Hi all,
This is the October community update. You can read the September update here.
It’s good to be back! My paternity leave this summer was the longest break I’ve had from Bubble since I started in 2012, and it gave me the opportunity for some personal reflection about everything we’ve built. We’re going to be focusing on what we consider our “core,” which is making the Bubble editor fun, easy, and powerful. That’s what got us into this game to begin with.
If you joined us for BubbleCon this week, you probably heard that renewed focus loud and clear! Our product priority is improving our editor by leveling up the UX and integrating AI, while expanding its capabilities to include native mobile apps. We’re also working behind the scenes to make our platform — particularly our database layer — robust, fast, scalable, and secure. And… that’s pretty much it: We’ve restructured our engineering team and narrowed our focus to that set of priorities, so that we can execute them as quickly and effectively as possible.
I want to thank everyone who joined us for BubbleCon, both virtually and in person. I had an absolute blast meeting you all, seeing the cool things you built, and celebrating at the after party! I can’t imagine a better way to return from leave.
And if you missed it, it’s not too late to watch the recordings, or read the summaries of what we announced! Below, I’ll go over some of the highlights.
Updates we announced at BubbleCon
Mobile: Native mobile is officially in invite-only beta! This milestone means that Bubble is the first no-code platform where users can build once and deploy to mobile and web.
At BubbleCon, the team demoed new mobile components in the editor and mobile-specific data and logic. They also shared a few apps built by alpha testers, including ChurchSpace, a company building a rental marketplace and VisionUs, a Canadian nonprofit building a community hub.
Watch the demo video and read the session recap on the blog. Starting this week, we’re taking users off the waitlist on a rolling basis.
Flusk: Bubble has acquired Flusk, a security monitoring tool built specifically for Bubble apps to help keep your app’s data secure as you build and scale.
This is a really exciting moment for Bubble and for me and Emmanuel personally. Victor and Wesley have built an incredible product. If you’re already using Flusk, nothing is changing for now. Stay tuned for more updates soon and read the official announcement on the blog.
Editor modernization: The new workflow tab is officially in opt-in beta. To try it out, go to your app’s Versions tab and select Redesigned Workflow Editor from the beta features section. The new design is much more simple visually, but is just as powerful as the old one. Here’s a rundown of the key changes:
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Improved organization with folders: The update introduces folders to the core of the interface to help you group workflows efficiently. Added drag-and-drop functionality and metadata previews enhance workflow management and navigation.
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Enhanced workflow views: You can now switch between viewing workflows by folder or by event type (e.g, button clicks, page loads). This new “View as” feature simplifies finding and managing workflows based on triggers.
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Better workflow navigation and collaboration: A new back button, hover cards with key workflow details, and a URL-sharing feature make it easier to navigate between workflows and collaborate by sharing specific workflow states directly.
Other changes we made this month
As of October 1, apps on legacy monthly plans are now migrated to workload-based plans. Apps on legacy annual plans will migrate on their next renewal date. We made the switch from capacity-based plans to workload to make sure your app keeps up with high end-user demand, and have found most Bubblers have enough workload units to maintain their apps.
As you scale or are looking to optimize your app’s workload usage, we’ve put together some how-tos for you to refer back to:
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Workload 101 and Workload management explainers
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Workload YouTube series hosted by Gregory John
You can also reach out to our team through the Support Center if you have any questions.
Agency ecosystem: All tiered agencies can now participate in the enterprise revenue share program by referring enterprise clients to Bubble. Agency admins received an email on September 24 with more info on the program and how to participate. If you’re interested or have questions, you can reach out to the Bubble Partnerships team at partnerships@bubble.io.
The team also wrapped development on a streamlined onboarding flow for new agencies. This work also included some smaller quality-of-life improvements to the agency dashboard that make it easier to keep profiles updated.
What we’re working on
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AI:
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I got to talk about my perspective on no-code and AI during the BubbleCon 2024 keynote. Bubble’s primary goal with AI is to help users get further in their product-building journey faster, which is why our AI builder spits out Bubble’s language, not code.
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The AI team also demoed the AI builder, Bubble Assist. At launch, even non-technical users will be able to type their app idea in their own words and get a functional MVP within ten minutes.
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You can read more at the session recap here.
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Mobile:
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Last month, we added new functionality, including swipe actions, camera/photo library access, push notifications, web view, OAuth login support, and more.
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In October, the team will be working on some new features (including location services and select elements) and gathering feedback from beta testers to continue improving on quality. We’ll also start exploring next steps for mobile plugins and the mobile debugger.
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Editor:
- We are continuing to add features to the newly-released workflow tab, as well as respond to feedback and bug reports. We are also working on improving the UX of our menu bar.
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Platform:
- We are continuing our reliability push from the summer, specifically focused on our database layer. We expect to see transformative improvements in both uptime and performance by early 2025, as well as continuing to do our best to keep the platform running smoothly day-to-day.
ICYMI
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You can read the full recap of my and Emmanuel’s BubbleCon keynote address on the blog.
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Check out the Showcase page to read about two native mobile apps featured at BubbleCon: ChurchSpace, an app connecting churches to people seeking space rentals, and Vision Us, a non-profit building an app to help grow community engagement.
New hires
We had four new hires this month. Big welcome to Victor and Wesley of the Flusk team! We also have Rania joining as a software engineer, and Gaytri joining as a technical product support specialist.
Thanks again to everyone who tuned in or joined us in person for BubbleCon. I’m really looking forward to sharing more soon.
– Josh and Emmanuel