Announcement: Sunsetting the Jira Cloud for Mac App

[#1]

Announcement: Sunsetting the Jira Cloud for Mac app

UPDATE Jan 31, 2022:

We have released a new post to answer your top questions. Please see https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Mobile-Apps-discussions/Your-top-questions-about-the-Jira-Cloud-for-Mac-app/td-p/1929513.

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Starting in February 2022, we are sunsetting support of the Jira Cloud for Mac app. The app will still be usable, however we won’t ship any new features, updates, or respond to in-app support tickets.

Dedicated to giving you the best experience

This wasn’t an easy decision. We know many Mac users regularly use the app to manage their work. However, since its launch in 2019, the performance of Jira’s web and native mobile apps has improved and gone beyond what is possible with the Jira Cloud for Mac app.

Our sole focus is ensuring you have the best possible experience with Jira so for that reason we are sunsetting the Jira Cloud for Mac app and focusing all energy on building outstanding performance across the most powerful versions of Jira Cloud.

Jira Cloud for web & mobile continues to accelerate

Change is never easy, but the good news is that not only will your experience with Jira’s web and native mobile apps be just as good as the Mac app, you will also have access to new features like:

• Drag and drop issues, right from your roadmap

• The new issue create modal

• Custom “Done” statuses

• Advanced admin controls - manage users access and project permissions

All of your current work is up-to-date and available on your web browser (locate your instance here) and Jira’s native mobile apps for iOS and Android. You can get started today!

And don’t worry, although we are sunsetting the Jira Cloud for Mac app, you will still have access to it and can transition at your own pace.

Thank you!

To everyone who used and loved the Jira Cloud for Mac app. Since its launch in 2019, the app has evolved in many ways, and we are excited to take Jira web and mobile experiences to the next level in 2022 and beyond. 🚀

FAQ’s

• Do I need to export my work to Jira’s web version?

No, the Jira Cloud for Mac app automatically syncs with Jira Cloud for web, which means all of your work should be up-to-date and available in the web version without you having to do anything.

• Can I still use the app on my Mac?

Yes, if you have already downloaded the app, you can continue using it. The app may be disabled at any time in future.

• What does ‘no support’ mean?

New features will no longer be built for the app, and updates containing bug fixes and performance improvements will no longer be shipped. Technical support will not be available if you experience problems with the app.

[Clark Everson]

This is an interesting decision in my part. Especially as Apple has rolled out features over the last couple of years that make it so you can make a cross platform app that seamlessly works. Take for instance Darkroom, its the same app on mac, ios and ipad. So I am not really sure how the features coming to mobile can't come to the mac app etc 

[Majid Hussain]

Sad news. I really like the app and prefer to us it instead of the web version.

It would be good if Atlassian considered building more iOS/Android apps for Jira, Confluence and Service Management.

[Herb Hrowal]

Very sad news. I prefer the app since the web version is unbearably slow. This decision would make more sense if that wasn't the case.

[Paul Marroquin]

Having a dedicated app instead of one more tab to keep track of was a real blessing. Swipe right to the furthest desktop space and there's my full-screened Jira interface. This is the exact opposite of what I was hoping for - a feature-rich native client built on something like Flutter or React that would look great on Mac and Windows.  :<

Edit: Would this be the right feature request to vote for? Is so go vote for it!!

[ataias]

Really sad news... I also think the web version is unbearably slow...

[maik.hummel]

Is there any suitable alternative for notification management planned in the web version? It's pretty lovely to skip through all the notifications and be able to clear them like a typical inbox. Especially as clearing individual notifications doesn't seem to be supported on the web.

[Loïc B.]

"Our sole focus is ensuring you have the best possible experience with Jira" : this is precisely what the macOS app provided me.

The web version is heavy and slow, at some points it's getting extremely difficult to use it all the day to manage rich and complex projects. 

The macOS version provides the user experience I need to do things quickly, event though some features were still missing.
 I deeply regret this.

[effeKtSVK]

I don’t understand this decision either… Is there really such an overhead? I mean you’re already working on the iPad app and just spitting out macOS version using Catalyst. Well, at least people with M1 Macs should be able to still use the iPad app, I guess. 

[Craig]

This is a very upsetting and annoying announcement. I was also hoping for an extension of the app to Windows with a common interface, something that is so much easier to do these days. As others have already said, having a separate app is much better, regardless of how good the web interface is.

[Vitaliy Meshchaninov]

Omg no! Web is so much slower, and laggy, and will produce piles of tabs! Stand-alone app works much better, and perfectly isolates Jira into a single window!

