Google AppMaker was a low-code development environment. App Maker is included with G Suite Business and Enterprise editions, as well as with G Suite for Education. It was discontinued in early 2021.
N/A
Google Keep
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
Google Keep is a note-taking app launched by Google in 2013 and available free, providing a tool to capture text, images, video, etc.
App Maker is exceptionally strong when you need things to just get done, but your internal development team has a full queue. Or maybe you don't even have an internal development team! If you need a check-in system, an applicant tracking system, an office cleaning checklist with notifications and reports, etc. you can use App Maker to throw something together and make sure your team can use it. You can also collaborate on it, so teams can make this part of their process improvement goals.
It is the perfect companion for storing all those little bits of information you need to do your job well, the best thing is getting it all out of your head and in to Google Keep. You can trust it to hold that information for you, and you know you can go back and use its excellent search functionality to find that information at a later date. It can also work really well for your personal life as well. I have two accounts, my work account and my personal account - I use them both in different contexts but I have always found Google Keep is great for both.
Minimal coding experience required. Javascript is a must-have, but the documentation is excellent, and once you're past the learning curve, it's great!
Great WYSIWYG editor. It's easy to see the layout and still have deep control over what you're putting together.
Excellent integrations with G Suite. There are methods built-in that allow you to easily authenticate and work with the G Suite APIs.
Definitely not for beginners. App Maker certainly isn't usable by "everybody," but it's excellent for those who are willing to learn and get their hands dirty!
Experienced developers will have issues. The target user is someone who doesn't want to (or know how to) use something like App Engine or Kubernetes. People with more experience will certainly see limitations and find it difficult to use to the fullest extent.
Data sources can be iffy to manage. It used to be that App Maker would use a sheet or "Drive table" as a data source, but it now requires a GCP data source like CloudSQL.
The iOS app sometimes gets into a state and doesn't update your notes (won't show new notes from other devices / computer), needs to be re-installed to resolve
Your notes take up space in your Google account's quota, though this is not very apparent at first - you have to keep an eye on what you are storing - huge pictures better not go in there
Google Keep is very easy to use. Currently, the company I work for has employees from different age brackets, and this is one of the easiest apps on G-Suite to explain. Not a lot of people use it, but it is due to personal choice since a lot of people still prefer pen and paper to keep their notes.
App Maker is a very "do it yourself" platform. There is a huge amount of documentation and plenty of examples to begin learning, plus a vast community support through StackOverflow that can assist anywhere that you're stuck, but the great thing is that it's all up to you. If there are specific features that don't work, Google is always there to help troubleshoot.
I gave this rating based on the ease of use, the simple functionality and how well it does at keeping my attention and helping me continue to use it and stay on track. The functionality mentioned before alongside the reminder functions and how it utilizes Google's powerful machine learning tech to better its software is remarkable.
App Maker is really kind of new in its own space. We haven't seen the level of functionality, nor the deep integrations, with anything else. It can replace a lot of products, and we've seen it in place in many applications across our organization, so it's been able to reduce our spend on products that offer specific functionality and still need to be customized.
The main differential of Google Keep is its simplicity and efficiency for quick notes. I can draw on the card, put a photo, record audio if I can't write at the moment, in short, for everyday tasks, simple things, it is superior.
We have seen a reduction in time spent on manual processes by being able to automate functions in Google Sheets, take input with special functionality, and have App Maker do the work for us.
We have seen the internal development queue decrease, which allows us to focus on larger projects that couldn't be handled by App Maker.
We have seen ownership and process improvements increase in certain departments, as they are able to get to work themselves.
