By Sean Hollister
Publication Date: 2026-05-21 13:00:00
Yesterday, I built my first Android app. Then, I made two more — three in one afternoon.
For one, I literally typed 148 words into my web browser and walked away. Ten minutes later, I had an entire new app on my actual Android phone. I did have to prep that phone by enabling a USB debugging mode and plugging it into my PC, but as advertised, Google’s AI Studio did literally everything else for me.
I typed in words, I hit install, and voilà: an entire working program. I was nearly ready to agree with David, Allison, and Jen: The personal software revolution is here, it’s coming to your phone, there’s a future where the average person can make complicated smart home gadget messes work even with no programming skills.
Then, I tried actually using my three apps: a calorie counter and two games. They were kind of bad. And just when I started to enjoy iterating on them, trying to make them better, AI Studio informed me I’d reached my daily limit. I’d have to pay or wait for…