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Update mobile app content from a Google Sheet

Shipping a build to fix a typo is painful, and an app-store review makes it slow. PasteSheet turns a Google Sheet into a live, cached content API your app reads on launch, so onboarding copy, home banners, promo cards, and config values all come from cells — edit one and the change reaches users without a new release.

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Key facts

  • Every app launch that fetches content is one request, so size the plan to your installs: 2,000 requests a month on Free, 50,000 on Starter ($9/mo), 300,000 on Pro ($19/mo) and 1,000,000 on Agency ($49/mo).
  • Rate limits are per plan too: 60 requests a minute on Free, 300 on Starter, 1,000 on Pro and 5,000 on Agency.
  • A cached endpoint reads the sheet once per TTL, not once per request — so 10,000 visitors become one upstream read, and Google's quota stops being your problem.
  • The endpoint is read-only by design, so the URL is safe to ship inside a client app — a user can read your copy and config but can never write to the sheet.

Why keep app content in a Sheet

Most of what changes in a mobile app between releases is not code — it is copy. Onboarding strings, a home-screen banner, a seasonal promo, the URL a button opens, a config number you want to tune. Baking those into the binary means a build and a review every time marketing changes their mind.

Move them to a Google Sheet and PasteSheet serves the whole thing as clean, typed JSON over a fast, cached endpoint. Your app fetches content on launch and renders it; non-technical teammates edit cells. It is the same idea as a headless CMS, sized for an app instead of a website.

What you can drive from the sheet

One tab per surface, a column per field. Common things teams ship this way:

  • Onboarding and UI copy — pair it with localized strings for i18n.
  • Home banners, promo cards, and announcement bars with a start and end date.
  • Config values — support URLs, minimum version, tunable numbers.
  • Per-platform content, filtered with ?platform=ios so each build sees its own rows.

Fetch content as JSON

Point your app at the endpoint and read the active items. Filter, sort, and paginate with URL parameters — no query language to learn:

terminal 
curl "https://pastesheet.com/your-endpoint/Content?platform=ios&active=true"

{
  "data": [
    {
      "key": "home_banner",
      "title": "Summer sale",
      "body": "Up to 40% off, this week only.",
      "cta": "Shop now",
      "active": true
    }
  ]
}

Read-only, so it is safe to ship in the app

Because the endpoint is read-only by design, it is safe to expose publicly or hand to a teammate: consumers can read and query the data but can never change the sheet. And there is no Google Cloud project, OAuth screen, or service account to set up — you paste a share URL and get a live API.

What it costs

Free

For side projects and trying things out.

$0 /mo
Endpoints
3
Requests / mo
2,000
Row cap
500
  • Type-mapped columns
  • Custom cache TTL
  • Private endpoints & keys
Get started

Start free. The Free plan runs 3 live endpoints with a 5-minute cache — enough to drive an app's content. Paid plans add a custom cache TTL for faster propagation, plus private endpoints and keys when content should not be public.

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Frequently asked questions

Do content edits skip the app store?

Yes. Because your app fetches copy and config at runtime, changing a cell updates what users see without a new build or a review — as long as you are not shipping new code paths, only content.

How do I schedule a banner?

Add start and end date columns and filter or compare against them client-side, or just flip an active column. The banner appears and disappears when you edit the sheet, with no release.

Can users edit the content through the API?

No. PasteSheet is read-only by design. The endpoint only serves your content — there is no write path — so it is safe to ship the URL inside a client app.

How do I keep iOS and Android content separate?

Add a platform column and filter with ?platform=ios or ?platform=android. Each build requests only its own rows, so you can tune content per platform from one sheet.

Sources

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