Google Launches Mobile Backend Starter, Cloud Backend For Android Apps

http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/03/google-launches-mobile-backend-starter-a-one-click-deployable-cloud-backend-for-android-apps/

by aashaykumar92 • 13 years ago

48 10 13 years ago

techcrunch.com

sazpaz• 13 years ago

Has it been announced if it will support iOS apps?

MikeKusold• 13 years ago

Some of the features of this framework are specific to Android. I would assume that you can still make calls to the App Engine part though.

hayksaakian2• 13 years ago

I think having a general name like "mobile backend starter" implies it heavily

vyrotek• 13 years ago

This is similar to Azure Mobile Services[0] right? I've never quite understood the appeal of mobile-backend-as-service. I've developed a few mobile apps but always wrote and hosted my own API/Server/Database for the app to communicate with. These new services seem to focus on giving your mobile app some sort of central blob storage and some push features.

I feel like these are nice 'temporary' services which eventually get completely replaced. I'm not suggesting that is bad though. But as someone who came from the business web-app world, I fail to see the value unless you're looking to avoid writing any server code.

[0] http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/mobile/

hayksaakian2• 13 years ago

To New mobile developers that got their start on mobile (like I was) without back end experience, Its highly appealing to let someone take care of it. (most people just need a basic CRUD api anyway, why spend time writing yet another crud app?)

kirinan• 13 years ago

So Parse but only for android? The benefit of parse is that I could make one backend and use it for ALL of my apps (including web), and they would all have access to my data. If I used this, I would have to make a kludge (if it is even possible) to access my data for iOS and windows (because as a business I'd want to expand). It looks awesome if you plan to make a one-off app for android only, but it doesn't look like something I'd use as a startup founder or small business owner (wouldn't want to lock myself into a single environment). I like the fact that parse is getting some competition, I don't like the fact that it only works for one platform (for now anyways).

tosh• 13 years ago

It seems like it is using Google Cloud Endpoints which means that you can generate client libraries for various languages (Dart, Ruby, Objective-C, Python, JavaScript, …) from your backend API definitions.

See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy0tP6_kWJ4

We are currently looking into Google Cloud Endpoints for exactly this functionality at Blossom (https://www.blossom.io)

philips• 13 years ago

I started testing out the Google Cloud Endpoints stuff with Go Lang and it seems like a good fit for building REST APIs.

I would be interested in hearing opinions from people who have used it for a while about how well it works.

I used these two projects in my prototype:

https://github.com/crhym3/go-endpoints https://code.google.com/p/google-api-go-client/source/browse...

thezilch• 13 years ago

Source of paraphrasing: http://googlecloudplatform.blogspot.com/2013/06/get-your-mob...

petersouth• 13 years ago

Will this simplify App building enough to where a novice could build it now?

Google Launches Mobile Backend Starter, Cloud Backend For Android Apps

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