I am a remote digital marketing professional with around 7 years of digital marketing experience. When I started my career, wordpress was one of my favorite tool. At that time, I had built an interest on android app developement but due to time and workload, I was not able to manage it.
Now the story is completely different.
Over the past few months, I’ve built several Android apps completely on my own and installed them directly on my mobile phone. I use some of these apps daily—a finance tracker, a calculator, and even a small game.
As I alreday stated, I’m not an Android developer. My background is in digital marketing, and like many professionals in tech and marketing, I often have ideas for tools or apps but no time (or intention) to dive deep into traditional Android development with Java or Kotlin.
After sharing my results, I started receiving many messages asking for a complete, beginner-friendly explanation of how to build an Android app that actually works on a phone. This article is the written version of that process—from idea to installation—based entirely on what I’ve personally tested and demonstrated.
What This Guide Will Cover
In this single guide, I’ll explain the entire workflow, step by step:
- How I built an AI-powered app using Google AI Studio
- How I deployed the app and generated a live, shareable link
- How I converted that link into an APK file
- How I installed and used the app on my Android phone
By the end, you’ll understand not just what to do, but why each step is necessary.
Understanding the Core Idea Before We Start
The process becomes very simple once you understand one key concept:
Google AI Studio builds the app structure and code, but it does not directly give you a mobile app file.
Because of this, I will break the process into three logical stages.
Stage 1: Build the App
We use Google AI Studio to:
- Design the interface
- Generate the logic
- Create all core files
At this stage, the app exists, but it is not yet shareable.
Stage 2: Make the App Live on the Internet
To turn the app into something usable:
- We host it online
- We generate a public web URL
This step is important because mobile app converters need a live link, not just files.
Stage 3: Convert the Web App into an APK
Finally:
- We convert the live URL into an APK
- Install it on the phone
- Use it like a real Android app
Once you understand this flow, the entire process becomes predictable and repeatable.
Now l will guide you through step by step process to build a android app.
Step 1: Building the App Using Google AI Studio
Our first step start with the accessing the Google AI studio. You can access the platform by typing Google AI Studio on google or just by clicking the link below:
https://aistudio.google.com/
Google AI Studio recently received a major update:
- A redesigned interface
- AI Studio Coder version 2.0
- Support for Gemini 2.5 Pro
- Completely free to use
Google has also confirmed that this platform is being prepared for future Gemini model releases.
Why Google AI Studio Is So Useful
What makes AI Studio powerful is that it is not just another AI chatbot. It has:
- Built-in support for Gemini APIs
- The ability to build apps using prompts
- Support for voice, image, and text-based workflows
- The option to use it with or without AI features
With the help of Google AI Studio, You can build:
- Finance apps
- Utility tools
- Learning apps
- Image analysis apps
- Voice-based apps
Or even use it purely as a coding assistant.
If you are interested, then you can read the official documentation from here:
Getting Familiar With the Interface
Once inside AI Studio:
- Now you need to click on Build from the left menu
- You can also choose your model:
- Gemini 2.5 Pro for full applications
- Gemini Flash for faster, smaller tasks
- Use System Instructions to define rules
- Choose a framework template (React or Angular)
- Upload reference files if needed
There is also an “I’m Feeling Lucky” button that automatically generates demo apps, which is helpful for exploration and learning.
Creating the App: A Real Example
For this tutorial, I will guide you to build a personal finance tracking app.
The idea behind the app is simple:
- The app will track monthly income
- It will track expenses
- Show savings
- Display a pie chart
- Provide AI-based tips
The prompt I used was:
Create an app to track my monthly expenses. Users should be able to add income and expenses, see a summary of savings, view a pie chart for analytics, and receive tips to improve savings.
Now I need to submit this prompt and clicked Build.
What Happened Next
Once I click on the build button, Google AI Studio start doing its magic :
- I will Planned the app logic
- Generated the full User Interface of the app
- Created React components
- Built charts and summaries
- Added an AI-powered insights section
Everything—HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and structure—was created automatically.
If you know coding, you can modify the code directly.
If you don’t, you can simply chat with AI Studio and ask for changes.
