Help

Make mobile apps using Airtable, introducing miniAppMaker!

12034 13
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Moe
10 - Mercury
10 - Mercury

miniAppMaker is a tool that allows anyone to make a mobile app without coding by using Airtable as the backend. Here’s how it works:

  1. Design your app in Airtable
  2. Add your Airtable IDs (API, base, tables, fields) to miniAppMaker
  3. Test your app. Wa-lah!

iPhoneX

This project is inspired by Airtable’s mission to “democratize software creation”. People are already doing amazing things with Airtable. We believe its power can be magnified if we allow people to turn their creations into mobile apps to share with the world. Especially when an entire app can be made in 30 minutes!

Examples of apps that can be made:

  • Internal business tools: operations manager for workflows, processes, tasks, inventory, delivery tracking…etc.
  • Appointment/event management: classes, workshops, RSVPs or employee scheduling. For salons, spas, gyms, clinics, catering, tourism, photography…etc.
  • Catalog/directory: a community-curated list of restaurants, recipes, apps, events…etc.
  • Marketplace: for anything where there is supply and demand. Airbnb for X!

We’re just starting out in Beta and eager to hear your feedback. Try it out at miniAppMaker.com

Backstory: I first heard of Airtable when I was a freshman in UC Berkeley. I met the founder in 2014 while he was visiting campus. 5 years later, I’m still a big fan!

13 Replies 13

I’ll bet you’re wishing for API access to the schema, eh?

That would be nice, but can’t complain! :grinning_face_with_sweat:

Mac
8 - Airtable Astronomer
8 - Airtable Astronomer

Awesome work! Been waiting for this! Any chance for offline capabilities in the future?

I think it is Mac OS so far? I can’t find the app in my Android Playstore (Netherlands). I would love to use this!

Regards,
André

We’re not planning to add complete offline support, but the app caches any data that the user accesses while online. So technically they can use the app offline, but they can’t update anything.

The app maker tool itself is web based and can be used with any browser. However, the exported apps can be published on Apple’s App Store (and soon Google Play Store).

Let me know if you have more questions!

Moe,

Great product - I love seeing cool things like this emerge in the Airtable space. I’ve recommended it to a few clients - anxious to see if it sticks.

Airborne uses this exact approach for creating an ElasticSearch-based index across workspaces, bases, and tables. This [seemingly] annoying process has one big advantage - it allows search implementors the ability to shape the index to fit domain and data-model nuances to meet the most ideal user search experiences.

image

I also designed it to create the smallest possible full-text indices with relevance scoring so that it would work well on mobile devices.

If you get to a point where fast, full-text search in a mobile context is important, we should chat.

Looks cool Bill! We’ll definitely reach out when the time comes

What is the timeline for android version? My entire user base is using Android phones.

We’re planning to bring Android support within 4-6 weeks. We’ve got it working, just need to finalize a couple of things. If you’d like support earlier, we can add you as an alpha tester.

Nat
6 - Interface Innovator
6 - Interface Innovator

Great work on this @Moe! We added miniAppMaker to the Airtable resources list here: https://builtonair.com/resources/

Sundar_Sundares
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

Great product with a lot of potential!

Question: how do you create form views for two different tables? Looks like it supports only one table for form entry…

Welcome to the community, @Sundar_Sundareswaran! :grinning_face_with_big_eyes: Correct. Any view in a table is tied to that specific table, and form views are no different. If you need to make a form that updates (or creates records in) more than one table, you’ll need to use a third-party tool like JotForm or TypeForm to create the form, and something like Zapier or Integromat to process the form’s output and send the data to the appropriate tables.

Another option (which I wouldn’t recommend) is to use a single Airtable form, which would put all of the data into a single table, and then use Zapier or Integromat (or Airtable’s own scripting action beta) to copy the relevant field data to a second table. The downside is that you’ll have extra fields in the first table that only act as temporary placeholders for that second table’s data, which just adds clutter and confusion, even if you leave those fields hidden.

Jason_Mitchell
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

I can’t get your app - when I click the link to download the app the App Store says that your app isn’t available in my country or region. Does that sound right (Im in the USA)?