Native Mobile 2024 BubbleCon - Question Thread

kpm · 2024-10-02T10:56:21.086Z

I’m not too sure what business some people are running, but in the real world when you tell your customers you will have a new feature that will be released mid 2024. Expect to have hard questions from your customers. No details, floating timeline - Thats not how it works.

ihsanzainal84 · 2024-10-02T11:10:59.988Z

Regardless, one should not be making business decisions around promises. Count your chickens before they hatch and all that.

Bigger companies have delayed bigger releases.

brad.h · 2024-10-02T12:25:35.665Z

Why not make long term plans around a partner like bubble? It’s worked in my favor so far.

Bubble is basically a miracle for me. The fact that I care about native mobile is a compliment to bubble. Native will be another miracle for me…and I’m excited for it.

Maybe I should be more patient (like some suggest above). I’m just getting mixed signals on the true timeline.

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The purpose of this post was to collect information from people with native access.

letsbuidmyapp:

I’m in the Alpha group and don’t plan on fully using this new feature until Early/Mid 2025

It would be more helpful if I had access to the editor and can see for myself, or maybe see a YouTube video, but this is helpful in the meantime.

Sorry if the initial post came off as too negative towards bubble. I love bubble and the team behind it…and I need native mobile.

d.pearce · 2024-10-02T13:40:39.636Z

Is there any more information or insight into the “Offline” Functionality.??
Will this be baked in, or will there have to be building and syncing of an second offline database?
or will it be as simple as writing some workflow for rules on syncing when back online with the DB simply replicating by magic from server to local???

boston85719 · 2024-10-02T14:23:26.388Z

georgecollier:

I am planning to be able to build a real world app effectively in mid-2025 - that’s my estimation as a developer thats user the beta

Yeah, experience tells us this…

Bubble Mobile Apps Editor Roadmap and Timeline

That’s the 3rd delay so far, my money is on a couple more

Does anybody remember the Flexbox responsive system? How many delays did that encounter…if my memory serves me, it was a solid 18 months behind ‘original’ schedule once it finally did get released. And keep in mind, it had so many shortcomings, but over some 6 months Bubble was able to implement nearly most of the features/functions users expressed were necessary.

brad.h:

I just watched BubbleCon 2024’s native mobile announcement. No date was given when I can get access…other than “rolling wait list”.

This is disappointing, as there are a lot of people eager to get access and have been waiting on the waitlist…but if we all remember the good book by Dr. Seuss (Oh the Places you Will Go), we never want to get stuck in the Waiting Place.

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alex94munns:

I need to know when this is happening otherwise real life decisions can’t be made.

I would beg to differ. When we do not know what might be in the future, it is best to take action now on what we know to be true today. Tomorrow is never guaranteed.

brad.h:

Exactly. If I can simply get access to the editor, then I can see current capabilities and limitations.

I do not think we actually need access to know what the current capabilities are, since those are likely going to be expanded upon. I’d imagine, that we can believe in the words from Bubble when they express what is going to be available as features and not expect anything less. Even though they are not great at keeping to a timeline, as most big projects of anytype are not (I just finished building a house, thought it would take 5 months, it took 9.5 months), I do not think they have ever really reneged on their word too many times (there is one glaring example of that but it is what it is).

alex94munns:

But it is what it is, will wrap it for now then when funded run a mile and get built in proper code

This is the approach I would be taking, minus the mile long run…god why does anybody do such a thing? I’d be looking at it as, let’s wrap it now, and once mobile native is released, make the necessary tweaks if at the time are not thrilled with the wrapped version.

For me personally, I’m hugely disappointed that mobile native is not here yet, nor is the beta more publicly available as I’ve had plans to build an app to release as native. This app is going to be a free app used to garner more exposure for an ecosystem of apps, so not really a make/break a business type of application, but surely something I am very eager to release as it will greatly expand the capabilities of the business in terms of likely reducing advert spend.

