A church app with no app store download — here's how that works
Sanctuary Stack is a web app members add to their home screen. What that means for older phones, iPhones, storage and updates, explained without the jargon.
The Sanctuary Stack team · · 3 min read
"Download our app" might be the hardest sentence in church announcements. Half the congregation can't find it in the store. Some phones are out of storage. Others want a password nobody remembers. By the time everyone's sorted, the service has started.
So Sanctuary Stack doesn't use an app store at all.
What a "web app" is
Your church app is a website built to behave like an app, known as a Progressive Web App (PWA). Members open your church's link once and tap Add to Home Screen. From then on there's an icon on their phone that opens full-screen, like any other app, with notifications.
| App store app | Your church app | |
|---|---|---|
| How to get it | Search the store, download, sign in | Scan a QR code or open a link, tap install |
| Storage | Often 50–150 MB | A tiny fraction of that |
| Updates | Members must update it | Always up to date, automatically |
| Developer fees and reviews | Yes, for the church or vendor | None |
| Notifications | Yes | Yes |
Installing it
On Android: open the link in Chrome, tap the ⋮ menu and choose Install app (on some phones it says Add to Home screen).
On iPhone: open the link in Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. Apple only allows this from Safari, so if someone opened the link from WhatsApp or Instagram, they should first choose Open in Safari.
The first time a member signs in on a new phone, a church admin approves it. It's a one-time step that keeps strangers out of your church's private information.
What about older phones?
Most phones from the last several years work well. The app needs:
- Android: an up-to-date Google Chrome (version 99 or newer, available on Android 6 and later). If someone sees an "update your browser" page, updating Chrome from the Play Store fixes it.
- iPhone: iOS 15.4 or newer, which covers the iPhone 6s and everything after it.
If a phone can't install apps from the browser, members can tap Can't install? Sign in from your browser and use everything right there. They'll just want to bookmark it.
Why we chose this
We built Sanctuary Stack for churches where many members have budget phones, limited storage and expensive data. A web app is smaller, faster to set up and kinder to those phones, and it means a church can get its whole congregation connected in a single Sunday.
Launching the app at your church? Our starter kit includes a printable A4 poster with your church's QR code and picture-by-picture install steps for both Android and iPhone.