If there is anything you aren't happy with about your apps, please make sure to let support or your Customer Success Manager know. However, sometimes all good things come to an end. If you're planning to close down your Pugpig app we will work with you to make sure the process is as smooth as possible - but luckily there's not too much to it!

What needs to happen?

We will take care of the majority of the process on our side when the time comes. On the day after your Pugpig subscription ends we will decommission your authoring service (if it's hosted by Pugpig, i.e. Bolt, Pugpig Express, Pugpig Professional) and Distribution Service account. At this time you will no longer be able to access your content in the Pugpig Express CMS, nor will you be able to access your apps in the Distribution Service. If you need to do a content export it will need to happen before this - depending on the system it might need some work from us.

We would ask that you remove the app from iTunes and Google Play at the same time, following these steps:

iTunes App Store:

• Log into iTunes Connect 
• Find the app > Pricing and Availability > Remove from Sale 

Google Play Store: 

• Log into the Google Play Console 
• Go to Setup > Advanced settings
• On the App Availability tab, select Unpublish

Amazon Store: 

• Log into the Amazon Developer Console
• Click on ‘Apps & Services’ then select the relevant app 
• Scroll down to the bottom of the ‘General Information’ tab, underneath the ‘Edit’ button you will see small hyperlinked text saying ‘Remove from Appstore’ (note - you must be an administrator to see this)
• A pop-up window opens asking the reason for suppression, select one of the options for why you want to suppress your app and click submit. Follow the prompts and click through to confirm that you want to suppress the app.
• Amazon will send an email notifying of the suppression request and also say they will contact you to discuss the request

Please just let us know if you'd like us to walk you through those steps on a screenshare.

Pugpig access to your third party accounts

While taking your Pugpig app(s) down from the stores we also recommend removing any Pugpig access to your store accounts. Please also check if we have access to analytics or push accounts (e.g. Firebase) and remove us from those too. 

What will your users experience?

Once you’ve removed the app from the stores new users won’t be able to download it, however it will remain on devices of people who had previously installed it. In these cases users won’t be able to download any editions, or make any purchases, but they may still be able to access editions they’ve already downloaded. This isn’t guaranteed though, as Apple often "clean up" content on the device. Also, if users upgrade their phones, there's no guarantee the app will still be available. Users won’t be able to transfer downloaded content to a different device.

What about users who have subscribed through the store?

As soon as you have decided your app(s) will be closing in the near future we recommend removing any auto-renewing subscriptions from sale so that no new users can make a purchase (while keeping them active for existing subscribers — please contact support@pugpig.com for help with this).

As the account owner you are not able to force existing subscribers' access to be cancelled, they will need to cancel their own subscriptions (and contact Apple/Google/Amazon to request a refund if they want one) once they have been notified the app is closing. Part of your comms plan should be ensuring this is clear to users. 

iOS users can mange subscriptions here: https://apps.apple.com/account/subscriptions

Google Play information is here: https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/7018481?co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid&hl=en 

Amazon here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201357590

Can I get the iOS and Android source code to my Pugpig apps?

I'm afraid not - this is the Pugpig Product.

Can I get an export of my content?

Yes, of course. The content is yours, we can turn on functionality to allow you to download a ZIP file of all the HTML content that has been in the app directly from the CMS. 

What happens to my content in the app for users?

Content will stay in the app for users who previously downloaded the app, they will be able to read articles in editions and timelines while your app remains in Pugpig maintenance mode.

Anything else to consider? 

The other thing you might want to consider, if you haven't already, is messaging to users in advance of the app closing down - this could be via email, push notification, or in-app message.

Alternatively you could serve special content into the app - please get in touch if you'd like any help with this.

We're sad to see you go!