Introducing the Thunkable Gallery & Thunkable PRO

Dear Thunkers,

Today, we are excited to announce an upcoming addition to our platform that we hope will enable even more people to build beautiful and powerful apps in a fraction of the time.

On October 10, 2018 we will be launching the Thunkable Gallery and Thunkable PRO.

We also have some announcements about Thunkable X and Thunkable Classic Android.

To learn more, please read Arun’s letter.

Please do reach out with all questions.

Best,
Amrita

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Does this bother anyone? After late 2019, we have to pay $20/mo to write an android app that nobody can copy (private mode) and it has to be a “thunkable X” app (classic won’t be around anymore)? Is Thunkable X just as good as the classic now - I’ve played with it a bit (Chrome/Mac) and it’s really buggy! What about all of the 3rd party plugins that are android-only? Just throw all of those away?

I hate it when companies just throw away applications that are still in use by people (Google Inbox, Reader, …).

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They’re gonna update it and focus on it (X), just take a little time to read and then rewrite your comment please. We’re at a time where you need both platforms ( android and ios)

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Hi @Steve_Webb -

To answer your questions:

  1. Yes, thunkers will have to pay to keep their projects private in Thunkable X. The idea behind this is that we hope to encourage users to keep their projects public and contribute to our open source gallery!

  2. Thunkable X is definitely missing features that Classic has. We are actively working on bringing these features to X as quickly as we can. Some of these include AdMob, Push Notifications, Bluetooth, listview, canvas/gaming components to name a few. We are also in the process of adding new cool features as well such as blockchain components! Soon we expect X to become better than Classic - We agree we aren’t there yet.

  3. We are also working on a way to have third party extensions. I don’t have an exact timeline for that yet, but I promise it is something we think is very important.

I hope that answers your questions.

Amrita

7 Likes

Well, I think this is very good! I love the gallery option, and I think when you all start working on X it will become MUCH better very quick :wink:

But regarding the fee of 20$ for PRO is a bit expensive. Since this has been free for 3 years, and suddenly charge 20$ each month to keep your own apps private is a bit overstep. 10$ each month or 50$ for a year should be enough. I know you do a great job and all, and you also want payment for the work you do, but starting from 0$ to 20$ just like that is alot. I guess you will loose alot of thunkers this way. But if you start with lower prices in the beginning and then go up in prices each year I guess that would be better.

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@amrita Congratulations for taking the next big step. I appreciate your choice towards open source!

The pricing will be discussed a lot, but I am happy to get the reduced price for the first year,.

With my money you can secure your jobs and give coders new jobs in your company.

Cheers,
User81

P.S.: Soon, we will not try to get as many Playstore Downloads as possible - We will be proud to get as many clicks in the Thunkable Gallery (I hope @thunkable is aware of this incentive and gives statistics to the user, how often her or his project is used)

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Nice!

Not so.

Assuming this all goes well, we plan to stop supporting Thunkable Classic Android in late 2019, and dedicate 100% of our resources to Thunkable ✕ .

Wotster than worst.
I’m really sorry and sad that I have to write this, right here now, but it really not goes more. I think this quote belongs here:

When you get a big head, it needs to be said, damn, the truth hurts
Jack Douglas (jackfilms)

Thunkable. When you was here long before (sadly I not was), you can know what do the first Thunkers feeled: awesome. Awesome. Thunkable was awesome. The users just came. We had so nice app and extension developers. For example, @Barreeeiroo, @Sander0542, @Peter_Mathijssen, @pavi2410 , @Conor, @Helios, @ILoveThunkable, and so much others worked here, and enjoyed it. Everything was sunny and happy. Then the team introduced iOS. First, everyone said like “Thanks, good, amazing”, but it changed. The developers started only working in iOS, and like forgot Android. Topics like “what are the Thunkable developers doing” started to appear. They a few PowerThunkers just had enough of pleasing Thunkable for new updates. They decided , and made a brand new builder, together. That was a blow of Thunkable, but it was still used.
I think the problem is that even if Thunkable was - and is - a company, they still not had enough developers for managing both. And yeah, now there will be more people, but not for the good old Thunkable. So this started to happen and the people, who came from AppyBuilder and others, started to get back to them, and leaved Thunkable. Then, we are now near the time that I’ve registered here, Q1 of 2018. One day, Thunkable decided, and made X “the” Thunkable, and the classic blur of gray obscurity. But people still used our lovely red, lovely hamster.
Maybe, because of it was popular long ago, or because the ads, because Thunkable was in the firsts who implemented AdMob.
Some people were still here, like Peter, some not.

You can say then why do not I use X, and you’re 100% right. That would be the right way, but I tired, and I just cannot after AI2. I just cannot develop with it, and I’ll never try it again, coz, I just don’t wanna pay 20$/month just for keeping my own projects private. Just won’t.
It’s just like the developers are getting so weak money that they need to make a PRO version.
Thunkable was stunning, and awesome, but this was the last step to just drop it to the sea of the purchaseable unknown online “app creators”.

