If you’ve enjoyed using Sony’s Sketch app to make, well, sketches and other drawing-related things, you’ll probably say goodbye to it pretty soon. It looks like it’s going to be another victim of the great Sony app purge since they’ve announced that you’ll have to let go of its online functionalities by September 30. While you’ll still be able to actually use the app, you can only save your sketches on your phone and not interact with the online community anymore.
Sketch became slightly popular because it’s pre-installed on Xperia devices. Those who didn’t uninstall it and actually like casual drawing seemed to have enjoyed using it, including interacting with an online community, downloading stickers, and syncing art they created to other devices. But Sony apparently does not see any profitability from this app and based on this latest announcement, it may not be long for this world.
In a Twitter post, Sony Sketch says that the online parts of the app will be discontinued starting September 30, 2019. This includes the aforementioned syncing, sticker downloads, and community interaction. So if you need to export all of your art and you need to exchange other contact details with people you’re interacting with, you will have to do it before then. The local content, meaning the ones saved on your phone, will still be available.
In the FAQ section, they explained that the reason for this is that they are currently reviewing their app portfolio and they need to discontinue some apps and services for business reasons. After September 30, you can still use Sketch but more of an editor utility tool since you won’t be able to publish your artwork anyway.
To download your data, go to the Settings section and tap on Account and then “Export sketches and data”. You will get a link to your email with the zip file that you can download. We’ll find out soon enough if the app will be discontinued eventually.
