Fix High Memory Usage in Kotlin Multiplatform Apps

High memory usage in KMP apps

High or abnormal memory usage means the app is using far more memory than it needs for what the user is doing. In a Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) app, memory is managed differently on each platform: the Android runtime garbage collector on Android, and the Kotlin/Native memory manager alongside Swift and Objective-C reference counting on iOS.

When memory keeps climbing, the app slows down, the system reclaims memory aggressively, and eventually Android throws an OutOfMemoryError or iOS terminates the app. Low-end devices are hit first.

Because shared code is used by both builds, one oversized cache or unbounded list in commonMain can raise memory usage on Android and iOS at the same time.

Why does this happen?

High memory usage in KMP apps usually comes from:

Unbounded caches and collections: In-memory caches, lists or maps in shared code that keep growing for the whole session.

Large images and payloads: Loading full-size images or large API responses and holding them in memory.

Long-lived coroutine scopes: Scopes that are never cancelled keep their state and captured objects alive.

Objects shared across Kotlin and Swift: Kotlin objects referenced from Swift, and the reverse, that live longer than expected on iOS.

Repeated allocations in hot paths: Creating many short-lived objects in loops, recomposition or scroll callbacks.

How to fix it using Appxiom

• Locate issue report: The issue report shows memory usage at the time of detection, along with the device and app version.
• Trace activity trail: The activity trail shows the screens and actions leading up to the spike, so you can find which feature allocates the memory.