How to make an application for Android yourself. When you can create an application yourself. Rookie: universal for every genre

Do you have an idea to create mobile application, but you doubt whether you have enough knowledge and skills to create it? Even if you don't know anything about creating mobile apps, you can still create one and even make money from it.

Idea

Work on creating an application begins with an idea. First, think about who you want to make the application for. For example, if you live in a big city where there are a lot of tourists, then you can think about creating an application for them. There are a lot of options.

Also, think about your hobbies and interests. Let's say you travel frequently and want to visit the most famous clubs around the world. You've made a list of your favorite places. Why not turn this database into a travel app?

A lot of famous applications are not focused around special interests, but they are always in the top three ratings - these are games. You've probably already downloaded Temple Run, Minecraft to your smartphone. Gaming apps tend to make money more money, because users are more willing to pay for them, especially if they are very popular among your friends.

Don't be discouraged if you find something similar to your idea when searching through the App Store. Learn to think outside the box. For example, there are several apps that provide information and maps about all the most popular tourist spots in Moscow. But there is an application that provides information about unusual places cities that not everyone knows about.

Try to come up with an idea that has few competitors. But if you are determined to turn your idea into an app despite the competition, take a look at your competitors and try to figure out what you can do to make your app better than theirs.

Here are some important points Things to consider while you're thinking about your application:

Monetization options

Before you start developing an application, you need to decide how you will make money from it. There are several main ways to monetize applications:

Free application. Commonly used large companies, and the app helps sell their products or services.
Free application with advertising. Used in popular applications that actively interact with the user
Paid application. The most popular and profitable type of monetization. With every sale of yours Apple apps takes a commission of 30%.
Lite and Pro. Lite app is free, but with limited set functions. By purchasing Pro you will unlock all functionality
In-app purchases - you can sell new functionality or new game levels directly from the application

Development

Now you have an idea. Great, that's already half the battle! But what now? We assume that you, like most people, have no programming experience. And that's great! There are tons of options.

If you want to take the easy but more expensive route, then check out mobile app developer sites. The AppBooker website allows you to enter the right platform, country, your budget and then it will give you a list of developers that meet your needs. Once you select a developer, you can see a list of their clients and the types of applications they specialize in.

A good list of domestic developers can be found here – ratingruneta.

Another option to find a developer is to contact flinaser exchanges. It may even be cheaper, but more risky, since you may come across an unscrupulous employee.

Here are some questions to ask your future developer:

What is the cost of their work?

Who have they worked for in the past?

Are their applications successful?

Will I have all rights to the application?

Do they have the experience and knowledge to bring your idea to life?

What platforms (IOS, Android, etc.) can they create applications for?

Development cost

As they say, to make money you must first spend it. This is not entirely true when it comes to mobile applications, but we will return to this below. For now, let's assume that you decide to order an application from the developer.

Depending on the type of application you want to make, the price can range from $500 to $100,000. This price may seem very high, but it is worth keeping in mind that the profit from a successful application covers the costs several times. Besides, gaming applications the most expensive in terms of development are also bestsellers.

If you already have some work in place (like layout and graphics), you can reduce the price significantly. Another way to reduce costs is to offer the developer a share of the profit from the application.

To find out approximately how much it will cost to develop an application, you can use the howmuchtomakeanapp calculator. It was created by the Canadian company ooomf.com. The resulting price can be safely divided by 2, and you will find out the price of development from us. You can also look at examples of applications they have already created with prices - crew.co.

Accommodation already ready-made application on App store will cost you $99.9 per year. Hosting the application on Android Market costs $25.

How to create an application for free

If you do not want to create a game or some kind of application unique in its functions, then you can very well use special online designers mobile applications. With these sites you can make free simple application without programming knowledge. But if you want something special, then you will have to switch to a paid plan.

How much can you earn?

Obviously, the money you make from your app will largely depend on its popularity, and how much you'll make is hard to say.

A study conducted by GigaOM Pro found that more than half of their 352 developers surveyed earned less than $500 per month.

This certainly isn't enough to live off of the app's earnings alone, but it's great if you just want to make a little extra money.

Of course, you can make another hit like Angry Birds that will earn you $100,000 a month!

In order to make good money on your application, read a few tips:

your application should be interesting to a wide audience
explore the most popular apps On the market

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Way to software development not easy, but if you are interested, like android, then you need to start somewhere. But, let’s say, there is no desire to study programming languages, but you want to immediately move on to creating a finished product. Is this possible? Yes, yes! So we'll look at how complete newbie(or on Android).

