In June 2007, Apple introduced the first iPhone. But the company made a strategic decision about iPhone software: its new App Store would be a walled garden. An iPhone user wouldn't be able to install apps that Apple hasn't vetted, at least not without violating Apple's terms of service.
That business decision, however, left educators on the sidelines. They had no way to bring mobile software development (which was about to become part of everyday life) into the classroom. How could a young student code, play and share apps if he couldn't access them on the App Store?
Hal Abelson, a professor at MIT, was taking a sabbatical from Google at the time, when the company was deciding how to respond to Apple's tactic of cornering the mobile hardware and software market. Abelson recognized the restrictions Apple was placing on young developers; Google recognized the market need for an alternative open source operating system – what became Android. They both saw the opportunity that became App Inventor.
“Google started the Android project as a reaction to the iPhone,” Abelson says. “And I was there, looking at what we did at MIT with education-focused software like Logo and Scratchand said 'how cool would it be if kids could create mobile apps too'.”
Google software engineer Mark Friedman volunteered to work with Abelson on what became “Young Android,” soon renamed Google App Inventor. Like Scratch, App Inventor is a block-based language that allows programmers to visually put together pre-made “blocks” of code instead of having to learn specialized programming syntax.
Friedman describes it as novel for the time, particularly for mobile development, to make creating simple mobile applications as easy as possible. “That meant a web-based application,” he says, “where everything was online and no external tools were required, with a simple programming model, drag-and-drop user interface design, and block-based visual programming.” Therefore, an application that someone has programmed in a web interface could be installed on an Android device.
App Inventor scratched the itch. Fueled by the explosion in smartphone adoption and the fact that App Inventor is free (and eventually open source), soon more than 70,000 teachers were using it with hundreds of thousands of students, and Google was providing the backend infrastructure for to keep working.
“I remember answering a question from my manager at Google, who asked me how many users I thought we would have in the first year,” Friedman says. “I thought it would be about 15,000, and I remember thinking that maybe that would be too optimistic. In the end I was wrong by a factor of 10 to 20.” Friedman was quick to credit more than just his choices on the app. “I think it's fair to say that while some of that growth was due to the quality of the tool, I don't think you can rule out the effect of it coming from Google and the effect of Hal Abelson's reputation and network.”
Some early apps took App Inventor in ambitious and unexpected directions, like “Discardious,” developed by Nigerian teenagers. Discardious helped business owners and individuals get rid of waste in communities where disposal was unreliable or too cumbersome.
But even before apps like Discardious appeared, the team knew that Google support wouldn't be indefinite. No one wanted to deprive teachers of a tool they were thriving with, so around 2010, Google and Abelson agreed to transfer App Inventor to MIT. The transition meant significant staff contributions to recreate App Inventor without Google's proprietary software, but MIT had to work with Google to continue providing the network resources to keep App Inventor free for the world.
However, with such a large user base, Abelson was “worried that everything was going to collapse” without Google's direct involvement.
Friedman agrees. “I would have to say I had my fears. App Inventor has a fairly complicated technical implementation, involving multiple programming languages, libraries and frameworks, and at the end of his time at Google we had a team of about 10 people working on it.”
However, not only did Google provide significant funding to help the transfer, but according to Friedman, regarding the ultimate success of the transfer, “Hal would be in charge and he had a pretty extensive knowledge of the system and of course he had a great passion for the vision and the product.”
MIT enterprise architect Jeffrey Schiller, who built the Institute's computer network and became its director in 1984, was another key player in sustaining App Inventor after its transition, helping to introduce technical features critical to its accessibility and long term success. He led the integration of the platform into web browsers, the addition of WiFi support instead of the need to connect phones and computers via USB, and laid the groundwork for technical support of older phones because, as Schiller says, “ “Many of our users can’t rush out and buy the latest, most expensive devices.”
These collaborations and contributions over time resulted in App Inventor's greatest resource: its user base. As he grew, and with the support of community administrators, the volunteers' knowledge grew with him. Now, more than a decade since its launch, App Inventor recently surpassed several major milestones, the most notable being the creation of its 100 millionth project and the registration of its 20 millionth user. Young developers continue to create incredible applications, now driven by the advantages of ai. University students created “Brazilian XôDengue”as a way for users to use phone cameras to identify mosquito larvae that may be carrying the dengue virus. High school students recently developed “To calm”, a diary app that uses artificial intelligence for emotion detection. And one mother in Kuwait wanted something to help her manage the often overwhelming experience of new motherhood upon returning to work, so she created the chatbot.”PAM (Personal Mother Advisor)”as a non-judgmental space to talk about challenges.
The long-term sustainability of App Inventor now depends on the App Inventor Foundation, created in 2022 to increase its resources and further drive its adoption. It is led by CEO Natalie Lao.
In a letter Speaking to the App Inventor community, Lao highlighted the foundation's commitment to equitable access to educational resources, which for App Inventor required a rapid shift toward ai education, but in a way that respects App Inventor's core values. of being “a free, open-source, and open-source platform.” easy-to-use platform” for mobile devices. “Our mission is not only to democratize access to technology,” Lao wrote, “but also to foster a culture of innovation and digital literacy.”
Within MIT, App Inventor today sits under the umbrella of the MIT RAISE Initiative: Responsible ai for Social Empowerment and Education, led by Dean of Digital Learning Cynthia Breazeal, Professor Eric Klopfer, and Abelson. Together they can integrate App Inventor into broader communities, events, and funding streams, leading to opportunities like this summer's opening. ai-education-summit/”>ai and Education Summit from July 24 to 26. The summit will include prizes for the winners of a ai-hackathon/”>Global ai Hackathon, whose approximately 180 submissions used App Inventor to create artificial intelligence tools in two areas: Climate & Sustainability and Health & Wellness. By bringing together another of RAISE's main projects, participants were encouraged to take advantage ai Day curricula, including their newest courses on data science and climate change.
“Over the past year, there has been tremendous growth in the possibilities of mobile apps through the integration of ai,” Abelson says. “The opportunity for App Inventor and MIT is to democratize those new possibilities for young people (and everyone) as an enhanced source of power and creativity.”
