A new Micro app platform

Mu is a new kind of platform. One that has no builds, no servers and no infrastructure. What does that mean? It means there is nothing to deploy to, it means there’s no local development and it means everything is focused on the primary goal of micro apps built/consumed on the web.

Mu was built based on a frustration with the existing app platforms and app ecosystem itself. The way in which we write software hasn’t changed much, while there’s a lot of backend language development, the frontend is largely unchanged, except the countless frameworks that have come about. Otherwise the most productive work in still in plain html/css/js web apps.

So Mu posed the question, what if we just start there, a web app platform that puts an editor in the browser with basic preview and instant releases.

The Concept of Micro Apps

So what are Micro apps? They are conceptually a tiny domain specific app that focuses on doing one thing. So where you might find an app composed of many features or products, Micro apps break that down into many small separate apps. This sometimes overlaps with the concept of modules, widgets or components and can also be known as Micro frontends.

IRL

In the past you’ll have seen the likes of Google build apps or products as entirely separate entities, managed by different teams and looking totally different. It took a long time for them to come together with a cohesive theme or even identity system. But once these things do come together the end user benefits from a suite of apps all under one account.

More recently companies like the chinese app WeChat used a mini app program to enable developers to build these Micro apps directly into their product, rapidly increasing the footprint of what was available rather than having to build it all themselves. In the future we predict this trend will not only accelerate but we’ll see entire platforms built to help developers and companies monetize using a web app strategy as Micro apps.

Mu as a Super App

Mu is a new Micro app platform with user authentication, storage and payments built in. What does that mean? You never have to worry about building signup and login again. Persist data without the need for a database. And get paid for your work without extortionate app store transaction fees. Mu provides all the scaffolding needed for apps.

Each user app piggybacks off the same user authentication system, the same backend storage and gets payments in the form of a bitcoin address to accept donations. Everything is used via a single modular app browser.

Why choose crypto for payments you might ask? We believe when the web was born, digital payments was the missing link to enable monetization for app creators. Today it’s a low cost way for developers to programmatically take payments directly in their apps. So we made sure to make it happen.

If you want to learn more, join the Mu community or reach out at @mudotxyz.

Head to the dev site to start writing apps. For everything see Mu.xyz.