Google App Inventor Discontinued, Will Go Open Source Instead

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With Google Labs closing down, Google plans to focus their efforts on fewer, but more targeted products. In line with these changes, Google is closing down yet another Android tool — the App Inventor.

Google’s App Inventor helps  users create applications for Android devices without necessarily having programming know-how. For the most part, Google says many users have been able to use App Inventor to create simple games like WhackAMole, Tic-Tac-Toe, Pong and the like. However, the application has serious potential, since it can take advantage of phones’ sensors and other peripherals as input mechanisms.

Google will be retiring App Inventor and plans to release this as an open source software, so that interested parties can still use App Inventor for making Android apps. Google also foresees potential in the education market, saying App Inventor can be used to create educational and instructional Android applications.

App Inventor is not actually the only service or software that lets users create native Android apps based on simple designs or existing web content. But it’s certainly an interesting one,considering it’s from Google’s own now-defunct Labs.