# 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**.

> **Type:** concept
> **For:** Anyone who assembles content or uses app widgets in scenes.
> **Prerequisite:** Any account with the read permission for apps can view them. Installing is the owners’ job.
> **Where in the portal:** **Apps** › **Discover apps** › the app’s listing › **Data & access** tab

## 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](/docs/apps/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

![Paths of an installed app: from installation through Active to Update waiting, Not in your package, or Uninstalled](/docs/apps/bilder/455a5145-app-states.svg)

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](/docs/apps/app-update-decision#when-your-current-version-is-phased-out).

**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](/docs/apps/uninstall-app#delete-the-data-of-an-uninstalled-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](/docs/apps/all-apps)
- [Install or book an app](/docs/apps/install-app)
- [Configure widgets: template, preview, and fields](/docs/content/configure-widgets)