The Definitive List of App Building Tutorials
With over two million apps published in iTunes and Google Play alone, everybody is becoming an app developer. App coding tutorials have popped up left and right. Instead of leaving you to wander the realms of the internet, seeking out reviews on your own, we decided to take on the enormous task of compiling all the good ones for you! Did we succeed? No – probably not. The number of tutorials out there is staggering but we have done out best to get a wide and varied sample. Have a good tutorial we’ve missed? Leave a comment below with a link. If it’s up to scruff, we’ll add it!
Filters
That’s right. We have filters.
| Environment | Difficulty | Tutorial Length |
|---|---|---|
  |
→ The New Boston
- Android
- Level: Beginner
- Length: Long
This excellent set of 200 separate Android tutorials will take you all the way from the very basics through voice recognition, 3D animation, and more. The tutorials get quite technical but for someone looking to really dive into the world of app development, this is an excellent route.
→ Code With Chris
- iOS
- Level: Beginner
- Length: Long
Perfect for anyone with no experience whatsoever, these dozen or so videos take you from setting up your first iOS app environment through to a simple and completed first app.
→ App Development for Web Designers
- iOS
- Level: Beginner
- Length: Long
This great article is designed to give an intro to app development specifically for web designers to help you get a better understanding of design for apps without having to complete a computer science degree along the way.
→ Create a simple app to rate scary bugs!
- iOS
- Level: Beginner
- Length: Long
This fun tutorial on Ray Wenderlich’s great site will take you through many of the basics of creating an app.
Part I | Part II | Part III
→ HongKiat iOS Development Guide
- iOS
- Level: Beginner
- Length: Long
A high-level series that doesn’t go as deep into details, but that gives a great overview of the strategy and thought process behing creating an app
Part I | Part II
→ iPhone “Hello World” Application
- iOS
- Level: Beginner
- Length: Medium
A down and dirty tutorial that will take you through the coding of a simple app with a button and an alert message that says “Hello World!”. There are easier ways to go about this, but this tutorial will give you a strong base from which to move forward.
→ Develop a Fortune Cookie App!
- iOS
- Level: Beginner
- Length: Medium
A tutorial to create a fortune cookie app from scratch for iOS. Caution – app not edible.
→ Show an Alert Message in an App
- iOS
- Level: Beginner
- Length: Short
A simple and short tutorial on showing iOS alert messages in an app.
→ Setting Local Notifications in iOS
- iOS
- Level: Intermediate
- Length: Short
An in-depth tutorial on how to use iOS’ native notifications and set them via an app.
→ Building a Caterpillar Game With Cocos2D
- iOS
- Level: Advanced
- Length: Long
This extremely thorough and fun multi-part tutorial will introduce you to Cocos2D and walk you through creating a Caterpillar game including a relatively advanced AI for shooting missiles, avoiding collisions, and more.
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII
→ iOS NewsStand Tutorial
- iOS
- Level: Advanced
- Length: Short
We know, we know. We hate Newsstand too. But in the off-chance you want to develop a newsstand compatible app, this is the place to start.
→ Custom and Offline Maps Using Overlay Tiles
- iOS
- Level: Advanced
- Length: Short
A great advanced tutorial on how to use the MapKits feature added by Apple in iOS7.
→ Unzipping Files in iOS
- iOS
- Level: Intermediate
- Length: Short
Get around Apple’s 50MB download cap and increase download speeds using zipped files.
→ Adding GPS to an iOS App
- iOS
- Level: Intermediate
- Length: Short
A nice overview on adding GPS to your app and using it in a few different ways.
→ Create a Simple Tennis App for iOS
- iOS
- Level: Intermediate
- Length: Long
Another old but good one, this four part tutorial walks you through building a basic tennis application with added audio.
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV
→ Send an Email From Within an App
- iOS
- Level: Intermediate
- Length: Short
A simple 6-step tutorial on how to send an e-mail from within an iOS app.
→ Build a 1980’s Style Phone App
- iOS
- Level: Beginner
- Length: Medium
A tutorial on using Photoshop and xCode to custom design a new phone & contacts app.
→ Capture an Image in an iPhone App
- iOS
- Level: Intermediate
- Length: Short
Capture an image without using the camera in an iPhone app.