Search for material

To create a good game, many people look for manuals. They are useful for step-by-step training and understanding the basics, but this is not enough for complex projects. So, a person must have the skills to solve problems that arise. And this only comes with experience, and manuals, alas, will not help here. Therefore, the best answer to the question “How to create an application for iOS 9 yourself” (or for Android) is to start working on it. But let’s figure out how this process happens.

Choosing a direction

Many people recommend not starting with big projects like MMO, 3D FPS and so on. The argument is based on the fact that many people abandon their development without completing it. Therefore, it is recommended to start with small projects. But at the same time, you can hear the idea that it is necessary to decide on an idea and begin to implement it. It may take a person a year or even more, but in the end he will do everything that needs to be done. But it is necessary to weigh and understand all the risks, since even a small mistake made at the beginning may turn out to be significant problem already at the final stage of project creation. Therefore, it is necessary to study the existing theoretical issues qualitatively, carefully and very carefully.

For ease of work, one large project can be divided into a large number of little ones. But after one module is completed, it must be combined with existing work.

Event Handling: Essentials

When work begins, you should take on the easiest thing, where you don’t need to worry about the presence of complex algorithms or artificial intelligence. At the same time, we must try our best to understand fundamentals gaming architecture and logic. In this case, something that works on a step-by-step basis would be optimal.

When considering how to create iOS applications from scratch, one cannot help but mention this advice: start with the core of the program. It will not be difficult to modify individual details at the final stage.

Various actions

The most used ones include motion, collision, synchronization and animation. In addition to these, game loops, scoring, determining victory or defeat status, and other important basic concepts that are used in many applications are of great importance. So, it is recommended to start with collision detection, transitions between levels, creating minimal logic, primitive artificial intelligence, and so on. You can also try splitting the program into two or three files to achieve best result from the point of view of optimizing the resources used. At the same time, it is advisable to try to keep everything within reason and not make the application too large.

We reach a more difficult level

Before this stage, a person should already understand and know how to create an application for iOS or Android. It requires a carefully designed architecture, which necessitates the use of planning. Thus, it is often necessary to have advanced physics (for example, recognizing collisions of different objects and various types surfaces). This is necessary to make applications (in this case games) more realistic.

Just remember Super Mario - in it gravity and inertia are made in such a way that they create a feeling of their real availability. For a serious brain challenge, consider a game like billiards.

If you want to create programs aimed at useful activities, you need to take other features into account. These include the following: the accuracy of the data processed and stored and the formulas used; the correctness of all paths; application stability; optimal use available resources and so on. Returning to the topic of games, we note that in this case level editors, which simplify the writing of complex developments, can show good results.

Working on artificial intelligence

Success modern games lies in their principle of interaction between several people. But the presence of artificial intelligence allows us to introduce a number of interesting aspects, so it is not completely ignored, but used as a good addition.

To simplify tasks, certain algorithms are often used. Of course, for this, as a rule, it is also necessary to have a good understanding of mathematics, but thanks to the Internet it will be possible to understand almost anything without any knowledge. basic knowledge. Algorithms are also useful for interaction at varying difficulties gameplay. In applications artificial intelligence can analyze user actions and offer optimal work options for him.

Using the network

When considering the question of how to create applications for iOS or Android, it should be said that adding the Internet significantly complicates the task. For example, care must be taken to ensure that the actions of one player are transmitted to others. For this purpose, as a rule, a server is used as an intermediary. The better it is done, the more reliable the development will be. But along with this, the load will also increase.

For applications where network latency and packet loss have a negative impact, you will have to design everything as optimally as possible. First of all, this means programs that exchange significant amounts of data. To understand the working mechanisms here, it is highly recommended to use a local host and small programs that transmit small amounts of information (chats are an example). In addition, due to the nature of the protocols used, one often has to make a choice between speed and reliability.

So we looked at how to create iOS applications from scratch. As you can see, this requires a lot of study and practice. Is it possible to do without this? Oddly enough, this is quite real. Let's talk about this.

Development without learning programming

This is especially relevant in cases where you need to quickly do small program for a site with simple functionality. Although experienced web developers can also resort to this. They come to the rescue with this special services. They can all be united under the slogan “Simple, cheap and fast!”

Examples include the following services: AppsGeyser, TheAppBuilder, Appsmakerstore, Biznessapps, My-apps.com, iBuildApp, Viziapps, AppMakr, Mobile Roadie and AppsBuilder. Each of them has its own unique features and functions.

