Upkeep your App: Keys to Maintaining App Performance

What’s a smartphone without an app? Today, there is an app for almost everything, making some of our routine tasks easier, faster, and more reliable. We call out Siri, Google, or Alexa at the drop of a hat and feel blessed to have a personal assistant at service 24×7.

But what would happen if the app failed to wake us up on time or lags the smartphone just at the moment when we want it to work faster—we indeed get the urge to throw our phone away, isn’t it? With the digital revolution well underway, there is a new upgrade to one or the other apps almost every day. In such a dynamic scenario, just building the app is not enough; we must ensure that it is loaded with the newest features, interface, and seamlessly working across all operating systems. Here are some ways to app maintenance and deliver peak app performance.

The purpose must be clear while building the app. It needs to carry all the necessary features required to function smoothly. Once the app is built, the developer must remove all the unnecessary elements and keep the app simple to use. Once that is achieved, the next phase is to work on app design and maintenance that gives it a premium look and feel with the right color palette, visual cues and transitions.

Testing is a critical step that helps identify and resolve many bugs and gives first-hand experience to improve the performance. Today, the testing should not be limited to different operating systems like android, IOS, MIUI, etc., but also must extend to many varieties of cell phones to measure the app performance in different screen sizes, RAM sizes, and network operators.

With many apps seeking unnecessary permission nowadays, our app should not make the customer feel unsecure after downloading it. They should know how their data will be used and stored. This will give the customer confidence in using the app and keeping it on their phone even if they do not need it frequently.

People have a low patience level when using technology. An application that launches quickly makes all the difference and leaves the best first impression on customers regarding user experience. Even though the app start up time may get affected by various reasons like the internet speed, phone specs, etc., we still should try to optimise and keep it within 2-3 seconds.

Caching is an excellent technique for optimising app performance. When the network is weak, we can use the cached data, including pictures, and display whatever is available while using the rest of the time in uploading other features. Also, to reduce data usage and impact on RAM, we can use vector images, serve dynamic image sizes, use libraries, optimise for MDPI and HDPI, and implement adaptive UI flows.

Certain apps keep running in the background, requiring more battery usage. We must monitor that the app is not draining the battery unnecessarily. We can customise the app for a better battery performance by reducing the number of times the app refreshes, using the auto-brightness mode, allowing options to turn off sounds and haptics, using dark themes, etc.

An offline mode allows a user to be cautious or save the data when there is a network drop. For example, we are in the middle of a task and the internet disconnects. In such circumstances, all the steps taken will get lost, and we will have to perform the entire task again. An offline mode will prompt the user about the disconnection or might also help them continue in the offline mode to restore the progress as and when the internet service is resumed.

More is not always beneficial. Some developers assume that their customers will appreciate an app loaded with extra features. But sometimes, more features confuse the customers and complicate the app functionality, making it slow and difficult to navigate. Thus, it is recommended to build and upkeep an app that is simple to use which our customers enjoy using.

We know that the app maintenance is not an easy job for any individual with limited amount of technical expertise. Thus, we at Jaarvis, provide end-to-end app design and maintenance services by keeping the customers at the core of our entire process. Get in touch with us today to get a quote!