
With Google targeting enterprise companies, those who already have such apps in the store can expect more competition around related search terms. A lower bar to entry for developers means more developers will be able to create high-quality apps that can compete in the Play store. For existing developers, however, App Maker will likely mean a slight increase in competition on Google Play.


On that same train of thought, App Maker likely isn’t going to become the go-to for developing complex games or other feature-dense applications. Yes, there is a relatively deep IDE that lets developers tool around deeper with code, but ultimately the main target is companies looking to expand into the mobile marketplace without bringing on a whole new team. Google’s goal here is to make it simple for teams to handle development of specific, simple apps in-house without bringing on an outside developer.

You can also plug in other APIs to easily expand functionality. The development environment is cloud-based and intuitive, making it easy to sync with your data from G Suite applications, Google Maps, Contacts and Groups. That said, the simple interface may expedite prototyping for simple apps. App Maker supports coding languages such as HTML, CSS and Javascript, so depending on how simple your proposed app is, there’s a good chance you’ll still have to dip into some coding. While the promise of a code-lite, drag-and-drop creation suite is certainly exciting, it’s important to take into consideration the limitations of such a program, too. How will the introduction of App Maker help want-to-be developers who have been turned off of development by the complexity of programming? Will existing developers see a shift in competition on Google Play? Let’s start by addressing new creators looking to get into development with App Maker. This raises several questions for app developers and hobbyists alike. In other words, Google is attempting to democratize app development. App Maker boasts “features like built-in templates, a drag-and-drop UI editor, and point-and-click data modeling accelerate app development”.

With the goal of simplifying the iteration process and opening app development up to a wider swath of creators, App Maker seems poised to do for Google Play what Apple’s investment in Swift has done for the App Store. Yesterday Google revealed App Maker, a relatively low-tech way for developers to compile simple applications for Google Play. App Maker - Google Introduces New App Creation Suite December 2nd, 2016
