Hello Everyone!
New to Retool and just built my first app. I have a question about Web/Mobile apps. The current framework we use allows us to build an app in the web interface and that app automatically shows up in the mobile app on iOS and Android. I downloaded the Retool mobile app and was hoping the app I created in the web client just showed up there. Do I need to build 2 separate version of my app, one for web and one for mobile.
thanks,
Mike
HI @mikeS,
Yes, the web app is indeed distinct from the mobile app. I started a thread here to look at the differences, pros/cons of each. Feel free to share your experience once you test them out.
The web app is the standard app with Show on mobile checked on all of the components you want in your web app.
The mobile app needs to be created separately from the beginning.
Thank you! So, checking show on mobile only shows the component in the mobile browser (PWA) and not the mobile app. Do I have that correct?
That's correct, @mikeS. 
Bummer, not sure I'm a fan of PWA and I don't want to maintain 2 apps.
There are definitely tradeoffs. I have a project coming up soon and still haven't decided which way to go.
Yeah, maybe maintaining 2 code bases might be worth it. Retool offers so many more options than our current LC platform.
Retool is pretty amazing. You should save a lot of time in the long run.
What are you using right now?
We use a platform by Hexagon called Nexus Connected Worker (formally Xalt and Catavolt before that). The nice thing about it is it has this concept called Workbenches and all apps are published there and related by functionality and our users don't have to do anything but go to the Web or Mobile app and login and go to a Workbench to launch the app which had one codebase for both. I have been playing with folders in Retool which looks promising. I don't want to use PWAs because then you have to rely on users creating bookmarks in the browser. That is a hard no.
I may be biased but I think Retool is worth considering. 
There's definitely an opportunity for us to better unite the app building experience across mobile and web, though. We're making a bit of a concerted effort on mobile use cases, so I think having something like this would definitely pay off in the longer run.
Regardless, I'll pass some of this feedback on to the owning team and provide an update here as soon as I can! In the meantime, don't hesitate to utilize the community here if you have any additional questions, @mikeS.
Hi Darren,
Did you end up passing this along? I got an email this morning about the new agent stuff but not going to even look into that until there is a way to organize apps in some kind of portal that our users can easily navigate to.
Hey @mikeS - I did talk to our team about this! Uniting the web and mobile experiences is certainly a goal in the longer term, but not something that we are currently working on.
In general, though, your organization's home page is a portal. After logging in at my_org.retool.com, my users are all presented with a list of applications that they can then open.
It's not the prettiest thing in the world, but I could alternatively build out an app whose sole purpose is to be a landing page and application hub. Maybe I'm misunderstanding your use case, but I think you'll find Retool to be fairly flexible. I'm happy to provide more detail or answer additional questions you might have.
I don't have any particularly meaningful updates, @mikeS, but let me know if you have additional questions!
Hi Darren,
I think we've found a solution using folders.
Mike
Glad to hear it!
