Offline-First Architecture is an approach to application development in which data remains stored on the device and only syncs to the server in the background, when a connection appears. If Internet connection gets lost, nothing breaks — user can continue with normal operation. This paper is about how this is actually implemented—what local storage is used, how the sync engine is implemented, how conflicts with multiple copies between devices are handled (CRDT/Operational Transformation, for instance), and how real products like Google Docs, Figma, and Notion, have implemented these ideas. We also perform comparisons between offline-first and the typical server-based designs to discover actual, measurable distinctions in productiveness and dependability. In short – offline-first is no longer an enhancement; it now is a requirement for apps that should function in reality.
Barde et al. (Tue,) studied this question.