy by removing redundant or nested layouts.
• Avoid inflating parts of the UI that aren’t needed during launch.
• Move resource initialization to a different thread, so the app can load it lazily.
• Move blocking work off the main thread and execute unnecessary work asynchronously.
• Optimize memory and CPU usage to reduce memory consumption and shorten loading times.
• Use static libraries instead of frameworks, whenever possible.