We’ve made the app publishing process faster and more transparent 
. It used to take anywhere from 30 minutes to a few days for updates to make it into the Tidbyt mobile app because it relied on manual steps. Now, new apps are deployed to beta users and bug fixes are released to everyone in a matter of seconds.
For casual users, this means new apps can be created and bugs can be fixed more rapidly. For developers, read on to learn more 
.
What’ s new?
The Tidbyt backend can now receive app updates dynamically via an API, without the need to restart. This means the continuous deployment process in the community repo is now in charge of deploying new apps and bug fixes 
How did it used to work?
Before now, we used a combination of go modules and go embedding to bundle all of the source code from the community repo into our backend. This means that we needed to update a dependency and build/deploy our backend service even for the smallest bug fix.
What happens when my app is merged?
Once a new app is merged to the community repo, it goes out to all beta users immediately once the build on the main branch completes. From there, a Tidbyt engineer will ensure your app is ready to go before launching it to all Tidbyt users.
For bug fixes, once the change is merged, it will be deployed to all Tidbyt users immediately once the build on the main branch completes 
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Want to be a beta tester? Sign up here.
Can I deploy without the community repo?
At the moment, access to the newly added pixlet commands are limited to the community repo 
. Our dream is to be able to open access up to anyone to be able to deploy apps without needing the community repo 
. Until then, these are not usable and are only public for introspection on the community deploy process.
What’s next?
Our dream is to be able to accept changes from community members without requiring a review from a Tidbyt engineer. The next step towards making that dream a reality is for us to secure and isolate the app runtime in our backend. This way, we can accept even more apps without requiring a close look on what the app is doing.