No matter what, Bubble has disappointed us all in the past, when around long enough, those disappointments need more than one hand to count, but Bubble has sold us the dream, we bought it, and for some of us, have come to realize that dream and are now just dreaming bigger. Hats off to Bubble for what they have accomplished so far, and hoping they keep the ship steered to accomplish even more in the future…but yeah, please, open up the beta and stop being so coy, it’s not a middle school prom.

login · 2024-10-02T19:59:11.187Z

Thanks for winning the award for outstanding UX!!

Check out he mobile app on www.storypilot.io.

It’s a powerful showcase of what’s possible to build with Bubble in terms of innovative AI products with a premium UX. I hope the new editor will allow for similar UX.

The app is build on the Nebula mobile template.

You can find here Codeless Native Contributor Profile | Bubble and get the foundation for your own award-winning mobile projects, saving you hundreds of development hours

*all our templates will be ported to the new Native Editor once it’s released.

Find us at www.codelessnative.com

Thanks all

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dmcoyotesi · 2024-10-03T09:15:45.896Z

Hi all.

What about creating PWA’s with Bubble without the need of a third party tool? Will it be possible with the new mobile features of Bubble?

I think it’s a good thing that Bubble will be able to create native Apps, but, as for myself, after having developed several Apps (with other tools), I’m kind of tired of the official App stores. They give me a lot of bureaucratic work all the time, and sincerely, except for notifications, a native App does not add any value compared to a PWA, at least for the kind of apps I develop.

Any thoughts about this from Bubble?

Best regards.

georgecollier · 2024-10-03T10:56:11.430Z

boston85719:

once mobile native is released, make the necessary tweaks if at the time are not thrilled with the wrapped version.

Building on mobile native is not a small tweak, it’s building new UI and front end workflows for every single mobile view

lindsay_knowcode · 2024-10-03T11:09:26.404Z

But there was talk of “cut and paste” between Web to Mobile editor views to help with the conversion. In any case, a complete rebuild of your front end is a popular pastime for most Bubblers

georgecollier · 2024-10-03T11:23:48.349Z

lindsay_knowcode:

cut and paste” between Web to Mobile editor views to help with the conversion. I

Some elements are copyable, others are not. You can copy groups, texts, some inputs, but things like popups will need to be changed to their mobile counterparts and as such show an error when attempting to copy.

boston85719 · 2024-10-03T14:57:40.495Z

Okay, so not an entire rebuild of UI and workflows. What kind of front end workflows would need to be rebuilt? Is it just ones associated with showing popups or is the entire method for creating/modifying data different?

boston85719 · 2024-10-04T04:44:43.763Z

lindsay_knowcode:

But there was talk of “cut and paste” between Web to Mobile editor views to help with the conversion.

I recall Bubble employees mentioning this in the past and assume for every single element type that exists for native mobile and the existing web apps, we can do this simple operation.

I’d also imagine that the ‘convert to another type’ function will exist within the mobile editor as well, so if an existing web app type of element, such as popup, doesn’t exist for mobile native, we can simply click onto the popup and use the convert to another type button to select the appropriate native mobile container type that is the popup equivalent/replacement.

They likely will retain this for workflow triggers as well, which works even better than convert to another type compared to elements, since the workflow trigger conversion is not restricted to the ‘type’ as the element conversion is. I doubt they will have built this out as a new function for workflow actions though, so likely a need to tweak the workflow action series to include new action types only available in mobile native.

I wouldn’t expect Bubble to be completely changing the way workflows work in regards to data and all elements that are available for the web apps and native apps, but instead may find new actions or triggers available in native apps that are not available in mobile apps like sending push notifications or vibrating a device. I don’t think Bubble would be building it out in such a way that it is a completely different system that requires building a new UI and front end workflow for every single mobile view.

Maybe @georgecollier could speak more to what workflows need to be built new without spilling too much about the native editor than Bubble wants the alpha testers to publicize.

dorilama · 2024-10-04T06:25:50.016Z

boston85719:

for every single element type that exists for native mobile and the existing web apps

mobile editor has a limited amount of elements, it will take time to have all the web elements available for mobile

boston85719 · 2024-10-04T07:32:20.181Z

dorilama:

mobile editor has a limited amount of elements, it will take time to have all the web elements available for mobile

Okay, but do the limited amount of elements that currently exist for mobile editor show up in a ‘replace’ function? So, if wanting to convert what is a popup in web elements, and pressing the ‘replace’ button on the popup dialogue box, does the mobile element equivalent of a popup show up in the options?

