New mobile features in Tokyo

#mobile , #tokyo

Earl Duque

3 minute read

Tokyo is here and today we want to highlight some of the new mobile features in Tokyo

A brief history

ServiceNow had a mobile app called the ServiceNow Classic app for quite some time, introduced relatively early in ServiceNow’s history. This was the sole mobile app up until a few years ago. ServiceNow then acquired a low-code/no-code mobile app enterprise company called SkyGiraffe. The mission was to allow ServiceNow customers to be able to build their own mobile workflows without needing to write iOS or Android code. We hope that anyone can build apps on the ServiceNow platform, and likewise, we hope anyone can build mobile apps too.

Jumping in

The hierarchy guide should be your starting point as its the core to the mobile platform. Once you understand the hierachy, we are confident that you will be able to build your mobile apps. And we’re making it easier with every release.

Mobile Hierarchy

mobile-app-core-foundation.png

Start here with the documentation on Mobile Hierarchy

While it may look complex, the guide will help reveal the beauty of our mobile builder: everything is revealed so you can be as creative as you want to be, and at the same time, the tool addresses the complexity with a good interface to make it easy to use.

New in Tokyo

The Mobile SDK

We are no longer limited to creating mobile apps within the ServiceNow platform. Companies that have existing mobile apps that were built natively can instead acquire the new Mobile SDK from the ServiceNow store.

Customers with more complex use cases can now use this new offering to pull any piece of data from their ServiceNow instances and utilize that information in creative ways: Using virtual agent on mobile, native push notifications triggered from ServiceNow, leverage Service Portal pages, etc.

You will be able to bring in these ServiceNow compenents and, through the SDK, render them in your existing mobile app.

Field Service management

Better offline mode

offline.png

Mobile agents now have the ability to create and edit records offline and even utilize reference fields in offline mode.

Adaptive authentication

Customers with complex security requirements. Mobile users will now be able to be authenticated by IP address, allowing for companies that require specific IP ranges. Instead of forcing users to juggle mobile VPN services just to access their app, a new ServiceNow plugin will allow end users to connect to those instances without having the VPN installed on their device. A clever background handshake authentication (via device registration against the instance) were created to uphold security needs.

Mobile App Builder

Moving more and more to be able to configure within Mobile App Builder without having to leave the tool:

  • Ability to duplicate specific records
  • Additional support for configuring custom maps
  • Deep linking and push notifications!

End user experience

mapwize.png

  • Users can now upload multiple attachments
  • The attachment interface has been enhanced for better tracking of your attachments progress, canceling of individual attachments, etc.
  • The acquisition of Mapwize for mapping within the app
  • Notification badges now persist even if you log out of the instance
  • Notification badges are now synced across devices (marking one on your mobile does so on your iPad too)
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