App Inventor for Android brings app development to the masses

by Chris Moor
tagged app, apps, Google Labs

Got a great idea for an app, but you know diddly-squat about coding? Have no fear, App Inventor is here! Google has taken the app-creation process and has made it so that even a regular Joe can make an app. Using a visual interface, you just select how you want the app to look and behave and insert the appropriate blocks for the desired results. The following video shows just how incredibly easy the process is:

What has Google has done with this is going to have a huge impact on the entire Android community. I personally can’t wait to see what the upcoming wave of “home-brew” apps has to offer.

You do need to request access to the program, but once you do, Google has made things pretty easy for you:

Getting Started – Set up your computer and learn how App Inventor works by going through tutorials
Reference Documentation – Look up how specific components and blocks work
Sample Apps – See what kind of apps can be built with App Inventor
Talk with Other Users – Join the App Inventor Google Group. Share your app ideas, find out what others are building, and get help
Troubleshooting – Find solutions for common problems

What do you think of the App Inventor? Let us know in the comments.

[via google labs]

» See more articles by Chris Moor

Categorized as Android Applications, Android Development

Comments

Timbo

From what I can see from the site, you cannot upload into market?

But I think it would be good if one you have thrown together your code you should be able to export it into the full SDK and develop it further?
Lada

Visual editor for gui is a good idea, but I would prefer plugin for eclipse/netbeans. I programme in java with swing ui and the editor in netbeans (or at least plugin for eclipse) is a very helpful, but of course I have to do a lot “manually”, but still, it makes my work faster.
http://xcmeathead.com Rich

@Timbo – since it uses Open Blocks, I don’t think getting it into the SDK would work… (Since it’s not made up of standard Android Java) not certain on that, but from what I’ve read just now on the googlelabs site, that seems to be the case.

@Lada – Agree completely, would have been much better to do this for Eclipse, just to make some of the more routine stuff easier, but still allow you use your own code when needed.

Still, should be useful.
Timbo

If you cant export to the full SDk its a great shame. I have an idea for a little app, maybe 1 or 2 thousand potential users, its a very simple, but specialised one, but dont want to spend hours (yet) fully learning the SDK.