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I'm using the official Stack Exchange mobile app for iOS or Android, and

  • My app crashed!
  • It doesn't look good on my new smartphone.
  • I noticed another bug.
  • I have an idea for a new feature which is currently not in the app.
  • I've used the built-in functionality of the app to report a bug or submit a feature request. Did I do the right thing?
  • I'm wondering why the latest version is from 2017.
  • I've heard rumors that the apps are no longer supported, is this true?

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We get a lot of bug reports from users about the mobile apps, which are unsupported, and at the moment, there is no centralized Q&A pair for those to be closed as duplicates of (the relevant answers are spread across multiple unrelated questions). This question is an FAQ proposal, to serve as a directly-related duplicate target for those questions.

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TL;DR: Unfortunately, you can't.

Thank you for taking the time to improve the Stack Exchange platform. Sadly, the mobile apps are no longer in development. To quote one of the Stack Exchange developers:

We are not providing any further support for the mobile apps. There will not be any more builds made for either the Android or the iOS app (even for breaking bugs). We encourage all mobile users to use the responsive website. We hope to continue to incrementally improve the user experience for mobile users.

Also, the Android developer doesn't work for Stack Exchange anymore and the iOS developer has been assigned to another team.

Requests to make the app open source have been declined.

But I noticed some recent changes in the app!

The new close reasons (and further back, the new comment flag reasons) have been changed recently, so they fixed something. Can't they do something about my problem as well?

The mobile apps use the Stack Exchange API to communicate with the server/central database. That means a good deal of the content shown in the app is dynamic and does not require a new version of the app. Unlike the apps, the API is still supported, because many other community applications and projects rely on it.

The mobile apps have not been updated since 2017, so any changes since then have been purely server-side. As of the official discontinuation announcement in 2019, bugs resulting from parts of the server backend that are not part of the public API (e.g. the hot questions list) are no longer fixed.

Does that mean I can't ask questions about the mobile app anymore?

No, questions can still be asked, and perhaps the community here knows a workaround for your . Also, occasionally, there have been a few cases where a Stack Exchange employee has fixed things server-side specifically for the app, in their spare time. But please don't raise your hopes too high…

Why aren't the apps developed anymore? Why are they still offered for download from the app stores?

Stack Exchange has decided to focus on a single experience for all users, the responsive website. To quote a Community Manager:

Mobile app development requires a special skillset. We no longer have a dev for Android and our iOS developer is working on the web platform. We have a relatively small development team and supporting the apps, which have been a relatively small amount of our traffic, is considered less vital than getting the site converted to be completely responsive and work on new features that have been sorely needed for years. Because the apps have been lying fallow so long, we'd practically have to start over with them (from what I understand).

As the developers weren't working on the apps, and server-side issues were only resolved occasionally and randomly, it made no sense to keep support for the apps. The apps were still offered for download by popular demand, to support features like phone notifications which are currently deferred for implementation in the responsive site.

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    As per usual a simple straightforward answer has to be complicated and include details that your typical user does not care about. Q: "Where do I report bugs on the mobile site?" A: "Unfortunately, you can't because Stack Exchange no longer supports their mobile apps" End of story. – Mari-Lou A May 18 at 9:07
  • @Mari-LouA are you suggesting to add a TL;DR? – Anton Menshov May 18 at 9:10
  • @Mari-LouA Do you think it would help if the answer started with a big "TL;DR: You can't"? FAQs here often include some reasoning behind certain decisions/policies, so that users don't have to search for further information. – Glorfindel May 18 at 9:10
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    @Mari-LouA well, it does look more like my original revision now... – Glorfindel May 18 at 9:16
  • Should there be some link or explanation for how to enable responsive mode? I’ve seen users struggling with that. – user289905 May 18 at 13:24
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    @user289905 valid point, and also worth pointing out that the full site (desktop) link on mobiles is found at the very bottom of the page in itsy bitsy font. Very easily missed. – Mari-Lou A May 18 at 18:00
  • Can't they just ask the Android developer for access so they can take the app down? Why can't they remove the iOS app if the iOS developer is still working there? – S.S. Anne May 18 at 18:30
  • @Mari-LouA The point of that section is to ward off questions that will inevitably be asked by authors of duplicates in the comments. Also, it answers the question's bullet "I'm wondering why the latest version is from 2017". – Sonic the Masked Werehog May 18 at 18:33
  • @Sonicthe Q: “I'm wondering why the latest version is from 2017.” A: Because Stack Exchange stopped supporting the mobile app in 2017. The answer is also in the paragraph: The mobile apps have not been updated since 2017, so any changes since then have been purely server-side. which was your edit. The answer is therefore repetitive and redundant. Finally, Also, following budget reassessments, the app developers were redelegated to other teams within the company; one of them later left the company. How relevant is that to someone who only wanted to report a bug? – Mari-Lou A May 18 at 21:18
  • @Mari-LouA The mobile apps were still "technically" supported after 2017 and before the 2019 discontinuation announcement, to the point where SE staff were still positively responding to them. The point of the question is, "why weren't there any updates after 2017 if the discontinuation announcement was in 2019?". Also, the bullet in the question asks why there have been no updates, while the text you refer to merely makes a statement that there have been no updates. – Sonic the Masked Werehog May 18 at 21:20
  • How will "No, support questions can still be asked, and perhaps the community here knows a workaround for your bug." work if the questions are closed as duplicates of this one? – Alex May 20 at 0:22
  • @Alex, I don’t really see the conflict here. If a new support question can be answered with a specific guide, then it will be answered (provided it’s not a dupe of something else). If it cannot be answered because some support or feature request depends on features not supported in the app, then it’ll be closed as a dupe of this FAQ. In which scenario will a support question not “work” due to this FAQ? – user289905 May 20 at 0:34
  • @user289905 How will close-voters know if a question can be answered? – Alex May 20 at 0:37
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    @Alex because close voters are sane and so are the user with gold badges that can (un)hammer these if something goes south. – rene May 20 at 6:04

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