→ Create an iOS-style SMS “bubble” in an App
- iOS
- Level: Intermediate
- Length: Medium
A neat tutorial on custom-sized SMS bubbles and creating an app similar to the iOS text messaging system.
→ Importing and Exporting Documents in an iOS App.
- iOS
- Level: Advanced
- Length: Medium
An advanced article that will take you through some different methods to import or export documents from an iOS application.
→ Tutorial: Introduction to Swift
- iOS
- Level: Beginner
- Length: Long
A three-part introduction to Swift, Apple’s new and improved coding platform. Tutorial reviews multiple functions and builds a simple tip calculator.
Part I | Part II | Part III
→ Create a Game Like Candy Crush
- iOS
- Level: Intermediate
- Length: Long
A fantastic and fun tutorial on creating a match-three type game. In-depth but well explained.
Part I | Part II
→ Introduction to Swit UIKit
- iOS
- Level: Intermediate
- Length: Short
A short introductory tutorial on making a game “feel” real using Swift and UIKit. Make a block and then add gravity, collisions, and user interactions.
→ Use UIGestureRecognizer with Swift
- iOS
- Level: Intermediate
- Length: Short
A brief tutorial on using UIGestureRecognizer to detect gestures like tap, pinch, rotation, and more.
→ 3D Animation Tutorial with Swift and Metal
- iOS
- Level: Intermediate
- Length: Long
Metal is a low-level 3D Graphics API for use only with Apple. This two-part tutorial covers the basics.
Part I | Part II
→ Make a Waiting Game Like FarmVille
- iOS
- Level: Advanced
- Length: Medium
Create a simple kiosk game that requires the user to wait before actions are completed and launches alerts to notify users.
→ Make a Line-Drawing Game Like Flight Control
- iOS
- Level: Intermediate
- Length: Medium
Create a line-drawing game to guide pigs to their food without letting them collide.
→ Make a Space Invaders Game
- iOS
- Level: Advanced
- Length: Long
Make a space-invaders game wit hthis two part tutorial including a ship, heads-up-display, enemies, AI, and more.
Part I | Part II
→ Build a Word Scramble Game using UIKit
- iOS
- Level: Advanced
- Length: Long
Create a game to decode anagrams in this three-part, advanced Swift & UIKit tutorial covering advanced game control topics..
Part I | Part II | Part III
→ Learn to code an iOS app for the absolute beginner (with Swift)
- iOS
- Level: Introductory
- Length: Long
This excellent in-depth tutorial for complete beginners takes you through the steps of creating a numbers guessing game using Apple’s Swift environment – a highly recommended tutorial for the complete newb.
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V
→ Coding iOS Apps: An Intro to Objective-C
- iOS
- Level: Long
- Length: Introductory
A three-part introduction to building an iOS app in Objective-C, the base langauge for all iOS apps. This tutorial will take you through the absolute basics and you will build two simple apps along the way.
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV
→ Sprite Kit Swift Tutorial for Beginners
- iOS
- Level: Short
- Length: Beginner
Learn the basics of 2D game design with Sprite Kit, iOS’ built in 2D game framework, while creating a ninja to battle monsters. Epic. This tutorial requires basic iOS development knowledge.
→ Sprite Kit Animation & Texture Atlases
- iOS
- Level: Short
- Length: Beginner
Animate a walking bear using texture atlases or for extra credit, animate a moon-walking bear. This tutorial requires basic knowledge of Sprite Kit.
→ Build a Game Like Mega Jump
- iOS
- Level: Long
- Length: Intermediate
Use Sprite Kit to create a game like Mega Jump in this two-part tutorial. Work through Sprite Kit’s physics, accelerometer, collision detection, and more.
Part I | Part II
→ Build a Game Like Mario Brothers
- iOS
- Level: Long
- Length: Intermediate
Create a platform game like mario brothers with a character avoiding obstacles using Sprite Kit.
Part I | Part II
→ Procedural Level Generation & Cellular Automatons
- iOS
- Level: Long
- Length: Advanced
Yea. It’s as complicated as it sounds. This tutorial covers creating auto-generated levels for continuously fresh content. Note – this is two separate tutorials on the same concept.
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV
→ Making an iPhone & iPad Compatible App With Sprite Kit
- iOS
- Level: Long
- Length: Intermediate
Use Sprite Kit to efficiently create a whack-a-mole game that works in iPhone, iPad, and Retina Display.