Also, does the mobile editor have a feature similar to ‘convert to reusable’ in that we can ‘convert to mobile’? Sort of how Bubble when releasing the Flexbox responsive system, would allow us to check the box to allow Bubble to automatically convert from the old responsive system to the flexbox responsive system?

georgecollier · 2024-10-04T07:53:31.762Z

boston85719:

assume for every single element type that exists for native mobile and the existing web apps, we can do this simple operation.

No

boston85719:

‘convert to mobile’?

No, because it’s not a simple 1:1 mapping. For instance, there’s no repeating group element. There’s elements for the mobile native equivalent(s).

boston85719:

building a new UI and front end workflow for every single mobile view.

You can copy workflows as you would currently copy workflows between apps. You’ll need to resolve issues where necessary

boston85719 · 2024-10-04T08:47:50.197Z

georgecollier:

You can copy workflows as you would currently copy workflows between apps. You’ll need to resolve issues where necessary

georgecollier:

Building on mobile native is not a small tweak, it’s building new UI and front end workflows for every single mobile view

boston85719:

once mobile native is released, make the necessary tweaks

Okay, thank you for clarifying. Sounds more like we are making tweaks where necessary in the event the issue checker alerts to such needs. Glad we are likely not actually needing to build new UI and workflows for every single mobile view

georgecollier:

No, because it’s not a simple 1:1 mapping. For instance, there’s no repeating group element. There’s elements for the mobile native equivalent(s)

For me, not simple doesn’t equate to impossible. This is a feature Bubble should be implementing as it would seem possible that the engineering team could say, the native mobile equivalent of a web app repeating group is element ‘xyz’ and can replace all instances of a repeating group. I could imagine there are some technical challenges to implementing that, like those probably faced when doing a conversion from old responsive system to flexbox.

georgecollier:

No

If this feature is not available, to select a web app element like a repeating group and press the ‘replace’ button and have the mobile native element equivalent show up in the list of ‘container’ types to replace it by, this should be a feature that is implemented.

Sounds to me like, the sooner Bubble gives access to the beta the sooner they will start getting feedback on how to improve what already exists. @nick.carroll is there anything on the mobile roadmap to enable such features as ‘convert to mobile native’ or using the ‘replace’ button/feature to replace elements from web app UI to their native mobile equivalents to make conversion of existing web apps into mobile native easier?

hergin · 2024-10-04T13:02:40.219Z

Here is my take on this topic. I checked the booth and the editor during the conference and chatted with @nick.carroll (great talk), engineering manager, and some developers (very involved folks, both the manager and the devs).

They (Web and Mobile) start totally separate with the intention for the team to merge most parts of them later, which is a valid approach to attack and combine these two giant parts of software development (web and mobile) without breaking them. So, I applaud the efforts and the team behind it. It is not an easy feat.

Obviously, don’t invest your company’s future in it. But if you wait long enough, I am sure it will be as mature as web dev part of Bubble in a shorter time.

d.pearce · 2024-10-07T10:58:46.935Z

Did you get any clue as to how the “Offline” functionality is implemented. Is that something we have to do, or is there some magic replicating the online DB to work offline when there is no connection and autosync???

sanastasi · 2024-10-08T14:39:53.085Z

More smoke and mirrors unfortunately. I was interviewed about native mobile for Bubble back in February and yet I’ve heard nothing about being able to access it. Let’s not mince words here. People do run their businesses on Bubble and it is completely disingenuous for Bubble to tell their community that “The wait is over” when we are doing nothing but waiting. The fanfare is a distraction to stop you going elsewhere until they work out how to make it work. Sorry, but it is a repeat behavior from Bubble. I do run my business on Bubble and unfortunately, my advice to people looking to do the same is “Don’t!”

brad.h · 2024-10-11T11:55:09.761Z

@georgecollier can you do a search with algolia on a repeating group (or whatever an RG is called)?

Or put another way: does the native bubble algolia integration work on mobile?