👋 It’s awesome you are here. We believe Henry is the best Best Bang for Your Buck native wrapping approach for your Bubble apps out there.
Set up Henry and get a demo on your phone in less than 5 minutes
- Create a Thunkable account.
- Copy the latest version of the Thunkable template to your own projects:
Download links:
- Base Version 2.1: https://x.thunkable.com/projectPage/626bb45b107bec0011048563
- IAP & Push Version 2.0 (requires a Thunkable Pro Account): https://x.thunkable.com/projectPage/624598e3f2d65b00118fef19
Please make sure you use the Henry Plugin Version 2.0 or later
- In your Bubble app, go to Settings → General and make sure to allow to render the app in an iframe.
- In your new Thunkable app, navigate to the Main screen → Blocks...
...and and replace the URL (https://henry-dev.bubbleapps.io/version-test) in variable bubbleAppURL with your app’s URL.
💡 As long as you are developing we recommend to use the test URL (e.g. https://yourapp.bubbleapps.io/version-test), so you don’t have to deploy your app every time you want to see your changes made in Bubble.
⚠️ Make sure to get rid of the ‘?debug_mode=true’ parameter.
Once you are ready to deploy to the App Store, change it to the live URL (e.g. https://yourapp.bubbleapps.io/).
➡️
⚠️ Don’t touch the rest of the blocks section of the app, unless you really know what you are doing. If you modify the pre-existing blocks, the plugin will likely not work as intended.
At this point you can adjust the app name, description, and icon (same icon for the startup screen as well as app icon).
depending on the Thunkable version it might also look like this:
⚠️ ⚠️ ⚠️ Make sure that ‘Ignore Notch Area’ is true and the Notch Area Background is set to transparent. Otherwise you will not be able to set the status bar color form Bubble. Unfortunately this setting is turned off by default for every new app.
Ignore notch area:
Set Notch Area Background Color to transparent:
Congrats, you made it. You can now get a first glimpse of your app. There are three ways to preview your app:
- Download a local copy to your phone (recommended). You will get an email with download instructions after approx. 10 minutes.
depending on the Thunkable version it might also look like this:
We don’t recommend to use Thunkable’s web preview or Thunkable Live app to preview your app.
See Thunkable Documentation for further information if needed.
That’s it. Congratulations. You just successfully wrapped your Bubble app and installed it on your phone. You can now follow Thunkable’s publish instructions to publish you app on the App Stores.
So now that you have a running instance of your app on your phone, it’s time to add some native features to your app. After all, that’s why you are here 😃
→ Add elements and workflows from the plugin as needed (see Documentation).
Here are a few resources that will help you:
- Henry documentation: All features and how to use them
- Henry Bubble demo app: See example implementations of all the functions in the Bubble editor. Has an implementation of pretty much every feature. Just find the feature you need and see how it’s implemented.
- Bubble forum: Discuss with Henry’s creator and other users.
Further information and FAQ
- To get started, you will only need to install the Henry | Native Features Bubble plugin for $9 / month (or $99 once).
Once you decide to ship your app in the Apple App Store and Google Play store, you will also need the following, 3 options to send your build:
- Thunkable Pro Plan ($45/month): You will only need it for one month. There is no need for a continued subscription after you shipped your app. This thunkable plan doesn’t let your customize the splashscreen (image you see when you open a native app).
- Thunkable Business plan ($200/month): Same as above but with a customized splashcreen.
- We wrap the app for you ($100 one time for iOS and Android - 70$/only iOS - 70$/only Android): We’ll send you a form to give us details about your app and we wrap the app for you and send you the builds for the appstores.
Whichever you choose, you first need these accounts:
- Apple Developer Program account: $100 / year
- Google Play Developer Account: $25 one-time fee
- OneSingnal Account (push messages): Free
No, to get started you only need the free Henry Thunkable template and the Henry | Native Wrapper Plugin.
You will need the other accounts only once you are happy with your app and have decided to actually ship it.
Shipping your Bubble apps in the App Store can be great. Unfortunately, it’s not an easy process. Regardless of what wrapping technology or service you use, in order to ship any app to the Apple App Store and Google Play store you will at minimum require the following:
- Apple Developer Program account: $100 / year
- Google Play Developer Account: $25 one-time fee
- OneSingnal Account (push messages): Free
You will need to set up these accounts and register your app and related products (i.e. in-app-purchases etc.) on your own. You will also need media and legal assets such as screen shots and end user licence agreements.
Please have a look at Thunkables detailed description of the publishing process https://docs.thunkable.com/publish.
Once you decide to ship, you will also need Thunkable Pro Plan for one month (USD 45). This is not needed at the start. You will only need this once you decide to actually ship your app and you will only need it for one month. There is no need for a continued subscription after you shipped your app.
The Thunkable Docs describe this process very well. We suggest you have a read before embarking on this journey.
Changes in Bubble: This is one of the biggest advantages of building a mobile app in a hybrid setup (hybrid = native app combined with a web app loaded in a web view). If you make changes in Bubble, they will be immediately visible for all users, as the app always loads the newest version of your Bubble web app. No need for resubmission.
Changes in Thunkable: If you make changes in Thunkable (e.g. upload a different logo screen) you will need to resubmit your app. However, this should only rarely be the case as most changes happen on the Bubble end.
Unfortunately we don’t support Deep Linking yet as Thunkable has not yet implemented this feature. We are working with the Thunkable team to get this done as soon as possible.
Apple is very strict on the minimum requirements to approve an app and ,unfortunately, there is never a guarantee that an app will ultimately be approved. However, as long as your app is ‘useful’, has a ‘native-like’ UX and makes use of some native features there are good chances it will be approved, even though it uses Webview. There are dozens if not hundreds of apps using Bubble and some sort of Webview in the AppStore today, including apps built with Henry. For more details have a look at https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#minimum-functionality