Choose who can open your app

One setting decides who may open your app. A private app is limited to you and the people you invite; a public app is open to anyone with the address. This guide shows where the setting lives, what each choice means for visitors, and what happens when you change it.

Find the setting

Open the app in your desk.
Select Open Session, then Publish above the app.
In the Access card, select the button to change the setting.

The same card is in Settings → Publish, if you are already there.

The Access card describes the current state and offers one button to change it. Only the app's owner can change this setting; someone you invited to edit the app cannot.

A private app

New apps are private. Only you and the people you have invited can open a private app. Everyone else is asked to sign in, and a person who signs in without an invitation is still not let in.

The card reads Private, with the line Only you and your collaborators can view. Select Make public to change it.

A public app

Anyone with the address can open a public app, with no account and no sign-in.

Going public asks you to confirm first. The confirmation says that anyone with the link can view the app, and that anyone signed in can use its API.

The card reads Public, with the line Anyone with the link can view. Select Make private to change it.

Connections stop working in public

While an app is public, the connections to your own accounts stop working. An app that uses your Google, Slack or another connected account cannot reach it until the app is private again. If your app relies on one of those connections, keep the app private.

What this means for your keys

Making an app public does not hand over your own credentials. Each key or token has its own audience: you choose it when you add the key, and you can change it later. A key marked Only me and my editors stays yours even on a public app. Only a key marked Anyone using this app becomes usable by visitors, and every call is billed to you.

Who can use a key you store explains the choices. Every app also has fixed daily limits on how many calls it can make, which Plans and limits lists.

Public applies to the app's pages

Anything the app saves or reads for a person still needs that person to sign in, and each person sees the records they saved, unless the app has shared that kind of record with everyone who signs in. Who can see your app's data explains that side.

One exception is worth knowing: a public form may be declared to accept a record from a visitor who has not signed in — a contact page, a quote request. That record belongs to nobody, no visitor can read it back, and only you, your editors and a hired AppHandler can.

What changes when you switch

Private to public. Anyone with the address can open the app from that moment. Invitations you have given stay in place, and the people who had access keep it.
Public to private. Visitors who were opening the app without signing in are asked to sign in, and anyone without an invitation can no longer open it. Records already saved are not deleted, and an existing visitor can return once you invite them.

Only the app's owner can invite people, so switching to private means you decide who gets back in.

Where to go next

Invite people to work on your app covers invitations for a private app, and Share your app covers sending the address to people.