You also need to understand that almost all of them are paid. A free versions do not have wide functionality. If we consider them general scheme, then we can say that they reflect the idea of level editors that we discussed earlier. But in this case they cover a very wide scope. Here, answering the question of how to create an application for iOS without programming skills, you also need to worry about the fact that you will have to pay for such luxury, and a considerable amount. Such servers are foreign or aimed primarily at foreign users. Thus, the price of their services will range from 10 dollars to several hundred for one month of use. That is, time is money. In this case, it will be necessary to ensure that the opportunities presented are used to the maximum.

Service functionality

So we looked at how to create applications for iOS and Android. Now let's pay attention to the functionality they have. If we divide it into categories, we have the following:

Aimed at working with content. Such services help collect information from the site and combine it into one application. An example is AppsGeyser. Moreover, in this case, you can not only collect information, but also place advertisements in applications.
Shareware services, which, using templates and designers, allow you to create applications for sports, education, music, and so on. True, they will contain advertising, which can be disabled for a certain amount. In the case of TheAppBuilder, this will cost $5.
Paid design services, which allow you to create business-related applications. Their functionality includes a basket for goods, geolocation, placement of information about available goods and services, upcoming events and promotions, and so on. An example is the previously mentioned Biznessapps service, but its prices are steep, because they start at $29.
Creating applications is free, money is required when it is published in the store(for example, in the Google Play Market). An example is BuildFire. True, its peculiarity is that you only need to pay once a month. The amount in this case is 49 US dollars.

As you can see, there are two options for creating applications for iOS and Android. Which one to ultimately choose is up to the user.

There are many programs you can use to create beautiful typography. But what if you need to add a caption to an image, as they say, on the go? Of course, use the mobile application for your smartphone. After all, it is very convenient and takes almost no time - you just need to find a suitable picture, choose a font and type the desired text.

FreelanceToday brings to your attention 10 useful apps for creating beautiful typography that will serve great addition to photographs and illustrations.

The Typorama iOS app automatically generates text layouts in 35 typographic styles. The user can select the most suitable font from hundreds available options. You need to choose a background, write text, add a style and that’s it – the typography is ready. You can apply various effects and filters to text, add ribbons, icons, shadows, gradients and volume. Finished images can be distributed in in social networks, use as desktop wallpaper or make a banner from the picture.

PicLab is graphics editor, with which you can process images and add font to them. You can apply various effects, use preset templates, add textures to pictures, and use filters. You can also use several text layers. The app's watermark appears on the finished image, but you can remove it by paying $1.

Font Candy app is different big amount carefully selected fonts. Can choose background image, add your own text or a preset signature to the picture. The result is images that look like they've been worked on professional designer. If the user has difficulty choosing a suitable picture, then you can use the search function, which will offer to download the image from the Pixabay service. The application is developed only for devices with iOS on board.

With Over, everyone can feel creative person. The application has over 800 pre-installed illustrations and 300 unique fonts, which allows you to implement almost any idea. The application can be used to create greeting cards, inspiring quotes, you can also accompany your favorite picture with text. You can also very quickly visualize a successful thought that suddenly came to mind. The application allows you to download images from Unsplash and Pixabay using addons; it can be used to create spectacular illustrations for the design of your pages on social networks. Version for iOS. Version for Android.

You can also add accompanying text to your illustration using WordSwag. The special feature of WordSwag is automatic selection font that best matches the image. If the user is dissatisfied with the result, then you can change the signature by choosing one of 30 options. Ready project you need to save and then use as you wish. The application is paid, costs $3.99.

Phonto is a simple application that allows you to quickly and easily add text to your illustrations. In the application, you can choose one of 200 pre-installed fonts, and if you are not satisfied with the result, you can add your own font. There are a lot of tools for working with text; you can change the size, color, interletter and line spacing, add shadow and other effects. iOS version. Version for Android.

The Fontspiration app allows you to create animated typography. The user can choose any of the more than 100 available fonts and create a beautiful accompanying signature. If for some reason you cannot get the desired result, you can look at the works of other users presented in the gallery. The finished project can be saved as a regular picture, you can also make an animated GIF and even a video. Very useful application– a real graphic editor with good functionality.

The Ampergram application was created to work with images from the Instagram social network. The main feature of Ampergram is that the application finds letters in photographs posted by other users and composes words from them. It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to achieve particularly high-quality typography, but it’s fun.

Translation

IN Material Design 2.0 introduced several new concepts. One of them - Special attention to the geometric shapes of interface elements. And there is an easy way to make beautiful custom shapes. It's called MaterialShapeDrawable. Let's see how useful and easy it is to use.

