Mobile App Changes 2025
Dear Valued Customer,
We’re writing to notify you of a change coming in your mobile app product. The current mobile app will be replaced with a new, integrated app on a rolling release starting in March 2025. This article contains information needed to understand why the change, what’s new, the transition process and timeline, as well as the deprecation of the old app product.
Why a New App?
The current mobile app, called Touch and Touch+, has been provided through an underlying white label solution provider. That was a positive solution for years, but the provider underwent an ownership change and ceased to provide the level of service we demand for our customers, along with accepting any new development or enhancement requests. We needed to make a change.
We started developing our own mobile app in-house, working to integrate it fully within CMS4Schools, a key upgrade that many of you have been asking for! This journey to become app developers and learn how to publish your brand with our product app has been a bumpier and longer road than hoped for, and we are grateful for your continued support and communication back to us on this project. We have learned an immense amount and have been able to incorporate some of your insights in this first phase of release!
Introducing our new Mobile App Module and Messaging Module
The new app is not a separate product, rather being fully integrated into CMS4Schools, it is an add-on module component.
The app stays true to being a branded app - it will remain named as your school or district, and it will retain your logo and colors. While the new app will have a different user experience, especially in the look, feel and menu options compared to the current Touch app, it will remain in Google Play and Apple App Store under the same name and categories. The app store listing, screenshots and descriptions, will be updated to the new app.
End users (family, staff, students, etc.) that have your current app downloaded will experience an update. That update experience will vary depending on mobile device and personal preferences on their device, but this will be an app update process and not a loss of the app on their device. View our features sheet on the new app.
One Admin Dashboard!
You will build your app menu and app style right inside CMS4Schools Studio admin user interface. Setup of content on the app, as well as communication that flows to both app and website, will all be done inside Studio. Most of the regular communication, such as events, news / stories / alerts, cafeteria menus, and more can be set up once and only adjusted as needed in the future.
App Module (Base)
The app module, which also could be understood as the base app, includes standard features such as calendar events, stories/news/alerts, staff directory, cafeteria menus, Facebook feed, links (multiple options) and app directory, daily status, along with push notifications including daily and weekly summaries. Notifications and app feed posts are seamlessly managed within your website categories, without requiring a separate sync process.
The new integrated App Module initial March 2025 release includes the above, but we are continuing to work on added features, including a forms module, and more. A big advantage of developing our own app is that we can be more responsive to YOUR ideas and requests. Learn what we are working on, vote for your priorities and submit your ideas here on our product development portal.
Messaging Module
Our new Messaging Module brings about exciting new features while continuing with some of the existing core functionality of our current Touch+. We are pleased to announce that we now have a direct partnership with BrightArrow Technologies, a leading provider of Mass Notification Systems (MNS) for schools throughout the U.S.
Existing Mass Notification System customers will experience nominal changes in the migration to the new Messaging Module product, as your underlying MNS setup and integration with your Student Information System (SIS) will remain the same. You will now have your messaging admin interface inside CMS4Schools Studio, putting everything - web, app, and messaging, into a single admin dashboard!
Your Voice Dial, Text, and Email Messaging Center (BrightArrow Central) interface will be available inside CMS4Schools Studio soon, likely ahead of your app migration project.
Introducing: Chat
Included in the Messaging Module is in-app chat! Chat features both one-to-one and group chat.
Chat allows in-app communication that is logged, giving school administrators full visibility of conversations happening. Chat also features language translation, becoming a useful tool to conquer language barriers between school staff and families.
Group chats are a powerful feature addition that allows a staff member to communicate with a group inside the app. The most common use for group chats are coaches and advisors communicating to their team or club members. Now, instead of using Remind or other types of external communication apps, you can provide this service all within your district app - one stop for staff, students and families, and best of all, you have visibility and control of use. Chat use and availability is controlled by you through Studio settings and admin user permissions.
Additional Features included in Messaging Module
In addition to the Mass Notification System and in-app chat, Messaging includes automated notifications for lunch balances and attendance, language translation, email newsletters, family messaging center, along with the standard SIS sync or integration.
Transitioning to the new App Module & Messaging
If you are a new app customer, you will be onboarded directly to the integrated App Module and Messaging Module, if purchased.
For existing Touch or Touch+ app customers, we need to migrate your app to the new one as soon as possible. The existing app will be deprecated on or before October 2025. Depending on the app features you have in use, you will be given a date range for your app migration. If this date range does not work for your team, we will work with you to accommodate your timeline as best as possible.
