App Inventor Hour of Code
WIth these beginner-friendly activities, you will learn the basics of programming apps for Android. App Inventor is a free, cloud-based service that you access using a web browser. Log in with a Google account (gmail or school email tied to Google) to start inventing right away! If you want to see your app on your phone as you build, follow the simple instructions to connect your phone for live testing.
• If you hit any snags, we're here to help!
• If you are Android-less, never fear, you can use the on-screen emulator!
IMPORTANT NOTE: Until December 9th this software is in alpha preview.
The emulator works on Macintosh only. You can connect an Android device over wifi from a Windows, Mac, or Linux machine, and you can connect over USB to a Mac. Emulator and USB support for Windows and Linux are Coming Soon!
Our team is hard at work getting App Inventor 2 ready to launch in early December. We invite you to kick the tires and send us reports of issues you encounter. Use "Report an Issue" link in the upper right of the screen when you are building your apps.
Making Mobile Apps with App Inventor
Follow these four short videos and you'll have three working apps to show for it! After building the starter apps, which will take around an hour, you can move on to extending them with more functionality, or you can start building apps of your own design. Get started now with Video 1 below.
1. TalkToMe Text-to-Speech App |
2. Extended TalkToMe App: Shake! |
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Text to Speech is surprisingly fun. Find out for yourself with this starter app that talks. |
Make it do tricks! How about if the phone responds to shaking, and also speaks any phrase you give it? |
3. BallBounce Game App |
4. DigitalDoodle Drawing App |
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Fling, Flang, Flung? Whatever you call it, bouncing the ball around the screen is pure fun. |
Who needs paper? Doodle all day on your phone's screen. |
Extending Your Initial Apps
You just made some pretty cool apps! But now the real fun begins: try turning TalkToMe into a random phrase generator (coming soon); turn BallBounce into a mini golf game, take DigitalDoodle to the next level by adding colors and incorporating camera shots as backgrounds (coming soon). The possibilities really are endless!
