Re: AppSheet Acquired by Google Cloud - Page 2

pravse · 01-14-2020 10:31 AM

I’m pleased to announce that AppSheet has been acquired by Google and is joining the Google Cloud team. We are excited about this next step as we will be able to increase our customer focus and accelerate our core mission: to democratize app development enabling many more people like you to build apps without writing any code. And as always, the priorities of our team and Google Cloud remain customer-first.

Why does this acquisition feel like the right next step? First and foremost, we are philosophically and strategically aligned with Google Cloud in a shared commitment to a no-code platform. This acquisition will help even more companies and line of business employees easily create applications with our no-code platform. More importantly, you will be able to develop richer applications at scale that leverage the best of Google, from Android to Cloud AI and Google Analytics.

How does this impact you today? We will continue on in the same manner but with a bigger team and more resources:

Our platform remains the same.
The AppSheet team remains the same and will continue to support you via our normal channels.
The AppSheet platform will continue to work cross-platform.

I want to thank you for embarking on this journey of app democratization with us, making AppSheet your platform of choice for app development. For more information, please see my post regarding this important next step in our shared journey!

Thank you,
Praveen

MultiTech

We’ll put sir!

Stefan_QREW

Something I think is noteworthy about the acquisition is that Google Cloud (not Google proper) made this aquisition. Google Cloud (GCP) was clearly the underdog in the cloud computing space a year ago. Competing against Microsoft and Amazon Web Services (Amazon has something like 70% market share).

My interpretation of GCP strategy as of late has been buying companies that help make cloud tools more accessible to business users. That strategy is continued with AppSheet. They are aiming to be more competitive by being more approachable and bringing in customers that would not have otherwise been able to take advantage of cloud services; ie. making the market bigger. I know at least 20 of my customers purchased cloud database storage having little to no understanding what SQL even meant because AppSheet made it possible for them to collect larger amounts of business data than ever before. Then they will need to analyze that data, report on it, make decisions on it, and use that data to better understand their business. All of those needs are traditionally met in some way by large data storage, Data transformation/visualization, machine learning and other cloud centric functions.

This strategy means catering to the business users needs and use cases, which are different than most IT and Dev Ops teams. Where they had years of training and education, we have forums and communities and youtube videos that help people make the few small steps they need for 1 project. This is something @praveen and the AppSheet team recognized early on and cultivated with much success in the last 7 years. It’s comforting to know Google sees that’s as well.

If you view the aquisition in that light, I think it paints a very positive picture of what we can expect.

Kirk_Masden

Thanks for the explanation. The connection between AppSheet and Google Suite is obvious but I really couldn’t imagine why Google Cloud was doing the acquisition and not Google Suite. The explanation from Google Cloud didn’t help me much:

AppSheet’s ability to power a range of applications—from CRM to field inspections and personalized reporting—combined with Google Cloud’s deep expertise in key verticals, will further enable digital transformation across industries like financial services, manufacturing, retail, healthcare, communication and media & entertainment.

Perhaps “key verticals” includes what you have described, @Stefan_Quartemont, but your explanation is a whole lot easier for me to wrap my head around.

pravse

I hear and understand the concerns, And on day 3 at Google, I cannot claim to speak generally for the company. However, I’ll say that what I’ve found in my discussions before the acquisition and after is that Google really values what we’ve collectively done here — not just the product, but the community eco-system, the commitment from us to the community and vice-versa. I hear a strong message that we need to maintain and build on this. So that is very aligned with how the AppSheet team approached things and I expect it will continue.
Personally, I have not been able to spend almost any time on customer issues (I have largely been absent from this community site!) for the last few months because of the level of extra work required to bring this deal to closure. Effectively it was another full-time job. So now that that stuff is over, I am very happy that I’m going to be able to spend a lot more time working on the product and working with customers.

Kirk_Masden

Thanks so much, @praveen! That’s really good to hear. And once again, congratulations!!

Arizno

with that is say congratulations on your hard work.

GreenFlux

I just got an email notification that Google App Maker is shutting down, and the first replacement they suggest is AppSheet!

Dear Administrator,

We’re writing to let you know that due to low usage, the App Maker product will be shut down on January 19, 2021 . Google Cloud will continue to invest in providing customers with best-in-class solutions in the low-code/no-code space. While we regret the inconvenience this may cause, we’re committed to helping your organization navigate this change.

Is there a replacement product?

Due to the specific source code used for App Maker, you can’t directly migrate your apps to another platform. Depending on your use case, we recommend these alternative tools:

If you use App Maker to automate business processes: Use AppSheet, a new addition to our app development portfolio that has capabilities similar to App Maker. App Maker data is stored in Cloud SQL…

jcadence

Hi @GreenFlux! if you have any additional questions or comments about the transition please feel free to respond to this thread.

