Share your analyses using Earth Engine Apps
By Michael DeWitt, Renee Johnston, David Gibson, Lauren Scott, Software Engineers, Google Earth Engine
Earth Engine Apps let you create public viewports into your Earth Engine analyses, building on the platform’s analytical power and 20+ Petabyte data catalog, and your users don’t need to have an Earth Engine account to view your Apps.
Share your analysis with your audience, wherever they are.
Starting today, there’s a new way for you to share your analyses using Earth Engine Apps. You’ve already been able to share scripts and datasets with other Earth Engine users, but now you can create Apps that anyone with a web browser and an Internet connection can access.
Earth Engine Apps will make it easier for you to share your work, by helping you share a customized view into your analysis without your audience having to sign up for Earth Engine or write any code.
Apps ❤ User Interface API
Earth Engine Apps are dynamic, publicly accessible user interfaces for Earth Engine analyses, which you can share with whomever you like — no Earth Engine account required. As the App developer you have a lot of control over what that viewport looks like, thanks to the broad suite of widgets, UI components, and interactivity tools built into the User Interface API.
It’s up to you how simple or complex of an App you create (or if the App even includes a map!). Build what’s right for your audience, without having to think about whether your audience has used Earth Engine before.
For example, suppose you’re a lab researcher and would like to share the current state of your analysis with your lab manager. You can now publish the script as an App, and your manager has a publicly accessible viewport into your analysis — without needing to have access to Earth Engine, and without having to go through the Code Editor’s developer-oriented interface.
Many people using Earth Engine aim to publish scholarly articles about the results of their analyses. Apps can be particularly useful for the scientific review process. Static images in a document don’t always convey the scale or scope of a global analysis. Instead, build an app, include the link along with your paper, and your reviewers can dig into the dataset in full detail.
The Earth Engine platform provides significant computational power to support cutting edge geospatial data analysis, with a focus on research and scientific collaboration. Apps work best for these specialized audiences, so please keep in mind that they may not scale well to wide audiences. Similar to Earth Engine’s per-user quota, Apps have usage quotas on concurrent queries, and app performance will depend on the computational intensity of the specific app, with simpler apps able to serve more concurrent users than complex ones. For more on quota and tips on how to optimize your App, check out the Apps FAQ.
To see examples of the kinds of interfaces you can build with Apps, check out our curated Apps page. When you’re ready to get started building your App, head over to the Apps documentation.
