I recently figured out that I could use ChatGPT Work on my Pixel Phone to build native Android apps. It builds the app and you can then directly download/install the APK. So now I just build small utility apps on-the-go whenever I need them :)
3. Prompt something like "Create an Android app that does XYZ, provide it as APK".
4. Download and install the APK.
5. Keep on iterating on the app by prompting stuff like "Now add feature XYZ" or "XYZ doesn't work, fix it.". It then always creates a new APK which you can download and update your installed app with.
Nice! I regularly do this with Claude to create little web apps on my phone, so that's great idea to create little Android apps instead!
Amusingly, I started walking recently at a local track. One day while I was walking, I thought, "I should create a little web app for a counter to keep track of my laps." So I asked Claude Code and it whipped up a nice little mobile app with a big "+1" button, a reset, the whole deal, all within less than a lap and a half. Great! A lap later I think, "I should have it keep track of the time it takes me to walk each lap."
As I'm typing out the description, I realize, "You dumbass, you're describing the built-in chronograph feature of the Clock app!" So I just switched to that.
Can it debug the apps? That would the app singularity - user speaking at their phone until phone complies and produces desired app for the current moment.
It can debug, yes, but capability ranges from godlike for algorithmic issues to mediocre for subtle UI things. We are pretty close to your described app singularity if the app is within GPT’s wheelhouse.
Yes, you can iterate on the app and ChatGPT Work will then create new versions of the app.
If something in the UI of the app looks weird, you simply take a screenshot and ask ChatGPT to fix it. Or what I also like to do is add a logging functionality to the app. If something goes wrong, I then just upload the log to ChatGPT so that it can fix it.
Idk, can I do that with Codex on my phone? "Build app to control my specific Soundbar model" and then it just builds it while I'm chilling on the sofa with my phone in the hand?
Just simple throwaway apps for myself. For example, an app to control my soundbar. Or an app that helped me figure out which WIFI hotspot to use for better internet during camping. It's not that deep :)
Yes, I used it to track WIFI signals and download/upload speeds over a period of two days. It stored the results in a log file and I then let ChatGPT inspect the log file. Based on that, I then ordered a WIFI extender. Now I have the perfect WIFI at our (permanent) camping spot. :) Didn't use the app afterward anymore.
Maybe I'm just old and not using my phone to its fullest, but I just went through my apps and I could not think of a single example that would be worth building and maintaining my own apk for.
