Investigating the Correlation between Performance Scores and Energy Consumption of Mobile Web Apps

Context. Developers have access to tools like Google Lighthouse to assess the performance of web apps and to guide the adoption of development best practices. However, when it comes to energy consumption of mobile web apps, these tools seem to be lacking. Goal. This study investigates on the correlation between the performance scores produced by Lighthouse and the energy consumption of mobile web apps. Method. We design and conduct an empirical experiment where 21 real mobile web apps are (i) analyzed via the Lighthouse performance analysis tool and (ii) measured on an Android device running a software-based energy profiler. Then, we statistically assess how energy consumption correlates with the obtained performance scores and carry out an effect size estimation. Results. We discover a statistically significant negative correlation between performance scores and the energy consumption of mobile web apps (with medium to large effect sizes), implying that an increase of the performance score tend to lead to a decrease of energy consumption. Conclusions. We recommend developers to strive to improve the performance level of their mobile web apps, as this can also have a positive impact on their energy consumption on Android devices

Native vs Web Apps: Comparing the Energy Consumption and Performance of Android Apps and their Web Counterparts

Context. Many Internet content platforms, such as Spotify and YouTube, provide their services via both native and Web apps. Even though those apps provide similar features to the end user, using their native version or Web counterpart might lead to different levels of energy consumption and performance. Goal. The goal of this study is to empirically assess the energy consumption and performance of native and Web apps in the context of Internet content platforms on Android. Method. We select 10 Internet content platforms across 5 categories. Then, we measure them based on the energy consumption, network traffic volume, CPU load, memory load, and frame time of their native and Web versions; then, we statistically analyze the collected measures and report our results. Results. We confirm that native apps consume significantly less energy than their Web counterparts, with large effect size. Web apps use more CPU and memory, with statistically significant difference and large effect size. Therefore, we conclude that native apps tend to require fewer hardware resources than their corresponding Web versions. The network traffic volume exhibits statistically significant difference in favour of native apps, with small effect size. Our results do not allow us to draw any conclusion in terms of frame time. Conclusions. Based on our results, we advise users to access Internet contents using native apps over Web apps, when possible. Also, the results of this study motivate further research on the optimization of the usage of runtime resources of mobile Web apps and Android browsers

Evaluating the impact of caching on the energy consumption and performance of progressive web apps

Context. Since today mobile devices have limited battery life, the energy consumption of the software running on them can play a strong role with respect to the success of mobile-based businesses. Progressive Web Applications (PWAs) are built using common web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and are commonly used for providing a better user experience to mobile users. Caching is the main technique used by PWA developers for optimizing network usage and for providing a meaningful experience even when the user's device is offline. Goal. This paper aims at assessing the impact of caching on both the energy consumption and performance of PWAs. Method. We conducted an empirical experiment targeting 9 real PWAs developed by third-party developers. The experiment is designed as a 1 factor-2 treatments study, with the usage of caching as the single factor and the status of the cache as treatments (empty vs populated cache). The response variables of the experiment are (i) the energy consumption of the mobile device and (ii) the page load time of the PWAs. The experiment is executed on a real Android device running the Mozilla Firefox browser. Results. Our results show that PWAs do not consume significantly different amounts of energy when loaded either with an empty or populated cache. However, the page load time of PWAs is significantly lower when the cache is already populated, with a medium effect size. Conclusions. This study confirms that PWAs are promising in terms of energy consumption and provides evidence that caching can be safely exploited by PWA developers concerned with energy consumption. The study provides also empirical evidence that caching is an effective technique for improving the user experience in terms of page loading time of PWAs

An Empirical Investigation of Performance Overhead in Cross-Platform Mobile Development Frameworks

The heterogeneity of the leading mobile platforms in terms of user interfaces, user experience, programming language, and ecosystem have made cross-platform development frameworks popular. These aid the creation of mobile applications – apps – that can be executed across the target platforms (typically Android and iOS) with minimal to no platform-specific code. Due to the cost- and time-saving possibilities introduced through adopting such a framework, researchers and practitioners alike have taken an interest in the underlying technologies. Examining the body of knowledge, we, nonetheless, frequently encounter discussions on the drawbacks of these frameworks, especially with regard to the performance of the apps they generate. Motivated by the ongoing discourse and a lack of empirical evidence, we scrutinised the essential piece of the cross-platform frameworks: the bridge enabling cross-platform code to communicate with the underlying operating system and device hardware APIs. The study we present in the article benchmarks and measures the performance of this bridge to reveal its associated overhead in Android apps. The development of the artifacts for this experiment was conducted using five cross-platform development frameworks to generate Android apps, in addition to a baseline native Android app implementation. Our results indicate that – for Android apps – the use of cross-platform frameworks for the development of mobile apps may lead to decreased performance compared to the native development approach. Nevertheless, certain cross-platform frameworks can perform equally well or even better than native on certain metrics which highlights the importance of well-defined technical requirements and specifications for deliberate selection of a cross-platform framework or overall development approach.publishedVersio

Do users care about ad's performance costs? Exploring the effects of the performance costs of in-app ads on user experience