BTW, I’m absolutely sure the macOS app is already built from the same code base as the iOS app.

[Kailan Blanks]

This is such a shame. I only discovered the Jira macOS app last week, and have been using it daily instead of the web app. Hoping the dev community will step up and develop an alternative client.

[andre]

Wow- the Jira mac app allowed me to scroll horizontally through Kanban boards with many columns. The experience on the web is not that good.

[Matt Zagaja]

After using both the web and desktop products I think it is smart to focus on the web application given all the challenges the desktop app had. That being said a big deficit in the web application is the lack of support for notifications. If you agree with me please upvote this ticket to show your support for desktop notifications.

[Craig]

Would Atlassian be willing to open source the existing app code?

[rmsy]

This is disappointing 😔 Although it took a little bit of time to make the Mac app feel like it was a native macOS app and not the iPad app just dropped onto the Mac, it was really getting there, and felt pretty polished. I love using it, and I hate using Jira on the web. I really hope one day Atlassian may reconsider this decision.

[Justin]

So, obviously this means you've fixed the Jira website's horrible memory footprint, right? And that you're adding dark mode... right?

[Paulo Gomes]

A bad decision... like others I have my Jira App always open as it is far quicker and easy to see a kanban board or jump between tickets, or to screen share the board.

[Mike Clesceri]

Wow I like the app too. I am interested in seeing all of the responses. I wonder if this was a mistake?

[Will Jones]

Well this seems like a very poor decision. As an iOS developer myself I find it hard to believe the claims that the performance of web and iOS has gone beyond what is possible with the mac desktop version. That disbelief aside, the mac desktop app is a FAR slicker experience than that of the web version, and it is not difficult supporting both iPadOS and macOS at the same time through Catalyst (as many have already said).

To echo some other comments further, the web version I find is horrifically clunky, a resource hog and downright slow - to the point that its shortcomings actually disrupt my workflow. In fact, using the native mac app has helped vastly in my own commitment to using the platform within my own team and wider company.

The only experience this will leave me with for the mac desktop (aside from the web) is the clunky Microsoft Teams implementation (now that IS something that is quite frankly, awful).

I'm disappointed if I'm honest, Atlassian. Yes it is lacking some of the features that the web version has, but honestly? That's fine. It fulfils the basic need of what most of us need it for so to drop support for it entirely feels like some of us are having a carpet pulled from beneath us.

This might come off as some self-entitled rambling from yet another customer that doesn't want change, but you surely have to see where I'm coming from?

[Alexander Skiba]

Sad to see this. Despite the macOS app's flaws like weird, non-standard hotkeys and completely bonkers editing behaviour that ignored the markdown standard Web now uses, it felt like a much faster experience than your website typically provides. Especially loading individual issues on Web is much slower.

[Nathan Ansel]

I am also sad to see the desktop app go away! The Mac app has always been easier to use, faster, and more reliable than the web app. I started out using the web version of Jira and dreaded opening it to edit a ticket because it has always been atrociously slow and hard to work in. Using the web version of Jira consistently disrupts my flow. Once I discovered the Mac app my feelings towards working with Jira changed, as it all of a sudden became much easier to use.

That being said, I am glad that it hasn't been yanked from the App Store yet and that we can continue to use the app for now. Please reconsider this decision! Or consider making a catalyst version of the iPad app.

[Morialkar]

I just hope you’ll remove the app from the App Store or change bundle ID because M1 Mac user cannot install the Jira Cloud iPad app instead because of it. If you’re stopping support I’d prefer switching back to something that is not the horribly slow web interface or completely unsupported.

i find this news really saddening, Atlassian going the Google way and killing successful products early in their lives for no apparent reasons. Such an anti customer move…

[skc]

It was an absolute delight using the Jira mac app, I recently convinced some of my teams to use it based on its capabilities and neat UI. Big kudos to the product team for kicking the goals and developers for getting sh**t done over the last few years. Looking forward to native apps shipping more delightful and performant features. GO TEAM!

[Deleted user]

I still don't and never will understand the desire to make web apps instead of native. where native exists it's invariably a better experience.

[Liron]

@Clark Everson 

Thanks for the reflection Clark. To your point, the Jira for Mac and our iOS App share the same codebase. However, there are some intentional differences between the web and the iOS app that we would need to keep. This is because of the different ways they are used. It is this that makes it challenging for us to provide the best possible desktop experience via the Mac app (which is at feature parity with the mobile app). We continue to evaluate an alternate multi-platform desktop app, please add your vote and ideas here.