An app is a small program that shows information which keeps changing: a dashboard, a calendar, a weather panel, a news feed. Install one from the App store, or deploy one you built, and it lives under Apps.
It does not appear in Content with your images and videos. To a playlist there is still nothing special about it: it takes its turn, holds the screen for its slot, and hands over to the next item.
What an app is, where it runs, and how credentials stay safe lives in Apps. This page is what matters when you put one in a rotation next to files and pages.
How it arrives
An app does not come through New content, and it does not appear in Content. Install one from the App store, or deploy one you built with the CLI. It then appears under Apps, ready for a playlist.
See Install an app.
Duration
Give it more time than an image. An app fetching live data has to load before it can show anything, so ten seconds often spends most of the slot on a spinner. Thirty or forty seconds is more realistic for a dashboard.
Duration is set on the playlist item, not on the app. See How long things play.
If it needs a source
Many apps fetch live data while they play: a dashboard, a news feed, a calendar. What happens when that source is unreachable depends on the app. Some skip the slot and rejoin the rotation when it comes back. Others show a fallback, a last-known view, or an error on screen.
Check that app’s own documentation for how it behaves. See Where an app runs for where the code actually executes, and Where content lives for how live content differs from files stored on the device.
Where its settings live
Installing an app creates an instance: the app plus your settings. The instance is what you manage under Apps. Open it to change a city, a dashboard, or a calendar, and every screen showing it follows on the next sync.
Settings and anything sensitive belong on the instance, not in a playlist. See Instances and Settings and secrets.