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Nowadays, a complete novice can create their dream website in under 30 minutes using drag-n-drop features on sites like Squarespace and Wix. But if that same novice wants to create an Android app, it'll take them quite a lot more time and effort.

I am looking for an program or site where I can go and create an Android app without having to know anything about coding or programming.

Things it should do:

  • Be Free (or relatively cheap)
  • Have drag-n-drop features for placing items
  • Not make the user see the apps code if they don't want to see it
  • Come with some standard app templates to start designing off of
  • Have the ability to upload app to android store when it is finished
  • Have an app simulator so you can see how the finished product will work
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    Drag-and-drop for visuals is easy. For functionality, not so much. Website builders will have a short list of widgets like photo reels that provide basic functionality. You could have something similar in an app, but it wouldn't make any sense in an app. Websites contain content, whereas apps do things. Doing things requires writing code. (Websites can of course do things too, and also require writing code and not just site builder tools.)
    – Matthew Read
    Commented May 18, 2014 at 13:49
  • That's a good point @MatthewRead, I never thought about it like that before
    – user1086
    Commented May 19, 2014 at 12:41

2 Answers 2

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Check out AppInventor. It's open source and you just drag and drop puzzle piece shaped blocks of code. Plus, when you're done you can upload your app to Google Play.

Be Free (or relatively cheap)

AppInventor is free as in speech and free as in beer which means it's free to use and is open source.

Have drag-n-drop features for placing items

You literally drag-n-drop puzzle pieces to build your code.

Not make the user see the apps code if they don't want to see it

Uses puzzle pieces to abstract away the code.

Come with some standard app templates to start designing off of

AppInventor has great tutorials to get you designing

Have the ability to upload app to android store when it is finished

With AppInventor you can upload to Google Play

Have an app simulator so you can see how the finished product will work

You can use the emulator to test your creation.

Personally I used AppInventor when I was first starting out developing Android apps and I found it a great way to get started.

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Maybe JQuery Mobile is what you are looking for.
PhoneGap may also be interesting.

Here is a list of tools to generate apps from a drag-and-drop interface.

I prefer to develop coding by my self so I cannot recommend any specific tool. You will find options from 10 USD per app like http://www.jqmbuilder.com/build/

I found this too - AppMint - which claims to be free.

obs: Again, I've no experience with the graphics builders, but I can confirm that phoneGap and JQM are a good combination to start.

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