What you need to know
- Google is killing off App Maker, its low-code development platform.
- The service will shut down on the 19th of January 2021.
- Google cites low usage as the reason for the service's demise and points users to alternate services.
Google is killing off App Maker, its low-code, drag and drop app creation tool for businesses. The firm made this announcement in a G Suite post this week, alongside a timeline for the service shut down.
Here's how App Maker will slowly be shut down:
- Today, existing apps continue to work. Though App Maker is no longer under active development, the service will continue to be maintained.
- Starting April 15, 2020, you will no longer be able to create new App Maker apps. You will still be able to edit and deploy existing apps.
- Starting January 19, 2021, existing App Maker apps will stop working and you will no longer have access to them. App maker data stored in Cloud SQL will remain unchanged and continue to follow the policies established by your Google Cloud Platform (GCP) account.
Google isn't leaving stalwarts, no matter how few, high and dry. The firm is pointing users at various replacements depending on what they used App Maker for.
For data collection, Google Forms is what you should be looking at. For business process automation, Google says users should take a look at AppSheet. For enterprise app development needs, Google points out App Engine for building and deploying Google Cloud Platform services.
It's unclear if most organizations had already migrated to these alternative solutions before Google announced the shutdown, but it seems likely.
