Building a universal app for Windows and Windows Phone is now a drag and drop process.
Today, Microsoft unveiled a beta version of its Windows App Studio, a web app that allows users to easily build apps for Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone by dragging and dropping elements onto an interface mockup. It’s designed to allow users to build apps for the platforms without having to write a single line of code.
The resulting interface isn’t going to knock anyone’s socks off, but it’s a good way for someone to try their hand at building a Windows app in a short time span. It is designed to help users build their own apps for Microsoft’s devices, and beef up Microsoft’s app counts.
When a user is satisfied with the app they built, they can download the app to their Windows device to use it right away. In addition, users can download the source code for Windows Phone 8, Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 8.1, as well as packages they can publish to the Windows Store and Windows Phone Store if they have a developer account, which costs $19 a year.
The new beta is an update to the Windows Phone App Studio beta, which launched last year and gave users the ability to build similar applications for Windows Phone only. Users who have made existing Windows Phone App Studio projects will see them automatically updated to work with Windows 8.1, though they can add a larger splash screen to the app if they want to.
