Building business applications is complex and time consuming - or at least it used to be.
Zoho recently announced an update to its application building platform Zoho Creator (dubbed Creator 5) that has dramatically improved the core functionality of the platform, including its
Mobile App Creator (more on that below), and
Page Creator (for developing custom, interactive pages and dashboards),
Form Creator (which now supports advanced fields such as geo-coded address fields, pre-built full name field, audio and video fields),
Report Creator (new reporting options like Kanban view, Timeline view and Maps view) and
Workflow Creator modules (which offers up a drag-and-drop interface for automationting tasks like approvals, schedules on isntant email, SMS and push notifications).
Perhaps most noteworthy is that this launch introduces the ability to design and develop native custom mobile apps (for both iOS and Android) alongside web applications and even offers up an opportunity to publish those apps directly on Apples' App Store and the Google Play Store (or deploy them within their enterprise through MDM - mobile device management - platforms).
To simplify deployment for larger organizations, apps built on Zoho Creator can also now also be managed through the Zoho One Admin Panel, a "unified" interface that governs the company's full flagship suite of applications.
Zoho has also made updates to its App Deck to include 50 pre-built web and mobile apps that can be customized), a unified database and integration with Zoho One.
"Over the last 12 years, the Zoho Creator platform has enabled citizen developers to design and deploy over two million custom applications," said Raju Vegesna, Chief Evangelist, Zoho Corp.
"Having refined our low-code, no-code approach to app development, Zoho Creator has become the app builder for those of us with no formal programming and deployment experience. With this update, we are raising the bar yet again by enabling mobile app creation for both smartphones and tablets, no programming skills required."