There are several ways to add graphic elements to the screen of an Android application. The simplest one is to import raster images into webp formats or png. Another option is to use VectorDrawable, which allows you to stretch the image to the size you need. Another way to add graphics to the screen is to use ShapeDrawable. The latter are the most in a simple way add a simple background or even create an icon. Images created with ShapeDrawable are independent of the pixel density of the screen. They can be described in xml file, be part of another graphics resource (for example, StateListDrawable) and are present in Android SDK, starting with API v.1.

To change appearance shapes, we can change several ShapeDrawable properties: shape name, fill color (or gradient), shape border color. For rectangles, you can also set the corner radius. Using these properties, you can create graphics that will be used as individual images on the screen, dividers, button backgrounds or for any other purpose. If the application uses API v.21+ and ShapeDrawable as a background for elements with elevation, then the shadow under these elements will also be of the correct shape:

ShapeDrawable is a handy tool that almost always gets the job done well, but with the advent of Material Design 2.0, developers need something more flexible. New design system encourages use different forms to emphasize their meaning, condition and individual style of the application. I wrote above that there are several ways to do what you want, but the simplest of them is no longer relevant. Does this mean we need to start using vector graphics and thus lose the opportunity to “free” create shadows for interface elements with elevation? Or should I just roll back to using it altogether? raster images and create graphics resources for six possible pixel densities on the screen? Luckily, with the advent of Material Design 2.0, a completely new library of components has emerged.

This library was created to unify the appearance and behavior of Material Design UI components across all Android versions and other platforms (there are versions of this library for iOS, web and Flutter). The component library implements many features for new Material Design. For example, it includes a BottomAppBar component with the expected behavior. Among other components and utilities, there is the MaterialShapeDrawable class. In my opinion this is necessary tool to solve the problems posed to developers by the new design system.

Although MaterialShapeDrawable is still considered experimental in the 1.0.0 release of the library, it can be used to create cool effects in the application. In the MaterialShapeDrawable class, you can describe a shape by indicating the appearance of its sides and each of its corners. These defined properties can be controlled by an interpolator, allowing them to be animated.

To create your own MaterialShapeDrawable, you can use the constructor, which needs to be passed an object of type ShapePathModel in the parameters. It stores information about each side and each corner of a figure in the EdgeTreatment and CornerTreatment classes, respectively (there are always exactly four sides and corners, but this does not prevent us from describing almost any figure using them). You can set descriptions individually for each side and corner, or set them once for the entire figure by calling one method.

The library already has several ready-to-use side and corner treatments that include most of the component shape innovations introduced in Material Design 2.0. Already present: RoundedCornerTreatment - for rounded corners, CutCornerTreatment - for cut corners, TriangleEdgeTreatment - for cutting or adding a triangle to a side. There is a simple example to demonstrate how they work:

It will look like this:

Of course, you can simply create own descriptions edges and corners. The shape is always set to the top left element, and Drawable will do the rotation/flip operations to get the finished shape. To demonstrate this there is small example:

If this MaterialShapeDrawable is used as a background, the result will be like this:

In the package bottomappbar new library Material components have BottomAppBarTopEdgeTreatment. It describes the "cut" in the BottomAppBar for the FloatingActionButton. Its top side can be animated depending on the position and size of the button. I advise you to read the code of these classes to see with your own eyes that MaterialShapeDrawable is very flexible in use, and you can do almost anything with it.

Speaking of a regular ShapeDrawable, there is one more detail worth mentioning - the ability to cast a shadow of a shape that matches the path. Since it is now possible to create outlines of very unusual shapes using MaterialShapeDrawable, it would be disappointing not to match the shape of the shadow to the shape of the image, especially when these shadows can be seen everywhere in Matarial Design 2.0. MaterialShapeDrawable also calculates the appearance of the shadow. Using the shadowEnabled property, you can enable a shadow that will exactly follow the outline of the shape itself; it is also possible to determine the radius, height (elevation) and color of the shadow. Sounds too good to be true? Unfortunately yes. If you use a shadow on a MaterialShapeDrawable, you will get a normal shadow (drawn by the setShadowLayer() method of the Paint class, which is created for drawing shadows on text), but cropped along the boundaries of the UI component in which the result is displayed:

One thing to keep in mind is that MaterialShapeDrawable is still considered experimental, as is its API, and may change in the future. It is also worth noting that the code of the new Material Components library is open, so creating tickets in the bug tracker or even pull requests with a fix known issues very welcome. In fact, as you read this, the API is already slightly different in the master branch of the library (for example, ShapeAppearanceModel will be used instead of ShapePathModel), which indicates active work. One promising feature in the next release may be the ability to define the default side/corner appearance for the entire application theme. You can learn more about this from the official documentation or library sources.

