What is an app, and what does it do with your data?

An app extends your displays with content the portal does not bring on its own. How it works depends on its kind. Whether your package includes it depends on its class. What it does with your data is stated before installation under Data & access.

Three ways an app works#

Most apps provide Widgets that you place on the stage in the scene editor, often in several Views. After installation they appear in the widget palette automatically. You do not have to unlock anything.

Some apps also bring Data areas in which you maintain data. They appear as tabs on the app’s page and carry the name the app gives them, such as Locations and Duty rosters for Pharmacies on duty.

The third way is different: OneDrive unlocks a function that is already built into the platform, the Places section in the media library. Its listing states this under Unlocks in the portal. If you uninstall it later, the section stays. Media you have already imported remain, but new items can no longer be brought in. The Video wall, which joins several displays into one surface, is not an app but a core feature. In the store it appears as a tile of its own, see Video wall.

What your package includes: the class#

Every app belongs to a Class. Most are included in every package and carry no badge for it. Pro is included from the Pro package on, and Add-on is booked on top for a monthly price of its own. If your package does not include an app, it stays visible and states the reason, and View packages leads to billing. If grandfathering applies to an app you already use, it shows Stays free for you with the Grandfathered badge.

The path of an installed app#

Only one change requires a decision: Update waiting. We silently adopt any update that asks for nothing new. If an update asks for additional permissions, new access to your organization’s data, or your consent to changed terms, it waits for Accept or Decline in the app’s Update tab, and its row in My apps shows Update waiting. Until you decide, the app keeps running on its current version as usual. Only its widgets cannot be newly placed. When a version is phased out, we switch the app to the next version at the end of its phase-out period, see When an app update is waiting for your decision.

Not in your package does not mean deleted: settings and data stay, and a larger package unlocks the app again immediately. Until then its widgets cannot be inserted, scenes with these widgets are skipped, and no display goes dark.

What an app does with your data#

The Data & access tab in an app’s listing answers this before installation, even when the answer is “nothing.” It has five blocks: Creates for you, Reads existing data (Organization details, Organization logo, Media library, Team and accounts, Display locations), Adds data, External connections, and When you uninstall. For adding data, this applies: “Changing or deleting is impossible. An app can only contribute.” Below that, the Privacy card names the recipients outside the platform and the storage location.

When you uninstall says what remains of the app. Your data is normally kept so that a new installation picks up where it left off. If you no longer need it, have it deleted for good after uninstalling, see Uninstall an app.

Separate from this is Roles & permissions. These permissions are added to your organization’s permission catalog with the installation. They control who on the team may operate the app, not what the app accesses.

What follows#

• The store’s categories are also the headings of the widget palette in the scene editor. What you find in the store, you find there under the same name.
• If an app’s widgets cannot be placed in the editor, the cause is almost always a waiting update or Not in your package, not an error in the scene.
• The header of a store listing tells you where you stand: publisher, category, the industry for an industry app, the tagline, the badges, and the facts of the offered version with date and languages. Badges include Trial for an app we are still testing, or Essentials for an app without which your displays lack basic building blocks. The page of an installed app, by contrast, names the installed version with its publisher in its header.

Related#

• All apps at a glance: categories, classes, and collections
• Install or book an app
• Configure widgets: template, preview, and fields