FAQ
Appmaker is a tool for creating HTML5-powered mobile apps. While not yet a tool mature enough for developers, Appmaker will let anybody create something simple. Its purpose is to grow a community of appmakers whose primary goal is not to learn to code, but to make something they can use and share.
The user-base for Appmaker is still young, but it's growing through advocacy work and events facilitated by the Appmaker team and its passionate contributors.
The Progress Wiki and Events Wiki show events -- past and future -- featuring Appmaker, at which various specific groups of people (e.g. Technovation finalists from San Franciso, Mozilla reps from India, Campus Party attendees from Brazil, UNICEF volunteers from the UK). We're constantly working to define the experience of Appmaking for different groups of individuals, looking for the places in which we can have the most impact.
Officially, Appmaker is supported on the latest stable desktop versions of Firefox and Chrome. Currently, we only offer an app-development environment in modern desktop browsers because we're not yet able to provide a comfortable, open, scalable, end-to-end, multiplatform mobile app development experience -- but we're working on it. Stay tuned for exciting updates.
Know a browser not mentioned here which you feel fully supports Appmaker? Let us know!
Apps published by Appmaker will work on many platforms. However, specific usage varies across device, browser and operating system.
- Chrome for Android
- Safari for iOS
- Audio Bricks do not work as intended in Safari for iOS
Not yet! But, sign up for the Appmaker mailing list to find out when it'll be possible.
Yes. Appmaker is open source, and its code is published on github. You are free to fork and edit Appmaker. We welcome contributions!
Yes. Using Appmaker is completely free to use. You do not need to pay for any aspect of Appmaker.
Appmaker apps are built from Bricks, which snap together as building blocks. They talk to each other over coloured communication channels, messaging each other when events occur, like being clicked, expiring a timer, loading an image, or playing a video. To try playing with Bricks, follow the Make Music with Appmaker tutorial.
For more information on building an Appmaker Brick, read the How Bricks are Built Wiki.
Appmaker Bricks are based on <polymer-element> from the Polymer Project. x-tag is another project by Mozilla based on the same technology, but Appmaker does not make of it.
Contributing to Appmaker can take many forms. Check out the Contribution Wiki to find out how to get involved in various aspects of Appmaker -- events, development, design, research, and more!
Appmaker is part of a growing project with the objective of understanding the opportunity for mobile technology to more usefully affect the people that use it. As many, many more people become smart phone users in the next decade, Mozilla wants to help them be active in the web they use, and help them understand that their mobile phones can benefit their lives in unexpected ways.