From the translator:
It's cool that tools are appearing that add new capabilities to regular ShapeDrawables and help create not the most simple graphics. This allows the developer not to bother the designer with every little detail, but to solve the issue himself, and requires noticeably less time. We are waiting for the next versions of the Material Components library to try new ways to solve existing problems in practice.

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In fact, bringing this idea to life is not as difficult and not as expensive as it might seem at first glance. You just need to have a good idea of what exactly you expect from a mobile application and determine how to achieve your goals.

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PREPARATORY STAGE

Before creating a mobile application, you should decide on the following points:

Do I have a specific vision of what the finished product will be and what its functionality will be?
What problems is the program designed to solve and what will be the benefit for a specific user?
On what platforms will the finished product work? software(iOS, Android, Windows Phone)?
Will daily monitoring of its functioning be required?
How much am I willing to spend?
Will I create an application myself or will I turn to professional developers?

Also keep in mind that to create mobile programs for a business, such as a cafe, pizzeria or fitness club, should be taken especially seriously. After all, the company’s presence of such modern instrument- this is a serious image factor that will contribute to greater customer loyalty to the brand and a significant increase in the number of repeat visits.

METHODS AND COSTS OF CREATING AN APPLICATION

In creating applications for mobile devices there are two ways. The first involves the independent creation of programs for electronic devices based on Android or IOS using template type using special website constructors. The second way, which is more expensive, but ultimately allows you to get serious and functional products, is to seek help from individuals or companies involved in writing software. The second option is suitable if we're talking about about creating serious software products with specific characteristics that go beyond the ready-made kits available on design sites. It should also be taken into account that professional development for iOS or Android requires significant expenses. What is the cost of creating an application for Android platforms and iOS on Russian market? The price range is quite wide - from several hundred to tens of thousands of dollars - it all depends on the type of software and its functionality. However, such serious investments more than pay off in the long term. When planning the final cost, it is also worth taking into account the costs of placing a new product in the AppStore and Android Market. If you are limited by a small budget and have no time at all, then you can try to design an application for electronic devices yourself. You don't need to be a programmer to do this. Read on to find out how easy it is to do this.

HOW TO CREATE AN APP FOR FREE

Today, there are enough domestic and foreign platforms available on the Internet that allow you to independently construct an application of a ready-made type for free. Constructor sites host hundreds of ready-made options applications sorted into various categories: small business, education, entertainment, sports, blogs and the like. On such resources, programs with a standard and limited set of functions are created free of charge. Limitations relate to the number of installations and views of your application, the number of items in the catalog, the possibility of publication in stores, the presence of a payment acceptance system, presence third party advertising and the possibility of modifying the functionality to suit your needs. To remove restrictions on sites, you can choose a specific package with a fixed monthly fee, the size of which is determined depending on the number of included options. Examples of website constructors for shareware mobile applications for Android, iPhone, iPad.

Appsgeyser.com (appsgeyser.ru - Russian version).

Now let’s look at how a mobile application can be developed in a few minutes using the example of the ibuildapp website. We chose this particular platform because it is very simple and easy to use. By the way, the iBuidApp resource also has a Russian-language version, which makes using the constructor even easier. Before starting work, register on the site. Next, on the main page, click the “Create” tab and select the template that suits us.

SELECTING A TEMPLATE AND CATEGORY

This site offers enough big choice standard options, which can be found in the category catalog in the left menu of the site page. For example, we chose the “Photography” category and the “Photo Studio” template. After choosing a design and the appropriate category, we begin editing menu items.

EDITING CONTENT

The administrative panel of the designer opens ample opportunities to edit menu items. You can change the background, add a logo, customize the navigation of the main and lower menus on the screen electronic device, edit content internal pages. By the way, on the right side of the screen you can see how changes made will appear on the screen of an electronic device. The designer also allows you to test your application on a tablet or smartphone. Also ready-made program can be published in the Appstore or in Google Play, however this feature is only available for paid versions. The site offers 3 paid package costing 490 rubles, 2400 rubles, 3700 rubles. per month.

PAID PACKAGES

If you are not satisfied with the appearance of the templates available on the site, you can create your own design by clicking on account“My Templates” tab. The capabilities of an individual designer are quite limited; they allow you to provide the software product with only the most necessary elements.
Now it’s your turn to start creating applications and install it on your smartphone. Try it, it's quite simple!