Businesses today require everything going high-tech rather than just the normal manual stuff. This, amongst other things, involves building mobile apps that will help you easily bring your service to your clients – on their phones, this does not just apply to online shops. However, not everyone is highly knowledgeable on JavaScript, HTML or whatever other coding language is necessary for app development and hence comes the savior of all; G Suite’s low-code app development App Maker.
The app maker was made available to the public by Google to all G suite members.
Whether having a business and enterprise account or an educational one, one can choose from a number of preset templates and also prefab tools to make their own custom applications which would help in their day to day activities. It is basically a drag and drop UI editor, which aids anyone build complex user interfaces. The app maker doesn’t necessarily mean it is a complete alternative for coders as some coding knowledge is still a requirement, hence the definition of a ‘low-code app development environment’.
It creates a WYSIWYG environment for developers as it makes it easier for them to showcase to their clients exactly what they want to be seen without having many coding inputs. When done, it can be stored in G Suite, Google cloud or a JDBC database that supports a REST API. The app maker can also be integrated with Google Analytics and G Suite Business apps. This is very important to note because it increase the possibilities you have to work with.
What can it be used for?
The fast and responsive templates make it easier for any developer to easily and quickly automate their work. Since the app maker offers support for cloud SQL, it has a high-performance rate and scalability which might even be more than that of other business-boosting applications. The BYODB (Bring Your Own Database) model lets one easily connect to their own database through a JDBC database or REST API.
While Google has several other day-to-day apps which can be crucial to your work, the app maker lets you connect your app to all these other applications to help boost your business. Quiet amazing if you think about it.
G Suite administrators, however, can have the visibility of the apps and also about their owners. It is very keen on using their advanced OAuth Whitelisting capability to only allowing approved apps to be made functional. Moreover, the company can also monitor your usage metrics and keep tabs on it.
Google even gives examples of how big companies can use the app maker to help them run businesses such as;
- Filing and sorting out help desk tickets
- Requesting purchase orders
- Tracking allocation requests
- Project tracking to help track the progress of your projects
- Partner management, to help you manage the list of your partners
- Helps find and place workers/colleagues based on their skills
- Helps create a workflow for document approval
- Creating a Q & A forum for colleagues or visitors to discuss certain topics
- Travel approvals for managing travel requests
- Training hub to help track employee training
These among many others, are services the Google app maker can help you achieve without having to break a sweat.
Getting started with Google App Maker
Being able to understand how to correctly use the Google App Maker can be a tough job for one who has absolutely no idea on how coding works, don’t give up though, as practice makes perfect. Nevertheless, we will take you through the basic methods you can follow when making your first app without getting into the nitty-gritty details.
Before using the app maker it is important to note that the software is only available to G Suite members. So you should first have your account active.
The basic idea behind the Google app maker is the What You See Is What You Get functionality which lets you easily drag and drop interface while building your app. You can also further customize your application with CSS and scripts.
Just like any other business move, it is wise to plan ahead on your app.
You can start by asking G Suite administrators to set up Cloud SQL for you if you want to use Cloud SQL databases in your app. While following the app maker tutorials, you can start building your first app using the provided templates, popups, and dialogs.
After getting that part done always plan for your app’s security and also decide on the app’s settings. You should know that you can gather and incorporate custom videos and images into the app. While building your app, you should click on the “Preview” button to see how the progress is and also helps to point out to you if there are any missing paths or misplaced commands.
After your app is ready, publish it to deployment.
If you want, you can publish it first for deployment to a few people who will give feedback on how the app is and help you point out if there are any errors or missing paths. After that, you can now publish it to deployment to your entire domain.
Share the URL of the deployment with your users in order for them to access the app.
Pricing
Google App maker, unfortunately, has no free trial. However, the pricing is quite pocket-friendly.
- Basic – $5 per user/month
- Business – $10 per user/month
- Enterprise – $25 per user/month
App Maker or Hire App Developers?
For quite some time now, independent DIY app makers have been there, some even being free!
These are great alternatives for those who can’t afford to hire an app developer.
There has been a wide contention on whether a company should use the DIY app makers or just hire freelance app developers.
Well, for starters, DIY app makers such as the Google App Maker, are low-code software meaning a little knowledge of coding is still required. If in your entire company no one is really conversant with any coding, then you may need an app developer.
An app maker just has the basic templates with it and is not very much ideal for companies that try to be unique. More complex, unique and user-friendly apps are better off built by app developers.
App makers are much essential to building simple apps to help run daily activities of your company, and not necessarily for something you’d want a return on investment from.
If you’re looking to find app developers for hire, do look at this complete article by Collectiveray: HTTPS://WWW.COLLECTIVERAY.COM/APP-DEVELOPER-FOR-HIRE
The Google app maker has been a substantive impact on the business empire, it has made everyone’s lives easier by lifting part of their workload. However, for you to have a much better app experience, and you are not in a rush to have it done, app developers should also be part of your consideration.