A Matter of Appenstance
April 14, 2011 7:26 AM Subscribe
Creating, what I think would be, an extremely simple app that only does one thing. How difficult and where to start?
One one my websites is basically a mobile browser friendly utility that some of my users like to use on a mobile device (The users that I know of use Droid Xs and iPhones ).
Is there a way that I can create an app that is basically a bookmark that when tapped opens the default browser and goes to a specific web page? I'd like it to work as an app on their screen with an appropriate icon...
That's really all it needs to do. But I just don't know where to begin.
Thanks in advance, gang!
One one my websites is basically a mobile browser friendly utility that some of my users like to use on a mobile device (The users that I know of use Droid Xs and iPhones ).
Is there a way that I can create an app that is basically a bookmark that when tapped opens the default browser and goes to a specific web page? I'd like it to work as an app on their screen with an appropriate icon...
That's really all it needs to do. But I just don't know where to begin.
Thanks in advance, gang!
So, are you trying to push bookmarks to others phones?
posted by MustardTent at 7:35 AM on April 14, 2011
posted by MustardTent at 7:35 AM on April 14, 2011
Response by poster: Just one bookmark, and I generally dont know the person.
posted by sandra_s at 7:53 AM on April 14, 2011
posted by sandra_s at 7:53 AM on April 14, 2011
I'm with Odin, do it with a well-presented bookmark. For iPhone/iPod users, detect them, shuffle them to the right page (your "complex URL") and offer them something like this:
http://code.google.com/p/mobile-bookmark-bubble/
Which prompts them to Add-Bookmark-to-Home screen with a handy arrow. Then with one click, they add an icon (which is functionally identical to an app icon) to their home screen. You can control what that icon is, too, by specifying a unique favorites icon for your app/page/user. There's not much difference between this an an app; 98% of users won't understand the difference anyway.
For Android, I'm sure there's a similar process.
posted by rokusan at 7:55 AM on April 14, 2011
http://code.google.com/p/mobile-bookmark-bubble/
Which prompts them to Add-Bookmark-to-Home screen with a handy arrow. Then with one click, they add an icon (which is functionally identical to an app icon) to their home screen. You can control what that icon is, too, by specifying a unique favorites icon for your app/page/user. There's not much difference between this an an app; 98% of users won't understand the difference anyway.
For Android, I'm sure there's a similar process.
posted by rokusan at 7:55 AM on April 14, 2011
Response by poster: Oh, that sounds perfect, rokusan! Anyone know the Android process?
posted by sandra_s at 7:59 AM on April 14, 2011
posted by sandra_s at 7:59 AM on April 14, 2011
Check out PhoneGap. There are several of these types of products. May be what you are looking for.
posted by PickeringPete at 9:49 AM on April 14, 2011
posted by PickeringPete at 9:49 AM on April 14, 2011
I should have added this link to my post:
http://ask.metafilter.com/178779/How-to-develop-and-Ipad-app
posted by PickeringPete at 9:52 AM on April 14, 2011
http://ask.metafilter.com/178779/How-to-develop-and-Ipad-app
posted by PickeringPete at 9:52 AM on April 14, 2011
For Android I have to save the link as a bookmark before being able to send it to my home screen. I'm sure there's a more streamlined way of doing this, but I haven't seen it yet (not an Android dev).
posted by rhizome at 2:12 PM on April 14, 2011
posted by rhizome at 2:12 PM on April 14, 2011
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posted by sandra_s at 7:34 AM on April 14, 2011