Context: In-app advertising is the primary source of revenue for many mobile apps. The cost of advertising (ad cost) is non-negligible for app developers to ensure a good user experience and continuous profits. Previous studies mainly focus on addressing the hidden performance costs generated by ads, including consumption of memory, CPU, data traffic, and battery. However, there is no research on analyzing users’ perceptions of ads’ performance costs to our knowledge. / Objective: To fill this gap and better understand the effects of performance costs of in-app ads on user experience, we conduct a study on analyzing user concerns about ads’ performance costs. / Method: First, we propose RankMiner, an approach to quantify user concerns about specific app issues, including performance costs. Then, based on the usage traces of 20 subject apps, we measure the performance costs of ads. Finally, we conduct correlation analysis on the performance costs and quantified user concerns to explore whether users complain more for higher performance costs. / Results: Our findings include the following: (1) RankMiner can quantify users’ concerns better than baselines by an improvement of 214% and 2.5% in terms of Pearson correlation coefficient (a metric for computing correlations between two variables) and NDCG score (a metric for computing accuracy in prioritizing issues), respectively. (2) The performance costs of the with-ads versions are statistically significantly larger than those of no-ads versions with negligible effect size; (3) Users are more concerned about the battery costs of ads, and tend to be insensitive to ads’ data traffic costs. / Conclusion: Our study is complementary to previous work on in-app ads, and can encourage developers to pay more attention to alleviating the most user-concerned performance costs, such as battery cost

A systematic review of digital interventions for improving the diet and physical activity behaviors of adolescents

Many adolescents have poor diet and physical activity behaviors, which can lead to the development of noncommunicable diseases in later life. Digital platforms offer inexpensive means of delivering health interventions, but little is known about their effectiveness. This systematic review was conducted to synthesize evidence on the effectiveness of digital interventions to improve diet quality and increase physical activity in adolescents, to effective intervention components and to assess the cost-effectiveness of these interventions. Following a systematic search, abstracts were assessed against inclusion criteria, and data extraction and quality assessment were performed for included studies. Data were analyzed to identify key features that are associated with significant improvement in behavior. A total of 27 studies met inclusion criteria. Most (n = 15) were Web site interventions. Other delivery methods were text messages, games, multicomponent interventions, emails, and social media. Significant behavior change was often seen when interventions included education, goal setting, self-monitoring, and parental involvement. None of the publications reported cost-effectiveness. Due to heterogeneity of studies, meta-analysis was not feasible.It is possible to effect significant health behavior change in adolescents through digital interventions that incorporate education, goal setting, self-monitoring, and parental involvement. Most of the evidence relates to Web sites and further research into alternate media is needed, and longer term outcomes should be evaluated. There is a paucity of data on the cost-effectiveness of digital health interventions, and future trials should report these data

Hubungan Antara Cache, Energy Consumption dan Runtime Performance pada Progressive Web Apps

Progresive Web Apps merupakan teknologi mutakhir di pengembangan web. Kehadiran Progresive Web Apps memberikan dampak positif bagi pengembang Web, yang mana keunggulannya memberikan peningkatan performa secara signifikan. Service Worker sebagai inti memiliki kemampuan mencegat dan menangani permintaan jaringan, termasuk mengelola cache respons lewat program. Semua kemampuan Service worker disimpan ke dalam cache. Keunggulan tersebut tentunya mempunyai implikasi pada performance. Disisi lain konsumsi energi perangkat lunak yang berjalan di atasnya, juga merupakan tantangan seorang pengembang aplikasi khususnya Web.  Tujuan penelitian ini adalah melakukan investigasi hubungan Cache terhadap Runtime Performance dan Energy Consumption. Metode penelitian menggunakan pendekatan kuantitatif dengan melakukan kajian eksperimen empiris, yang mana menilai 16 Situs yang telah mengadopsi Progresive Web Apps. Perancangan eksperimen ini memiliki variabel Cache, Energy Consumption dan Runtime Performance dengan perilaku pengumpulan data ketika Cache kosong dan Cache terisi yang selanjutnya akan di analisis dengan analisis Pearson Correlation. Pelaksanaan eksperimen dijalankan di Chrome Browser perangkat android secara langsung. Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukan bahwa ada hubungan antara Cache dan Energy Consumption dengan nilai signifikasi sebesar 0,005 pada Cache kosong dan nilai signifikasi sebesar 0,015 pada saat Cache terisi. Selain itu, juga ada hubungan antara Runtime Performance dan Energy Consumption dengan nilai signifikasi sebesar 0,008 pada Cache kosong dan nilai signifikasi sebesar 0,003 pada saat Cache terisi. Sedangkan pada variabel Cache dan Runtime Performance menunjukan bahwa tidak ada hubungan antar variabel, dengan nilai signifikansi lebih besar dari 0,05 yaitu 0,08 pada Cache kosong dan 0,098 pada saat Cache terisi. AbstractProgressive Web Apps are the latest technology in web development. The presence of Progressive Web Apps has a positive impact on Web developers, whose advantages provide a significant increase in performance. Service Workers at the core have the ability to intercept and handle network requests, including managing programmatic response caches. All Service worker capabilities are cached. These advantages of course have implications for performance. On the other hand, the energy consumption of the software running on it is also a challenge for an application developer, especially the Web. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between Cache and Runtime Performance and Energy Consumption. The research method uses a quantitative approach by conducting an empirical experimental study, which assesses 16 sites that have adopted Progressive Web Apps. This experimental design has Cache, Energy Consumption and Runtime Performance variables with data collection behavior when the cache is empty and the cache is filled which will then be analyzed with Pearson Correlation analysis. The experiment execution is run in the Chrome Browser of the android device directly. The results of this study indicate that there is a relationship between Cache and Energy Consumption with a significance value of 0,005 in an empty cache and a significance value of 0,015 when the cache is filled. In addition, there is also a relationship between Runtime Performance and Energy Consumption with a significance value of 0,008 when the cache is empty and a significance value of 0,003 when the cache is filled. While the Cache and Runtime Performance variables show that there is no relationship between variables, with a significance value greater than 0,05, namely 0,08 when the cache is empty and 0,098 when the cache is filled