How to detect first time app launch on an iPhone

Question

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

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

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];

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()

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
}

You can implement it with the static method below:

+ (BOOL)isFirstTime{
    static BOOL flag=NO;
    static BOOL result;

    if(!flag){
        if ([[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] boolForKey:@"hasLaunchedOnce"]){
            result=NO;
        }else{
            [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setBool:YES forKey:@"hasLaunchedOnce"];
            [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] synchronize];
            result=YES;
        }

        flag=YES;
    }
    return result;
}