How Apollo Android Client Cache Works at Vrbo
Article Summary
Vrbo eliminated loading screens in their Android app entirely. Here's how they used Apollo GraphQL's normalized cache to make navigation feel instant.
The Vrbo team at Expedia Group rethought their mobile architecture by combining GraphQL orchestration with Apollo's normalized cache. Instead of making multiple network calls as users navigate, they fetch once and slice the cached data as needed.
Key Takeaways
- Replaced multiple network requests with one orchestrated GraphQL call
- Normalized cache stores each type separately with references like a SQL database
- Master detail flows now load instantly from cache with zero loading states
- Custom CacheKeyResolver creates stable identifiers for every response object
- Cross references queries by remapping roots to point at same cached records
Critical Insight
By orchestrating backend calls in their data center and leveraging normalized caching, Vrbo turned multi second waits into instant screen transitions.
