Apps blocked due to double user count

fdmsaraiva
Participant V

I have two prototype apps blocked, supplier-724607 and lastmilearchive-724607, because allegedly supplier-724607 went over the limit of 10 users. Thing is, I donโ€™t think it did.

This is the user activity log, where 4 email addresses, marked in colors, are being counted twice:

This happened because I authenticated both via Google and via Dropbox with those emails, and Appsheet is counting the end-users of my app not as unique emails, but as unique email-authproviders.

I can understand if for technical constraints the core Appsheet backend needs to treat unique email-authproviders as different users, but as far as the end-users of customer apps go, they should be counted only as unique emails because:

  1. What you add to your Appโ€™s user list are emails
  2. Issues with a default authentication provider may require the app creator to provide a fallback authentication provider to the same users

Could you unblock these apps please?

Also, please consider counting end-users of customer apps as unique emails.

2 9 763
9 REPLIES 9

LeventK
Participant V

@Filipe
Either your app is on prototype mode or not, distinct authentications are always treated as unique users to the app. Provided you have set your provider to any in your Security settings, even-though you are the app creator or app owner, your logins other than the domain you have set in your white-list, will be treated as unique user. Thatโ€™s so normal.

Other than that, when you have exceeded your limit, you both receive an email from AppSheet and you need to notice the exclamation mark next to My Account tab in the browser. Those indicates that you need to take a precaution or at least contact AppSheet provided you think that there is an issue. Lastly, there is a quite good amount of allowed time-frame for the user to take a reaction until the app(s) are blocked at the back-end.

It is.

And I argue that this is not a good way to count end-users because of the reasons outlined above.

I do understand, but your points or reasons are not correct unfortunately. At least technicallyโ€ฆSo rather than arguing, letโ€™s start with 3 consecutive questions:
#1 - Have you received an email from AppSheet regarding that you have exceeded your user limit and you need to either change your plan or require more licences?
#2 - Have you noticed the yellow triangle w/exclamation mark next to My Account tab when you open your app editor?
#3 - Provided you answer YES to both questions above; have you contacted AppSheet?

Steve
Participant V

This really seems like something you should engage AppSheet directly about rather than the community. Try support@appsheet.com.

I agree @Steve, but when I go to the contact us page, it reads Direct customer support is only available to customers in premium subscription plans, so knowing the community is monitored by Appsheet staff, this seemed like the best option.

I do have accounts with active subscriptions in my organisation, but I only transfer app ownership to those accounts once the app approaches deployment phase.

Iโ€™ll try that email address though, thanks.

In my experience, AppSheet support is responsive to legitimate problems whether youโ€™re a paying customer or not. Something like this Iโ€™d expect them to be responsive to.

dbaum
Participant V

Was this ever clarified? I've now encountered the same problem of AppSheet counting the same user with the same email address as multiple users due to authenticating via different identity providers. The only explanations I find in AppSheet documentation of how users are counted reference unique email address--not unique combination of email address + identity provider.

Each (email, auth-provider) pair is a distinct user. A user should always log into the app using the same authentication provider.

Thanks for the explicit confirmation. It would be helpful if that were clarified in the reference documentation. After observing that Apple authentication is unreliable vis a vis the user's email (which would also be helpful to note in reference documentation), I tested various authentication providers using the same email address, and thus inflated my account's monthly active users as tallied by AppSheet.

In case it's helpful to anyone for future reference, here's the explanation I also received today from "Nicholas from AppSheet" in response to an inquiry I sent to sales@appsheet.com.

My question

Who counts as a user for billing purposes? I recently began receiving notifications from you that my prototype app has more than 10 users, which is not the case. I checked the "User Activity" list from my account page, and saw that you're counting the same email address as distinct users when authenticated via different providers. That's not how your reference documentation explains distinct users are tallied (e.g., in the "How does AppSheet count users?" question in the Other Pricing Questions article, the Require Sign-in article). I need to know how billing will actually occur in order to determine whether to enable authentication via multiple providers and how many licenses to select in my subscription plan.

AppSheet response

We count each unique user accessing an app on your account in the last 30 days as an active user. Emails using different providers/credentials are authenticated as their own unique user, but when you share your app you can set which authenticatorf your users must select.

 

Top Labels in this Space