Part 3: Conflict Resolution in Offline-First Android Apps (LWW vs. CRDT Explained)
A Senior Engineer’s guide to LWW, Semantic Merging, and CRDTs for bulletproof data integrity. TL;DR Conflicts are unavoidable in offline-first apps; ignoring them leads to silent data loss. LWW (Last Writer Wins) is the simplest strategy but the riskiest. Semantic Merge is the industry standard for 90% of mobile apps. CRDTs are the gold standard for real-time collaborative editing. Integrity requires atomic transactions between your local DB and the Sync Outbox. 1. The Anatomy of a Conflict When multiple devices update the same data without a persistent connection, conflict resolution in distributed systems becomes your top priority. Visualizing the Collision The Stale Read (Lost Update): Your app reads a profile at v1 . While offline, a web dashboard updates it to v2 . The app eventually syncs its edit based on v1 , wiping out the server’s newer data. The Write-Write Conflict: Device A sets a status to “Done,...