Announcement: Sunsetting the Jira Cloud for Mac App

[Erik Pearson]

I've been a near-daily user of the macOS desktop app the last year or so. I heartily agree with other commenters that this has significantly improved my Jira workflow. I've used Jira much more with the desktop app than I ever did with the web app.

Although always an odd duck, it has still pleasantly and steadily improved. I occasionally dip into the web app, but as the desktop app has improved, less and less so.

My vote is to keep supporting this macOS version of this app until the multi-platform app is launched.

[Mikhail.Shlensky]

When people once start to use macOS desktop app, then they will see how horrible Jira WEB APP is. 

[James Sokoll]

This is extremely disappointing. I much prefer native apps. The Jira desktop app in particular is a much better experience than the web app.

[Olivier Larivain]

While this is sad to hear, I can understand maintaining a Catalyst is a tall order.

However, M1 Macs can run iPad apps as is, and I think I'd be very satisfied with the iPad app on my laptop. Are you guys planning on enabling once you remove the app from the AppStore?

[Craig]

If you're looking to put the web page in the dock, check out https://webcatalog.io/webcatalog

Mac, Windows, and Linux. Free for personal use.

This obviously doesn't replace a true native app, but it does solve the convenience problem.

[anson]

I feel the need to pile on, sorry (not sorry).

The native Mac OS app is so much quicker to use than the browser version and it has a well implemented dark mode. I put up with a lot of bugs in text editing and the lack of text editing features that are found only in the web app. Just so I can use the native app.

I might – and I say, might – want to move back to the web interface if Atlassian would just add support for Dark Mode, correct the poor space utilization of that interface and make it much faster.

For some of us, the lack of a dark mode in the browser is HUGE. Atlassian web apps are the lone BRIGHT WHITE pages in a sea of dark and, boy, that is very, very annoying.

I suggest fixing the web interface and not sinking resources into building a cross platform app. I'm definitely not voting for that option. The user experience will just not be as good as the native Mac OS app could be. I suggest assigning resources to improving the web interface instead. And give us dark mode, please? In Confluence as well as Jira?

[Mohammad Tauheed]

I do not want Jira to be hiding somewhere in the jungle of browser tabs, that is one of the important reasons I like the app, its prominent presence in the desktop.

I echo many of the comments above. This is an upsetting and annoying decision. 

[Aarat Bhatnagar]

Terrible news! I absolutely loved the app and was only hoping for it to be more powerful. This is a step back, hope you rollback this decision as per user feedback. We really want it back and more powerful

[a.histrov]

Atlassian stupidity at it's finest!
People use and love the desktop app because the web version is a complete UI/UX crap.
The decision has no sense considering Apple delivered on the promise to make cross platform app possible.

[chinjazz]

Does 6 pages of comments make consideration of open sourcing, and interest in keeping the app going compelling?

[Mikhail.Shlensky]

Based big users response it will be obvious This decision is starting point of Jira sunset. 

[Elior Boukhobza]

Reading behind the lines: "the people working on the Mac App left the company and we don't have the resources to continue support it"

I really hope the current Mac App will continue working for as much as it can, as it was a better alternative in general than the hugely bloated main App. If it won't, it will suck, but it won't be big deal I'm not a fan of Jira anyways. Using it because my managers insist of using it but I wouldn't sign for such a product myself.

[Magnus Knutas]

If you have no one supporting the mac app you can always DM me and I'll get you sorted @Irene 

[Valeriy Vislobokov]

For those that still want a standalone app, this is what I'm going with. :P

https://github.com/ankitpokhrel/jira-cli

[Constantin]

Pulling the plug was very sudden. I wonder why? Probably the answer is office politics coupled with bad management and disregard towards end-users.

[Mark Kirk]

Really unfortunate. The Jira web app is incredibly slow, bloated, and memory intensive. Let's just hope we don't end up with an Electron app next. You would think a company as large and profitable as Atlassian would have the resources to build proper native apps on the major platforms.

[Khaled AbuShqear]

This is really sad and annoying news!! lacks the vision of the feature, I've tried Linear and I've been shocked with their app real-time updates and the speed of their app! I don't even use their website and the integration between their app and website is amazing! and surprisingly easy to use, I hope JIRA learns some lessons from the other products and think a thousand times before taking such decisions!

[Steve Koppelman]

Jira Cloud is not fast in real-world use, and confluence Cloud is even worse. It's delusion. I use a 2020 Macbook Pro with 32GB RAM and an 8-core i9. I sit three feet from a Wifi 6 router connected to gigabit fiber in North America. There cannot be a single person in Product at Atlassian who uses Jira Cloud and say It's "fast" with a straight face, and a whole lot of that seems to be abysmal client-side rendering performance.

The MacOS app, for all its rough edges and incomplete bits, was a breath of fresh air and has been my go-to for the last year.

Unless you folks are about to release a completely rearchitected rendering mechanism for web Jira, I call malarkey. My condolences to whoever was championing it internally. You tried. I can only hope you've been put on a project to modernize Confluence for a world where Notion and Dropbox Paper exist. :) 

[Irene]

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your feedback. To be able to respond to you properly, we have published a new post with your top questions. Please see here: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Mobile-Apps-discussions/Your-top-questions-about-the-Jira-Cloud-for-Mac-app/td-p/1929513. 

Let's continue the discussion there as we can also better respond to your questions on that page which have different comment settings to the one here. 

We want to make sure that we can help clarify the decision and help you with this change. 

[Chi]

BAD BAD Decision. I don't know who's responsible for this but this is simply bad. The web experience is subpar, the app is indispensable.

[Mateusz Pluta]

Do not do it, please!!! Using the Mac app is so much better decision than the web! And who cares about the mobile version? Sunset that! Really! We wanted to migrate to JiraCloud this month and this announcement made us consider an alternative (Linear!!!)...

[Showvhick Nath]

What!! Hell no. This can't happen. I am part of 4 different workspaces and switching is never easy on web browser. The app is fantastic. Does the core job. Ohh, I even convinced my clients to use Jira for same reason. I can switch quickly and see tasks. Now it's like pulling the ladder when you are on rooftop. Very poor decision.  

[Serge]

Kanban board don't work at last chrome, only on Safari and app. Fix chrome before

[Paulo Gomes]

Simple things I like to do on the App:

• See my kanban board quickly with one click
• See quickly my notifications
• When having a notification from the system (apple notification on top right corner) can click on the notification and go straight there in the app
• Switch between projects quickly
• Switch between sites quickly - 2 clicks (from different accounts)
• Switch between boards quickly
• Apply filters, search - all very fast to apply
• Create a story/task/epic in a few clicks
• Share a ticket URL (copy issue link)

There are some issues mostly with the editor, but that is basically the only case I fall back to the web version, I just grab the link (copy issue link) and open the browser. Other is the lack of bulk actions.

Checking popularity (we can see already on this thread what users think):

seems quite decent and think not better mostly because of the bugs from the initial versions (yep, in the beginning, the app was very buggy)

Only the lack of vision, no understanding of UX, and no clue how the users should work, justify dropping something that is good. And you can't go by the numbers, otherwise, we never would have an iPhone in the market.

If you really want to drop the existing App, drop it, but replace it with another native App that is better.

[Сергей Давыдов]

Hey, Jira, what’s up?