No, the app object is not optional. You must pass it into the method in order to invoke the method.
What you're seeing is one of the two ways to invoke a method, dot notation versus function notation. See the section "Dot Notation vs. Function Notation" on this documentation page for a description of the specific cases where those two approaches to invoking a method can differ. [You can also use this to dynamically call a method whose name is stored in a string or char variable, as described in the "Referencing Names with Expressions—Dynamic Reference" section on that same documentation page.]
When you use dot notation, the object before the dot is passed into the method as the first input.
