App Inventor for Android is an open-source web application originally provided by Google, and now maintained by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This post is a step-by-step guide to creating a 'Hello World' app with App Inventor.
App Inventor allows newcomers to computer programming to create software applications for the Android operating system (OS). It uses a graphical interface, very similar to Scratch and the StarLogo TNG user interface, which allows users to drag-and-drop visual objects to create an application that can run on Android devices. In creating App Inventor, Google drew upon significant prior research in educational computing, as well as work done within Google on online development environments.
This step-by-step guide walks you through setting up App Inventor, explores the development environment and gets your app running on any Android device. This is the first of a series of posts introducing key App Inventor features.