BuildAnApp is a very easy-to-use online service for creating simple mobile phone applications that your customers can download for free.
The apps are compatible for Windows, Blackberry, Android and iPhone phones. It is free to make your apps downloadable for Windows, Blackberry and Android users, but the apps will include advertisement. You can pay a fee to remove the ads. If you want to publish to the Android Market and the iPhone App Store, there are additional fees.
Get Started:
Sign up for an account at http://buildanapp.com. Just click the “Get Started Now” button.
Next you’ll be prompted to enter your “Business/Org Name” and your email address. The “Business/Org Name” will be the name of your application, so choose this wisely. Click “Go to Next Tab” when you’re done.
Next, you’ll be asked to enter information about your business that will make up a lot of the content for your application.
Click “Create Application” when you’re done. You’ll then be shown what your basic app looks like. You will be able to add a background image and customize the content that is shown.
We’re going to choose “Change Styles/Images”. Here, you can see you have an option to add a background or upload your own image.
When you’re done, click “Next Step”. Now you can customize the pages that appear on your app. NOTE: You can change the content of your app anytime. You can add pages, enter new coupon codes, update schedules, etc. anytime.
As you can see, you have a lot of flexibility above. You can use the default page names or create your own. When you’re finished this, click “Next Step”.
Now you’re ready to edit the page content, but as you can see, a lot of the data has been entered from the information you provided. You can change or add anything you’d like.
When you’re done editing all your pages, click “Next Step”. Now you can share your app by email, if you’d like. You can upload a file with email addresses or enter them if you’d like. You can also edit the email that the recipients receive.
NOTE: If you choose to email people to tell them about your app, not all mobile phone users will be able to download your app. Many Windows, Android and Blackberry phones will be able to, but without submitting your app to the iPhone App Store, iPhone users will not be able to download your app. This is a requirement from Apple and all apps must be submitted to the App Store in order to work.
Here is what that step looks like:
Once you complete the sharing step (or skip it, if you don’t want to do it at this point), you will have an opportunity to review your app again. If you’re ready to go, all you need to do is click “Publish App”.
On this page, you can see your publishing options.
Publication of the app, so that many mobile phones can download it, is free. You can pay a $49 fee to remove advertising from your app. If you want iPhone users to be able to use your app, you will need to submit to the App Store. If you want the app to be shown in the Android Market, there is a fee for this as well.
NOTE: If you decide to pay for submission to the iPhone App Store, be sure to read BuildAnApp’s FAQ on increasing your chances of being accepted to the store first.
Overall Thoughts
BuildAnApp is certainly easy-to-use and makes it simple to publish a mobile app that has some pretty decent features. The drawback is that you are completely dependant on BuildAnApp to stay in business to ensure your app remains available to users. However, if you’re looking for something quick and simple to start dabbling in the mobile market, this might be a very good tool to start with.
Update
We have been told that for submission to the Apple Store, it is best that it be done directly from your computer. Apparently, part of Apple’s quality control is to assume the computer used to submit the app is the owner of the app. This means you *could* essentially be saying the app does not belong to you if you have someone else submit the app. While we have yet to confirm it, this is something you need to keep in mind.