Fabian_Weller

Google loves to shut down things
Google+, Cloud Print, Fusion Tables, App Maker, …
Let’s see what they have in mind with AppSheet.

GreenFlux

Ha! Yeah, that was my first thought as well. I’m still looking for a good replacement for Cloud Print .

I think this will be a good thing for AppSheet, though. Google is directing App Maker users to AppSheet, so I think we’re safe from the chopping block for now

Mike_A

I agree. The speed at which they shut down App Maker once they acquired AppSheet was really fast. For me that indicates they had a lot of interest in the AppSheet platform and no intention of keeping both. At least we don;t have to guess which platform they are betting on

MultiTech

The next thing Google Cloud will kill off will be Forms. Because why use a bland form when you could integrate that form into an AppSheet app and do SO MUCH MORE with it.

pravse

No, let’s not joke about it. Forms is a mainstay of Gsuite. And I don’t think any product deprecation decision gets made easily. There are teams that have worked internally on it for years and there are customers who have made bets on it as well. So I think the root cause was that there wasn’t enough traction and you have to decide if there is a long-term roadmap that is good for the customers who are on the platform. Google decided that there was a better roadmap via AppSheet, but we need to help those AppMaker customers make the transition.

Kirk_Masden

I really know what you mean by the follow, @praveen!

In my case, I haven’t used AppMaker and I’m glad to see that I’ve “bet on the right horse” by investing my time in AppSheet. But, since I’ve put so much time and energy into developing a project that depends on AppSheet, I have been concerned about what might happen if AppSheet were to fold for some reason. Of course, I don’t have to worry about that now but I really sympathize with AppMaker users.

In that connection, I wonder if some system has been put in place or is being prepared to automatically convert AppMaker apps to AppSheet apps.

Kirk_Masden

In regard to Google forms, I see that as augmenting AppSheet, not competing with it. In that regard, I wonder if there has been any progress on the following issue (that is, automatic copying of forms linked to Google sheets with AppSheet apps):

Stephane_Liema

Hello

i’m a french developer working with AppMaker,

it took me 1 year to be able to create complex applications for clients. It was for me hard to learn, but now I’m fluent with it (2 years using it) and I can tell that it is a super product for creating web applications very fast, but it is more oriented for PC users then for smartphone users. All my clients needs, I was able to develop them, this tool has no limits, because using javascript (client and server side), css etc…

I’ve been looking at AppSheet for 6 days and I find it very easy to use. Congratulation to all your team.

I’ve to check now if AppSheet can replace it for the applications I’ve made, and here are my questions.

Question 1? : My users like very much the Google material icons, I hope they will be available in AppSheet, possibility to have snackbar, link with google calendar, etc… is this in the road map? where can i see the road map?

Question 2? :Do you know, if there a French community? I would like to xchange with them

i‘m going to make a POC (a test application) to check if all functionalities needed for the application can be done with AppSheet. I’ve got many other questions, I will search first in the documentation, video and community.

Bravo pour votre produit, Google a eu raison de l’acheter.

Stéphane

Patrick_Mfossa

Bienvenue Stéphane. Tu te rendras vite compte de l’énorme potentiel de la plateforme Appsheet.

pravse

Hi Stéphane, welcome and thanks for considering AppSheet. Most likely AppSheet will not support everything you did with AppMaker, and it will be weaker in some ways. But also, it will do some things differently and some things better.

Q1: You will find that the AppSheet apps use material design for action icons. You should be able to link to a Google Calendar. We currently do not incorporate snackbars, but probably will down the road. Unlike many traditional products, we do not schedule a long-term roadmap and do lengthy releases. Instead, we deploy everyday and while our broad direction is set, the specific priorities and incremental features depend on active customer demand.

Q2: There isn’t a specific French community. We have a single AppSheet community and because of the great ability to do auto-translate, we have sucessfully engaged with customers from around the world in one single place.

Stephane_Liema

Hi
Praveen,

I am
very proud that the CEO of AppSheet sends a personal message to a little
Frenchman and moreover in Seattle right now it’s the night
and you should sleep and rest (I think Google still needs you to keep evolving with
AppSheet)

and
it will be weaker in some ways.

Actually
with AppMaker having access to Javascript code on the client and server side I
was able to solve all the complicated functionality requested

and
some things better.

Yes I
have for example seen that AppSheet can make drop down lists with filters,
something that I developed myself because it does not exist on Appmaker. Switching
from page to page is much easier with Appsheet on Appmaker very complicated
with passing parameters in pages and url

Q1:
You will find that the AppSheet apps use material design for action icons.

