Why I spent my own money building an Android IDE that runs on a phone (and what I learned)

I'm David Schachter and I’ve spent most of my career as an engineer. Over the past two years, I funded and helped build something a bit unusual: an Android development environment that runs entirely on a phone. At App Dev for All, we’ve been working on Code on the Go (CoGo), a free, open-source Android development environment that runs entirely on an Android phone or tablet. No laptop, no USB cable, no cloud build server. GPLv3 licensed.

I want to share why we built it, because the "why" is just as interesting as the feature list.

The problem
Professional Android development has always assumed you own a workstation. The entire toolchain, Android Studio, ADB, the build system, was designed for a desktop machine connected to a phone by a cable. For a huge portion of the world, that setup is out of reach. The phone in your pocket is the only computer you have.

Now, later in my career, I finally have the resources to fund something I completely believe in. I chose this. Not because there is a business model (honestly, there isn't), but because making your life better with software should not depend on whether you can afford a second computer.

What we built
Code on the Go is not a simplified editor or a remote desktop client. It is a complete Android development environment on the device:

• Java and Kotlin support with real-time LSP feedback
• Gradle build system that compiles natively on the phone, no server involved
• A full debugger that runs on the same device as the app being tested (this required bypassing ADB entirely, which turned out to be the hardest engineering problem we faced)
• Sketch-to-UI: photograph a hand-drawn screen layout and generate Android XML, runs fully offline
• Optional AI coding agent powered by Gemini
• Built-in programming textbooks and reference materials so you can learn without an internet connection
• Works on older 32-bit ARM hardware that modern tools no longer support

Traction so far
We have been in pre-release since October 2025. One of our community members used Code on the Go to build Sriboard, an enhanced keyboard for Sinhala and English speakers, and published it to the Google Play Store, entirely from his phone, which is his only computer. A real app, in the official store, built without a laptop.

The funding model
App Dev for All is a philanthropic venture. Code on the Go is free, no ads, no user tracking. I funded this personally. We could use more support, but we are not currently taking investor money. Users come first.

Open questions

• I’d be especially interested in feedback from the IH community on:
  Have you seen viable models for sustaining non-VC developer tools
• What tradeoffs would you make differently when building a free tool with no monetization model and no VC runway?
• Does “phone-first development” feels like a niche or something broader
  If anyone wants to look at the code or try it
  Source: github.com/appdevforall/CodeOnTheGo; APK: appdevforall.org/code-on-the-go

If you’re interested in more about the engineering tradeoffs, sustainability questions, or what it is like to fund something this way, I’m happy to answer questions.

David Schachter, Founder, App Dev for All