Designing Offline-First Mobile Apps

Offline-first design means the app treats local data as the primary source of truth, syncing with the server when a connection is available rather than requiring one for every action.

The hardest part is usually conflict resolution, deciding what happens when the same record is changed both offline and on the server before syncing occurs.

We design a clear conflict resolution strategy upfront, whether that is last-write-wins or a merge strategy specific to the data type, rather than leaving it as an afterthought.