We are excited to announce the preview launch of the “Quick sync” feature. This feature allows data updates to be available to users within 1-2 seconds of the updates.
As of 5/24 - This feature is available to all users under Preview. Please read below for caveats.
Until now, app users needed to manually sync their app or wait for up to 30 minutes to see the latest data. Issues can arise in your business workflow when users act based on outdated information. For example, imagine a task tracking app where any app user can select a task to work on. When Lydia and Ted open the app at 8:30am when their shifts start, they both see that Task A is available. Ted assigns the task to himself at 8:35am. Because the app doesn’t immediately sync the update, Lydia thinks the task is still available and attempts to assign the task to herself. Depending on how the app is designed. Lydia experiences one of the following:
- The task is reassigned to Lydia. Ted doesn’t know that Lydia has reassigned the task and ends up doing duplicate work.
- An error message is displayed. Lydia gets frustrated by the time she wasted trying to find an available task.
With the Quick sync feature enabled, Lydia would see that the task is already assigned to Ted without having to sync the app.
More generally, it lets users see updated data quickly and without action on their part (including after a data update by an Automation bot), leading to:
- Faster turnaround times and less errors and unnecessary work in the process, and
- Less wasted time and confusion among users
Additional details, including caveats, are available below.
Preview offerings are intended for use in test environments only. This feature is not recommended for use in production apps.
How do I enable this feature?
Go to Settings > Performance (1-2) . If you are using the legacy app editor UI , go to Behavior > Offline.
- In Sync: Cloud to Data Source, turn on (3) Server Caching and (4) Quick Sync.
- Save your app.
Do I have access to this feature?
Feature is available on Free accounts. Based on the feedback, we will gradually release this to paid accounts in the coming months.
When can I enable this feature?
First, the feature currently only works for applications that do not have security filters. The app editor will enforce this. If you have a security filter and turn on “Quick sync”, the feature will be automatically turned off after you save your app and you’ll get a warning message.
When should I disable this feature?
App creators should also consider at least the following factors to decide if they want to use this feature in their apps:
- The individual data updates will be cached on AppSheet servers. If you have strict data residency requirements, you may not want to use this feature.
- You should not use this feature if your data sources compute values automatically (for example, if your Google Sheets data source uses formulas) or if your app has virtual columns that require a complete sync to be computed properly. This is to make sure that your users are seeing accurate data and have a consistent user experience.
- If people change data directly in the data source (for example, editing directly in Google Sheets) or through another non-AppSheet system, the app will not reflect this updated data until the next sync.
Why is it not working for my users?
First, see the restrictions mentioned above (and check that you have no security filters).
In addition, users will only see changes made by other users that are using an app with the same version. This means that if you are updating your app (and the version is changed), your app users may not see updated data until their next full sync.
More technical information is shared further below too.
Where is the documentation?
See the Quick sync setting described in Offline and Sync: The Essentials.
Who should I reach out to if I see issues or want to provide feedback?
Add your feedback or report issues directly on this announcement thread.
How does the Quick sync feature work?
This feature works by “broadcasting” updates directly to the open apps when the changes are done. This allows apps to show the latest data in between full syncs. An overview of the broadcast system is shown in the diagram below.
AppSheet uses the same broadcasting system that is currently used across Google Workspace products like Google Docs and Google Sheets. This broadcast system does best-effort delivery of updates and comes with a few caveats
- AppSheet will cache updated user content in a queue for up to 6 hours. Data stored in the queue similar to what is currently stored in the AppSheet Audit History.
- This feature will work with any of the AppSheet supported data sources.
- If a broadcast notification is not sent due to network issues, the updates will not show up until the next notification or full sync.
- We do not support any security filters at this time. Support for some security filters will be added in the future, but only for filters that use data from the updated row.
- The app client (in a user’s browser or on their mobile device) does not fully re-compute all formulas with each update and depends on a full sync for all the formulae to be updated. So the quick sync won’t necessarily reflect what should be the newly computed values. This behavior is similar to what you notice when data is locally edited and the app is set up for delayed sync.
