Apple’s Different Perspective About Splash Screen
Have you ever noticed that there’s no splash screen when you open Apple’s apps on your iPhone? Instead, you jump into the content of the app rightaway. Check the GIF below as I open Apple’s compass app.
From GIF above, you can see that there’s no splash screen. We go to the content of the Compass app rightaway. Is it because the Compass app opened so fast so there’s no time for us to see the splash screen? Let’s try opening Apple’s Podcast app which is probably slower.
This time, Apple’s Podcast app doesn’t open that fast. We have a delay before the app content has loaded and shown to the screen. But again, there’s no splash screen. At this point I think I can say that Apple don’t use splash screen.
I started to curious, why don’t Apple use splash screen. They provide LaunchScreen.storyboard for us when we develop iOS apps but seems they don’t use it for their own apps.
There are some apps in the AppStore with beautiful animated splash screen. You will get beautiful introduction animation on splash screen when you open apps like Twitter, Kitabisa, or Netflix. Why don’t Apple do that?
Why don’t Apple use splash screen? Actually, we can find the answer from their guidelines for launch screen:
A launch screen appears instantly when your app starts up and is quickly replaced with the app’s first screen, giving the impression that your app is fast and responsive. The launch screen isn’t an opportunity for artistic expression. It’s solely intended to enhance the perception of your app as quick to launch and immediately ready for use.
Brilliant I think. They say that splash screen isn’t a place to show off your artistic skill. Splash screen also is not a tool to slow down the launch speed of your app. It’s just a tool to make user perceive that our apps are quick to launch. They also give us some other guide for the splash screen experience in iOS apps:
- Design a launch screen that’s nearly identical to the first screen of your app. People shouldn’t experience an unpleasant flash between the launch screen and the first screen of the app.
- Avoid including text on your launch screen.
- Downplay launch. People value apps that let them quickly access content and perform tasks. Designing a launch screen that resembles an app’s interface creates the illusion that the app starts instantly.
- Don’t advertise. The launch screen isn’t a branding opportunity.
So, my thought that Apple don’t use splash screen was wrong. They use splash screen on their apps, but in a nice experience so that we feel the app is instantly launch. Let’s see their splash screens by looking again at the way their apps launch:
If you look carefully at Apple’s Compass app when it is launching, initially they show a blank compass circle without any text. It’s the launch screen! By showing that blank circle, user think that the app is instantly launch eventhough it’s still loading. Then couple miliseconds after, the app is loaded for real (it’s still fast though, even probably that splash screen is not necessary 😐).
And if you look carefully at Apple’s Podcast app, it has launch screen too. That blank UI with blank tab bar on the bottom is the launch screen. By doing so, user also think that the app instantly launch and loading.
So, is it bad to have animation on the splash screen? Or is it bad to show off some of our artistic tastes on the splash screen? Um, I don’t think so. After looking at some apps (almost none of them follow Apple guidelines about splash screen! 😁), I think I can have my own guidelines for splash screen, modified from Apple guidelines. Sorry Apple, this time I suppress a rebellion. 😬 So these are Ucup’s guidelines for iOS splash screen:
- If you’re able to make your app launches fast enough, follow Apple’s guideline for Launch Screen:
https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/ios/visual-design/launch-screen/ - If you need some moment to launch your app, it’s okay to have a rich splash screen, even the animated splash screen. As long as: 1. The animation duration doesn’t exceed the time required by your app to launch (user doesn’t have time to watch your 3 seconds animation!), 2. Avoid the unpleasant flash between the splash screen and the first screen of your app.
Which guidelines do I use for Evermos app?
Of course my own guidelines! Haha.. Actually, I follow Apple’s guidelines.
As Evermos app launches fast enough, I follow my own guidelines which tell me to follow Apple’s guidelines if my app launches fast enough. 🤨
I use a blank screen with tab bar in the bottom. That tab bar actually imitates the actual tab bar inside Evermos app. By doing so, user will feel that the app instantly launches, as Apple suggested on their guideline. Here’s my LaunchScreen.storyboard screenshot:
Really nice experience for the user I think. Well, that’s my thought about how launch screen should be in iOS environment. Thanks for reading. If you have your own thought, kindly share your thought, or even your own guideline. 😜
Anyway, I found another app that follows Apple’s guidelines for launch screen:
