PocketPlatform - Released August 25, 2025
Introducing the PocketPlatform App Manager, a tool that empowers you to customize your app—whenever you want! And don't miss the other new and improved features in this release.
App Manager
- Customize your app navigation and dashboard! Within the new PocketPlatform App Manager, you'll be able to:
- Add, remove, and rearrange links in your app's navigation menu
- Change the icon and label for navigation menu links
- Add, remove, and rearrange recipes on your app's dashboard
- Manage how dashboard recipes are configured
- Add graphics, buttons, and other text elements on the dashboard
- Determine what users can see on their dashboard based on certain criteria
- Designate who can manage your app. The PocketPlatform App Manager will be available through your MinistryPlatform bookmarks. Only users with the PocketPlatform App Manager security role will be able to access it. (This security role is available in the Platform now!)
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Here's a sneak peek. More details are available in the help articles.
The final version of this feature that you see may look a little different from this preview.
Tip: Want to learn more about the App Manager from our experts? Check out this webinar!Note: Are you using the Stored Procedure dashboard? You can use the App Manager to manage your app's navigation but not your dashboard recipes. If you'd like to be able to manage your app's recipes as well, we recommend you migrate to the API-driven dashboard. Contact Support if you're interested!
Contact Lookup
- We improved a few things in Contact Lookup, including how addresses that start with a number sign (#) are mapped, the way thumbnail images are oriented and stretched, the scrolling on HTML documents, how the search feature goes back to the home screen before searching, and the navigation back to the app after opening an address in iOS.
Events
- It's easy for people to forget something they heard at the start of a service. Maybe there was an announcement about an upcoming event they were interested in, but by the time they got home, they had forgotten and never signed up. Help your app users out with two new actions for events: Remind Me and Add to Calendar!
- With Remind Me, app users can set a reminder notification for either In 1 Hour or Tomorrow.
- With Add to Calendar, users can download an ICS file to import into their device calendar. The event shows the title, date and time, event description, and meeting instructions.
- We updated the conditions for when an event's Registration Fee card displays. Now, it only shows up when there is a deposit price and the base price is greater than $0. So:
- If the base price is greater than $0 and the deposit it blank, the card will not display and the registration total only shows in the Summary card.
- If the base price is greater than $0 and the deposit has any amount (including $0), the Registration Fee card shows.
- If the base price is $0 and the deposit is blank OR has any amount, the card will not display.
Notifications Inbox
- You asked on the Idea Board, and we're delivering! App users can now see all the push notifications they receive in one place: the Notifications Inbox. When you add this to your navigation menu, users can see a list of their notifications sorted by date, with the most recent ones at the top. If the notification has a link attached to it, the user can tap it to go there. If they decide they no longer need to see a notification in the inbox, they can tap the trash can icon to permanently remove it. For more information, see PocketPlatform Notifications Inbox.
Note: The Notifications Inbox will only display notifications sent after this feature is released.
Primary Contacts
- You know how the Group Detail screen shows the primary contact, and the user can tap the name to send them a message? Now, you can enable that same feature on the Event Detail and Opportunity Detail screens! Reach out to Support to show the primary contact on either or both of these screens and determine whether the user can message the primary contact.
Self Check-In
- The Self Checkin recipe now displays a message on the dashboard indicating that the user is checked in immediately when they return to the dashboard after checking in.
Sermons
- We added two new screens to PocketPlatform: Sermon Detail and Latest Sermon.
- The Sermon Detail screen directs users to a specific sermon without having to display the parent sermon series as part of the screen. This can be useful for standalone sermons, visiting speakers, and so on.
- The Latest Sermon screen automatically displays the most recently published sermon. This is helpful for dashboard recipes so you can always link to the latest and greatest without having to update the Sermon ID each week! You can also filter the Latest Sermon screen by Sermon Series Type, which means you can refine which "most recent" sermon displays.
Upcoming Events/Opportunities and Announcements
- We updated the Upcoming Events and Upcoming Opportunities recipes so that they do not display on the dashboard when there are no upcoming items to show. Also, Announcement recipes now have an optional title prop. That way, if the announcement doesn't display, neither will the title for it.
Note:
Upcoming Change to Life Apps: In the next Life Apps release, we plan to change the names of the Care Life and Group Life applications to Care Connect and Group Connect. Volunteer Connect and Need Connect already follow this pattern. These will be collectively known as Connect Suite. We'll announce when that change occurs through Life Apps release notes but wanted to give you a heads up here as well!