Google Will Shut Down App Maker on January 19, 2021 (venturebeat.com) 37
Google will shut down its low-code development platform, App Maker, early next year. From a report: Google today announced it is killing off yet another service: App Maker, G Suite's low-code environment for building custom business apps. Google App Maker will be "turned down" gradually this year and officially shut down on January 19, 2021. Google cited "low usage" as an explanation for the move. If your business was using App Maker or considering moving to App Maker, you'll need to find another tool. Indeed, Google is making today's announcement not even two weeks after acquiring no-code app development platform AppSheet. Google first launched App Maker as part of an Early Adopter Program in November 2016. At the time, we described it as a service that "lets users drag and drop widgets around on a user interface that complies with Google's Material design principles" to create apps that can be "customized further with scripts, as well as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and JQuery content." Once apps are live, usage can be monitored through Google Analytics. App Maker hit general availability for all G Suite Business, Enterprise, and Education customers in June 2018. A year and a half later, and it's already headed to the grave.
"Beta world" (Score:5, Interesting)
That's what I call Google, since nearly all their "products" are either actual beta (how the fuck long was GMail in beta!?), or end up in the grave. They hardly ever come out with long-term viable new products.
People would be crazy to make their business dependant on anything of Google's, given its track record on product/service longevity.
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People would be crazy to make their business dependant on anything of Google's, given its track record on product/service longevity.
This statement is too strong. People should not make their business dependent on any Google service that doesn't require a signed contract and or isn't widely used. Big services don't get shut down, and Google doesn't breach contracts.
OTOH, not building a business on a service unless you have a contract guaranteeing its availability, with appropriate remedies, seems like a no-brainer regardless of who the service provider is. You can maybe let that slide if the service is one that the service provider
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People would be crazy to make their business dependant on anything of Google's, given its track record on product/service longevity.
But but but, Stadia will be different... Come on everyone, pay full price for a game locked to Stadia.
Is there any dev out there who doesn't see Stadia as a long term dead-end? I'm kind of wondering how many years Google will keep it up.
Stadia is an console and they go 3-5 years befor (Score:2)
Stadia is an console and they go 3-5 years before dieing or killing compliantly with old vers.
But at full price games with free and an a live like add on. I don't see a lot of profit. At least they are not selling hardware at an loss in mass.
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Stadia isn't a console. Its streaming. They may need to buy hardware on their side, but there's nothing in that which makes it more likely they'll stick around for a full console cycle.
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It's console as in games need to ported to it and there is only one place to buy games for it.
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Neither of which has anything to do with being a console.
Another day... (Score:2)
.... another project/platform canned by Google.
It would be actual news if a month went by during which they didn't can one of their projects.
Stadia should be next. (Score:2)
Imagine if Apple did this (Score:3)
"App Maker hit general availability for all G Suite Business, Enterprise, and Education customers in June 2018. A year and a half later, and it's already headed to the grave"
Just imagine if Apple had done that with Swift - put it out there, then less then 5 years later decided to shut it down and tell developers they "need to find another tool".
At this stage, anyone would be crazy to adopt anything of Google's for development or for their business.
apple does kill API's and forces OS updates (Score:2)
apple does kill API's and forces OS updates on new hardware.
they killed 32 bit apps. Windows and Linux still run them on 64 bit.
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I actually know people who run a business on G-Suite ....
Never heard about App maker, though.
This must be a first (Score:4, Funny)
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Google shutting down a product. Who would have thunk. Is today a cold day in hell?
Not especially [weather.com]. Looks like 34 degrees with a windchill of 27. About average for this time of year I think. And no snow.
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Is today a cold day in hell?
It's ALWAYS a cold day in Hell. It's ALWAYS a hot day in Hell. It just depends on what temperature you're used to. I that presume it's Just Right for Satan though, since he could easily change the temperature if He wanted to. Well, unless it's a Nest since Google is currently down. Guess it's Hell for Him, too.
So does HE worry at all about Global Warming?
"turned down" (Score:3)
yeah (Score:2)
Yet another (Score:2)
So there it sits, joining the pile of toys forever relegated to the closet on December 26th.
Why build anything on Google? (Score:3)
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"Companies get built around a technology"
Companies get built against STABLE technology and/or technology that is backward compatible with old versions.
Google = version 1.0 of whatever. Moving to version 2 that supports V1.0. Nah, lets scrap the whole product and make a brand new product. /. = Let's bitch about MS software being bloated
MS = version 1.0 of whatever. Moving to version 10 that supports V1.0. Yeah, we can do that, lets just change file extensions to differentiate the older product.
Me = ???
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Obligatory ... (Score:2)
They join a lot of applications and services that were Killed By Google [killedbygoogle.com], in the Google Cemetery [gcemetery.co].
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Kudos to Google to be able to release so many different products. But bummer that they all eventually die. I guess these are likely the successful personal 20% time projects from their software engineers. And when those engineers move on, no one is left to maintain them...
Low code programming will always fail (Score:3)
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There are plenty D&D coding tools that generate the exact same code a programmer would write ... that is basically the reason such tools got "invented".
And this kids, is why you never (Score:3)
build anything important on a purely proprietary platform. When the vendor loses interest, you end up with nothing to show for your efforts.
The cloud locks you in and then changes on there t (Score:2)
The cloud locks you in and then changes on there time table.
In related news (Score:3)
We just switched our 75+ user company from Gsuite to Office365. The allure and luster of Google is no more. Businesses don't want constant innovation at the cost of stability. I guess I can understand Googles take on it, I mean who cares if they take away something free to non-paying customers? The problem (at least for Google) is that we were a paying customer that left mainly because of their constant changes.
Please do not respond with "You should use open office/other FOSS solution". I will only respond with 'we need stability and seamless sharing among multiple departments"
Re: In related news (Score:2)
Well if you needed someone else to run it, I totally get it. Though I am quite fond of Zimbra for collaboration. Their search blows the doors off outlook and it really shouldnt. Its not that zimbra created an amazing search. Its that MS just really dropped the ball. After 12yrs I have been able to find old archived mail that i never could using something like outlook.
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And this is why (Score:1)
Microsoft will be around a lot longer than Google. Someday Google will obsolete itself recursively.
Translation (Score:1)
We at Google could not come up with a creative way to completely fuck you over and sell your privacy using App Maker. As a result we are ending this tool as we need our programmers for more important, world domination, projects currently in production.
A Year-and-a-half? (Score:2)
That's a senior citizen considering the average lifetime of most Google applications.
Google just acquired a no-code development startup (Score:1)
Google just bought a Portland-based startup, AppSheet – https://techcrunch.com/2020/01... [techcrunch.com] – last week. AppSh
Flutter next? (Score:2)
I just started looking into Flutter [flutter.dev], will that be the next appbuilder from Google that gets killed off?