Yeah, after this you’ll probably say that in the last time there were really good apps published, but now it just doesn’t matter. Thunkable classic will be gone. And not only classic, I’ll be gone too. To Makeroid.
No, before you ask, I’ll not delete my account, or nothing, just will not so active here, as I done it in the last few weeks.

The biggest Thunkable lover
In the past

Daaniel

12 Likes

Questions:
1. why would you want to get rid of Thunkable Classic?? wouldn’t it be better if you keep it and event charge $5 a month for it??
2. is the Essence of the Pro Feature just to Enable people keep their App Private or there will be more options and paradise to be enjoyed by pro users? ($20 just to keep an app private??)

3. have you thought about the fact that very soon there will be a lot of duplicates apps flooding in the play store and other platforms from Thunkable without any creativity due to the Forced public gallery option. Users would no longer know what it means to think and learn and bring out something useful that they can be proud of. Sharing An App to the Public should be voluntarily and Not Forced

4. if you are going to ignore Thunkable Classic or get rid of it; do you have or have you made provisions to allow classic users to import their apps to Thunkable X Pro?? if no then i don’t think Thunkable is really ready for consumers

SUGGESTIONS
1. For $20 a month, you should add more than just Admob (Facebook ads, and more extra options should be considered as well.

2. For $20 a month; Thunkable X apps should be able to run in the background and support background applications, Widgets etc
3. Your Competitor platforms has a lot of features and options that are been offered for free and some as low as $1(just for platform support). take a look at what they have and add them to your X platform or else you are gonna lose a lot of Harvest!

PERSONAL OPINION ( Love letter to @amrita @arun @albert @wei )
Thunkable has been thunkable because of your good efforts and how far you have brought this platform with Admob as free to use component for years or months. I WILL NEVER FORGET THE GOODNESS AND KINDNESS OF THIS PLATFORM!! I know there will be a lot of issues raised in the coming days by most of your users but please listen to each one of them and see how best you can come out with a good deal to fit and best address customer and consumer needs!
it is my hope that you will make a way possible to export projects from classic to Thunkable X. or better still leave Classic as is for learning purpose!. Do not just ignore your extension developers; they have really helped in keeping this platform powerful and active; they are part of the reason why Thunkable is Thunkable today with the numerous free and powerful extension. Do not forget your Power Thunkers; they are the backbone of your communication; they are your unseen promoters and those that strive to keep your reputations high in communities, forums and platforms whiles you sleep or rest from work!; they are the Voice of Thunkable!. Do not forget all your users! they are Thunkable and Thunkable is Them!
Thank you for Reading!
Regards,
@Brainwork

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Congratulations, you have just ruined Thunkable. That’s all I can say. Price? Literally dumbest of the dumbest. I would pay 25$ per month for App Inventor than 2$ for Thunkable X, as it’s a bug-full, feature-less and doesn’t even support extensions. Most of the people are students and would never spend that much. We are not big companies with pocket full of money that regenerates every month. 200$ for a year, what the heck? Next of all, Free for public? Literally, I already quit the platform for that. There is no personal private stuff. Lastly, you are shutting down Thunkable Classic… Hmm, where did I hear the statement “we will never shutdown it”… All I can say, this is the worst you could have done and you did it.
Best regards,
Ben.

15 Likes

This is a step forward, more money = more developers, getting rid of thunkable classic means focusing on thunkable X, all this is good but it just needs time, extensions will become available, price will surely get lower with the time, the platform will get better. If we all follow and support, it could take only a few months for them with our help and advices to make Thunkable X greater than Classic.

@ILoveThunkable @Brainwork @Valaki_52 @Choofa @Steve_Webb please take it in consideration. From my point thunkable classic is good but it’s part of the past. Half of the planet is working under iOS, let’s help the team and give them time please :slight_smile:

Love to all, and most of all, keep thunking !

My opinion to this:
I completely agree that you guys need to find a way to earn money with thunkable in order to cover your costs and to expand your team. I honestly can’t follow the way you do it. Why don’t you offer special functions only for pro users who are willing to pay for this? A lot of people are willing to pay for extensions and they would also pay for special features then (me included).
I also agree that it is cool to have a collection of apps so you don’t have to start from scratch. But you incentive people to just copy and paste work from others. This is something I really can’t understand.

A few questions:

  1. What happens to API keys? Will they be public aswell? (I hope not)
  2. Will an app appear in the gallery after you published it or already in the developing phase? This would mean hundrets of apps in the gallery

Thank you
Dennis

2 Likes

How do you know that? Are you an insider? Thunkable was founded in 2015. Since then Thunkable Classic hasn’t changed much in comparison to other builders.

For me the only reason why i have to use Thunkable is for their excellent Google Maps component. No other builder has that. But Thunkable is long surpassed by the other builders because it stopped developing Thunkable Classic, the product that made it big and put all there time and effort on Thunkable X. They hired developers especially for Thunkable Classic but we never saw real progress. They tried giving Thunkable Classic the latest updates from App Inventor but that also went silent.

