When you develop a mobile application, you try your level best to optimize its performance. Considering the cutthroat competition, you cannot just sit back and relax thinking that your job is over once the app is released.

In fact, you would be surprised to note that according to a report; about 53% of the users tend to abandon the mobile apps if it takes more than three seconds to load. So, you can see that the users today are left with no or very little patience and if you exceed that, your app will badly suffer. Not only do you lose customers from the board, but slow loading also leads to decrease in the revenue as well.

Thus, the bottom-line is that if you want to have a faster mobile app, then you need to significantly look to improve the performance of your server. However, at the same time, it is important to choose an appropriate server that can suitably help to achieve your ends.

A server is an essential, which allows the mobile apps to operate seamlessly. It probably establishes a link between the front end users and the backend responding to the user queries. But when you are choosing the appropriate server, you must ensure that it backed by efficient, adequate storage capacity and good RAM.

In addition to that, you also need to take some other steps such as choosing a proxy server, adding a load balancer, caching the content and much more.

1. Compressing the Unnecessary Data

It is quite obvious that if the file or the document size of the data is big, it will certainly consume lot of time to get downloaded. However, the mobile app developer needs to minimize the size of data sent from the server to the mobile device. This would definitely reduce the time of the payload. In fact, you can employ different tactics for minimizing the size of data. The most common procedure followed is removing the data, which is not usable from the user’s perspective.

You can take support from MBaaS, which helps the Node.js JavaScript runtime to remove the unwanted data from the concerned fields and also transforming to JSON formats that are device friendlier. It reduces the payload and also accelerates the speed of the mobile app.

There is a second technique as well, which is compression. It is commonly performed in the case of web servers. However, in case of mobile application, it will reduce the time of loading from the server. Apart from compression also allows MBaaS and mobile device to transmit the data at a swift pace.

2. Adding a Reverse Proxy Server

In case the mobile application is operating on a single machine, the result will not be as productive as expected so it would be viable to have a faster processor and more powerful RAM that can effectively support Node.js or the Java application.

If you think that the speed of mobile application is not up to the mark, you just don’t waste your time in updating your hardware tool but instead go for reverse proxy server, which comes in front of the machine and tackles the internet traffic.

When you are using a reserve proxy server, the users do not have to wait for long when communicating with the mobile application as the application becomes free. The reverse proxy server also shares the load of overloaded server or if in case the server is down.

3. Making Effective Use of the Load Balancer

Well, if you want to optimize your server performance and improve the speed of mobile application, then you must implement this technique effectively. The load balancer will help to enhance the performance of your mobile app server emphatically. Here in this process what we do is use some small servers instead of using a huge and powerful server to distribute the load of the traffic.

The load balancer is also more than a useful tool in case you have made mistakes while writing the applications or you are facing problems related to scaling.

The load balancer is also regarded as the reverse proxy server and it receives and forwards the internet traffic. Moreover, it supports two or more servers providing a choice of algorithms splitting the two servers.

4. The Use of the Splash Screen

While the UI and the UX designers are designing the mobile app, they have to keep a watch on the response time of the mobile APIs when loading the data. But if you are adding a splash screen while launching the app, you can actually improve the user experience to a great deal by reducing the app loading time.

They are similar to that of the theme of the mobile app but do not contain any content. The user gets the feeling that something is taking place during the loading of content.

5. Developing APIs that are More Friendlier to Mobile Devices

At times many of the organizations face problem when the data comes in from legacy APIs, which are not at all optimized. They are not suitable for the mobile devices and can turn down the user experience.

However, in order to create mobile-centric RESTful APIs that can connect to the backend servers, we have mobile back end as a service (MBaaS) as a solution that creates a layer between the legacy system and the mobile device. The RESTful APIs is a progressive tool that helps in faster loading of the mobile data.

6. Caching the Content

In simple words, caching is useful in enhancing the performance of the server as it delivers the content to the users at quick response time. Mainly two types of content are cached; static and dynamic. It also includes processing and storing of content for faster delivery.

If the accessed data is stored in the browser cache, it makes it easier for the user to instantly view the data. In case it has not been accessed for a quite some time or not stored in browser, it can be cached to the nearest server thus improving the loading speed to much extent.

7. Keep your Mobile Software Always Up to Date

If you want to have a well performing mobile app server and faster application, the golden rule book says you must keep your software up to date. It will allow you to fix the bugs regularly and also implement the latest strategies related to mobile app server. Always use the latest and upgraded version of the server to get best possible results.

8. Regularly Watching the Performance

So, once you have incorporated the steps leading to optimizing the server of mobile application, your task is not yet over. You have to constantly check and monitor the progress of performance of the servers.

At times you will be facing issues like server not working or it is down. It may become overloaded or it may send incorrect content. Thus, tackling such problems effectively will only be successful if you monitor the performance at regular intervals.

Conclusion

A mobile application is developed with much care and perseverance. And if you want your app to offer the best loading speed and enhance the experience of the users, then keeping your servers updated is very crucial. The servers play a great deal in the success story of your app and so optimizing it becomes the topmost priority.