Many mobile apps are data-centric and are designed to replace pocket atlases, and dictionaries, as well as create new smart digital pocket references for data that changes seamlessly by leveraging different synchronization technologies.
In today’s world, the major challenge in mobile computing is to provide the same user experience to customers during poor or no network connectivity as with LTE or Wi-Fi networks. Mobile users keep on roaming to different places, and oftentimes, they receive poor cell coverage and bad network connectivity. Most of the smartphone apps fail to work in such conditions since they are engineered to rely heavily on strong data connectivity.
The contexts causing the use of a data synchronization mechanism can be considered from two viewpoints: uploading and downloading. Uploading is the transfer of data from the mobile device to a remote backend server, whereas downloading is the transfer of data from the remote backend server to mobile devices.
In both cases, the success or failure of the data sync should be conveyed to the user either directly (with a notification or dialog), or indirectly (in a log), with appropriate error information if a failure occurs. Let’s explore with me the valuable aspects of mobile app offline data synchronization.
Fig: Data synchronization on mobile application
The data synchronization in the mobile applications can be achieved using Sync Service and Sync Adapter. A Sync Adapter is a plug-in that handles the background of the Android app sync data with the server. This plug-in is registered on the platform’s Sync Manager, which is in charge of running it and can be triggered when needed, requested, or scheduled.
The data synchronization in Android apps can be achieved using Sync Service and Sync Adapter. A Sync Adapter is a plug-in that handles background syncs on the Android platform to sync data from your app to a server. This plug-in is registered on the platform’s Sync Manager, which is in charge of running it and can be triggered when needed, requested, or scheduled.
I hope our article will motivate you to design your mobile application differently: offline-first instead of online-only. Importantly, it would move your app to the next level of the user experience and can improve the amount of time a user spends with your application. If you have any queries about data synchronization in mobile applications don’t forget to comment.
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