Build Your Own Apps

Since Slawyers like to know about cool things, I thought I would share some testing I have done in the last couple of days to build an App. I have been trying out Snappii.

Snappii offers the service of building an app using one of their templates, or from scratch using variou widgets they offer. They have a previewer app which lets you see your app to test it. It works on a username and password registration to their site. The tool is remarkably easy, so I created an (unpublished – more on that later) app to post a tip to our Slaw Tips blog. Of course, there is already an easy email suggest a tip link on the blog for collecting ideas to share, so making this app is somewhat redundant, but it was fun.

First I made a snappii account, then I used the “from scratch and fast with a wizard” method to create a stip submission form. This app sends the suggestion to a Google docs form that I created for that purpose. I downloaded the app previewing tool from iTunes.

Here is a screen shot of the app from the test environment:

The downside to this particular app developer site is the pricing – though I am not certain where Snappii sits in the market for pricing. My frugal self doesn’t like the idea of a monthly fee for app hosting. On the really positive side, Snappii has very responsive live chat and they are willing to send an email invoice if you want to pay them for app hosting. The app building tool is also simple to use.

Does anyone have ‘build your own app’ solutions to share?