Because I work with teens who may not have a tablet or computer at home, I want to write some tutorials on building apps with App Inventor using a phone (Android or iPhone) on which to access the MIT App Inventor site. Is this at all workable? Has anyone tried it?
Hi @Bill_Stanard,
While it is possible to do it, the editor isn't really responsive to small form factor screens [1]. This often requires zooming in/out to move around the UI. It also makes live testing difficult since you can only have either the editor or companion open at once, not both.
[1] This is something we are exploring as part of our upcoming UI refresh.
Thanks, Evan,
Are you familiar with ANY tutorials that suggest using a phone? I work in a bit of a tech desert, have always seen App Inventor as an empowerment tool, and, because of Covid, need to focus on providing as much tech literacy for those whose only access to the 'net is via their phones.
Unfortunately I am not aware of any. I have given plenty of demos editing the app on tablets, which is why you could in theory do it on a phone as well. I think practically it's much harder given the form factor but I have done it on my iPhone, for example. Instead of doing live development you'd probably want to have students build the apps and then install the resulting APK file to try them out.
Thanks, Evan... appreciate your responses.
This is an old collection of alternatives that can be run on phones ...