When players receive a tile update

Use this reference to explain which version a player sees; it does not authorize an upload or a promotion. Follow the host's publishing rules. For a preview pinned to an exact version, first check that the player opened the latest preview link: that link stays on its recorded version. The live-version behavior below applies when the player opens a tile that follows live.

Promoting to live doesn't switch everyone at the same instant — a tile always opens from whatever is already on the player's device so it starts instantly, instead of making them wait while it checks for a newer version. So the update reaches people quickly, not instantly. Never tell a creator "everyone has it now" after an upload, deploy, or promotion.

The player's situation	When they get the newly-live version
They have never opened your tile on this device	Right away. Nothing is saved on their device yet, so it downloads the live version.
They have opened your tile on this device before	On their next open after this one. To start instantly, the tile opens the copy already saved on their device — the old version — and downloads the live one in the background while they play. The following open uses it.
Your tile is open on their screen right now	Only when they go get it, and only once their session notices. Nothing interrupts them and no prompt appears; they keep playing the version they opened. Once their running session detects the new version (a client_bundle_id_mismatch on the synced-store connection — not immediate), they can tap the tile's title to open its settings and tap Reload tile. Until then that row isn't there. They can also just leave the tile and open it again, which puts them back on row two above.

A few things that are always true:

• A compatible update never swaps versions out from under someone mid-play. When the saved-data shape is unchanged, players finish what they're doing and reload when they choose.
• One exception, and it's the important one: if the newly-live version changed the shape of saved data (you bumped TILE_SCHEMA_VERSION), the old version can't keep syncing, so the tile updates itself without waiting for a tap. The player sees an "Update required" dialog over just your tile while it reloads into the new version — including on that first open in row two above. Anything on screen that isn't saved in the store (a half-typed draft, say) is lost in that reload. If the reload still lands on an old version, the dialog offers Try again instead of reloading in a loop. This is why a migration matters: it's what carries their existing games and rooms across the change instead of wiping them.
• If the tile is closed, or open but sitting in the background, nothing happens until they come back to it. That's why a promote at night doesn't start reaching people until they open the tile again the next day.
• Your own device is a special case. Promoting tells your own devices right away, so your next open is always the live version. While you have the tile open, a Reload to update button also appears in the top bar — that one is creator-only, so don't read it as something your players get: their only in-session path is the Reload tile row in tile settings, and only once their session has noticed the new version.