Atlassian sets January 31, 2027 as the end of full support for Connect apps

What Atlassian announced

Atlassian has set January 31, 2027 as the date its Connect framework reaches end of support. Connect is the older way outside companies build add-ons for Jira and Confluence. The date was previously December 2026. Atlassian says the extra weeks are meant to help teams plan around holidays and year-end budgeting.

The news comes from a developer post on atlassian.com, which also carries an October 20, 2026 update about rate limits (caps on how many requests an app can make). Our hosts flagged it in today's newsletter as a story mainly for people who build apps, not for everyday users.

The post also notes that earlier milestones have passed. Atlassian announced its intent to end Connect support on January 31, 2025. It stopped accepting new Connect apps on its Marketplace in September 2025. In March 2026, apps that still used a Connect descriptor could no longer receive updates.

What end of support really means

Connect apps will not stop working on the date. What changes is the level of care. Atlassian says it will address only critical security patches, relax its support commitments, and stop evolving Connect alongside the rest of its platform.

Features can also be removed with shorter warning than before. Atlassian is blunt that Connect will not sit in a steady state. As Jira and Confluence change underneath, gaps will open between what Connect expects and what the platform does. Some of those changes could make an app stop working without advance notice.

For a regular user, that means a favorite add-on could get flaky over time rather than fail all at once. That is why Atlassian is urging app makers to move rather than wait.

The move to Forge

The destination is Forge, Atlassian's newer app platform. Atlassian says over 95% of paid app seats have already migrated, and that hundreds of partners have made the move. It points to write-ups from Seibert Media, Move Work Forward and Titan Apps as practical guides.

There are two broad ways to land on Forge. Runs on Atlassian means the app runs entirely on Atlassian's own infrastructure, which Atlassian says can speed up enterprise trust and purchasing. Forge Remote lets an app move to Forge while still using its own outside servers. Atlassian says the first should not hold anyone up, and that Forge Remote can be a first step or a permanent design for apps with complex backends.

Developers can keep their Marketplace listing and reviews when they make the Forge version the latest one. Customers may need to upgrade or approve new permissions, depending on how the app is built.

On money, revenue share follows whichever version is listed, Connect or Forge, not how many customers have upgraded. Atlassian also says partners may qualify for a 100% discount on revenue share up to $1M in lifetime Forge revenue.

Gaps, and a real-world port

Atlassian admits Forge will not copy everything in Connect. It says it prioritizes requests that block migration or seriously hurt partners or customers. Requests with a workaround, a very small audience, or a mismatch with Forge's direction will not be a priority.

Developers can check a public Jira project called FRGE to see whether a missing feature has been logged and whether it is planned or out of scope. Atlassian warns that new requests are not guaranteed to be handled before the deadline.

The title of the comment that prompted this story describes porting a Jira app with 48,000 installs off Connect, and mentions an OAuth gap. OAuth is a standard way for an app to get limited permission to act on your account. We have only the title, not the comment's text, so we cannot say what that gap is. It is a reminder that last-mile problems show up late, which Atlassian itself acknowledges.

What happens next

Atlassian wants developers to say publicly when they will migrate. Apps that have converted to a Forge manifest can add a link to their plan in Atlassian's Admin Hub, where administrators review app status. Atlassian says it will later show migration intent inside app windows too, with notice and testing time first.

The October 20 update also clears up one point. Tier 2 rate limits use per-tenant quotas (one allowance per customer site) and were designed for apps that serve several customers. Apps built for an organization's own internal use are not subject to them.

Atlassian says it will share more about Connect after end of support. It has already said partners should not plan to keep apps on an unsupported platform for the long term.