How Do I Share An App with others, so that they have their own app attached to their own google sheets?

I shared my app with other users, I have selected the options as below.

But when my users make edits, it still changes the original Google sheet that I build the app on, instead of their own sheet in their own Google Drive.
What am I doing wrong?

Can you clarify exactly what you mean by that? Do you mean…

  • Data edits made by logging into and using your app, or
  • Edits made to a copy of your app?

The reason I ask is that “my users” implies the former, in which case it would be correct and expected behaviour.

When I share the app, I want people to have a completely fresh app with their own Google Sheet.

What I’m seeing right now is that when people sign in with their own Google Account, whatever changes they made still change the original sheet that I created the app with.

E.g. When Lily edits data in the app, Duncan, John, and Peter’s data changes too. I don’t want that. Every person should have their own individual app with no relation to one another.

If they are making copies of your app, then they will have their own copy of the sheet. They are most likely just using your app without making a copy into their own glide account.

I would explain to your users that they should be creating their own glide accounts and making a copy of the app instead of using your version.

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I might be wrong, but my gut is telling me that you are misunderstanding what it actually means to make a copy of a Glide App. When somebody has a copy of your app, they can change the functionality of (their copy) of the app. eg. add/remove tabs/screens/tables, change navigation options, etc, etc.

Is that your intention? Are you expecting that Lily, Duncan, John and Peter will all now go off and develop their own versions of your app?

Or are you just wanting to keep their data secure and isolated from each other?

because they did not copy the App, they just open link to your App… you need to explain them how to copy your App. after they copy, the App will open in their own google sheets

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Yes, I just want to keep their data secure and isolated from each other.

I’m beginning to understand that installing the app straight from my install link doesn’t work.

They have to open my link in Desktop, click on “Copy App”, register their own Glide Account, and Publish their own app in order to install.

Is that correct?

Is there an easier way to distribute the app?

I literally just want people to install my personal finance tracker app and use it on their phones.

No no, that’s not how you distribute an app.

Firstly, have a watch of this video tutorial:

That will teach you how to use Row Owners to ensure users can only access their own data.

To distribute your app, you just need to Publish & Share It

Allowing people to copy your app is a completely different thing, as I pointed out earlier. You probably don’t want to do that.

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Thanks! This is good. This means I have to get each user to create an account. I was also wondering if there’s an easier way to do it.

In my head I was thinking all I need is just the app and Google Sheets duplicated on people’s Google Account. Not sure if Glide works that way?

The easiest is to just have one app with multiple users of that same app. Apps only have one database that is stored in a central location. In this case, it’s either a google sheet or glide tables. Each user does not have their own copy of a database. You maintain it for all users.

2 Likes

Each users “account” will be created the first time they log into your app. Make sure you have User Profiles enabled.

Nope. It’s just one Google Spreadsheet per app. But users data can be safely isolated by using Row Owners correctly.