Hello AppSheet Community,
We just announced that we’re changing the support plan of mobile devices for our native apps. Starting on December 1st, these changes will also affect branded (aka whitelabeled) application to ensure an optimal experience for your users.
What are the support plan changes?
From now on, app creators need to update and distribute their branded apps every 18 months so that app users can benefit from the latest features and bug fixes that AppSheet releases.
Similar to users of an old version of the AppSheet native apps, users of an old version of a branded app will need to upgrade their app. When they open the application, these users will see a warning message to contact the app owner to get a newer version. By updating and distributing a new version of your app every 18 months, you will ensure your users keep on getting a good experience. Users will eventually be blocked from using the app if it is too old.
What does this mean for app creators and app users?
Starting on December 1st, your users running a branded app may start seeing that warning. At that date,
- If your app is less than 18-months old, there is nothing for you or your users to do at the moment
- If your app is older than 18-months old, your users will see that warning, but they will not be blocked from using the app for another 60 days. You should update your branded app and distribute it to your users
We’ve also announced that AppSheet will start dropping support for OS older than 5 years. As a consequence, branded apps will work on an OS at least up to 5 years after the latest OS release and if the branded app users received is less than 18 months old.
As an example, let’s look at Android 12 which got its last update in March 2022. AppSheet will support branded apps on Android 12 until March 2027 at least. If the branded app was updated in March 2025, then that app will work until September 2026. At that point, users need to get from app creators a newer version of the branded app. They will be able to use it past March 2027 and until March 2028, because the app creator updates the branded app early enough before the OS is not supported.
Let us know below if you have any questions.
Thank you,
The AppSheet team
FAQ
Please read the FAQ in the other announcement as well.
I don’t remember when I last updated and distributed my branded app. How do I know when to do this?
- Starting in a few days, when you open the app in the Editor it will show you a warning if the app is older than 18 months. If no warning is shown, no action is needed at the moment.
- You can also open your branded app on a mobile device. You’ll be able to see the same warning your users see (if any).
Is my branded app going to stop working on older devices exactly 5 years after the latest OS release?
- If you follow our recommendation to update your branded app every 18 months, there is a grace period of about 6 months and users will be able to use the branded app 5 years and 6 months after the last OS update is released.
Why isn’t the policy for branded apps the same as for non-branded apps (ie native apps)?
- AppSheet controls how often it releases new versions of its native apps. For branded apps, the app creator is responsible for releasing new versions of the branded app. This creates additional dependencies that the AppSheet team needs to take into account for its support plan.
Does this impact users accessing the app on a desktop browser?
- No, only users who download the AppSheet app from the Play Store or App Store.
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