Your Falkor App
When you become a Falkor platform subscriber, you get a Falkor Account (backend access) and a themed Falkor App.
You and your team will get access to your Falkor platform account. Here you will be able to author & publish stories, manage your groups and teams, and track your analytics.
From your account, you can publish content to your Falkor app to a specific audience, or for public access.
Your Falkor app can be available for Android, Apple and/or web users, depending on your needs.
The app can either be Invite-Only (you control who can access), Public (anyone can sign up), or a Web App.
Invite-only apps do not allow anyone to sign up to your app. There is only a sign-in option. Users can be invited to your app via groups, allowing them access to selected content. Invite-only apps are available for download via Google Play (with a sign-in option only) but are not available on the public App Store.
For private distribution, we can use your own Apple Enterprise or Apple Business Manager and Google Play Developer accounts. You will need to allow access to these accounts in order for Falkor to publish your app.
Public apps allow anyone to sign up to the app; the app is available for download via Google Play and can be published to the App Store (but must be approved by Apple). Public apps can have both public and private users (private users will be added to groups and invited, and public users will sign up and may have access to public stories).
Public apps can either be published using your Reseller's Developer accounts, or your Apple Business Manager, Apple Enterprise or Apple Business Manager accounts.
Having a sign up option means anyone can potentially access sensitive information if published to all app users. A public app is therefore not recommended for organisations publishing sensitive information to their Falkor app.
Disclaimer: A Public app used for private distribution is always at a slight risk with Apple (Apple may take issue if the app is not sincerely for public use). Apps and app updates could get rejected if the Apple reviewer decides this. The recourse for rejected apps would be to distribute the app using the Apple Enterprise programme.
A Web App is hosted on a "website" that acts and behaves like an app and is accessible as a URL from any device (mobile, tablet, phablet, desktop) using a compatible web browser.
This option is preferable if mostly desktop or Android devices are being used, or if there is no need to publish to Apple's App Store.
N.B. Web Apps on Apple devices don’t support push notifications and offline capabilities.
Read more about progressive web apps, here.
Although it's possible to choose the Web App only option, all Falkor apps are compiled with a Web App.
Good question!
In the Falkor backend, you will see the Falkor icon in the top menu (far right). Select this icon to open your Falkor Subscription details.
Select the second icon that shows inline with your Falkor app name and copy the link URL. When this URL is shared with anyone, they will be able to access your Falkor app.
The URL will detect which device the user is on and will direct them accordingly: Apple mobile users: will be directed to the Apple App store or to a private download link. Android mobile users: will be directed to the Google Play Store. Desktop users: will be directed to Progressive Web App (PWA).
An invite-only app will not be publicly available on the App Store (Apple), but can be distributed using a private link. Anyone with this link could install the app but won't be able to sign up, and can't sign in without credentials.
The Falkor platform is regularly updated as new features are added and improvements and fixes are made. The account Agent will be notified via email. Big platform updates typically happen 1-2 times per year, whilst rapid updates may be more frequent. Subscribers may experience temporary platform downtime during an update.
App updates are also necessary to keep up with the ever-changing tech chameleon. When a platform subscriber's Falkor app is updated, all users (your audience) will receive an email and/or push notification, prompting them to update. Web/desktop users will automatically see the update, Android users' app will auto-update (if auto-update is enabled), and Apple users will need to follow the download link (or download on the App Store if the app is available there).
All app users will receive an email to update their Falkor app when there is a new release.