I don’t know where you get your info from?

6 Likes

Seems logic, more user = lower prices

I was just saying that iOS can’t be bypassed for some countries (USA here) :

image

On my part I live in France and we also have a 24% but since we have 48180000 smartphones, 24% of this is 11563200. This can’t be left aside.

I’m going to read the article you sent.

Have a nice day :slight_smile:

1 Like

It’s quite the price jump from 0 to 20 for just a feature. On the other hand, they need more users and creators. I just got the email about the Gallery and love that I can see other people’s projects bc not too many use cases found on the web. I signed up and then never came back to thunkable.

It’d be nice if thunkable rewarded devs that have open projects that are most downloaded. So promotions/competitions/rewards for those who create actual projects that are used/downloaded. Maybe x amt of points per download and that can be redeemed …a gamification element would soften the $20 fee for pro.

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That’s a nice article which kindly goes with the thunkable X team. Don’t lose people and get on both devices. It’s true that the Android market is bigger but the iOS one can’t be left aside. Once again, that’s only my opinion.

Cheers :slight_smile:

Opinion : Just meh…

Thunkable Gallery: How can you think of a public library from where anyone can download other person’s builded app projects? In my opinion people will just reskin projects, learn blocks of that and release “stolen” apps.

Thunkable X : I agree with you guys that Thunkable X is the way to go but not right now when even the Thunkable Classic has bugs and Thunkable X is just unusable with the limited features and lots of bugs.

Thunkable PRO : I think thunkable has lots of users who are new to app development and users who are student who cant afford to pay 100$/year. Even if they can they would like to spent few hundred bucks more and get a professional app development course. Atleast then they wont have to rely on thunkable and its developers to add new features and fix bugs. I have already joint an online course after this announcement.

Suggestions : Instead of launching Thunkable PRO you should have think of some other way out. Like, a developer have to pay some amount everytime after his/her app gets few thousand downloads to access the code on thunkable or you can charge people for some extra exclusive features.

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@AcrobatEpee

Being country specific is not an option here. If you go country wise, then for India see this :point_down:

Also this decision (removing support or droping Thunkable Classic) applies to all community members which are from diffrent countries and is not any user specific. So whats good for you is always not good for others.

Also,

If we accept this logic, then according to this Android Studio (popular platform for developing android apps) should also be the past, right? But no, this is not the case. Just because you are interested in iOS doesnt mean that Android is a past.

Also,
Thunkable Classics is the first product and has evolved so much that, the decision of removing support or closing it is not an option.

Also, some features like developing extension for Thunkable X would be impossible or atleast would be much hard because iOS and Android have their own coding languages and so many devlopers will find it difficult to develop extensions that will support both type of devcies. Also there are many users who are complaining that their app made on Thunkable X is crashing on Android device.
I know that there are many features on list of developing side but whats the point if the apps itself are starting to crash?

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I am not talking for myself here. You’re making the opposite. I’m telling Android can’t be the only way to do and iOS needs to be included in the development part. We’re talking about thunkable not android studio or xcode or whatever. They are removing Classic to focus on X so we can all develop apps for both platforms, if you are indian just download the android apk, else download only the iOS or both. I agree the X platform is not fully completed, but they’re removing it in 2019, that’s a lot of time for them to develop the X platform so we can all enjoy the same tool, expensions, and community.

There are 195 countries. India or USA are just examples, I was saying that as you said India needs Android, USA needs iOS, so X is for both and is what we need.

They can’t please everybody anyway

I’m not against this point, but what if they don’t update it (that’s their decision they want to focus on X) classic users will start complaining and/or leaving. Everything is a matter of time here. Make a petition for them to keep it open, but once again, 2019 is far enough so give them the time :slight_smile:

Nice day :slight_smile:

Same goes for iOS

What about developing both platform separately? Thunkable Classic for only Android and Thunkable X for iOS. Removing one platform to give importance to other is not an option

Don’t you think presently there would more brainstorming for Thunkable X because the developers would have to make sure that the thing that supports Android should also support iOS at sametime and vice-versa and presently it looks like Thubkable X is more towards iOS

This :point_up: has been already answered :point_down:

Also,

By this I was just trying to explain that it not good to give less or no importance to one platform while trying to develop or shifting focus to other. And was not related to any platform.

I am not talking about pleasing everyone, I am talking about showing equal interest in both platforms :slight_smile:

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I don’t get why you want the same interest for a platform supporting IOS AND ANDROID & one supporting only ANDROID. And this is the answer to all your debates between Classic and X.

They want to develop the X platform because they can’t split their ressources for now. They focus on X, make it better. Once again, all of this takes time. Let’s hope you’ll give them some

Again, 23% of 7-8billion is 1,5-2 billion (maybe the numbers are not correct I don’t play on numbers the idea stays the same)

And classic is becoming X, they’ll be able do give you the same things one day, I hope.

Nice day :blush: