Bubble Mobile Apps Editor Roadmap and Timeline

Announcements
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Hi everyone!

I’m Nick, and I’m the product manager for the Mobile team. We’re grateful for the excitement for Bubble’s native mobile app builder and wanted to give you an even more detailed look at our progress.

The team has been working hard: In the last month, we shipped the alpha version and started the testing process with a group of 30 community members. Thanks to their feedback so far, we have finalized our roadmap for the beta. (If you’re not yet on the waitlist for the beta, you can sign up here.)

Beta Features Roadmap

That said, we’re excited to share a sneak peek of the beta roadmap!

Our goal is to enable users to leverage end-to-end mobile development capabilities and ultimately publish your app to Apple and Google app stores. When you first get started, you can choose between building a brand new mobile app or leveraging data, styles, and backend workflows in an existing Bubble app. Unlike web apps with mobile wrappers, you’ll be able to…

  • Build fully native apps for iOS and Android:
    • Bubble’s mobile apps are built on React Native, a cross-platform framework that renders native code for both iOS and Android
    • Build with native UI components (e.g., bottom sheets), define native navigation patterns (e.g., tab bar), use native gestures to trigger workflows (e.g. long press) for a truly native look and feel
    • Define performant dynamic lists with built-in swipe actions
  • Integrate with mobile device functionality:
    • Access device camera, photo library, location services, and biometric authentication
    • Define the offline read-only behavior of your apps
    • Send push notifications to your app’s end-users
  • Test and deploy your mobile app through new preview and publishing experiences
    • Test your app right on your device using BubbleGo, a new mobile app of ours, without the need to use TestFlight or Android Studio
    • Submit your app to Google Play Console and App Store Connect for review right from the Bubble editor

Beta Timeline

In terms of timing, our original goal was to start inviting users off the waitlist in Q3. Because the team shifted all hands on deck over the past few weeks to support urgent stability efforts, we’re now aiming to start inviting users off the waitlist in early Q4. We are confident about this new timeline.

We hope this preview will help you plan ahead. We’ll share more updates as we continue to work on delivering the native mobile app building experience to you all.

— Nick

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:grin::grin::grin::grin:

This is really cool - will there be a way to test from desktop emulating a phone like preview mode for web apps?

This is interesting - I was puzzled how you’d make it offline compatible with Bubble DB, but this seems like a good approach.

Thanks for the update, it really helps us understand the team’s product decisions :+1:

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giphy

wowza

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First, very excited to see this when it comes out.

Your post suggests that we’ll have to rebuild pages and possibly workflows specifically for a mobile app version. @nick.carroll, can you confirm if this is correct?

We built all our pages to be mobile-friendly and behave similar to an app already, so I’m really hoping we don’t have to redo everything (especially the workflows).

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Well, that’s actually pretty interesting to see. Last time I had to submit an app to Google Play Console I went through many hoops and having ease of use with a few clicks from the editor connected to a Google Play or App Store sounds pretty cool.

Hmm, hope it delivers everything for testing native features.

My body is ready to get my hands on Bubble Mobile Apps Editor. :rocket:

Quick question will this Mobile Apps Editor be a separate thing? A stand-alone download? or Integrated within the existing Editor?

Also, will there be an offline option for this Mobile Apps editor if it’s a download?

Thanks for this update!

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I’m so excited for this, thanks for the update @nick.carroll !

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Thanks for the update!!! You rock!!!

Will there be any support to extend functionality with plugins / react native components?

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Lets be moderately excited. Yes native mobile is awesome. But, reading between the lines, it seems the front end (screens and logic) for web and mobile will have to be build separately. Can you confirm this @nick.carroll?

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Keep the questions coming everyone :smiley:

We are giving the topic a few hours so a bunch of people can chime in, and Nick will stop by later today to read through and answer things

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Nice! I hope full screen of videos will work on android, and if it will be able to record audio using html elements on page (2 current limitations of available wraps)

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i just that we’ll able test payments as well

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Super excited for this!

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If I have an existing Bubble app and want to use it for native app, will I need to have two separate apps to maintain my web app and native app as separate apps in my account, so I would need to pay for two subscriptions and make changes to two separate apps?

Or is it a feature that will allow me to build with native features, deploy a native app to the app stores, as well as have my webapp all within a single app in my account paying a single subscription to Bubble and making changes to only one app?

If it is the first instance, where we will need to have two separate apps, one for native and one for web, is there going to be a feature to ‘link’ these apps, so that changes made in one will reflect in the other?

Also, what is the situation looking like for in-app payments? It is well known that app stores charge a considerable commission fee percentage for in app purchases. If I have a native e-commerce app that is connected to Stripe via API for payments to purchase products, will I be charged by the app stores the commission for in app purchases? If so, are there any potential workarounds to avoid in-app payment commissions to the app stores that the Bubble team has conjured up?

Will Bubble be providing a code export feature?

Could you expand on this? I really do not understand the concept.

Will all of these be configurable by the user via their device settings?

Will we have access to the settings the user sets in their device via conditionals, such as ‘Current Users access to device camera is set to No Access’ so that we will be able to do things like show popups if access to the device camera is essential to the functionality the user is attempting to perform?

