What Is OTA? Instant Updates Without a Rebuild

What Is Snapp OTA? Instant Updates Without a Rebuild

Once your app is live, you'll often make small changes — fix a typo, tweak a color, adjust a screen. Do you have to rebuild and wait for store review every time? Usually no. That's what OTA is for.

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Snapp OTA in one sentence

Snapp OTA (Over-The-Air) pushes your latest changes straight to the app already installed on your users' phones — in seconds, with no rebuild and no store review.

When your change is eligible, Snapp shows a "Send instant update" option in the Publish screen.

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When can I use Snapp OTA?

OTA works for JavaScript-level changes — which is most of what you'll do:

• ✅ Text, colors, layout, screens
• ✅ Logic, data, most features
• ✅ Bug fixes

OTA does not cover native changes, for example:

• ❌ Adding a capability that needs a new permission (camera, location…)
• ❌ Adding a package with native code
• ❌ Changing the app icon or name

For those, you need a full build (a new store version). Snapp detects this automatically: if your change is native, the instant-update option simply won't appear — you'll publish a full build instead.

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How it works in Snapp

1. Make your change and open Publish App. 2. If the change is JS-only, you'll see "Send instant update" (marked fastest). 3. Tap it. Within seconds, users on the current version get your update the next time they open the app.

No 20-minute build. No store queue. No review wait.

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Snapp OTA vs a full build — quick compare

	Instant update (OTA)	Full build
Speed	Seconds	~20 min + store review
Store review	Not needed	Needed
Good for	Text, UI, logic, fixes	New permissions, native features, icon/name
Reaches	Already-installed apps	New + existing (via store)

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Common questions

Will every user get the update? Users on the same underlying version receive it automatically on next launch. Users who never installed your app still get it the normal way — from the store.

Is Snapp OTA safe / allowed? Yes. Pushing JavaScript updates to your own app is a standard, supported practice (it's how Expo updates work). It's for your app's content and logic — not for loading a different app.

Why didn't I see the instant-update option? Your change touched the app's native parts, so it needs a full build. That's expected — publish a new build and you're set.

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What's next

• Publish your Android app to Google Play
• Publish your iOS app to the App Store