Super
good news

We
currently do not incorporate snackbars, but probably will down the road

I hope
you would surely and not probably

Instead,
we deploy everyday

Excellent,
it’s the best way to get satisfied customers. I’ve invented a software that is
used worldwide only by very large companies. At the beginning I made very small
releases very regularly and the bugs were quickly identified and corrected. Then my customers became more
and asked me to make versions because they were not happy that I made the
software evolve without warning and therefore now I make 4 releases per year
and this generates a lot of bug and customer dissatisfaction (because there are
a lot of modifications between each version), some customers do not request the
release and suddenly I have several versions of the same software to manage it
becomes very complicated. Above all, don’t make the same mistake as I did and
in your contract with the big companies, you indicate that they automatically
receive the latest version. the best is not to speak of version.

Incremental
features depend on active customer demand.

I do the same and they have good ideas. I’m
going to work on AppSheet a bit now, I’m just starting to find out and I’ll
send you my list of new features. on all customer ideas there is always a small percentage
that are excellent

There
isn’t a specific French community

Can I
open a topic asking if there are French. For example during the Google summit
event in Paris in June I was able to speak with someone from Véolia company who
gave me the email of the person responsible for all AppMaker developments at
their office and I managed to Meet him and we have lunch several times together
(I am in Paris) I think it is very important to see each other physically and
it was very enriching for both of us. Regarding the software that I created, I continue
to go to the customers to discuss, they are very happy and I always get
information that they tell me but that does not tell the sales people

I
started to look at AppSheet and I find it very simple and very well explained,
I think it will take me less time to understand it than AppMaker (I took a year
before I can make real applications with a lot of features, AppMaker is great
if we only use the standard without adding a line of javascript, but in reality
the applications requested by customers there is always complexity).

I’m
moving slowly because I can only work on AppSheet during evenings and weekends.
During the week I also have to take care of my software.

See you

Stéphane

William1

Ça me fait toujours très plaisir de voir le nombre de français qui utilisent AppSheet (et il y en a pas mal). @Stephane_Liema, n’hésitez pas à créer un topic pour trouver d’autres francophone!

MultiTech

Love it!

Kirk_Masden

I know this is somewhat off topic, but since the issue of multilingual communities has come up, I’d like to respond.

I know that @tsuji_koichi is interested in, and has already begun work on a project to spread the word about AppSheet among Japanese users in Japanese. I’ve been reading posts in the AppSheet community for several years and @tsuji_koichi is the only poster I know of whose native language is Japanese (sorry if I’ve forgotten someone). There are probably two reasons that the Japanese representation on this community is so sparse: linguistic and cultural. Linguistically, Google translate isn’t always successful in translating Japanese to English. Nouns are frequently omitted in Japanese and the translations of such abbreviated sentences are often unintelligible . . . and sometime hilarious. Yet, the cultural barrier is probably more important. In part because Japanese people study English in school (they feel that they should to be able to post in English), and because they tend to assume that the Japanese language is completely unintelligible to anyone who isn’t Japanese, I think that it wouldn’t even occur to most Japanese people to post an inquiry here in Japanese.

I don’t know about France and other European countries, but I think that if AppSheet is to become successful in Japan, it will probably be necessary to have some sort of community (even if it is not formally sanctioned by AppSheet) where people can chat about the platform in Japanese with people who can understand them directly in Japanese . . . perhaps some sort of ancillary room for Japanese-language users.

So much for my two yen about language communities. French is linguistically closer to English than Japanese but, nonetheless, I wonder if @Stephane_Liema, @TDhers, or @William have any thoughts about this topic.

P.S. Since this thread is already really long, perhaps I should start a new one about language communities? I will do so if there is interest in such a thread.

One more point: In order to read the French that has been posted here, I had to copy it and then paste it into Google translate. Facebook makes translations such a click away. Am I missing something or do we indeed need to copy and paste posts in languages we can’t read?

Stephane_Liema

Yes after thinking, i’m agree with you, it is better for this place to be only in English (to avoid to use Google translate). I’m sorry to disturb the process.

in fact my wish is to meet French users. Some of my questions are difficult to explain and long to be written in English.

once more excuse me.

Stéphane

Kirk_Masden

Thank you! I didn’t mean that your posting in French is a problem. I hope you will continue to feel free to post in French. I only meant that, in addition to this forum, it might be nice for speakers of different languages to have venues where they don’t need to communicate via Google translate.

Thanks again for posting and please continue to post in any language you like!

P.S. I used Google translate a couple of times today to respond to posts in Spanish – another language I don’t know, unfortunately.

karimmc

Hello, I am currently an active user of Gsuite business and Appmaker in Mexico. After a week of research I’m convinced now that AppSheet could be a tool equally or even more powerful than Appmaker. However we as a company have already made a significative investment in Appmaker.

