The following Lifecycle Policy applies to Software Development Kits (“SDKs”), Application Programming Interfaces (“APIs”), API Clients, and other tools and services. It supplements our EULA and Terms of Use to explain how we think about making software offerings available for customers throughout the development lifecycle of our products.
This document provides expectations, but not guarantees, for software availability. Nothing in this document should be interpreted as superseding the EULA and Terms of Use in any way whatsoever.
Product Launch Stages
Alpha
Services may be provided in an “Alpha” stage of development. This limited-availability testing stage typically lasts less than six (6) months and is accessible by invitation only. It is intended to focus on the development of user-facing surfaces, such as the API and User Interface.
Alpha-level products are not recommended for production use, and subject to significant change. There are no service-level objectives provided for Alpha software whatsoever. Technical support will be provided by the development team instead of the support team, and thus our standard level of support may not be available.
Beta
At the beta stage, products or features are more robust and less likely to have their API or User Interface change significantly. However, many edge cases and even some core features may not yet be available. The Beta stage also typically lasts no more than six (6) months.
Technical support for products in the Beta stage will be provided by the support team as per generally available features. However, as there are likely a large number of known issues in the process of being resolved, our standard level of support responsiveness may not be available.
Additionally, as many planned features may not yet be available, Beta products or features are not expected to be “complete” offerings.
Generally Available
Generally Available (“GA”) products and features are available for use to all customers. They are ready for production use and are subject to our service-level objectives. Services that are generally available receive our fullest level of maintenance and support.
Deprecated
When deprecated, services or features are marked for shutdown. In this stage, systems are being prepared for wind-down, and customers are expected to transition away from using relevant components.
OneSignal will attempt to contact our customers to ensure they are aware of the impending shutdown. The deprecation window lasts no less than three (3) months and no more than six (6) months, except when prompted for security, legal, or reasons of service availability.
If you receive a deprecation notice from us, please act within a few months to ensure your service is not disrupted. Customers requiring more time may reach out to us to extend these deadlines in their exceptional cases.
End-of-Life
When services or features have reached end-of-life, they are no longer available for supported use. In some cases, we may provide portions of the source code to the open source community. However, we provide no guarantees or support, and do not operate the software ourselves.
For example, we may continue to provide source code for SDKs for development platforms that are no longer widely used. They may or may not be in an “archived” or “read-only” state of some kind on GitHub. They can continue to be used to build legacy applications by the open source community. Explicitly, security fixes will not be provided for terminated features or services.
Product Versioning
Our SDKs and REST API follow the Semantic Versioning 2.0.0 scheme. In cases where we must make a breaking change to our API, we will create a new semantic major version of the relevant product and deprecate the existing, stable major version of the product.
Each SDK and API are versioned separately. There is no relationship between versions of various features/products.
Staying up to date
Early Access Programs
For customers interested in participating in Alpha or Beta feature development programs, please join our Beta Program mailing list. The mailing list will be used to announce software released in Beta as well as some upcoming Alpha programs.
Deprecation Notices
For customers interested in ensuring they are able to respond quickly to deprecation notices, please ensure your email address is up-to-date in our OneSignal dashboard. We will send deprecation notice emails to all users. In some cases, we will send notices to users associated with specific apps that are using deprecated features.
Additionally, you can review HTTP responses for the presence of an ‘Api-Deprecation-Notice’ header. This header will include a link to the documentation relevant for a deprecation.