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The Handset / The update
Build numbers and the floor
The update
An app changes without a page changing. A build arrives, a device takes it on its own schedule, and behind a floor it is refused entry until it does - which is the only moment the app itself can stop a player.
App stub
- Builds
- 16 a year, four a quarter
- Days in review
- 2.4 each, 38.4 a year
- The floor
- three builds back
- Forced each month
- 4.0% = 1,800 devices
- Forced downloads
- 75.6 GB a month
the promptA question the device asks once, and an answer you can change at any time
the tokenWhat keeps a phone signed in, and how long it lives without an open
the buildA numbered version of the app, and the only part of the product an update can change
Direct answerAn update is a new build of the same app, and it can change the interface, the permission sheet and the behaviour without any page changing. On the sample 16 builds a year reach devices that take them on their own schedule, the oldest supported build is three behind the newest, and 4.0% of opens - 1,800 a month - are refused until the device updates, which costs those devices 75.6 GB of downloads in total.
Question what changed, and did I agree to it?A build can change the interface, the permission sheet, the behaviourA build cannot change the terms, the balance or the odds (those live in the account)The floor three builds, then the app requires an updateAnnounced where on the listing, not inside the product
What a build can change
build 01A build is a version of the box
The account, the terms and the games are served, so an update to the box is not an update to the terms.
A new build can move a button, rename a screen, add a prompt to the permission sheet, or stop supporting an
old operating system, and none of that requires the player to agree to anything. The terms change only when
the terms change.
build 02Three builds back is the floor
Below the floor the app refuses to open until it is updated. That is the one place the container can stop
the product, and it exists for a practical reason: an operator cannot fix a build that is two years old. On
the sample 4.0% of opens land below the floor, so 1,800 devices a month are asked to update before
they can do anything at all.
build 03Taking an update is not the same as being asked
Most devices update inside thirty days without a decision: the share on the newest build is 61.0% at
day seven, 88.0% at day thirty and 96.0% at day ninety on this sample. Automatic updating is the reason the
floor is only ever reached by a device that has been switched off, offline or deliberately held back.
- A build is finished and submitted; it spends 2.4 days in review.
- It becomes installable and every device above the floor is offered it.
- An automatic update takes it at night; a manual one waits for a decision.
- The floor moves up one build, and devices below it can no longer open the app.
- A device that updates gains the new behaviour with no announcement inside the product.
The floor, priced in downloads
builds a year: 16
floor: 3 builds back
opens a month: 45,000
below the floor: 4.0% = 1,800 opens
download each: 42.0 MB
forced downloads a month: 1,800 x 42.0 = 75,600 MB = 75.6 GB
newest build share: day 7 = 61.0%, day 30 = 88.0%, day 90 = 96.0%
1,800 devices a month are stopped by a numbering decision made three builds earlier.
The honest caveat. A build that adds a permission changes the sheet, and the device asks again - an old yes is not a yes to a
new prompt. That is the one part of an update a player will notice without opening anything.
16 builds the same terms 75.6 GB 3-build floor
Where this leads
Every figure on this page is derived from the sample app on the overview: 250,000 store views a month, 62,500 installs, 45,000 first opens, 5,400 registrations and 1,134 first deposits.
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What this desk does not do
It names no operator, it rates no app, and it recommends no store listing. The partner link beside this text is a disclosed sponsored link and the reason is stated on every page rather than in a footer.