If you need to develop fully functioning apps for Apple iOS & Google Android platforms in a hurry without giving up an iota of functionality but have time constraints, then you might want to check out Neonto Studio, with the packaged Sketch plugin. With this plugin you can basically draw your UI & turn them into real UI elements.
The usual way of developing for mobile devices is to sketch a layout of what your final product should look like, then put together a prototype with a prototyping app that, with luck, will ‘fake’ the apps look & feel with HTML5 code. Neonto lets you start with a design developed in its Studio environment or use the Sketch plugin to actually sketch your fully responsive mobile UI layouts. Once you’re satisfied with them, you can generate full source code, project files & assets for iOS & Android.
In this way you get fully native apps from the get go, with the correct look & feel for each environment: system theming, fonts, navigation, tab bars, etc. You can combine native navigation & Web Content, so that some parts of your app can be embedded HTML5, while the app’s skeleton is native. Neonto’s smart ‘Keylines’ makes it easy to develop fully responsive designs that take into account different screen sizes & devices, giving you smart device previews with instant feedback of how a new layout would work on different size screens. Neonto’s plugins, like the Sketch plugin, are its most interesting feature & also include controls, animations or entire complex UI concepts.
The company claims that, from day 1, your prototype is already a real app. Their Xcode 7 feature means you can run your app on any iPad or iPhone even if you don’t have an Apple developer account, while on Android, you just need to enable developer mode on the device. You can publish using Appetize.io for simulator links that work on a browser or send an app package by email. You can even publish to the app stores for Alpha testing & final publishing through Neonto’s Store Agent.
You can get the Neonto Studio Personal Edition for free for non-commercial use, which includes a trial version of the Sketch plugin. Neonto offers paid packages for professional developers: the Proto Studio, which includes the Sketch Plugin & the Google Sheets Plugin, for US $19/month (or a $99 one-time price) & for $199/month, the ‘Production & ‘Team’ edition is available, which adds many interesting advanced features, including ‘Code Butler’, a complete consulting service. Studio runs on a Macintosh & requires Mac OS X 10.9 or higher.
Pauli Olavi Ojala, is the founder & CEO of Neonto Ltd, which is based in Finland.
– This post is merely a startup profile based on publicly available information & not a review. -
Image Credit: Neonto
