Mastering Lightning-Fast Mobile Searches in KMP Apps: A guide for SQLite and FTS

Federico Torres
7 min readSep 27, 2023
Photo by John Cameron on Unsplash

Introduction

Picture this: You’re using a mobile app, trying to find crucial information, but each search query feels like an eternity. Frustration mounts as precious seconds tick away. If you’ve ever experienced this, you’re not alone. Slow search functionality can be a death sentence for user satisfaction in today’s fast-paced digital world.

I too faced this dilemma, with search times in my app soaring to a frustrating 10 seconds. However, I didn’t settle for sluggish search results. In this article, I will take you on a journey into the world of lightning-fast mobile searches. I’ll present to you a powerful technique called Full Text Search (FTS), armed with the formidable tools of SQLDelight and Kotlin Multiplatform.

Search in Mobile Apps

Search functionality is non-negotiable, users demand lightning-fast, intuitive and accurate search experiences, and the success of your app often depends on delivering just that.

In big complex apps with lots of data, this can be quite a challenge. That’s where FTS comes to the rescue solving this problem whether your app is offline first or switches to a local database when there’s no connection.

Quick overview on KMP

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