Slow starter on IOS

Berenburger · 24 Dec 2021, 08:11 AM

Despite the app's small size, FM is a slow starter. Apps (email) which are significantly bigger in size are starting much faster. Besides that, the animation looks ugly when starting the app. See attached recording on an iPad with IOS 15.1.

Is anyone experiencing this too?

n5bb · 25 Dec 2021, 03:41 AM

I haven’t noticed any recent change in the Fastmail iOS app appearance or speed other than the UI changes in the beta version. Your recording is only 3 seconds long and seems very fast to me for an app which much log in and contact the server to get what is being displayed. The animation during the delay doesn’t bother me, and is better than nothing indicating that there is a small delay. Would you rather have a dancing cat animation?

<LOL>

Of course, the app has to wait until it can connect to the Fastmail server, securely log you in, request the view you last were using, and for the server to come up with the requested data (such as a list of messages meeting certain criteria) and for the data to be sent to the app and displayed. The delay in generating the final display depends on your internet connection speed and network latency.

On either my iPhone 7 Plus or iPad Pro (2nd gen), this process takes about 4 seconds on a 3G cellular connection where I’m sitting now at a restaurant. That includes authentication through the fingerprint reader (both devices came out before the face recognition feature was added) and filtering to view all Unread messages in my account (out of 24 GB total quota used for messages). Of course, I remove the app from RAM before running the test so it has to load the app before steps listed above.

My greatest personal productivity improvement in the last couple of years has been the incredible speed improvement of the Fastmail app or webmail system, especially the improvement in search speed. I choose to file incoming messages into folders using alias targeting and rules (which automatically mark unimportant messages as Read).. Then I view the Unread messages in all folders using a saved search specification (which appears similar to a folder). Searches can find content in attachments (such as PDF and Word documents) just as rapidly.

I’m building a new house, so documents containing the names of the rooms are on many PDF floor plan, Word documents, and Excel spreadsheets. If I search for “bedroom bath laundry workshop kitchen” I find all messages containing ALL of those terms (which are mainly PDF floor plans), and if I add HASATT (which is a shortcut for has:attachment), it only finds messages with attachments. Complex searches including terms included on attached documents are nearly instantaneous.

So I’m very happy with the speed of the Fastmail iOS app, including the launch speed. I find it amazing that the communication between the app and server and the server data retrieval can be so fast.

Bill

24 Dec 2021, 08:11 AM	#1
Berenburger The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 2,905	Slow starter on IOS Despite the app's small size, FM is a slow starter. Apps (email) which are significantly bigger in size are starting much faster. Besides that, the animation looks ugly when starting the app. See attached recording on an iPad with IOS 15.1. Is anyone experiencing this too?

25 Dec 2021, 03:41 AM	#2
n5bb Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: May 2004 Location: Irving, Texas Posts: 8,926	I haven’t noticed any recent change in the Fastmail iOS app appearance or speed other than the UI changes in the beta version. Your recording is only 3 seconds long and seems very fast to me for an app which much log in and contact the server to get what is being displayed. The animation during the delay doesn’t bother me, and is better than nothing indicating that there is a small delay. Would you rather have a dancing cat animation? <LOL> Of course, the app has to wait until it can connect to the Fastmail server, securely log you in, request the view you last were using, and for the server to come up with the requested data (such as a list of messages meeting certain criteria) and for the data to be sent to the app and displayed. The delay in generating the final display depends on your internet connection speed and network latency. On either my iPhone 7 Plus or iPad Pro (2nd gen), this process takes about 4 seconds on a 3G cellular connection where I’m sitting now at a restaurant. That includes authentication through the fingerprint reader (both devices came out before the face recognition feature was added) and filtering to view all Unread messages in my account (out of 24 GB total quota used for messages). Of course, I remove the app from RAM before running the test so it has to load the app before steps listed above. My greatest personal productivity improvement in the last couple of years has been the incredible speed improvement of the Fastmail app or webmail system, especially the improvement in search speed. I choose to file incoming messages into folders using alias targeting and rules (which automatically mark unimportant messages as Read).. Then I view the Unread messages in all folders using a saved search specification (which appears similar to a folder). Searches can find content in attachments (such as PDF and Word documents) just as rapidly. I’m building a new house, so documents containing the names of the rooms are on many PDF floor plan, Word documents, and Excel spreadsheets. If I search for “bedroom bath laundry workshop kitchen” I find all messages containing ALL of those terms (which are mainly PDF floor plans), and if I add HASATT (which is a shortcut for has:attachment), it only finds messages with attachments. Complex searches including terms included on attached documents are nearly instantaneous. So I’m very happy with the speed of the Fastmail iOS app, including the launch speed. I find it amazing that the communication between the app and server and the server data retrieval can be so fast. Bill