LONDON, England – That’s what Engadget said when it had a play with the Ovi App Wizard, the new tool that enables anyone to create an app using an RSS feed. Of course, it’s only right that we here on Conversations gave it a whirl, which is why you’ll now find a Conversations app live in the Ovi Store, free to download. Getting up and running is frighteningly simple. The six-step process only takes a few minutes, but it’s worth spending a little time getting things prepared before you kick off. Read on after the jump to see what’s involved.First up, we’d recommend preparing some assets before you start the App Wizard process. You’ll need a couple of images – an application logo, to sit at the top of the application (240x60px) and an application icon (for use on the Ovi Store and on the device – 256x256px). You should also prepare some description text, but beware the 500 character limit. You should also think about your colour scheme. You can adjust the logo background colour, the general background colour, the channel text colour and the link colour.
Once you’ve got those elements in place, the registration process is pretty straightforward and is completed in six easy stages:
- Register and agree to the terms and conditions
- Add up to four web feeds with your content
- Add a logo and icon and personalise your colours and language
- Switch on advertising, if you want to
- Add description text (app description and publisher profile text)
- Submit your app to Ovi Store
Apps submitted through Ovi App Wizard should be processed within 24 hours and won’t be subject to the Ovi Store registration fee, which is an added bonus. So far, apps have been created from more than 90 countries and downloaded in more than 180 countries across 90 different Nokia devices. Ovi App Wizard supports 25 different languages, so it’s no surprise to see the the likes of India, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, UK, Italy, Germany, Russia all in the list of top downloading countries.
If you want to get your content into the Ovi Store, there’s probably no easier way. Even if you hadn’t considered creating a mobile app for your website, the Ovi App Wizard makes it so easy, and free, you’d be crazy not to. Make sure you own the content you’re submitting though as there is an approval process to go through.
Once your app has been approved and set live, you can log in to the publisher dashboard to check out your stats, showing how many people have downloaded the app, and how many page views the app has had over the last seven and last 30 days.
Head on over to OviAppWizard.com to get up and running. Don’t forget to download the Nokia Conversations app, too.