How to detect first time app launch on an iPhone

Question

How can I detect the very first time launch of

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
{
  // if very first launch than perform actionA
  // else perform actionB
}

method?

Solution 1

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
{
    if (![[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] boolForKey:@"HasLaunchedOnce"])
    {
        [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setBool:YES forKey:@"HasLaunchedOnce"];
        [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] synchronize];
    }
    return YES;
}

Solution 2

In Swift 3, 4 try this:

func isAppAlreadyLaunchedOnce()->Bool{
        let defaults = UserDefaults.standard
        
        if defaults.bool(forKey: "isAppAlreadyLaunchedOnce"){
            print("App already launched : \(isAppAlreadyLaunchedOnce)")
            return true
        }else{
            defaults.set(true, forKey: "isAppAlreadyLaunchedOnce")
            print("App launched first time")
            return false
        }
    }

In Swift 2 try this,

func isAppAlreadyLaunchedOnce()->Bool{
    let defaults = NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults()
    
    if defaults.boolForKey("isAppAlreadyLaunchedOnce"){
        print("App already launched : \(isAppAlreadyLaunchedOnce)")
        return true
    }else{
        defaults.setBool(true, forKey: "isAppAlreadyLaunchedOnce")
        print("App launched first time")
        return false
    }
}

UPDATE:- For OBJ-C I use this,

+ (BOOL)isAppAlreadyLaunchedOnce {
    if ([[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] boolForKey:@"isAppAlreadyLaunchedOnce"])
    {
        return true;
    }
    else
    {
        [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setBool:YES forKey:@"isAppAlreadyLaunchedOnce"];
        [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] synchronize];
        return false;
    }
}

Ref for OBJ-C: https://stackoverflow.com/a/9964400/3411787

Solution 3

I wrote a tiny library for this very purpose. It lets me know whether this is the first launch ever, or just for this version, and any past versions the user has installed. It's available on github as a cocoapod under the Apache 2 license: GBVersionTracking

You just call this in application:didFinishLaunching:withOptions:

[GBVersionTracking track];

And then to check if this is the first launch just call this anywhere:

[GBVersionTracking isFirstLaunchEver];

And similarly:

[GBVersionTracking isFirstLaunchForVersion];

[GBVersionTracking currentVersion];
[GBVersionTracking previousVersion];
[GBVersionTracking versionHistory];

Solution 4

for Swift 3.0 - Swift 5

add extension

    extension UIApplication {
        class func isFirstLaunch() -> Bool {
            if !UserDefaults.standard.bool(forKey: "hasBeenLaunchedBeforeFlag") {
                UserDefaults.standard.set(true, forKey: "hasBeenLaunchedBeforeFlag")
                UserDefaults.standard.synchronize()
                return true
            }
            return false
        }
    }

then in your code

UIApplication.isFirstLaunch()

Solution 5

Another idea for Xcode 7 and Swift 2.0 is to use extensions

extension NSUserDefaults {
    func isFirstLaunch() -> Bool {
        if !NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults().boolForKey("HasAtLeastLaunchedOnce") {
            NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults().setBool(true, forKey: "HasAtLeastLaunchedOnce")
            NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults().synchronize()
            return true
        }
        return false
    }
}

Now you can write anywhere in your app

if NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults().isFirstLaunch() {
    // do something on first launch
}

I personally prefer an extension of UIApplication like this:

extension UIApplication {
    class func isFirstLaunch() -> Bool {
        if !NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults().boolForKey("HasAtLeastLaunchedOnce") {
            NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults().setBool(true, forKey: "HasAtLeastLaunchedOnce")
            NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults().synchronize()
            return true
        }
        return false
    }
}

Because the function call is more descriptive:

if UIApplication.isFirstLaunch() {
    // do something on first launch
}

View more solutions

Comments

[Charan]

I think stackoverflow.com/questions/5456134/iphone-launch-options will help you

[Mati Bot]

keep in mind that you need to lock this method if you want it to be thread safe.

[Mati Bot]

I know, but this method isn't. 2 Threads can reach the if(!flag){ when flag is NO. they will get inside the if blocks. one of them will get to the inner else and set the NSUserDefaults and the second one will pass the "hasLaunchOnce" (because the first thread declared it) and set the result to NO. That means you can get the wrong value.

[Stian Høiland]

This is almost perfect! Would have been awesome without the GBToolbox dependency and a podspec.

[tilo]

Your example works, but all the OP asks for is whether it is the first start or not. A bool is perfectly fine for this. Your code makes sense if one wants to know how many times the user opened the app.

[mrEmpty]

I get an error because the method isn't returning a boolean value. If I use return 0; to kill the error it fails.

[Admin]

@mrEmpty 1. ??? It returns BOOL. 2. Then the error is in your code... if returning 0 makes this crash, then something is terribly wrong -- elsewhere.

[Ziv Levy]

@H2CO3 - isn't NSUserDefaults a common place? what if another application uses the same "key" that i'm using?

[Admin]

@ZivLevy No, user defaults are stored in a property list on a per-sandbox (=per-application) basis.

[lmirosevic]

@StianHøiland GBToolbox dependency is gone, and library comes with a podspec (published to CocoaPods specs repo).

[Aaron Ash]

There's an API for setting a default value for NSUserDefaults: developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/Cocoa/Referenc‌​e/…:

[Elad]

It will work only for new apps that never submitted before.

[sigi]

Elad: You can version keys if you want... It works perfectly

[VyacheslavBakinkskiy]

If you request for it in multiple places in the application, then it will return FALSE for the second and subsequent requests, although it may actually be the first run. Better to use a launch counter

[V.March]

How does your answer differ from the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/42509810/7802772 ?!