Badoo • Valerii Che • Jan 17, 2019

Server-Provided Animations in iOS Apps

Article Summary

Valerii Che from Badoo solved a problem every mobile team dreads: waiting days for App Store approval just to update animations. His solution? Move them to the server.

When Badoo launched live streaming with animated gifts that needed frequent updates, they faced a bottleneck. Coordinating iOS and Android releases plus App Store review times meant days of delay for each animation change. The team built a server-side animation delivery system instead.

Key Takeaways

Export After Effects animations to JSON using Lottie and Bodymovin plugin
Store animations on server, fetch on demand without app updates
Same approach works across iOS, Android, and Web platforms
Designers can ship new animations without involving mobile developers

Critical Insight

Server-provided animations eliminate app store approval delays and decouple design updates from mobile release cycles.

The article includes specific technical gotchas about asset types and vector graphics that could save you debugging time.

About This Article

Problem

Badoo had to update animated gifts every few weeks. Each update meant coordinating the iOS and Android teams, then waiting for App Store review cycles. This created delays of several days before anything went live.

Solution

Valerii Che's team built an animation storage service that sends JSON files through REST API endpoints. Designers could export Adobe After Effects animations using the Bodymovin plugin and store them on the server. The client apps then pulled these animations on demand.

Impact

This separated the animation update workflow from everything else. Designers could now push new animations directly to the server without needing mobile developers or triggering app review processes.