Turo reduced its app startup time by 77% using Android Developer tools and best practices

Turo is the world’s largest car sharing marketplace where guests can book any car they want, and wherever they want it, from a vibrant community of trusted hosts.

Developers at Turo recently invested heavily in improving the startup performance of its Android application. Startup time is the first impression users have of an app, and slower load times can negatively impact user retention and engagement. The team wanted to give users a faster, more streamlined experience every time they launched the app. And using Android’s best tools, resources, and practices, they were able to cut the app’s startup time by 77%.

Setting the stage with the App Startup library

App initialization includes an application’s entire startup process and all the code it runs before rendering its first UI frame. For Turo, this meant users had to wait for the app to run its initial startup, synchronous network requests, and a custom splash animation — all before they were ever shown the app’s home screen.

Turo’s developers knew that to improve the application’s loading times, they would need to condense and remove many of these cumbersome startup events. To help pare down these events, Turo engineers used Android’s App Startup library.

The App Startup library gave Turo’s developers a simple, streamlined way to initialize multiple components during the application’s launch. It also enabled them to select which components to initialize and in what order, allowing them to significantly improve load times. Having the App Startup library in place set the foundation for the rest of Turo’s startup optimization.

Deferring network requests and cutting the splash screen

Prior to optimization, the app performed multiple network requests sequentially and then displayed a custom, one-second splash animation before users could access the app’s home screen. This resulted in a slow startup process, especially if a user had poor network connectivity.

Removing the splash animation was an easy way for Turo developers to improve perceived loading time. And by making network requests parallel and asynchronous, users could access the home screen much faster. “Initially, we used a dedicated SplashActivity to run all the startup work before routing the app to the HomeActivity. However, the latest guidelines advise against this approach. Therefore, we eliminated the redundant SplashActivity and transferred all the startup logic to our root activity by leveraging the Splash Screen API,” said Pavlo Stavytskyi, a senior staff software engineer at Turo.

At the same time, the app was also performing a number of other startup network requests to tailor the experience to individual users, resulting in inconsistent user experiences.“If the app is used by a guest, some network requests help decide which screen should be shown after the splash screen,” said Pavlo. “By default, it’s the home screen. However, there are special cases where the user could be redirected either straight to an active vehicle reservation or to a feedback screen.”

The team didn’t want to slow down every app startup by checking for these niche scenarios. Instead, Turo now always opens the home screen by default while making network requests asynchronously. If a redirect is required, the appropriate screen is displayed on top of the home screen.

Applying Baseline Profiles

The Turo team also applied Baseline Profiles to improve the application’s performance. Baseline profiles help pre-compile startup code paths ahead of time, boosting Turo’s app startup time by another 15% according to Macrobenchmark tests. “After we removed all the synchronous network requests, our startup duration became more deterministic, and it made more sense to apply Baseline Profiles,” said Pavlo.

Performance improvements can lead to improved user retention, increased transactions, and better ratings. Baseline Profiles are a quick and reliable way to move the needle by a large amount.

Prioritizing startup performance

There are many factors that can impact an app’s startup time. It’s up to developers to identify where, when, and how they can improve their app to ensure it’s optimized for the best user experience.

“It’s important to start the improvement with tasks that require the least effort and produce the greatest results,” said Pavlo. “In many cases, engineering faces a conflict between allocating time and resources either on product work or performance optimization. However, treating performance as a stand-alone product feature is inevitable for its success.”

Optimize your app today

Improve your app’s startup time with Android’s best practices for app optimization, Android’s App Startup, and Baseline Profiles.

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