When an app update is waiting for your decision

After this guide, you have decided on an app update that needs your consent: the app works with its widgets in the new version, or it deliberately stays on the current version.

When an update is waiting for you#

We silently adopt any update that asks for nothing new. An update that asks for additional permissions, new access to your organization’s data, or your consent to changed terms, however, waits for you. The same applies when we discontinue your current version. While your decision is pending, the app keeps running on its current version as usual: your scenes show it as before, and nothing about it is restricted. Only its widgets cannot be newly placed in the scene editor. Its tile in the palette shows Update waiting and leads to the decision. The row in My apps shows the status Update waiting with the version and the reason (“Version 1.3.0 is waiting. Reason: a new permission.”).

This is reported in a single notice bar between the header and the content, with the name of the app, the version, and the reason. The notice cannot be closed, and it disappears with your decision. On the app’s own page, a narrow banner sits below the header instead, and the Update tab carries a counter.

There is deliberately no switch for automatic updates: what asks for nothing new arrives by itself, and what asks for something new always asks first.

Steps#

1. In the notice or in My apps, click Decide. The app’s Update tab opens.
2. Read the decision. The header names the versions (“Version 1.2.0 → 1.3.0”), and below it the reason is stated in one sentence. Next come Reason, New in the new version, What changes with its three rows Terms (the previous and the new terms as a short summary, with the Full terms next to them), Permissions, and Access, then the Effects on your scenes and, if there is one, the Deadline.
3. Decide with Accept or Decline. If several apps are waiting, you decide on each one in its own tab. The notice counts them and leads to each one individually in the Notices sheet.

Options#

Ask the owners for a decision#

The owners decide on updates. As a manager, instead of Accept and Decline you see the Ask an owner to decide button in the Update tab, with the sentence “The owners of your organization decide on updates. Your request reaches them in the bell and by email.”

1. Click Ask an owner to decide. The dialog names the app and the version to be decided on.
2. Under A sentence for the owners, write why the decision is urgent or what you need the new version for. The field is optional and accepts up to 280 characters.
3. Click Send request. The message Request sent appears, and the tab says “You asked the owners for a decision on ….”

Every owner receives the request in the bell (“… asks for a decision”) and by email with your sentence. The link in it leads to the app’s Update tab. The same request for the same version goes out only once within seven days. The request is settled by an owner’s decision, and likewise by the switch on the deadline.

When your current version is phased out#

Sometimes we discontinue a version, for example because a newer one is ready or because it has a security gap. The decision then carries the reason “Version … is being discontinued,” a Deadline badge, and the sentence saying what happens afterward: “On … we switch to version …, even without your decision.” The time until then is called the phase-out period. For a security gap, the Security notice also appears above the decision. Until the deadline the app keeps running on its version, and declining is possible only until then. If the new version appears only after the phase-out period has ended and needs your consent, the deadline is seven days after it appears.

When the deadline is reached, we switch the app and your scenes to the new version, even without your consent. You learn of this through the App switched to a new version notification, for example:

The phase-out period of version 1.2.0 of “Pharmacies on duty” has ended. We have switched the app and your scenes to version 1.3.0.

Lift scenes#

After a major jump in an app’s version, published scenes keep playing their previous version. The Update tab then lists these scenes under Lift scenes. Lift all scenes to version … gives each of these scenes a new scene version with the installed version, and afterward each scene shows whether that worked.

Earlier decisions#

Under Earlier decisions, the Update tab records what happened to the app’s versions, with the date: installed by …, accepted by … including the reason, adopted silently for an update that asked for nothing new, switched after the phase-out period, and declined. Where we know it, what was new in the version is listed below. Without an open decision, No decision pending appears above it.

Other labels that need no decision#

Three labels look like an open item but do not ask for consent: the Trial badge (we are still testing the app, and its functions may change), the status Switched off (we have temporarily switched the app off), and the status Not in your package (your package no longer includes the app, or a booking has ended). Settings and data are kept in all three cases. What the badges mean in detail is described in My apps and the page of an installed app and When an app does not run.

Check the result#

• After Accept: the notice is gone, the app is back to Active or Ready in My apps, its widgets can be inserted again immediately, and Earlier decisions carries the entry accepted by ….
• After Decline: the notice is gone, the app keeps running on its current version, and Earlier decisions carries the entry declined.

If something goes wrong#

Related#

• My apps and the page of an installed app — status, filters, and the app’s tabs.
• Discover apps — what a store listing says.
• Configure widgets — placing the widgets again after consent.