What's App?: Assignment #1: First Impressions

My very first impression to App Inventor was something like, “Holly Molly! What awesomeness did Mr. Kee introduce us into?” Before I knew about the App Inventor, I have never thought that I would be able to create my own app all by myself. After finding out about the App Inventor, I was overjoyed and truly excited to create my first app!

The App Inventor!!!

App Inventor is a program that lets you develop applications for Android phones. Creating an App Inventor app begins in your browser, where you design how the app will look. Then, you can set your app's behavior which is like fitting together puzzle pieces. All you need is a live connection between your computer and your phone, and then you can have your app appears on your phone. There are many different types of App Inventor that you can build with your App Inventor. To start with the basics and to simplify things for yourself, you can start off by designing games like MoleMash or games that will let you draw funny pictures on your friend's faces. Also, there are more creative and fun things you can do such as, you can even make use of the phone's sensors to move a ball through a maze based on tilting the phone. App Inventor not only allows you to build simple games, but you can also build apps that are complex and educational.

One of the best features of App Inventor is that it allows you to create a quiz app to help you and your classmates study for a test. With Android's text-to-speech capabilities, you can even have the phone ask the questions aloud. Moreover, to use App Inventor, you do not need to be a professional developer or a computer genius. This is because instead of writing code, you visually design the way the app looks and use blocks to specify the app's behavior.

You can build apps by working with:

1) The App Inventor Designer-here you select the components for your app.

2) The App Inventor Blocks Editor-here you assemble program blocks that specify how the components should behave. You assemble programs visually, fitting pieces together like pieces of a puzzle.

3) Your creative app appears on the phone step-by-step as you add pieces to it, so you can test your work as you build. Once you're done creating your app, you can package it and produce a stand-alone application to install.