Migration Process
Step One - Configuration
- You will be contacted directly by our Customer Support team and invited to join a Basecamp online project that will help organize the migration project for you. You’ll also receive an invitation to schedule a brief project kickoff meeting.
- A confirmation of your current setup or update request to your app’s configuration needs to be completed. This process will be done through a configuration update form we will send you. NOTE: This is a great time to make changes you may want, such as any logo updates, or multi-school setup, etc.
- As with all technology, change is constant, and Google Play and Apple App Stores are no exception. Since we will be publishing a new version of your current app, Google (Android) and Apple (iOS) may require your accounts to be updated (eventually these updates would be required even with no new version, but we want to take care of everything at the same time!). Our team will walk you through any needed changes in both store accounts.
Step Two - Build
- Upon receipt of your confirmation guide form, our team will begin to build your new app inside Studio. This initial build will be done with no interruptions or changes in the app stores and for your end-users.
- If not already available to you, the Message Center (Voice Dial, Text, & Email) will be turned on for Messaging customers. You can use either Dashboard source for the transition time, they are connected to the same BrightArrow Mass Notification System account.
Step Three - Training
- Once the initial build is complete, a web browser of the new app will be available to you. You will receive a project update from our team, along with an invitation for an admin training session.
- The training will cover how to customize your app, including home screen and app menus, as well as go over content set up, syncs, push notifications and more. Admin users attending this training should have an understanding of your district’s use of calendar/events, news/alerts, MNS, staff directory and general CMS4School admin tools, as well as a clear understanding of your districts categories and audience groups. Separate training on mass notification and CMS4Schools modular and content features can be arranged if needed.
Step Four - Customization
- Upon completion of your App Building Training, we will work with you to plan the end-user rollout, but first we expect that you will want some time to explore and review your new app build. You can customize the app and then use the web browser version to explore and preview how the app will work for your end-users. You can even share the web browser link for your new app with key stakeholders to preview!
Step Five - App Store Review
- Your migration dates were provided at the start of your project kickoff, and our team will work closely with you to be ready by those dates. We recognize that this requires time from you and your team, as well as end-user communication to your staff and families but we do have a deadline to move off the current app platform and we want to ensure that your district does not experience any loss of communication.
- The actual migration in the app stores must be done by submitting your new app for store approval. This process takes an undefined amount of time and is controlled by Apple and Google. While we will do everything we can to ensure that the review process moves quickly, Google and Apple do not release their queue volume or their turnaround time for app reviews and approvals.
- Our team will update you as soon as we receive approval updates from the App Stores. Be aware that upon approval, the new app is immediately available to all users that have the app downloaded, and available in the app stores. Essentially you need to plan from the moment we submit the app store review that your new app can be live (public) at any point.
Step Six - Rollout
- Upon app store approval, the new app will need to be updated by the end-users. This experience is controlled entirely by the end users’ setup and preferences, with the most seamless being users that have their device set to automatically update their apps. We recommend that you send out communication to your users informing them of the update coming, and another communication or announcement that the new app is out to encourage any user who needs to do a manual update in their app store.
- Once your new app is live in both stores, the project is done! Content changes are immediately available to end users, while development updates we do (such as new feature releases) will mostly be an app store update.
- District admin user updates to the app that are released within minutes (or immediate) include:
- Calendar events
- Alerts
- News & Stories
- Facebook posts
- Staff directory
- Cafeteria menu
- Updated sync
- App changes that require the end user to refresh and may require an app store update (app stores push these updates out, like other apps):
- New feature releases
- Significantly modified or enhanced interface updates
- New functionality
- District admin user updates to the app that are released within minutes (or immediate) include:
CMS4Schools Support
We're here to help you! Technical support is available Monday through Fridays. Tickets and support email typically experience a same day response if received before 3:00 pm CT, otherwise the next business day.
Live chat is available Monday through Fridays from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, but we may be busy with other customers. The chat bot will guide you to some pretty good articles but if that doesn't help you, just leave us a message through chat and we will email you back as soon as we can.
Email: support.cms@4schools.net
Chat: Find our chat bot on our help center right here, or located in the bottom corner of Studio Admin when you're logged in to CMS4Schools.
Looking to meet with us? We're a small crew so we do not offer live phone service, but we love to meet with our customers. Just chat or email us what you would like to meet about and we'll send you a calendar link to book a web conference at your convenience.
The best way to meet us? Don't miss live trainings, user groups and more. Visit our website for the listing of upcoming live events.