Posts

The new WELS App is here!

(released 05/11/18) – Today we are announcing the launch of a brand new version of WELS Mobile! There are a number of changes, including the name. We’ve dropped the “mobile”, so now it’s just called the WELS App. It also no longer can be found in the Apple App or Google Play stores. The versions there are being retired. In it’s place, the WELS App is available at https://wels.app. It is mobile friendly and is technically called a “progressive web app” or PWA. Without getting too technical, PWAs give you all the features of a store app, but get updated right away and offer similar experiences on any device. They get progressively better as your device (and it’s browser) get more capabilities. We are excited about offering great new features in the WELS App like Favorites, Sharing, and more great WELS Content. In the very near future there will be bookmarks, notifications, offline access, and availability as an app on the Windows Store. We hope you like it!

Some have asked “why the change?” WELS Mobile seemed to work just fine for me. There were two major reasons to offer the PWA version:

  1. The synod has limited technical resources to maintain mobile applications that are offered in the traditional Apple/Google app stores. It requires deep technical knowledge of both platforms and testing on many, many different phones. We spent more time trying to take care of bugs, than offering new features. Maintaining only one app will allow us to push out new features much more quickly.
  2. A second benefit is that PWAs can run safely and consistently on many more devices/platforms. Because they are simply websites, apps like the WELS App can run on older and newer devices on many different systems (Amazon, Apple, Google, etc.). This will allow more people to take advantage of great WELS content.

Thanks for giving the WELS App a try. Tell others. Enjoy the experience and the beautiful messages it carries.