Reasons MCreator can't be on Android/IOS

Hi,

I'm a member of the MCreator's community for a few years already, and I saw many times on the forum or on the issue tracker users asking for an Android or IOS version of MCreator. However, we always reply, "No, it's currently impossible.", but we never say why. So I will try to explain the best I can why MCreator can't have an IOS or Android version currently.

Short answer:

MCreator can't have a mobile version because it would require too much work to maintain the different versions.

Long answer:

Firstly, to make a software or an app, you can use different programming languages like C, C++, C# or Java. MCreator is developed in Java. To be able to use Java, as you know, we need to install an external program, the JRE (Java Runtime Environment). Java can work on Windows, Mac and Linux because Java converts the code for something they understand. However, IOS uses another programming language (Swift) that is not supported by Java. So if we would like to make an IOS version of MCreator, we would have to develop from nothing a new MCreator. Even if it will only allow the possibility to create addons and maybe resource packs, it would take months to have a stable version because the MCreator's code is complex. Concerning Android, I will talk about it later because it is slightly different from IOS as it can support Java.

Secondly, as we would have to code a second software, we would need to support both of them. So, for each new version, we would triple the work we have to make. Even if the MCToolkit Team (the contributors of MCreator and the project to continue MCreator) contains about 7 developers, we are not enough to develop the new versions, update MCreator/MCTooolkit and then, support all the platforms. Each new platform we support is a add-onsnew community we get and have to help and support.

Thirdly, for the Windows, Mac and Linux versions, we can make our website, and put the files to download here, but on Android and IOS (mainly IOS), we have to use the Google Play Store and the AppStore. However, the Google Play Store costs 25$ (US) one time, but for the App Store, 100$ (US) every year. It's a cost we would have to pay in addition to the servers for the website. IOS is even worst than Android because when you install an app from a website, you can almost think you download one malware. It can't be a replacement solution as most of users will think they will download one malware.

Finally, an IOS version of MCreator can not be made for the moment because it would require too much work to create and support and would cost too much money than the projects (MCreator and MCTooolkit) can spend for that. An Android version could be made in the future, before IOS. As I said before, we can make Java applications on Android. However, there are still some differences since Android is made in Java, or partially in Java, that would certainly require another version to create and support.

Edit 2024/01/26: Apple just added a new download fee for all apps on IOS for the EU making impossible to keep an app free. More details here

I hope you now understand why MCreator can not have IOS and Android versions currently. I only talked about Android and IOS on this version because I only saw them requested. However, everything I said can also be applied to the Xbox, Nintendo Switch and PS4-5 at the difference they are more closed than Android and IOS, so it would be much harder to make a version on these platforms.