Learning to program is awesome. You can make yourself think in very different ways, and learn a trade that will be extremely useful in years to come. Plus, it’s fun!
There are plenty of programs on desktop computers for writing and compiling code – but what about on Android? Here are 15 apps that will hopefully make your life easier while programming, whether you are just beginning, or have been programming your whole life. Productivity is extremely important in programming, so maybe a few of these apps will help you be on your way to being a coding maniac!
Once you’ve built your app, it’s a good idea to look at an application performance monitoring software. Apps such as Stackify and New Relic allow you to test how well your app is running and investigate error logs. You’ll find though that many of these apps have their own debugging and testing environments included and many don’t even require programming knowledge in order to get started.
SalesForce 1
The Salesforce1 Platform is an industry standard PaaS solution that’s used by thousands of major businesses worldwide. SalesForce1 allows you to develop your own Android applications to help improve sales and efficiency within you’re company. This can be anything from analytical tools, to tools to enhance the way your sales team work out in the field and apps to improve customer support. Its not aimed at beginners though and you’ll need to be a developer that is a member of Force.com and Database.com in order to use it.
Canvas
Canvas is most commonly used to develop Android applications for field service workers that are constantly on the move and filling out paper forms. Some of the fields where Canvas is regularly utilized are Oil and Gas mining safety inspections, daily reports for construction, logistics, HVAC, plumbing and roofing.
Any company that deals with form-filling tasks could see improved efficiency with applications developed in Canvas that allow workers to edit checklists, inspections, work orders, surveys, invoices and inventories on their Android device.
Field Squared
Field Squared is cloud-based and allows you to create customizable native mobile apps and back office tools for field business services. The idea of Field Squared is to help field employees work more efficiently on tablets and phones and remove the need for paperwork.
Apps developed on Android in Field Squared can also be used to improve the efficiency of your company’s activities via such uses as job status tracking, route optimization, and asset tracking. You can use apps developed in Field Squared online and offline, protect communications with AES and SSL encryption and use 2-way data sync. You can also integrate GPS into any services you develop on your Android device but if you do choose to use this, it does kill the battery very quickly.
JScrambler
JScrambler’s focus is developing secure Android applications and markets itself as one of the most secure solutions out there. JScrambler is aimed more at advanced Android programmers and gives you lots of different JavaScript source code transformations including function outlining, string obfuscation and also provides several code locks other security features that keep your valuable Javascript code safe from being stolen.
Zengine
Zengine is a cloud-based platform that’s aimed at non technical users to build custom business applications for Android. For more seasoned developers, you can also extend the application through the use of integrations and other complex functionality.
Zengine’s makes things easier with pre-configured templates (such as CRM, Project Management or Recruiting) and then a simple drag and drop form builder to create applications. Alternatively, if you already have data in a spreadsheet or other tool, you can import it into Zengine and you can contract the developers to create an app for you.
WorkXpress Build from Scratch
WorkXpress is designed for building Android apps for small or large businesses and makes it easy enough for anyone to get started with. There’s no programming knowledge or complicated setup procedure so its definitely suitable for beginners to programming on Android.
WorkXpress is still pretty powerful and features include search and replace, undo and redo, and on-screen keyboard helpers. If you’re new to programming on android and need an easy place to start, WorkXpress is worth checking out.
Como
Como is another user-friendly platform that simplifies app creation on Android and helps you create feature rich apps. Como has a particular focus on e-commerce and makes it easier to create apps for selling goods on Android devices. It also includes tools to help you market and promote any apps that you create on it.
Knack
Knack is another Android programming app aimed at non-technical users to build online database apps. You don’t need any prior programming or IT background and there’s plenty of online support if you get stuck.
Knack aims to help novices build their own off-the-shelf applications that are difficult to reproduce in standalone solutions although it obviously lacks some of the power features of programming applications designed for pro. The nice thing about Knack though is that it actually manages to make learning Android programming fun.
Zoho Creator
Zoho Creator is an easy-to-use Android programming app which aims to get your application and database rolled out ASAP. Zoho takes care of security, uptime, backups and upgrades so that you can focus on creating your app. One good thing about Zoho is the pricing model because its a pay-as-you-go service with no long term contracts. You pay monthly, quarterly or yearly and you can cancel at anytime which is more flexible than most similar app. You can also create unlimited database applications with Zoho creator and share the account with up to 3 users.
OutSystems Platform
OutSystems Platform is designed to help you develop and deploy apps in the cloud, on-premises or in a hybrid model. Although you can develop on Android, it’s designed to produce something that can be deployed in the Cloud for all devices to access and use. It’s suitable for developing User Interfaces, Business Logic, Business Processes, Databases, Integration Components, Web Services, Security Rules and Scheduling activities.
OutSystems Platform uses an attractive and easy to follow visual development environment to rapidly develop and change mobile and web applications. OutSystems Platform helps you sketch out what can of app you want by letting you assemble all the components necessary to define mobile and web apps before you have to write any code.
Caspio
Caspio is not for those new to programming. It’s quite complicated for those new to programming on Android and is aimed more at power users than those looking for an attractive looking IDE.
Amongst the many things you can create with Caspio are Online Forms, Embed Anywhere Deployment, Basic and Advanced Reporting, Map Mashup, Easy Data Import/Export: Excel, Access, TXT, XML, CSV, SSL Deployment, One-Click Language Localization, SEO Deployment, Password Protection and CAPTCHAS.
Snappii
Snappii aims to help you create feature packed native mobile business apps for Android but with no coding knowledge. It’s designed to help you design, build and deploy enterprise grade secure mobile business as quickly as possible rather than having to hire a dedicated development team. Snappii allows you to integrate your apps with the Cloud and also shows you how you can connect apps you design in it to your enterprises’ back-end systems for more secure data transfers.
iON Interactive
iON Interactive is all about trying to grab user attention by helping you create interactive content on your Android device. iON Interactive is a good choice if you want to create an app that’s going to be heavily involved in social marketing, email marketing and advertising campaigns.
iON’s is most commonly used to create assessments, quizzes, ebooks, interactive white papers and other marketing tools that try to increase engagement, boost sales and improve conversions.
Bizness Apps
Bizness Apps is another ready-to-go Android programming app with lots of templates, designs and tutorials to help you create your own apps. Bizness Apps includes tons of useful features that you can easily add to your apps including GPS Directions, Advanced Push Notifications, Tell-A-Friend, Food Ordering and Mobile Shopping Carts.
You can also add Mobile Reservations, Music Player, Loyalty Card, Custom Email Forms, Video Integration, Event Attendance, Bizness CRM tracking tools, Event Listings, Business Information, Points of Interest, GPS Coupons, Fan Wall, Mailing List, 3rd Party Social & Tool Integration, One Touch Calling and more.
Webflow
Finally, if its not programming your want but a spot of web design on your Android device, take a look at Webflow. Webflow is actually a WYSIWYG visual website builder that’s not about building apps, but about using your Android device to build websites. Webflow is designed to create professional, responsive sites suitable for enterprises large and small and customers include Groupon, MTV, Pinterest and IBM. Although you can code with it if you want, no coding knowledge is required at all to create sites on your Android device. You can either design a site from scratch or use one of the many business templates available to create a site as quickly as possible.
Update: This post was updated on August 12th 2015.