Part I | Part II
→ Inverse Kinematics Tutorial
- iOS
- Level: Medium
- Length: Intermediate
Add flexibility to character animations using inverse kinematics.
→ Create a Multiplayer Bluetooth Card Game
- iOS
- Level: Long
- Length: Intermediate
This old and very long tutorial covers a lot of great material, teaching you to build a simple multiplayer card game playable over bluetooth or Wi-Fi.
→ Create a Simple Ninja Game with Cocos 2D 3.0
- iOS
- Level: Short
- Length: Beginner
Use Cocos2D to create a simple game and go through the basics of this platform.
→ Learn to Use Unity – Create an Obstacle Game
- iOS
- Level: Long
- Length: Beginner
Create a game where a player must cross the finish line while avoiding obstacles. A great intro to coding in Unity.
Part I | Part II | Part III
→ Create a Fruit Ninja Games with Box2D and Cocos2D
- iOS
- Level: Long
- Length: Advanced
Create a Fruit Ninja game with the ability to dynamically cut sprites.
Part I | Part II | Part III
→ Create a Level Editor
- iOS
- Level: Long
- Length: Advanced
Create a custom level editor for a cut the rope style game.
Part I | Part II | Part III
→ Create a Tower Defense Game with Cocos2D
- iOS
- Level: Medium
- Length: Intermediate
Create a basic tower defense game.
→ Make a game like Jetpack Joyride
- iOS
- Level: Long
- Length: Intermediate
Create a scrolling game like Jetpack Joyride with Box2D and Cocos2D/
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV
→ Build a game like MonkeyJump
- iOS
- Level: Long
- Length: Intermediate
Use Cocos2D and a set of Cocos tools to createa nice physics-enabled game.
Part I | Part II | Part III
→ Build a Particle System with OpenGL ES
- iOS
- Level: Long
- Length: Advanced
Make a particle system from scratch and integrate it into a simple game.
Part I | Part II | Part III
→ Create a Classic Breakout-Type Game
- iOS
- Level: Long
- Length: Intermediate
Create a simple physics-based Breakout game with a continuously bouncing all, collision detection, and paddle dragging.
Part I | Part II
→ How to Save Data on iOS
- iOS
- Level: Medium
- Length: Beginner
Use a ready-made space shooter app to learn how to separate and save data to iCloud.
Part I | Part II
→ Create a Custom Progress Bar
- iOS
- Level: Short
- Length: Beginner
Use PaintCode – a design program which saves app-ready graphics – to create a custom progress bar.
→ Create custom Glossy Buttons in Core Graphics
- iOS
- Level: Short
- Length: Beginner
A simple tutorial on creating glossy buttons that covers the basics of the Core Graphics system.
→ Create a Leather Navigation Bar
- iOS
- Level: Short
- Length: Beginner
A short Photoshop-based tutorial on creating a custom navigation bar and importing it into Xcode.
→ Create a Gesture-Driven To-Do List App
- iOS
- Level: Long
- Length: Intermediate
A three-part tutorial focusing heavily on working with gestures in Xcode.
Part I | Part II | Part III
→ Using Audio in iOS
- iOS
- Level: Short
- Length: Beginner
Three separate tutorials covering the basics of audio in iOS including formats, recording, and programmatic playback.
Part I | Part II | Part III
→ Port an iPhone app to iPad
- iOS
- Level: Short
- Length: Beginner
A good beginner’s tutorial on taking an iPhone app and making it work on iPad.
→ Build a “Hello World” App
- Android
- Level: Medium
- Length: Introductory
A first-step tutorial to create a functioning Android app which displays quotes by none other than Steve Jobs.
Part I | Part II
→ Make a Tower of Hanoi Game
- Android
- Level: Short
- Length: Beginner
Use AndEngine to create a simple Tower of Hanoi game.
→ Create a Simple Android App using Android Studio
- Android
- Level: Long
- Length: Introductory
A highly detailed tutorial covering the absolute basics of Android Studio development.
Part I | Part II | Part III
→ Create an Augmented Reality Shooter Game
- iOS
- Level: Long
- Length: Intermediate
Use OpenCV to create a shooter game that interacts with your phone’s camera and allows you to use your surroundings as the level.
