Google to shut down App Inventor

Remember Google’s App Inventor that allowed anybody to create new Android apps with no programming skills (even though it wasn’t exactly a walk in the park)? Well, it looks like it’s going to down the same path that quite a number of Google projects have went through recently – the path of discontinuation. Google has started sending out emails to App Inventor Users, telling them that support for App Inventor will end on December 31^st, and all files stored on the website will not be accessible and will be deleted from Google’s servers.

But for those of you who actually use App Inventor to create your own apps – fret not. You’ll be able to easily download all the projects you’ve created using the service for your own safekeeping. In addition to that, Google has announced that it will be open-sourcing the project to MIT who will pick up where it Google left off. Users will be able to migrate their projects over MIT’s App Inventor and continue working on them there.

How many of you have used App Inventor to create apps, and will you continue using it in the future? Read the full letter below.

Dear App Inventor User,

As we announced on the App Inventor Announcement Forum, Google will end support for App Inventor on December 31, 2011, after which data in appinventorbeta.com will not be accessible and will be deleted from Google servers.  You can preserve your App Inventor projects by simply clicking on the Download All Projects button on your My Projects page.  This will download to your computer a zipped archive of all your projects.  We recommend you retrieve your projects well before December 31st.

By the end of 2011 Google will also be making the complete App Inventor source code publicly available under an open source license, so that anyone can study the code and modify it as they desire.

In order to ensure the future success of App Inventor, Google has funded the establishment of a Center for Mobile Learning at the MIT Media Lab.  Sometime in the first quarter of 2012, the Center plans to provide an App Inventor service for general public access, similar to the one Google is currently running.

In order for you to continue working with your projects in an open source instance (MIT or otherwise) of App Inventor you will need to download your data from appinventorbeta.com before December 31st and later upload them to an open source instance as it becomes available.

Please visit the App Inventor user forums to get future updates on App Inventor.  You can also visit http://mobilelearning.mit.edu/ for updates on what is being done with App Inventor at MIT.

The App Inventor Team

George Wong
Categories: Cellphones, Web
Tags: Android, Google, mit