How to Build a Mobile App for Your Business (Easy Tutorial)

Want to impress your customers with a mobile app? It's actually a lot easier than you think and you can build it for free. In this video, Scott Friesen shows you how to create a mobile app for your business using Jotform Apps.

Video Transcript

- [Scott] Would you like to create a mobile app for your business and do it without any coding and do it for free? In this video, I'm going to walk you through step by step so you can impress your clients with your very own mobile app. To get started, we want to head over to jotform.com. Here at the top of the screen, we want to come up to products, and then we want to select JotForm apps. And our very next step is to decide if we want to start from scratch, use a template, clone an existing app if you've used JotForm apps before, or you can build your own store. I have a separate video if you'd like to take advantage of JotForm store builder, and I'll leave the link for you in the description down below. But my recommendation is that we start with a template because there are so many different templates for us to choose from. And remember, we can swap out any of these logos, we can adjust the colors, we can move things around. This is going to be the fastest way for you to get started. So for our example today, I'm going to use this counseling template here. I'm going to assume that we are wanting people to book time with us and perhaps give us some additional information along the way. So in this case, we have a button here to schedule their appointment and another one to provide their consent. And you'll also notice if I scroll down below, there's a second page where they can enter in their profile information, so things that are actionable, things that they can do right away. So here within the builder page, we want to start on the left hand side and show you just a preview of the large number of elements which you can add to any of your mobile apps. So whether you want them to sign something, whether you want to add an image or add additional buttons, it is quick and easy for you to simply drag and slide any of these things over to the right hand side. We also have a section called widgets. So if you're needing something just a little more advanced, if you want to embed a PDF, if you want to show a map location, you can do so here as well. In my case, maybe I want to add some more images here to the cover of my app. So I'm just going to take this image, I just need to drag and drop it wherever I would like. And now I can click that upload image and upload something directly from my computer. As for the other elements within your app, everything is drag and drop. So you're probably already familiar with this when it comes to managing your website. Let's say for example, I want them to provide their consent before they see the schedule your appointment button. All I need to do here is click this little handle, I'm going to drag it over here to the left, and now things have been reordered in the way that I want them to. And when it comes to the forms themselves, here you can see, as I've highlighted this, schedule your appointment. Here I can say edit this form, and I will immediately be brought into that form builder so I can customize how this form looks, what questions I'm asking them, and they can book directly here from within the app. And remember, because JotForm apps is a product of JotForm, you can build the most complicated and sophisticated or simple forms that you need to and have them incorporated directly within your app. Now, when it comes to customizing the look and feel of your app, we want to come over here to the right hand corner and select this paint roller. And here we can adjust any of the colors, we can adjust the fonts, we can adjust our logos here, anything else that we would like to change. For example, maybe I have a custom color that I would like to include here. So I'm going to add that here. That's a lot more closer to my branding here. I can change the color scheme here at the top of the page if I want to quickly sift through and see some of the additional themes that are available to me here. If I click on the logo itself, of course, I can remove it and replace it with my own, and I can adjust the logo size as well, depending on what I've uploaded and how I want it to fit with the rest of my app. As you're playing around, JotForm also gives us the ability to have a live preview. So here with this preview app toggle, I can select this, and it will give us a preview of how this will look and feel. Here I can see how everything will look. I can even play with different things and go to different pages to see how they look and how they are formatted. I can even come up to the top and see if it will look drastically different, better or worse in portrait or landscape mode. Now at the very bottom of the screen, you will notice that it's listed the different pages. We have our homepage, which is titled appointments. That's going to be the screen that users first see. But if we scroll down, you can see that there's this page break, and we have a second page, which is our profile page. You can continue to add as many pages as you like. So if we want an about section or maybe we want to send them to two different areas based on their selection here on your home screen, you can send them to different pages as well. All you need to do is either select this add a page option at the bottom of each page, or at the very bottom of the screen, we can select add page as well, and then immediately start dragging in our different elements for that page. Now when you are happy with the layout and the look of your app, next we want to come up to the top of our screen and select settings. Here we want to review a couple of important settings so we can make it the best user experience for those who have access to it. First off, we can change the app status, meaning when can people have access to this app. Of course, you're going to want to turn this to enabled so that users can access that app, but you also have the choice to disable it on a particular date. Maybe it's just for short-term use, or maybe you are creating an app for a particular event. Next, we have an option called add to home screen modal. And this is very important. Unlike an app that you would publish on the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store, you are going to be sharing access to this app via a link. But with this setting turned on, when they first open up the app, they will be invited to create a shortcut to the home screen on their device, meaning it will appear just like any other app on their phone or on their tablet. So I recommend that you leave this on. Next, we have the option to continue forms later, meaning if you do have forms within your app, do you want allow users to save those forms and come back later to finish them off? Of course, depending on your business, depending on your needs, you'll want to turn this on or off. And then lastly, we can choose to show the progress bar or not. Next, we want to come up to the app name and icon. And this is, of course, one of the most important settings that we want to take a careful look at. So for example, maybe I'm going to call mine Simple Solutions, something along those lines. Keep in mind, just like with other apps on your mobile device, longer names will not be displayed in full. So maybe I would be better off in calling my app the Simple App, so it will appear on more devices. And next we have the chance to edit that home screen icon. I'm going to select this button. I'm going to say remove this image, and I'm going to select upload file, and then I can choose my own logo to include so it matches my branding and looks professional on the home screen. Our very last option here is the splash screen, meaning that when there may be a few seconds in loading your app, what do you want that screen to look like? Now this yellow doesn't really match my branding, so maybe I'm going to come over here and choose something a lot more basic, a lot darker, like this black. Now that we're happy with our settings, let's move over to the publish tab and get ready to share our app. Now just before we copy our link or produce our QR code, we want to come up here and review our settings. Remember, you don't have to make your app available to everyone. For example, you can restrict your app to just private access. So if you want to make sure that people register in order to use your app, you can select this option here. Or if you want to restrict the app to just company access, you can require authorization for a particular domain name. But for most users, including our example today, we're going to choose public for everyone. Lastly, when it comes to sharing your app with others, there are two methods that I recommend. Number one, you can copy this link here, and then paste it or include it anywhere that you like, whether that's your website or invitations through an email or maybe via social media. If I open up a new tab, and I'm going to paste in that link, you can see that they are brought directly to the web version of this app. But here is that modal screen, meaning if someone was to click on this link on their mobile device, they can add this app directly to their home screen, and it will appear just like any other app on their device. Now, the second way that you can share your app with others, and you may want to use this in combination with the link, is to use a QR code. So here is this unique QR code, which I can then use my mobile phone to scan, and then have direct access to it on my device. And don't forget, you're not limited to creating just a single free app. You can create multiple apps right here within the JotForm app builder. To learn more and to get started with your very own mobile app for free, go to jotform.com, or click the link in the description down below. And if you have any other questions about creating your own mobile app, be sure to let me know in the comments down below. Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.