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Software Engineering vocabulary · Web, Mobile and Interface Development

App lifecycle

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

/ˈæp ˈlaɪfˌsaɪkəl/nounCore term

In software engineering, app lifecycle means: The series of states an app moves through from launch to being closed, such as active, in the background or suspended, and the events the system sends at each change.

In Turkish: uygulama yaşam döngüsü

How it is used

Developers handle the lifecycle to save data, pause videos or stop location updates at the right moment. On Android it is described through methods like onCreate, onResume and onPause; on iOS through app and scene states such as active, inactive and background.

Example sentences

  1. The timer stops because we don't handle the app lifecycle correctly when the phone is locked.

  2. Every new Android developer should understand the activity and app lifecycle first.

Common collocations

  • app lifecycle
  • lifecycle method
  • lifecycle event
  • handle the lifecycle
  • backgroundThe state of an app that is still running or kept in memory but is not visible on the screen, for example after the user switches to another app.
  • foregroundThe state of an app that is open and visible on the screen, so the user can interact with it directly.
  • activityIn Android, a core app component that represents one screen with a user interface and has its own lifecycle, from being created to being destroyed.
  • view controllerIn iOS UIKit, an object that manages one screen or part of a screen: it loads the views, responds to user actions and handles events such as the screen appearing.
  • cold startLaunching an app when it is not already in memory, so the system has to create everything from the beginning; it is the slowest kind of app launch.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Web, Mobile and Interface Development

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