Thunkable X - free browser-based mobile development environment for iOS and Android

IDE Thunkable X runs on the Thunkable platform, which was previously developed as an alternative to the MIT App Inventor. Currently, the platform offers two functionally different and independent development environments - the original for Android development, compatible with the MIT App Inventor, and the cross-platform Thunkable X, allowing the same project to run on iOS and Android. Moreover, this IDE provides the ability to install on each iPhone one application without using third-party hardware and software. Neither a Mac, nor a macOS emulator, nor Xcode, or jailbreak, etc. are required.

Key Features Overview

Work in Thunkable X occurs online in the same way that it is in App Inventor and similar development environments. It also uses visual programming using blocks, but if you prefer, you can also use text programming, for example, when working with the Web Viewer component and URI data. In addition to creating, renaming, copying, deleting and live viewing of the application, its publication in the App Store is also possible.
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The functionality of the development environment and the ability to create applications in Thunkable X are noticeably inferior to alternatives for Android, but with the help of three dozen visual and non-visual components, you can create a simple application with a native and hybrid interface, implement layouts and navigation between screens, work with multimedia, data stores, Firebase database, AirTable tables, speech synthesizer, camera, Google Maps, Yandex-translator, Microsoft image recognition service, communication applications, Stripe payment system, etc.



In the block editor there is no function of copying blocks between screens, but soon it is promised to be fixed.

Features of the development environment

Thunkable X is in a state of active development and its features include:

• The instability of the IDE and a decent number of bugs, including the irretrievable removal of blocks from the block editor under unclear circumstances. The scale of the consequences of this can be reduced only by restoring a project lost from the last copy (if it was created)
• Remove nested blocks without warning
• The lack of a number of necessary functions in addition to the backpack - export and import of the application, the impossibility of renaming components, etc.
• No blocks for many component properties
• The presence in the properties palette of components of a large number of properties with intuitively incomprehensible and undocumented functionality

In the event of difficulties, you can contact the official but incomplete documentation, step-by-step video tutorials, or ask a small community a question.

And how to work with it? Yes, such a service might be of interest to enthusiasts, but perhaps these inconveniences may seem insignificant to someone compared to the excitement of the ease and simplicity of installing your application on the iPhone.

Install the application on iPhone

From the development environment, we send the postal address, which after a while will receive a letter with a link to download and instructions. We open this letter on the device, download the application by reference, and before installing it in the iPhone system settings, we once confirm our trust for Rappidly Inc (brand name Thunkable).

Installing each new application replaces the previously installed one.

Afterword

It may take more than one year until Thunkable X becomes a more or less functional development tool, but personally I am pleased with the fact that for all the shortcomings it works now and there is an understanding of the need to create easy-to-use development tools for iOS as it has long been done for Android.

useful links

Thunkable official website
Some information in Russian