Android and Apple App Development: Beginner to Pro

Set up your development environment for App Inventor projects, starting with a Gmail account, and learn three testing methods: companion app, emulator, and connecting your phone.

learn to create a Gmail account by visiting mail.google.com, choosing a username, setting a password, verifying identity, and granting App Inventor access to your Google account.

Set up the MIT App Inventor companion app, test and debug your projects on the same wireless network, and streamline testing compared to the old emulator workflow.

Discover how to set up usb on Android devices for App Inventor by installing drivers, enabling usb debugging, and turning on developer options, with Windows as the main setup.

Learn to set up a USB connection for App Inventor projects by installing the starter and companion apps, wiring your computer to your phone, and running the app via USB.

Explore the components editor panel by panel to understand how each design view works together, then start creating layouts for future applications.

Modify the currently selected component's attributes in the properties section, such as screen orientation or open animation, and see the pane change as you switch components.

Upload audio, images, or videos in the media section, then open blocks and designer to edit components, and use build links or a QR code to download the app.

Explore the components editor and designer view to understand each panel’s purpose and how they fit together to create app layouts.

Explore the blocks drawer in App Inventor, navigating the block store’s built-in and component-specific sections, and learn how blocks align with selected components like buttons, labels, and checkboxes.

Drag blocks from the blocks drawer into the blocks viewer to build logic. Track errors with red signs, warnings with yellow signs, delete with the trash can, and upload media.

See blocks editor in action as you wire button clicks to update a label, set text, and duplicate blocks, then run the app on your phone to verify interactions.

Gain a fundamental understanding of the block editor, inspect each panel, and see how they collaborate to create sequences that drive your app functionality.

Explore the button component in the user interface palette, learn how to customize background images and shapes, and distinguish between click, long click, touch down, and touch up events.

Create your first app by building a centered interface with a kitty image, a button and label, and program it to play a meow sound when clicked after uploading media.

Create your first app by combining the components editor, blocks, and the button and label components. Learn to test and run the app for practical understanding.

Learn to build your second app in App Inventor using the horizontal range and vertical arrangement components to create layouts, then explore checkbox and sound components and renaming practices.

Explore the horizontal arrangement component, learn how it places controls side by side, and how height and width options (automatic, fill parent, pixel, percent) affect layout, background, and alignment.

Arrange five central buttons for the audio book log app with a vertical layout. Center align the buttons, set height to 100 pixels, and width to fill parent.

Master the checkbox component in the user interface palette, learn to capture a boolean on/off response with a label to the right, set checked state, and handle state changes.

Name each chapter in the audio book log app by adding a bold 24 font checkbox labeled chapter 1 to chapter 5 above each chapter button.

Learn how sound component plays audio and vibrates the phone, when to use it versus the player, and how to set minimum interval and source like MPEG-4, MP3, FLAC, WAV.

Set up chapter audio by adding the sound component, opening the media section, and uploading an audio file for each chapter. The chapter play button will play the uploaded audio.

Add spacing to the layout by inserting vertical arrangements between chapters and setting their height to 15 pixels for clear margins.

Rename components to add context and improve readability in the block section, margins, vertical arrangements, and chapter buttons, boosting project organization for Android and Apple app development.

Test your final app by connecting via the AI companion or emulator, verify layout, chapter checkboxes, and audio playback across all chapters to confirm a complete, functioning application.

Explore App Inventor file types, including AIAA source files, zip backups, APK deployments, keystore signing, and QR codes, and learn how sharing and uploading preserve exact project replicas.

Download and back up App Inventor projects by exporting selected items as AIA or ZIP files, then restore them later and prepare APKs and keystores for the Google Play store.

Identify the files encountered when creating, downloading, sharing, or uploading apps, and understand two applications involved, plus how to backup, download, upload, share, and restore them.

Learn to build your third app by exploring three components—the canvas and ball for drawing and animation, and a sound and vibration player—along with hotspots and a reusable procedure block.

Create a skeleton review layout with two labels and a canvas, center align them, set a skeleton image, rename components to bone title and bone description, and enable scrollable.

Upload media files and implement bone hotspots on the skeleton canvas, then drag and place eight hotspots on specific bones and rename them to match each bone for clear highlighting.

Activate selected bones in the block time skeleton app by touching them to turn yellow and the bone red, while updating the bone title and description.

Learn to use the player component, a feature-rich sound tool with foreground play, looping, source selection, and events for completion, start, and pause.

Add vibration feedback to hotspots by using the player 1 vibrate milliseconds block, set to 50 milliseconds, dragged from the pallet and invoked on hotspot activation for tactile user experience.

Create your third App Inventor 2 application by mastering the ball and player components, hotspots, and the use of procedures as predefined sequences of blocks.

Build your fourth Android app with screens, launch other apps via an activity starter, make calls, send emails with a tax box, and store temporary data with a variable block.

Create a home screen with a vertical layout that fills the screen and centers a home page image and label, then add a navigation drawer on a light gray background.

Explore how the activity starter component launches Android activities by specifying package and class names, passing data, and handling start, cancel, and results.

Implement the map activity by wiring an intent to open maps with the business name and address, then test the map button to display the pin.

Explore the textbox component, using the hint property, multiline input, numbers-only mode, and focus events to create clear, responsive user input.

Build an e-mail screen layout by adding a new screen, using a vertical layout with a label and multiline text box, a send button, and a bottom navigation bar.

Learn to pass data between screens, manage a local file on Android with add and delete text, and use list view, list picker, and parsing to store and retrieve text.

Explore the file component from the storage palette, learn to save, read, append, and delete files, and use the got text block to retrieve file contents and saved file name.

Add and configure a list view, a file component, and an empty list image to finalize the main screen layout; toggle visibility based on list emptiness and preview on device.

Explore the list picker component, a button with a hidden list view, featuring elements from string, image, shape, show filter, and before/after picking blocks.

Finalize the task form screen by adding a list picker for category selection and a text input, using horizontal and vertical arrangements with spacers and cancel and save actions.

Demonstrate passing a task name from one screen to another by opening the task form with a start value and initializing the form text with that value.

Add a delete list feature that removes the task file, clears task list, and empties main list view. Use an if-then toggle to show or hide the filter text box.

Reverse the task list to display newest items at the top by iterating from the list length down to one and building a reversed list.