Area 120 code-coaching app Grasshopper to shut down June 2023

Damien Wilde | Mar 13 2023 - 2:12 am PT

Another month, another Google-made application or service that will be pulled from users as the Area 120-developer Grasshopper will be shut down from June 2023.

Designed as a way to learn coding techniques in a similar manner to modern language-learning applications, Grasshopper has been one of the most popular from Google’s experimental app development team since releasing back in 2018. In under a year, the app had been downloaded a whopping 1.6 million times and is likely a major reason many were able to get into coding given the low entry barrier.

Rather than introduce abstract concepts, Grasshopper used simple graphical methodologies to help beginner coders understand and implement basic functions and gain confidence with quizzes, questionnaires, and goal tracking. After a limited Android-only launch, Grasshopper made the jump to web in late-2019 with more classes and a three-panel UI with instructions, code editor view, plus live code output previews to help you learn to code from any of your devices.

Spotted by Android Police (but accidentally confirmed some weeks ago in a now-edited support page post), when launching the app on your Android device, it will show a banner message. This message reads, “Grasshopper is shutting down on June 15, 2023,” and has links to the aforementioned announcement post on the official forums.

Given the sizeable install base for Grasshopper, it’s odd that what is one of the most successful Area 120 products would be cut in this way. However, given Google’s increasing track record of abandoning and closing projects that it feels are underperforming, it likely isn’t that surprising to many. At least you have until mid-June to finish your classes.