Is it possible to program on smartphones?

Programming on mobile devices is a controversial topic.

It may seem useless.

But it is not!

In fact, mobile development has advanced so much that it is now quite possible to create full-fledged applications and games with its help.

In this article we will look at examples of development environments that allow you to do this.

Dcoder

Dcoder is a very fast mobile IDE. It is available in a web version as well as in separate apps for iOS and Android. Its trick is that it supports a large number of languages (over 38), including HTML, CSS, jаvascript, C, C++, Python, and Java.

And that's actually pretty cool, because not every mobile development platform can boast the same.

Dcoder has automatic brackets and indentation and syntax highlighting. You'll also be able to choose your app's design theme. When your eyes get tired, you can always switch to dark mode and continue working.

Another cool thing about Dcoder is that it only weighs 7 MB. This was achieved thanks to the use of cloud compilers and code storage.
But... There is one serious drawback to this environment. To use it, you definitely need a connection (and preferably a stable one).

Turbo Editor

Turbo Editor is a simple but powerful text editor for Android. It's open source, so it's more suitable for developers with programming experience. For beginners it will be superfluous.

In Turbo Editor you will find syntax highlighting for HTML, XHTML, CSS, LESS, jаvascript, PHP, Python and many other languages, as well as a read mode, autosave files and a quick view of the results through the browser.

A more situational option compared to Dcoder, but still a good one.

Codeanywhere

Codeanywhere is an IDE for working on Android devices. It includes a code editor, an FTP client and a terminal. It supports a huge number of languages (more than 100, where it beats Dcoder by far - it just wipes its nose and makes you swallow dust).

Codeanywhere also has the ability to connect to third-party cloud services, which greatly simplifies code storage processes.

Android Interactive Development Environment (AIDE)

AIDE is an integrated development environment for creating Android applications directly on Android devices.

It supports Java, C/C++, HTML5, CSS and jаvascript.

AIDE also offers autocomplete code, automatic error checking, syntax highlighting for Java and XML.

That's all cool, but the best part of AIDE is the interactive tutorials with step-by-step instructions. You can literally learn to program without even going beyond the utility, and this can sometimes save tons of time. All local tutorials are really high quality - we have checked them.

By the way, you can also find various programming tutorials on our site. We're constantly adding to this section, so if you can't find the information you need, just come back a little later.

CodeSandbox

CodeSandbox is a full-featured alternative to Visual Studio Code, but only in the browser. This editor works great on phones and tablets, and there are plenty of projects for beginners. This means you can work with Vanilla jаvascript, TypeScript, Angular, React, VueJS, etc.

CodeSandbox also supports all frameworks and libraries that use HTML, CSS, jаvascript and TypeScript.

Finally, it has GitHub integration, so you can easily port your work there.