Will there be any data synchronization that will synchronize data between the device and the server when once the internet connection is re-established?

If there are refusals from the app stores to list the app, not due to the apps features/functions not conforming with the app store rules, but instead because of some kind of technical reason, will Bubble support provide free support in resolving the issues to get the app accepted to the app stores?

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Will the app be able to run in the background when:

  • it is open but not active?
  • when it is not open?

Thanks

You mean like Bubble with plugins? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Right now I am using a lot of css, html and JS to make things work which are not possible with vanilla bubble.

Will there be the same options to insert Code somewhere to cross bubble limitations?

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I inquired about that a few days ago, and this is what Nick said…

The plan is to eventually offer nearly unlimited extensibility with a plugin editor that allows you to write react native code / connect mobile SDKs.

 
 

I also asked about that, and Nick said the following…

Other than building out a regular web app to wire frame out what you might want the native mobile app to look / feel like, I would expect to rebuild the UI to take advantage of all of the new native components and surfaces

 
 

@nick.carroll My biggest question at this point is about the deployment process after an app’s been accepted to the play/app stores. Specifically, will it require resubmission? I’m not familiar with the “usual” process for native apps.

A nice thing about web apps (even if they’re inside the WebView of a native wrapper) is that updates are available immediately upon deployment.

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Can you give some insight on what device functions we can access out the box? Ex) GPS, gyroscope, contact lists, etc. or do we get to define the scopes?

You said we can chose between using a new app or using existing apps styles and such, does this mean they aren’t in the same development environment as your web app? Can they utilize the same database similar to how wrapped apps currently do or is it a truly seperate app?

Does is have native Google payments & Apple Pay out the box or will the community be creating these functionalities?

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Lets hope we can put logic in reusables and use that for both web and mobile.

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Hi everyone! Thanks for the great feedback. Jumping in to address some of the questions that have come up so far. I’ll try and group these by theme…

Web + Mobile apps

  • Mobile apps will be able to be added to existing projects, which means you’ll be able to share data, backend workflows, and many styles across your web + mobile app. Web pages and mobile views will be separate, however, which includes any page level workflows. That being said, you’ll be able to copy and paste certain visual elements and page workflows over to mobile views.
  • Because Bubble mobile apps render native code and use native components, we think you’ll actually want to rebuild a lot of your wrapped pages to take advantage of the native components, surfaces, and navigation patterns and get better performance / native look & feel.
  • You can also choose to create a mobile only project, if you would like, and have no need for a web app. In this case, you will still need servers and a hosted database for your web app, you just wouldn’t add any web pages.
  • As far as app plans go, projects that have both a web + mobile app will be on the same app plan, not separate plans.

App Preview

  • In addition to loading your app on your device via BubbleGo, you’ll also be able to preview your app on the web in an updated web preview experience - which includes selecting different device types. This is not true device emulation, however.
  • If you want true device emulation, you can always load your app onto testflight or android studio on your desktop.

Plugins

  • The native mobile apps editor will not launch with a plugin editor, but will be a top priority for the remainder of the year. Because we are building react native apps, we will be able to deliver a much more seamless plugin experience.
  • It will not be possible to inject native code onto a mobile view, however, like you can today with the HTML element. That being said, the plugin platform should alleviate the need to do so.

Android Support

  • Building and publishing Android apps will be supported out of the box with no additional work required on your end

Device hardware and SDKs

  • To start, we’ll be supporting camera access, location services, FaceID, push notifications, and offline support.
  • We will continue releasing high priority integrations like in-app payments, sensors, contacts, etc.
  • Permissions for these integrations and SDKs come out of the box. For example, the prompt asking a user to enable location services on their phone when the app is launched, will come for free. After that, you’ll be able to handle any errors when trying to access functionality that does not have the proper permissions. That being said, there are strict rules about pestering your users to turn on notifications or camera access etc. that must be followed

Deploy / App Store permissions

  • After entering some basic project information, you will be able to submit new app builds to App Store Connect and Google Play Console right from the editor. From there, there will be a few steps that must be taken in these developer consoles to submit for review.
  • Subsequent builds will also be sent to your developer consoles, where you can decide to submit for review, retire older app versions, etc.
  • There will also be the option when deploying to submit an over the air update (OTA). This allows you to skip the app store review process and update your latest app version directly. That being said, this feature must be reserved for small changes and bug fixes per Apple app store guidelines.
  • We will not be providing a direct code export, but you will get the raw iOS and Android build files whenever you bundle a new version of your app.

Background

  • Background app access depends on the permissions set by your user

Offline support

  • For now, we will only support helping you define the read-only behavior of your app when it is offline
  • In the future, we hope to support Read & Write operations while the app is offline, with conflict resolution / data synchronization, but this is a huge amount of work

Swipe Actions

  • Swipe actions on lists are a common pattern in mobile development. Take for example your gmail app - when you swipe on an email in your inbox, you reveal more actions that you can take like archiving or marking as read. This functionality will shop out of the box with Lists, that will be far more performant than repeating groups on web today.
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