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Hi all, I’m one of the creators of Thunkable, along with WeiHua Li. It is a drag-and-drop tool for anyone to build native mobile apps. We've been working on th

Hi all, I’m one of the creators of Thunkable, along with WeiHua Li. It is a drag-and-drop tool for anyone to build native mobile apps. We've been working on this tool at MIT and Google for the past few years as an open source project called MIT App Inventor, and we decided to make a product (Thunkable) around it to better support our users. We’re in the current YC W2016 batch. There are two parts to the tool: Designer: Allows you to create an app UI by adding different UI components to your screen, such as buttons, TextBoxes, GoogleMaps, etc. It also allows you to add non-visible components to your apps, such as SMS receivers or NFC sensors. Blocks: Thunkable has a blocks-based programming language that makes it easy for novice programmers to use, but is sophisticated enough for seasoned developers to use (you can make functions, variables, callbacks, etc.). Thunkable then compiles the blocks (Java/Javascript) to Scheme to binary .apk. There is also a Thunkable app on the Play Store that you can connect to your Thunkable web app, to test your apps. The app live interprets everything that you add to Thunkable in the browser and shows it on your phone in real-time. We’d love to hear your thoughts on how to make it better, and what things we don’t yet support that you’d like to see. Thanks, Arun

sandebert 11y ago
Does the generated apk in any way depend on your infrastructure, or is it 100% self-contained?
- vw11223 11y ago
  Hi, Wei here (one of the co-founders of Thunkable). The generated apk is 100% self-contained. But in the future, we are thinking about an all-in-one solution, like providing datastores and push notifications, which will depend on our infrastructure.
bossx 11y ago
Congrats on launching. You should add a blurb about your history with MIT App Inventor on the site, probably right above the stats. I had no idea you were the people behind it until I read this comment. I think it would add a lot of credibility to your product to add this background info.
- arunsaigal1 11y ago
  That is a great idea. We'll add a blurb about us and our history with MIT App Inventor. Thanks for the suggestion.
- brbsix 11y ago
  I agree, it's important to mention this. I've been burned by a few SAAS closures recently, so knowing the project's pedigree makes me feel more comfortable investing time/energy into it.

sandebert 11y ago

Does the generated apk in any way depend on your infrastructure, or is it 100% self-contained?

vw11223 11y ago
Hi, Wei here (one of the co-founders of Thunkable). The generated apk is 100% self-contained. But in the future, we are thinking about an all-in-one solution, like providing datastores and push notifications, which will depend on our infrastructure.

bossx 11y ago

Congrats on launching. You should add a blurb about your history with MIT App Inventor on the site, probably right above the stats. I had no idea you were the people behind it until I read this comment. I think it would add a lot of credibility to your product to add this background info.

arunsaigal1 11y ago
That is a great idea. We'll add a blurb about us and our history with MIT App Inventor. Thanks for the suggestion.
brbsix 11y ago
I agree, it's important to mention this. I've been burned by a few SAAS closures recently, so knowing the project's pedigree makes me feel more comfortable investing time/energy into it.