Every so often Ask A Vet shows a panel at the bottom of the screen letting you know there's a newer version of the app. Some updates are optional, others have to be installed before you can carry on — here's how to tell which is which, and what to do about each.
Jump to:
- What you'll see
- Optional updates
- Required updates
- How often it appears
- What "Update Now" does
- If nothing loads at all on iPhone
- If "Update Now" doesn't open the store
- If you don't see the prompt at all
What you'll see
When you open the app, Ask A Vet checks whether your installed version is still current. If it isn't, a panel slides up from the bottom of the screen.
The panel is titled Update Available, with the message "A new version of Ask A Vet is available. Update now for the latest features and improvements." and two buttons: Update Now and Later.
The wording is sometimes changed for a particular release, so you may see a message written specifically about what's new.
Optional updates
Both buttons are there. Tap Later, tap outside the panel, or swipe it down to dismiss it, and carry on using the app as normal. It will come back the next time you fully restart the app.
Required updates
You'll need to update to continue. In the required version:
- The Later button is hidden.
- Tapping the dimmed background does nothing.
- Swiping the panel down doesn't close it.
- On Android, the hardware back button is blocked.
Nothing is broken — this happens when the version you have installed is older than the minimum we currently support on your phone's platform. Tap Update Now, install the update, and reopen Ask A Vet. The prompt will be gone.
How often it appears
At most once each time you fully start the app. There's no snooze period, and dismissing it isn't remembered between restarts — so if you close and reopen the app, an optional prompt will show again.
What "Update Now" does
It opens the Ask A Vet listing in the App Store or Google Play, where you install the update as normal. Ask A Vet has no in-app or over-the-air update mechanism — updates only ever come from the app store.
If nothing loads at all on iPhone
A very old iPhone version can hit a second, stricter limit: requests to Ask A Vet are refused outright and screens fail to load, sometimes with an "upgrade required" style error. It looks like everything is broken, but installing the app-store update fixes it completely. This stricter limit isn't currently applied to Android.
If "Update Now" doesn't open the store
- Make sure you have a working internet connection.
- Open the App Store or Google Play manually.
- Search for Ask A Vet.
- If the button says Update, tap it. If it says Open, you already have the newest version — restart the app.
If you don't see the prompt at all
The prompt is only shown when there genuinely is a newer version for your platform. It's also deliberately skipped if the app can't reach us — a network problem will never leave you stuck behind an update screen. So no panel doesn't necessarily mean you're up to date.
Tip: You can check which version you're running any time in Settings → About us. If you're contacting us about this, include the version and build number shown there so we can see exactly which build you're on.
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