WordPress recently announced the New Jetpack App which pretty much does everything one is currently able to do on the WordPress mobile.
If you are signed into Jetpack services, you have probably received prompts or emails asking you to try the new app. I have dipped my feet into the new experience and will attempt to breakdown the experience.
What is Jetpack?
Jetpack provides security, performance, and growth tools for WordPress sites. It has tools and resources that help one manage, secure and streamline traffic to their website.
WordPress.com sites are created pre-loaded with the basic Jetpack resources whether on free plans or paid plans.
For those on the self-hosted version of WordPress, Jetpack offers a suite of plugins that help manage a website similar to the experience on WordPress.com including options that help backup, speed up and secure a website.
Jetpack is brought to you by Automattic, the guys behind WordPress, Tumblr, WooCommerce, CrowdSignal and many other web services. Fun Fact: The company’s name is a play on founder’s first name Matt Mullenweg and automatic-… autoMATTic
To date, Jetpack features come bundled with the WordPress mobile app. During the course of this year, those features will no longer be available on the WordPress mobile app. To access them you will need to switch apps.
If you are still using the WordPress App updated version, you can identify the Jetpack Features which will be marked with the designation Jetpack Powered and if you click on that tag you will get a flyer asking you to switch over to the new app.
How to get the new JetPack App
The JetPack Mobile App available to download on Playstore or AppStore
-For a seamless transition, ensure you were using the latest version of the WordPress App before migrating to the JetPack App so that you do not lose an locally stored drafts. Simply download and log into the JetPack app using your WordPress.com credentials or your URL if self-hosted. Once done, you should delete the old app as they are not to compatible with running simultaneously and might result in malfunctions.
The Jetpack App
Upon successful migration you should find that apart from the colour scheme and logo change your experience will be exactly quite like as it was as while using the WordPress mobile App..
So far there are no additional features and or pricing changes, all the features which came free are still free, though some have speculated that in the future there might be some in-app purchases and products that will require some payment models.
First thing I did was activate darkmode… My experience has been pretty much the same as when using the WordPress App, except I really miss the Blue Colour scheme highlights and seeing the W logo on notifications.
I don’t create blog posts via mobile phone, so am not sure if the post creation handles any differently.
However I did notice a curious glitch whereby if I clicked a WordPress.com link in my mobile browser or from instant messenger apps and opened in the app, I would be unable to like or comment, but if I navigate to the same article via the reader the options would be enabled.
A Tale Of Two Apps
I am a firm believer in not fixing anything that is broken, especially if it means forcing unnecessary change on people. That said, seems like a time will come will when you have to make a choice between using the WordPress App and the JetPack App
WordPress App or JetPack App which one should you choose:
Use the WordPress App if you are primarily interested in publishing tools, media from your phone gallery, offline drafts and that’s about it.
The Jetpack App gives you the same publishing tools but will additionally give you access to notifications and comments, reader feed and site analytics. Which are practically the tools which power a blog’s community and networking. Choosing to switch might be inevitable for some bloggers.
If you running self-hosted WordPress sites then I recommend installing the Jetpack Plugin and using the mobile app to manage the sites.
Why are they making us choose?
According to a WordPress blog, Refocusing the WordPress App on Core Features:
Over the years, the WordPress app has evolved to meet a diverse range of site administration needs and use cases. Features like Stats, Reader, and Notifications were introduced with the hope of meeting some of these needs. However, these features require the Jetpack plugin or a WordPress.com account to function and can make the app overwhelming for folks who want a simpler experience.
For the sake of clarity and closer-to-core experience, the mobile team will be working to refocus the app on staple features you’d find with a fresh download of WordPress.
Features that will be moved to the JetPack App
- Stats
- Activity Log
- Backup
- Sharing (Jetpack Social)
- Reader
- Notifications
- Jetpack blocks (Gutenberg Editor)
- @-Mentions and Crossposting (Gutenberg Editor)
Both Apps will be supported, continue functioning and receiving updates.
As I mentioned earlier there’s speculation that different pricing models might be introduced down the road which may see some features become premium, or maybe they may offer new premium features all together.
Do you use either of the WordPress mobile apps? Will you or have you switched?
~B
Becoming The Muse 
I have switched because the new wp app is going to be a neutered piece of crap that they will scrap in either a year or two. The “new” jetpack app is exactly the same as the old wp app (except the atrocious color change, sigh) and so I fully expect automattic to monetize something just to screw us over. They did it with damnable Pro plan and the flipping other plan and called that “progress”, so I can only wait to see what kind of abortion they’re going to try to force on us while praising it to high heaven.
Just in case you can’t tell, I’m not very upbeat about this change. It is the exact same thing they’ve done in the past (change something that works, remove functionality and then eventually charge us to have the old functionality back) and they’re following their rules of engagement to the letter. It is just depressing to watch 😦
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Oh my word handed fully appreciated how atrocious the colour scheme gets (especially in my preferred dark mode when article links appear in that ganGreen🤡)
I had a bit of a laugh when a Happiness Engineer was explaining how WP would still be functional but if we being honest that’s a load of BS and you are so right it will likely disappear into disuse with time.
Wouldn’t put it past them to start charging to respond to comments – oh snap hope am not giving them ideas…
Every new change feels like they are moving closer and closer to pushing out the idea of bloggers in pursuit of how do we charge them for this…
In the meantime I guess We just pushing time until hopefully a viable alternative pops up
~B
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I haven’t downloaded the app, but from your analysis I quite don’t see the difference between the two apps. All the features you’ve mentioned are available on the WP app. I used the mobile version often and everything just seem to work for me well. I can browse the feeds, read and respond to comments, like and comment on posts, see my stats, almost all the features you’ve mentioned. I don’t think I’ll be quick to embrace it.
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just be aware that they will be taking away a LOT of those features in the wp app sometime in march 😦
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Looks like the switch is imminent 😅
28 March
~B
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Oh my goodness, will they, and why? Then i guess I’ll have to go there. WP is fond of exploitation i see 🙈 They probably now want to make some features premium.
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Right now those features work, but from, 28 March they will be removed from the WP app… ⚠
So ready or not you will be forced to embrace the new Jetpack App to access those features sooner rather than later.
Do it soon while it’s more like a voluntary change than later when it becomes a necessity 😅
~B
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Haha. In this case I’ll have to
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I have switched to jetpack
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How’s the experience?
~B
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I love it
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I think its mostly great I am just worried for the future developments… waiting for the other shoe to drop cause changes will come
~B
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Waiting too
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F*ck! I saw your post on Saturday night and figured I’d read it the following day as it’s about an optional change. Well, I check my WP app this morning (which I do VERY rarely) and I see that WP will go away on March 8th, which means I HAVE TO change to Jetpack. Yea. Not a good sign.
I’ve been unable to like someone’s reply to my comment on their website through the app for a while. Not sure why. Sounds like that works in the new app?
All the changes that have been taking place for the past year or two had me curious. This change confirms it – something big is afoot. I will have to make a conscious mental note to somehow backup my WP content in case I had to move/leave sooner than later… Not optimistic about it…
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Oh they finally put a date to it… And so close too😱
When I had searched out for a date had only found references to “later in the year”
They definitely cooking up some nasty surprises… Not looking forward to it… But hey maybe, it might turn out to be a good sort of change 😅 …. Nah 🤡
~B
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I have moved because I got tired of all the prompts asking me to move.
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hahahaha well thats one reason to switch…. Annoy people till they move sounds like terrible strategy though I think it alienates the user … especially if as I suspect once we have fully migrated and settled into the the system, they are going to pull some very sneaky update on us and except us to just accept it.
~B
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