In my case, as I don’t have that much knowledge of coding, I ask AI Studio whenever i feel of any changes in the app.
It takes only 1 minute to create an app using Google AI studio. Once the app is ready, you can see the interface of the app in the right side of the screen. You can choose orientation, device etc.
Now let’s test our app.
Testing the App Inside AI Studio
To test the newly created app, I simply added:
- Income: ₹10,000
- Expenses:
- Food: ₹3,000
- Travel: ₹2,000
- Rent: ₹1,000
Instantly, the app showed:
- Savings summary
- Expense distribution
- Pie chart visualization
There was also an AI insights section that behaved like a chatbot and offered suggestions to improve savings.
All of this was generated within minutes.
Previewing the App on Different Devices
I noticed a very useful feature of Google AI studio is device preview mode.
With one click, you can see how your app looks on:
- Mobile
- Tablet
- Desktop
This makes it much easier to adjust layout and usability before deployment.
Step 2: Deploying the App (Making It Shareable)
Once our app is ready, it needs to be hosted so that anyone can see and use using internet. This process is called deploying the app.
AI Studio offers three deployment options:
- You can download the app files using the download icon and host yourself
- You can connect the app to GitHub and deploy externally
- The 3rd option is deploying directly on Google Cloud
I’ll explain the two most practical options.
Deployment Method 1: Google Cloud Run (Recommended)
I found this is the simplest and safest option. I like this because your app, all coding and the sytem everything will be there inside the Google ecosystem itself. As per my experience this is the most reliable option to deploy the app.
Steps to deploy app on Google cloud:
- Click Deploy App icon from the header.
- Create a new project or select a Cloud project if you have already created.
- Enable billing (You will get 90 days of free trial)
In this method, a common concern is billing. Google clearly states that:
- You are not charged automatically
- Charges only occur if you upgrade manually
Once billing is enabled, simply go to the main screen again and:
- Click Deploy
- Cloud Run builds the app
- You receive a public URL
In this method, your Gemini API key remains secure and hidden.
Deployment Method 2: Netlify (With an Important Tip)
If you have little knowledge of coding then this method can be helpful for you. Here you can deploy by downloading the app and hosting it on Netlify.
However, I have seen on youtube and other social media that many users face blank screens.
But I have found a very simle hack for it. Before downloading, you need to tell AI Studio:
Make this app suitable for Netlify deployment.
Now Google AI Studio adjusts the existing code accordingly without changing anything in the user interface.
Once it is done, you need to:
- Download the ZIP file once again.
- Unzip it
- Upload the folder to Netlify
Netlify provides a free public URL for your app.
Step 3: Converting the Web App Into an APK
Now that we have a live URL of our finance app, the final step is conversion of this web app into an APK file. For this also, process is very simple :
- Search “Web to APK converter” on google or any search engine.
- Choose any reliable tool (I prefer to use Appilix)
- In the search bar of the website, just paste your app URL you got from google cloud or Netlify.
- Enter app name and icon of your apps
- Now generate files
You’ll receive:
- APK → installable on Android
- AAB → used for Play Store publishing
If you want to use this app for testing or personal use, APK is enough. But if you want to publish it on Play store, you need AAB.
Installing the App on Your Phone
Once you get the APK file, its almost done. Now –
- Transfer the APK to your phone
- Tap and install
- Allow unknown sources (one time)
The app installs like any normal Android app and works exactly as expected.
I currently use several apps built this way on my own device.
When This Method Makes Sense
This approach is ideal for:
- Testing ideas
- Internal tools
- Learning app development concepts
- MVP validation
- Rapid experimentation
It is not meant to replace full-scale Android development, but it is extremely powerful for non-developers.
Final Thoughts
This is one of the easiest and fastest ways I’ve found to go from an idea to a working Android app installed on a phone.
If you work in digital marketing, IT, or product roles, learning this workflow gives you a serious advantage.
If you find this tutorial helpful then please share it with your friends. Kindly comment down below that tutorial you want on AI tools or AI ecosystem.
Thank you for reading.
Nice 👍
Thanks Kanika