Mobile app structure
Summarize
Summary of Mobile app structure
This guide explains the organization and components of ServiceNow® mobile apps, helping you navigate and use the apps effectively. Understanding the app structure enables you to efficiently find tools, data, and perform tasks on your mobile device.
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Key Features
- App Icons: Each ServiceNow app has a unique icon on your device, which can show badges for unread notifications. Branded apps may have custom icons.
- Navigation Bar: Located at the bottom of the screen, it contains tabs for accessing settings, notifications, and commonly used screens. Administrators control the tabs and their order. If there are six or more tabs, a "More" tab appears to list additional options.
- Launcher Screens: Act as the home page to access other screens, search functions, quick actions, and user information. They include configurable headers and UI sections that display record details, analytics previews, and links to other screens.
- Search: Global search lets you query configured data sources within the instance, providing quick access to relevant information.
- Quick Actions: Allow fast access to frequent tasks such as transferring records or using templates directly from the app.
- Settings: Accessed from the Settings tab, this screen lets you manage user-specific options like instance selection, location tracking, offline mode, language, notifications, app security (PIN), themes, analytics tracking, and banner display preferences.
- Notifications: Displays push notifications, highlighting unread messages and critical alerts for prioritization. You can mark notifications as read/unread or delete them individually or in bulk.
- Screens and Segments: Screens display task-specific information from records and may include multiple segments accessible via tabs. Embedded screens within records show detailed information, activity streams, or related lists.
- Functions: Available from top menus or swipe actions, these enable task execution on current records or navigation to other screens and resources.
Practical Benefits
- Helps users quickly locate and navigate important app features and data on their mobile devices.
- Provides configurable options to tailor the app experience to user and organizational needs.
- Supports efficient task management through quick actions and contextual functions within screens.
- Enables effective notification management for timely responses to critical alerts.
- Facilitates offline work and location tracking to support diverse mobile work environments.
Learn how components and settings are organized within ServiceNow® mobile apps to understand how to find the tools and data you're looking for.
Components of a ServiceNow app
App Icons
Each ServiceNow app has its own icon on your mobile device. You can configure your apps to show a badge indicating the number of unread notifications you have in the app. Note: If your company has provided you with branded ServiceNow mobile apps,
your icons may not match the image shown here. |
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Navigation bar
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Each ServiceNow app displays a navigation bar along the bottom of the screen. This bar displays icons called tabs, which you can use to access settings, notifications and commonly used screens or launcher screens. Your administrator selects which tabs appear in the navigation bar, and the order in which they appear. If a navigation bar has six or more icons, a More ( For information on navigation bar configuration, see Navigation bar. |
) tab displays. Tap the Launcher screens
Launcher screens serve as a landing page or a home page. Using a launcher screen, you can access other screens in various formats, as well as search, do quick actions, and find user information.
For more information on launcher screens configuration, see Launcher screens. |
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Settings
Use the settings screen to configure multiple options and review information about the app. The settings page is accessed from the Settings tab on the navigation bar. The following are examples of available options. These options may
vary according to the operating system you use.
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Notifications
The notifications page is accessed from the Notifications tab on the navigation bar. This page displays push notifications sent to you. Tap any notification to view its contents. Notifications that are defined by the administrator as critical are flagged with the words Critical Alert. This type of notification helps you to prioritize which ones should be addressed first. Unread notifications are marked with a blue dot in the margin and the title is bold. Swipe left to reveal the option to delete the message. Swipe right to reveal the option to mark the message as read/unread. You can mark all notifications as read or delete all notifications by tapping on the more menu ( For more information on notifications, see Mobile notifications, Handling mobile alerts, and Enabling critical alerts. For information on mobile notification configuration, see Mobile push notifications. |
) and selecting the appropriate option.Screens
Examples of screen types that you can view on your mobile device.Screens within your mobile apps are designed for specific tasks. The template may include other optional screens that you can access for additional information. All screens display information that is based on records in a data item.
- Segments
- Screens can contain one or more segments, which display information from a specific data item. If a screen has more than one segment, you're able to switch between segments using a tabbed interface.
- Embedded screens
- Within a record screen, you might see one or many embedded screens. An embedded screen could be a details screen, an activity stream screen, a related list screen, or an embedded list screen.
- Functions
- Screens can be associated with one or more functions. Access these functions through the top menu or swipe actions. Use functions to perform tasks relating to the current record, or navigate to another screens, launcher screens, or external resources.
For more information on screens and how to configure them, see Mobile screen types.