App Startup Time

The App Startup Time metric measures the app’s launch time, known as Time to Initial Display (TTID). App startup time or TTID is the time it takes for the app to show its first frame after launch. This is calculated by terminating the app and launching a fresh session.

The following are the types of app startup time:

• Cold Start Time: This time is calculated when the app is launched for the first time since the device boot or since the system killed the app.
• Warm Start Time: This time is when the app is launched after being recently closed.
• Hot Start Time: This time is when the app is resumed from background.

Impact on user experience

Content loading and responsiveness are key aspects that influence user’s perception of app performance. App startup time 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

Recommendations

The 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.

Related topics

• View complete list of performance metrics for Android