Use of splash screens in app development

Apps need a few seconds to load before they are fully launched and ready for use. These seconds are often used by app developers to maintain attention span by displaying a logo or moving image during the loading time. This is called a splash screen. In the image below you can see Twitter’s splash screen, which only displays the logo.

Nowadays, there are discussions about the need for a splash screen, as more advanced operating systems on newer smartphones allow apps to start faster and faster. Nevertheless, splash screens are still present in almost all apps. However, there are still many older smartphones with slower processors on the market alongside the new ones. The loading time of an app therefore takes longer on older smartphones. In these cases, it is therefore all the more important that the user can see that the app is loading before it is started. Otherwise, there is a risk that the session will be terminated before the app has fully loaded. App developers and UI designers therefore continue to recommend the use of splash screens to bridge the waiting time. The positive additional effect is that this waiting time can be used to convey a first impression of the app and thus also strengthen the brand identity.

There are a few tips and tricks that app developers should bear in mind when programming a splash screen. The short loading time of the app plays a particularly important role here. We will show you the most important rules you should follow when programming an app and using a splash screen.

The app should start quickly, as quickly as possible. The general rule of thumb is to keep the start process and thus the display duration of the splash screen under 3 seconds. If it takes longer, users will quickly become frustrated and close the app again before it has even finished loading. If your app is used frequently, i.e. at least once a day, your app developers should make sure that the loading time does not exceed one second. Unfortunately, this is often difficult to achieve, especially if your app has to load a lot in the background.

The moment when a user touches the icon of an app on their smartphone screen and waits until the app is fully loaded creates a first impression of the app. It is the moment that app developers should use to positively impress the user. The splash screen should show that the app lives up to expectations and that the user will enjoy the time they spend in the app. The question therefore arises as to what exactly the splash screen should look like in order to pick up the user.

Keep the design simple, but still be bold. In those precious 3 seconds, a user doesn’t have time to process too much information. It is important that they can see that the app is loading. If only the app logo is displayed in the splash screen, as is (still) the case with many apps, valuable user attention can be lost.

Others show a loading bar in addition to the logo. In the example of our app Fooby, you can see in the splash screen that the logo is displayed on the one hand and a loading bar shows the loading progress of the app on the other. The advantage of the loading bar is that the user can see that something is loading and has to wait until the app can be used.

It is also possible to animate the entire splash screen. This is a particularly elegant solution if the app takes longer than usual to load. This keeps the user entertained while the app is loading in the background. Our LIstory app has to load various codes and augmented reality content. This takes a while. We have therefore animated the splash screen. In the following gif you can see the animated splash screen of our app LIstory.

The optimal splash screen always depends on the respective app. Sometimes the display of your app logo is sufficient and in other cases animated content is worthwhile. Splash screens are a way of entertaining users while they wait for the app to load and at the same time creating identification with the brand. It is therefore worthwhile for app developers and UI designers to take the opportunity to optimize the design of the splash screen to keep the user’s attention as high as possible. Whatever special effects your splash screen offers, make sure that the loading time doesn’t take longer than it should.