Mobile performance in 2026

The stakes are concrete: 70% of users abandon an app that loads too slowly, apps over 50 MB see about 25% higher abandonment (size is a conversion tax before the app even opens), and teams that hit their startup-time targets report 20–40% higher retention. The target is interactive in under two seconds on a mid-range device — not your flagship test phone — and cold start is where users feel it most.

Turn it into a performance budget you enforce: measure cold start on real mid-range hardware every release and fail the build on a regression; trim app size (audit assets and dependencies, use app-thinning, drop SDKs you don't need); defer non-critical work off the launch path; and treat a performance regression like a bug with an owner. You can have the best features in your category and still lose, because the user never waited long enough to find them. When did you last measure cold start on a mid-range device? Tell us below.