eli5: When an app updates, how are people on the old version still able to use it?

Question

I know this isnt the case 100% of the time but could someone pls explain. sorry im dumb and bad at tech

In: 0

Answer 1

Apps are just used as a way to display information from a server and send data to the server.

That communication flow doesn’t necessarily change if an application receives updates. Only the updated features get affected.

If you have an application that creates a new reddit thread, your client app would take your username, your post title, and your post message body and send it to a reddit owned endpoint for creating threads. It doesn’t matter what the client looks like, or what other features it has, it just needs to have that information in a specific format and send it to the right endpoint.

Think of it like a recipe book. Different books can have the same exact recipe and it won’t matter which recipe book you use as the recipes are the same.

If you want to change the recipe, you have two options.

1. You can remove the old recipe and go with the new (this would break older applications)

2. You can have both recipes and cook with whatever recipe comes your way. (Backwards compatibility).