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV
→ Create A Simple Table-Based App
- iOS
- Level: Medium
- Length: Introductory
Use UITableView and StoryBoard to create a simple table-based app which displays a list of recipes.
→ Save Data Between Sessions with Core Data
- iOS
- Level: Short
- Length: Beginner
Learn the basics of saving, calling, and deleting data between app launches with the Core Data framework.
Part I | Part II
→ Build a Cloud Backend
- iOS
- Level: Long
- Length: Beginner
Save data to iCloud using the Parse framework to add more functionality to your apps.
Part I | Part II
→ Basic WebKit Framework Tutorial
- iOS
- Level: Medium
- Length: Beginner
Learn to use the WebKit framework to build the functionality to view a webpage into an app.
Part I | Part II
→ Creating Animated Segues
- iOS
- Level: Short
- Length: Beginner
Learn how to create custom animated transitions, known as segues, between different screens of your app.
→ Use iBeacons to Enhance an App
- iOS
- Level: Medium
- Length: Advanced
Create two apps which interact via iBeacons and BlueTooth and learn how to seriously enhance app functionality.
→ How to Scan QR Codes
- iOS
- Level: Short
- Length: Intermediate
Create an app which scans and activates QR Codes using AVFramework.
→ Create a WiFi / Bluetooth Chat App
- iOS
- Level: Long
- Length: Intermediate
Create a three-tab chat application which allows you to find users in the same WiFi network or connect via Bluetooth and send messages or share files.
Part I | Part II
→ JSON & XML Parsing in iOS
- iOS
- Level: Medium
- Length: Advanced
iOS has built-in frameworks for handling JSON and XML Data. Learn about them here.
→ Use SQLite to Manage App Data
- iOS
- Level: Medium
- Length: Intermediate
Work on saving data to external databases in SQLite.
→ Connect to Facebook Manually
- iOS
- Level: Short
- Length: Intermediate
While there are much easier ways to do this, this tutorial explains how to connect to Facebook without any automated solution, offering insight into how the process really works.
→ Localize Your App in Multiple Languages
- iOS
- Level: Medium
- Length: Intermediate
Learn to localize the strings of your app to have an app that works in as many languages as you need.
→ Test your App with TestFlight Beta
- iOS
- Level: Short
- Length: Beginner
Test an app with family and friends before launching it to the App Store using Test Flight.
→ Create a User-Continuous App with Handoff
- iOS
- Level: Medium
- Length: Intermediate
Use iOS 8’s “Handoff” functionality to allow a user to work on a document across multiple devices. The follow-up tutorial goes into more advanced use cases.
Part I | Part II
→ Using iOS8 Photo Editor Extensions
- iOS
- Level: Medium
- Length: Intermediate
Use extensions of iOS8 to create an app which detects and pixelates faces in images on the fly. Very cool.
→ Build a text-to-speech app using AVSpeecSynthesizer
- iOS
- Level: Medium
- Length: Intermediate
Use the AVSpeechSyntheziser class to create an iOS8 text-to-speech app which allows users to have texts read at different speeds, volumes, pitches, and accents.
→ Create Circular Profile Images
- iOS
- Level: Short
- Length: Beginner
2014 started a trend of “rounding” profile images in apps. Learn how to do this on the fly in an app when users upload normal pictures.
→ Create “Swipeable” Entries in Tables to Display More Data
- iOS
- Level: Short
- Length: Beginner
Add the ability to “swipe” cells in a table to the side to display more options like “delete,” “like,” “mail,” etc.
→ Implement A Pull Down To Refresh Functionality In An App
- iOS
- Level: Short
- Length: Beginner
Most communication-based apps today feature a “pull-down-to-refresh” functionality. Learn how to implement this feature.
→ Create a Maze Game for iPhone
- iOS
- Level: Long
- Length: Beginner
Create a simple maze game using accelerometer and collision detection functionalities and a few different programming frameworks.
Part I | Part II | Part III
→ Udemy Course: Learn by Building 15 Real World Apps (75% off)
- iOS
- Level: Introductory
- Length: Long
A $50 course taking you through 15 different applications. Because you’re clicking through us, it’s $50 instead of $200 – you’re welcome :).
→ Video Tutorials straight from Apple.
- iOS
- Level: Intermediate
- Length: Long
Though the latest videos date back to 2013 (pre-twerking?!?!), there is a lot of great stuff here.