# \[Solved\] How do you get components to only show when someone first opens the app? **URL:** \ **Category:** Questions about Thunkable X\ **Tags:** solved\ **Created:** [March 24, 2021, 10:22pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/solved-how-do-you-get-components-to-only-show-when-someone-first-opens-the-app/1185535 "2021-03-24T22:22:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![roaringtiger2000s2o8](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/roaringtiger2000s2o8/32/89859_2.png) [@roaringtiger2000s2o8](https://community.thunkable.com/u/roaringtiger2000s2o8)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 10:22pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/solved-how-do-you-get-components-to-only-show-when-someone-first-opens-the-app/1185535/1 "2021-03-24T22:22:42Z")
Hi! I would like some components of my app (like an alert) to only show the first time the user opens the downloaded app! Does anyone know how I can go about doing this? Please advise, Hobi B ---
**Author:** ![jaythemanchs](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/jaythemanchs/32/92809_2.png) [@jaythemanchs](https://community.thunkable.com/u/jaythemanchs)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 10:27pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/solved-how-do-you-get-components-to-only-show-when-someone-first-opens-the-app/1185535/2 "2021-03-24T22:27:51Z")
Use this code: ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/thunkable/original/3X/5/d/5d9950852cb7d5ae911a106c509ee834a2d139e6.png) ---
**Author:** ![roaringtiger2000s2o8](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/roaringtiger2000s2o8/32/89859_2.png) [@roaringtiger2000s2o8](https://community.thunkable.com/u/roaringtiger2000s2o8)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 10:28pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/solved-how-do-you-get-components-to-only-show-when-someone-first-opens-the-app/1185535/3 "2021-03-24T22:28:34Z")
I will try that, thank you very, very much! And I will update once I have tried, just in case anyone else has the same problem! ---
**Author:** ![roaringtiger2000s2o8](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/roaringtiger2000s2o8/32/89859_2.png) [@roaringtiger2000s2o8](https://community.thunkable.com/u/roaringtiger2000s2o8)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 10:46pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/solved-how-do-you-get-components-to-only-show-when-someone-first-opens-the-app/1185535/4 "2021-03-24T22:46:58Z")
It didn’t work for me… My one question is how would Thunkable know what “opened” means? ---
**Author:** ![smsfiercefoxeszmlk1h](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@smsfiercefoxeszmlk1h](https://community.thunkable.com/u/smsfiercefoxeszmlk1h)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 11:04pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/solved-how-do-you-get-components-to-only-show-when-someone-first-opens-the-app/1185535/5 "2021-03-24T23:04:24Z")
In what way did it not work? Do you have the alert set up? (Need to drag it onto the design view.) The point is that the “first Open” variable gets set to /something/ when the app opens the first time, right after it checks the ‘if’ condition. ---
**Author:** ![roaringtiger2000s2o8](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/roaringtiger2000s2o8/32/89859_2.png) [@roaringtiger2000s2o8](https://community.thunkable.com/u/roaringtiger2000s2o8)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 11:07pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/solved-how-do-you-get-components-to-only-show-when-someone-first-opens-the-app/1185535/6 "2021-03-24T23:07:11Z")
I think I understand, I have some other parts of my code, so I think I have to change those around as well. I’ll keep working and update you guys! Thank you very much for your help so far! ---
**Author:** ![tatiang](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/tatiang/32/55482_2.png) [@tatiang](https://community.thunkable.com/u/tatiang)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 11:14pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/solved-how-do-you-get-components-to-only-show-when-someone-first-opens-the-app/1185535/7 "2021-03-24T23:14:47Z")
Those blocks should work. The idea is that all variables are set to “null” (no value) unless initialized with a value. So when the app first runs on a device, the variable will be set to null. At that point, changing the value of the variable to _anything_ will make it no longer be null. So the IF block won’t trigger ever again. You could set the value to literally anything… 1 or “alreadyRun” or “true”… ---
**Author:** ![roaringtiger2000s2o8](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/roaringtiger2000s2o8/32/89859_2.png) [@roaringtiger2000s2o8](https://community.thunkable.com/u/roaringtiger2000s2o8)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2021, 11:15pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/solved-how-do-you-get-components-to-only-show-when-someone-first-opens-the-app/1185535/8 "2021-03-24T23:15:34Z")
I get what you guys mean now! Thank you for helping me guys! ---
**Author:** ![ioannis](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/community.thunkable.com/ioannis/32/146956_2.png) [@ioannis](https://community.thunkable.com/u/ioannis)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2024, 1:25pm UTC](https://community.thunkable.com/t/solved-how-do-you-get-components-to-only-show-when-someone-first-opens-the-app/1185535/9 "2024-11-08T13:25:41Z")