Google’s App Inventor: Android Development for the Masses

The technology race between Google and Apple rages on, but Google’s release of its App Inventor showcases the differences between them. Apple’s has strict App Store policies and restrictions of the use of Apple-specific APIs, while Google’s App Inventor opens Android app development to non-developers.

Google’s App Inventor doesn’t require programming skills–you simply visually design the visual look and feel of the app, and utilize blocks to design the way the application behaves. There are blocks for pretty much anything that an Android phone is capable of, including repeating actions, performing them with specific actions and communicating with services such as Twitter.

While expectations of the quality of apps produced by App Inventor are not high, there will also be some goodies produced. The App Inventor has a demo video, shown below, to show you how the visual interface performs, and Google Labs has more information if you are interested.