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Mobile App Development vocabulary · App Stores, Builds and Releases

Force update

Meaning in mobile app development, with examples

nounCommon term

In mobile app development, force update means: A screen or rule that blocks an old version of an app and makes users install the latest one before they can continue using it.

In Turkish: zorunlu güncelleme

How it is used

Also called a forced or mandatory update. Teams set a minimum supported version on the server and use it when an old version has a serious bug or no longer works with the API. On Android, Google Play's In-App Updates API offers an 'immediate' update flow for this.

Example sentences

  1. Version 2.3 has a payment bug, so we're adding a force update for everyone below 2.4.

  2. Users hate seeing a force update screen when they're in a hurry.

Common collocations

  • force update
  • minimum supported version
  • mandatory update
  • force users to update
  • version numberThe number that identifies a release of an app for users, such as 3.2.1, shown in the store and usually in the app's settings.
  • releaseA version of an app made available to users, or the act of making it available; as a verb, to publish a new version in the store.
  • APIApplication programming interface: a defined way for programs to talk to each other; in mobile work, usually the server endpoints an app calls to get and send data.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: App Stores, Builds and Releases

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