How to launch your app to your church

The app is ready long before it is ready to launch. A quiet week spent tidying content makes the difference between people installing it and keeping it, and people installing it, finding three empty tabs, and never opening it again.

Before you tell anyone

1. Open the app on a phone and look at it as a member would. Guest view matters too, so check it logged out as well as logged in.
2. Hide the sections you are not using, so nothing opens onto an empty screen. See choosing which sections appear in your app.
3. Check the latest media is genuinely the latest. An old promotional video sitting at the top of the media list is the most common thing churches spot too late.
4. Check your events. The next few weeks should look busy and current, with dates that have not already passed.
5. Check the branding: your icon, name, colours and welcome message all sit under Config, then Apps in the web office.
6. Ask two or three people to install it and tell you honestly what they found confusing.

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Telling people

• Give one address, everywhere: your website address with /app on the end. Notice sheet, email, social media, screen before the service.
• Say what it is for, not what it is. ‘Get service times, sermons and last-minute changes on your phone’ lands better than ‘we have launched a progressive web app’.
• Do it live. Five minutes at the end of a service, with someone walking through the install on the screen, is worth more than any amount of written explanation.
• Have someone available with a phone after the service for people who get stuck.
• Ask people to log in and tick Keep me logged in on this device at the same time. Without a login they get no notifications, which is the part they will value most.
• Send something worth having in the first week, so the first notification proves the point.

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Good to know

• There is no app store listing to search for, and people will look. Be clear that they get the app from your website address, not from the App Store or Google Play.
• You can switch on an install prompt so people browsing your website on a phone are offered the app. It sits under Config, then Apps.
• Launch to one group first if you would rather not do it church-wide. A home group or your serving team makes a good test.
• You can keep adding sections after launch. Starting small and growing is better than launching everything at once.