My Cross & Crown App: Canceled by Google

John Hill, Editor & CEO

For the past several years, the My Cross & Crown App has provided another way for our readers to connect with Cross & Crown articles, news, and resources. We have appreciated everyone who downloaded and used the app.

Beginning this month, however, we will be discontinuing the My Cross & Crown App.

This decision comes as a result of significant changes to Google’s requirements and fee structure for maintaining apps on its platforms. Under the new terms presented to us, simply maintaining the app on Google platforms would cost an additional $2,500 annually, and that fee would include only three required “Core Updates.” After those three updates, additional Core Updates could cost $1,000 each.

These expenses would be in addition to the $250 per month we already pay for ongoing app maintenance. Depending upon the number of required updates, maintaining the app could potentially cost $5,000–$10,000 per year or more.

Apple has not presented us with the same challenges. However, because most of our app users access the app through Android/Google devices, Google’s requirements directly affect whether the app can reasonably continue.

Simply put, Google’s new terms are not acceptable to us, and we do not believe paying these substantially increased fees would be a responsible use of the resources entrusted to Cross & Crown.

The My Cross & Crown App will therefore become inactive and will eventually be removed from the app stores.

The good news is that Cross & Crown is not going anywhere.

In fact, most of the content people accessed through the app is already available through our website, blog, email, and social media. These platforms allow us to reach considerably more people while using our resources more effectively.

You can continue to:

• Visit the Cross & Crown website and blog for articles, news, and resources.

• Subscribe to our email updates to receive new content directly.

• Follow Cross & Crown on social media for articles, announcements, and other updates.

We are grateful to everyone who has used the My Cross & Crown App over the years. While the app is ending, our commitment to providing helpful Christian resources, news, and content remains unchanged.

Thank you for continuing to read, follow, share, and support Cross & Crown. We look forward to staying connected with you in the ways that allow us to serve the greatest number of people while remaining good stewards of our resources.