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Replace Countly Faster cold start

Replace Countly to speed up cold start

Migrate from Countly to a lighter analytics SDK to reduce cold-start latency. Helps developers avoid collecting personal data.

Example Countly call (the "before")

kotlin Respectlytics
import ly.count.android.sdk.Countly
import ly.count.android.sdk.CountlyConfig

val config = CountlyConfig(application, "YOUR_APP_KEY", "https://your-countly-server.com")
    .setLoggingEnabled(true)
    .setIdMode(DeviceIdType.OPEN_UDID)
Countly.sharedInstance().init(config)

Countly.sharedInstance().events().recordEvent(
    "purchase",
    mapOf("user_id" to userId, "value" to price, "currency" to "USD"),
    1
)

Heavy analytics SDKs do work at app launch — reading identifiers, initialising queues, network dispatch — that compounds visibly on lower-end devices. Respectlytics's SDK adds typically under 30ms to cold start, vs 100-300ms for Firebase Analytics's full initialisation chain.

Remove Countly cleanly

  1. 1

    Remove the Countly SDK from your build (Countly / ly.count.android:sdk / countly-sdk-react-native-bridge / countly_flutter)

  2. 2

    Remove Countly.sharedInstance().start(with:) initialisation and recordEvent(...) call sites

  3. 3

    Decide whether you'll keep the Countly server running for other apps, or decommission it as part of the migration

  4. 4

    If you used Countly's crash reporting alongside analytics, plan a separate crash-reporter migration (Sentry / Crashlytics / Bugsnag)

Countly vs Respectlytics — faster cold start

CountlyRespectlytics
Typical cold-start contribution (p50)— see tool note above< 30ms
Initialisation work on launchReads IDFA/AAID, opens SQLite, spins up threadsAllocates ring buffer (RAM-only)
Number of background threads spawned— typically 2-41
Synchronous I/O on init— typical (SQLite open)None

Frequently asked questions

How do I measure cold start before / after?

iOS: Xcode Organizer's Launch Time metric (aggregate from real users) or Instruments → App Launch template (synthetic). Android: adb shell am start -W <package>/.<activity> or Play Console's Vitals → Startup time. Measure before removing the old SDK, after, and compare on the same device class.

Does Respectlytics block the main thread on init?

No. Respectlytics.configure(appKey:) is synchronous but does only in-memory work (allocates the ring buffer). The network flush runs on a background dispatch queue / coroutine.

What's typical magnitude of improvement?

On a mid-range Android device, removing Firebase Analytics + AppsFlyer typically saves 100-300ms off cold start, depending on Google Play Services init state. On iOS the delta is usually 50-150ms. Effect is more pronounced on cold-start (uncached) than warm-start launches.

Does cold-start improvement actually affect business metrics?

Yes — first-session abandonment correlates with launch latency in published benchmarks. A 100ms improvement on the slowest deciles of your device distribution can show a measurable first-day retention lift.

Related migration guides

Track what matters. Collect nothing you don't.

Five-field event schema, RAM-only event queue, no IDFA, no AAID, no persistent user IDs. Helps developers avoid collecting personal data in the first place.