

Google Launches Mobile Backend Starter, Cloud Backend For Android Apps - aashaykumar92
http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/03/google-launches-mobile-backend-starter-a-one-click-deployable-cloud-backend-for-android-apps/

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kirinan
So Parse but only for android? The benefit of parse is that I could make one
backend and use it for ALL of my apps (including web), and they would all have
access to my data. If I used this, I would have to make a kludge (if it is
even possible) to access my data for iOS and windows (because as a business
I'd want to expand). It looks awesome if you plan to make a one-off app for
android only, but it doesn't look like something I'd use as a startup founder
or small business owner (wouldn't want to lock myself into a single
environment). I like the fact that parse is getting some competition, I don't
like the fact that it only works for one platform (for now anyways).

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tosh
It seems like it is using Google Cloud Endpoints which means that you can
generate client libraries for various languages (Dart, Ruby, Objective-C,
Python, JavaScript, …) from your backend API definitions.

See <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy0tP6_kWJ4>

We are currently looking into Google Cloud Endpoints for exactly this
functionality at Blossom (<https://www.blossom.io>)

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philips
I started testing out the Google Cloud Endpoints stuff with Go Lang and it
seems like a good fit for building REST APIs.

I would be interested in hearing opinions from people who have used it for a
while about how well it works.

I used these two projects in my prototype:

<https://github.com/crhym3/go-endpoints> [https://code.google.com/p/google-
api-go-client/source/browse...](https://code.google.com/p/google-api-go-
client/source/browse/google-api-go-generator/gen.go)

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vyrotek
This is similar to Azure Mobile Services[0] right? I've never quite understood
the appeal of mobile-backend-as-service. I've developed a few mobile apps but
always wrote and hosted my own API/Server/Database for the app to communicate
with. These new services seem to focus on giving your mobile app some sort of
central blob storage and some push features.

I feel like these are nice 'temporary' services which eventually get
completely replaced. I'm not suggesting that is bad though. But as someone who
came from the business web-app world, I fail to see the value unless you're
looking to avoid writing any server code.

[0] <http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/mobile/>

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hayksaakian
To New mobile developers that got their start on mobile (like I was) without
back end experience, Its highly appealing to let someone take care of it.
(most people just need a basic CRUD api anyway, why spend time writing yet
another crud app?)

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thezilch
Source of paraphrasing: [http://googlecloudplatform.blogspot.com/2013/06/get-
your-mob...](http://googlecloudplatform.blogspot.com/2013/06/get-your-mobile-
application-in-the-cloud-with-mobile-backend-starter.html)

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sazpaz
Has it been announced if it will support iOS apps?

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hayksaakian
I think having a general name like "mobile backend starter" implies it heavily

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petersouth
Will this simplify App building enough to where a novice could build it now?

