I was initially a heavy ChatGPT user. I upgraded. I set up custom GPTs, organised prompts into Projects. Enjoyed the way that it remembered my preferences, interests and previous prompts. But it wasn’t enough. I needed images, videos and tighter integration with Google products. So I changed ChatGPT to a free account, and upgraded Gemini instead, for the same price. Got integration with NoteBookLM, Google Drive and lots of lovely image and video capabilities. It’s not perfect – it doesn’t remember as much as ChatGPT, but there are workarounds.
But Claude has the reputation as the best code-building tool, particularly for enterprise. I’ve met people who loved it. I still have a free account, but today I wanted to see just how easy it was to create an app. Without code. We do pub trivia, and there are certain types of questions that come up again and again. Capital cities. Collective nouns. James Bond movies. Shakespeare plays. So my prompt/requirements for Claude were:
- I want an app that can run on my phone, offline
- I want to be able to study facts on specific topics
- I also want it to run like a quiz
- Can you build this with one click?
Claude replied by saying that I really just needed an HTML page. Easy to download as a file, and easy to setup as a shortcut on my phone.
Claude built the app – just a single HTML file with embedded CSS and JS. Beautifully. I tweaked it a bit. – added another category, and asked it to increase the number of questions – eg all of the countries of the world instead of just 50.
It downloaded, and just worked.
There was one thing I didn’t like – the “Next” button, for the next quiz button, required scrolling. So I pretended to be a coder, and tweaked the CSS terribly, so that it would fit on my screen. It’s no longer elegant, but avoids scrolling. (I’ve used the original version with nicer padding and margins on this page).
Claude gave me instructions on how to add it as an app – but it didn’t work. So I went to Gemini (given that I have a Google phone), and followed the instructions there.
So here it is – but embedded onto my web page as an iframe.
Here are the instructions from Gemini on how to install this as an “app” on your phone. I had tried simply opening it from Google Drive, but the Pixel blocked local Javascript from working properly. But if I downloaded the HTML file to my Downloads folder, and opened with Chrome browser, it was perfect. So I just needed a shortcut for that.
- Download the free app Shortcut Maker (by Rushikesh Kamewar) from the Google Play Store.
- Open the app and tap Files.
- It will open your Pixel’s system file picker. Tap your HTML quiz file from your Downloads folder.
- On the next screen, you will see a preview of your shortcut. Tap Shortcut Launcher (under the “Advanced” settings section if it doesn’t show automatically) and ensure it is set to open with Chrome.
- Tap Change Label to type in the name of your quiz.
- Tap the big blue Create Shortcut button.
This puts an icon on your home screen that forces Chrome to open your local file perfectly, keeping all the quiz functionality intact.
I hope you enjoy it. If you do, feel welcome to: