Native Update: ship a fix to a mobile app without a new store release
- npm package
Native Update brings over-the-air updates, app-store update flows and in-app reviews to Capacitor apps, the web apps shipped as mobile apps. It installs from npm, the public registry developers install code from, and we also run the web dashboard that manages its releases.
What is Native Update?
An update path that skips the store queue for web code. Over-the-air updates send new web code (the JavaScript, HTML and CSS of the app) to phones that already have the app installed, without a store submission. Update prompts send users to the store when a new build is out, and in-app reviews ask for a rating inside the app.
It works with any Capacitor app, whatever the frontend.
Who is Native Update for?
Developers who ship a Capacitor app and can’t wait for a one-line fix to clear store review. Teams that want a CodePush-style workflow (Microsoft’s live-update service for React Native) for Capacitor, or want to try a change on a beta channel before everyone sees it, are its other users.
What did we build?
A bad update reaches every phone at once, so most of the work went into safety. Delta updates download only the files that changed. A failed update rolls back to the last working version on its own. Bundles are signed and checked by checksum before they apply.
Releases go to separate channels, such as beta, staging or production, and can roll out to a share of users first. The dashboard and a command-line tool manage them.
Where can I check it?
Setup is short. Add it to a Capacitor app with yarn add native-update, run npx cap sync, and configure it in capacitor.config.ts.
Want something like Native Update built?
If your web app should ship as a mobile app and still take quick fixes, Mobile apps shows how we plan that route from the brief to the store.
If the web app already exists, send us the brief; if it’s still an idea, the free call is where to start.
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