Announcing the Airtable Platform

[Jason]

Hello Airtable Community! :wave:

We have a lot of exciting news to share today as part of our launch of the Airtable Platform. I’ll share some high-level details here in this post and also direct you to our other announcement resources that include more specific information. Most importantly, I’d recommend reading the official announcement from our CEO, Howie Liu where he covers each of our major new platform features:

• Apps (renamed from blocks) and the Airtable Marketplace
• Automations
• Airtable Sync
  
  

A new apps marketplace for creators like you

Previously, you’ve used Blocks to customize Airtable with pre-built functionality like maps and Gantt charts. Now, with the launch of Airtable Apps, we’re renaming Blocks and expanding the platform’s capabilities by enabling creators to build their own apps fully integrated with Airtable.

We’ve also just launched a new Airtable Marketplace where you can browse and install apps created by Airtable, our partners, and creators like you. Today, you can access more than 50 available apps! And along with this, we’re excited to announce an official pathway for any developers to submit their custom app to the marketplace.

We believe that a strong developer ecosystem can solve broader, deeper problems and help teams tailor the entire Airtable experience to their specific operational and business needs. To demonstrate this, I want to highlight five apps that have been built by fellow community members:

• Scheduler App by @Kamille_Parks
• Image Markup App by @Amr
• Marked Preview App by @Leo_Lutz
• Eazyfields App by @Ronen_Babayoff
• Link Records by Fields App

Lastly, here’s a short video about creating your own blocks.

Ready to explore? Visit the Airtable Marketplace at airtable.com/marketplace →

Create powerful workflows with automations

Automations allow you to configure custom trigger-action workflows directly within your Airtable base. This will help your team go faster by creating custom notifications, automating redundant work, and integrating seamlessly with your favorites tools.

Many of you have already been testing Automations, and we’re pleased to share that it’s now officially available to all Airtable users.

Learn more about how to set up an Automation here →

Share information across your network with Airtable Sync

The ability to share information between bases has been a top feature request from Airtable customers. Now, you can set up a table to be automatically synced from one base to another. This also means you can now link records between bases! :tada:

This brand new feature will open up countless possibilities, allowing you to create a single source of truth across multiple teams, workflows, and bases.

So, how does Airtable Sync work?

• A view share link allows data to be synced by other teams. With the link, other teams can instantly sync data without needing to deal with exporting and importing data.

• A view from one base can be used as a synced table in another base

• You can manually or automatically update synced tables

• A synced table is read-only and can be used without impacting the original data source

Browse our support articles that cover more in-depth functionality →

Have questions?

If you have a question or feedback about this launch, my colleague @Taylor_Savage and I will be responding in this topic throughout the day today. You may also want to check out a related update for developers: Custom Blocks update: Apps, SDK v1.0.0, and more.

We’re looking forward to seeing everything this community will build with these new features!

[Justin_Barrett]

The Airtable team really knows how to kick off the week with a BANG! I can see where my day is going… :winking_face:

[Jason]

Happy building @Justin_Barrett! Where are you hopping in first?

[Justin_Barrett]

Most likely base syncing, @Jason. I’d love to sync contacts between my business and personal bases. However, I’ve got a class to teach in 15 minutes, so I need to focus for the next hour…which is going to be REALLY difficult. :laughing:

[Jason]

@Justin_Barrett Could walk your class through an interactive learning session :laughing:

[kuovonne]

Does this mean that Custom Blocks / Apps is officially out of beta?

Also, the name “marketplace” implies that there would be apps for sale. However, it currently does not look like the marketplace sells apps; it merely makes them available. Any financial transaction need to take place off platform. Care to comment on the the “marketplace” name and the ability to sell?

[Justin_Barrett]

Haha! If only today’s topic wasn’t the basics of using Python in Maya, I’d be all over it! :slightly_smiling_face: I’ll definitely mention it to my classes, though. I use Airtable to track and organize a lot of stuff for this class (and they sorta-kinda know it), and I can see that expanding even further with some of these new/expanded features.

[Jason]

kuovonne:

Does this mean that Custom Blocks / Apps is officially out of beta?

It does!

kuovonne:

Also, the name “marketplace” implies that there would be apps for sale. However, it currently does not look like the marketplace sells apps; it merely makes them available. Any financial transaction need to take place off platform. Care to comment on the the “marketplace” name and the ability to sell?

A few of our engineers are holding an AMA session later geared specifically towards developers (and dev related questions) - I’d suggest posting this question there :slightly_smiling_face:

[pory]

This is super exciting! Been meaning to build a block, I mean app that integrates with Pory.io to make turning data into websites easier. Can’t wait to see more tutorials pop up :slightly_smiling_face:

[Jason]

@pory We’re excited too! Looking forward to more custom apps.

[Justin_Barrett]

In the updated Automation docs, it lists “G Suite Triggers” at the end of the trigger list, but such triggers don’t appear in Airtable. I do see the G Suite actions, though. Not sure if this is a documentation error, or if G Suite triggers are coming later.