Recently I saw in the latest AppSheet webinar that there will be an option of AppSheet pro at no charge to Gsuite users, but I still don’t know how to apply for this. I would like some guidance in this process since it’s still not all clear, at least to me.

pravse

Hi @Karim_Mena, as posted in other threads and in the App Maker forum, please send an email to am-appsheet@googlegroups.com and someone will help you (most likely, Ginny from our sales team — she is terrific and very knowledgeable)

TDhers

Merci Stephane pour votre commitment a Appsheet et votre feedback detaille.

“I am very proud that the CEO of AppSheet sends a personal message to a little
Frenchman and moreover in Seattle right now it’s the night
and you should sleep and rest”
C’est ce qu’on n’arrete pas de lui dire

Plus serieusement, rien ne vous empeche de demarrer un thread en Francais car vous etes un certain nombre de Francais passionnes de Appsheet. Nous sommes 3 francais dans l’equipe d’Appsheet a Seattle. @William qui lead le Sales team, @Arthur_Rallu notre TPM, et moi meme (@TDhers) qui lead l’equipe ingenierie. Donc on sera content d’engager avec la communaute Francaise ici… en Anglais, en Francais… et qui sait un jour vous rencontrer en personne lors d’un evenement Google Appsheet, qui sait…
Thierry

Cortex

@TDhers @William @Stephane_Liema

Toujours un plaisir de voir la communauté française s’agrandir !!!

Je vais continuer en anglais pour un partage généralisé.

I will start by the end,

I do think we must keep the community united with one language.
Splitting in specific language topics will restrict the spread of idea, help, experiences, good tips, etc…

For sure the language barrier can block some users.

First having a nationality tag on our name can truly help.

Second for prolonging this idea, with the points system implemented in the forum, it will be easy to identify an “Expert or a Referrer” by nationality, kind of a Grade. [of course on a voluntary basis]

Third, an idea i have for years but i never succeed in finding all french community, is creating special lobby in software like Discord. [voice room, Specific channel, etc…]
[Official or unofficial ]

@Stephane_Liema :

I’m part of a subsidiary company of Véolia Group,

Your contact in Véolia know for sure the other peoples involved with Appsheet development app.
Appsheet is highly used in the transportation and exploitation division.

I use Appsheet for all my projects since nearly 3 years.

I would love to help you with your problematics, don’t hesitate to ask me, privately or by creating a topics and tagging me.

Regards,

Kirk_Masden

Thanks! By the way, to answer my own question, if one uses the Google chrome browser, one can access Google translate instantly without copying and pasting. I had forgotten about that.

So, perhaps one, multilingual forum is good after all . . . and I agree that we should have the capability of adding searchable information about languages that we speak or read to our profiles. Currently, I don’t think that is possible. Any thoughts @Peter? I know you are interested in the quality and management of interaction in this community.

MultiTech

Perhaps with the coming integrations with GCP, they’ll make the community auto-translate itself; giving us some way to specify our native language or something.

I mean… AppSheet is right where all that happens now.

Stephane_Liema

Hello,

My contact at Veolia is J. Dessalines and he does not know AppSheet at all.

Before investing time in AppSheet (which I think is great, i know this product since last week ) I need to reassure myself (I just spent 2 years using AppMaker and now it’s finished) and it would have been my pleasure to exchange on the phone with you. I am available this week every evening between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Paris time.

Are you okay with that? I pass you my tel, how do we do it?

I vote for you to reffer it.

stef

pravse

Hi @Stephane_Liema — we (both AppSheet and Google independently and now together) work closely with Veolia. Could you please send email with details to my colleague William wsallembien@google.com. He has the Veolia context and will help you (and he speaks French :])

Cortex

Hi,

I’m sure Mr J.Dessalines will rapidly have to deal with AppSheet since of the nature of its job.

In the view of the inherent nature of no-code tools, their use is done without necessarily the approval of the IT department.

I do think since there’s still not a real “NO-CODE POLITIC” in companies, most AppSheet users started just by experiencing so it’s hard to find them inside big companies.

Anyway, sorry for the quick digression.

Sure, we can exchange, your schedule seems to match mine too.

Just click on my name, you will see an option for message [private] (send me you phone)

As Mr Praveen said, Don’t hesitate to reach @William he is really great and easy to talk to.

Look forward to our exchange,

Regards,

darvin

Dear Community.
This is a recent webinar with TIPS and TRICKS about how to approach the transition from AppMaker to AppSheet.

Cheers
Darvin

jcadence

Hi everyone!

Please see this post for additional reference material on moving to AppSheet

Daniel_Turner

Hello @praveen

Congratulations on the acquisition!

We are (and have been) customers of G Suite, Google Cloud (App Engine, Cloud SQL) and AppSheet. We were disappointed when database access was removed from the Pro plan and, since then, we have been evaluating other solutions.

We see that existing App Maker customers are being transitioned to a PRO plan that includes Cloud SQL access. Could you please extend this to all current AppSheet PRO plan customers that are also currently G Suite or Google Cloud customers?

Thank you!