<p>As you guessed, the only real difference between an app and a project is which menu they appear in on the EV3.</p>
<p>Going a bit deeper though (and taking the title question literally), the LEGO &quot;apps&quot; that come pre-installed on the EV3 are not written using the LabView-based software. They are written in the LSMASM programming language, which is a language created specifically for the EV3. The source code for these can be found <a href="https://github.com/ev3dev/lms2012-compat/tree/ev3dev-stretch/lmssrc" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>.</p>
<p>You can modify these or create your own and compile them with the <a href="https://github.com/ev3dev/lmsasm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">lmsasm compiler</a> to create your own more advanced apps that can make use of all available EV3 bytecodes that allow you to do things you can't do in the other block programming languages.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-12-22T16:17:45.597Z
2024-01-08T08:29:40.810Z
2024-01-08T08:29:40.810Z
David Lechner
<p>In the EV3 manual, it says you can create custom apps, in the same page as the IR control and Port View. How do you make a new app? I found a button under tools which says &quot;Download as app&quot;, however this is pretty much the same as a usual project - is there a way to make apps special, or are they just the same?</p>

<ev3><mindstorms><programming>
How do I make apps in Lego Mindstorms EV3 Education?
Michael Savage
# How do I make apps in Lego Mindstorms EV3 Education?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-12-19)

In the EV3 manual, it says you can create custom apps, in the same page as the IR control and Port View. How do you make a new app? I found a button under tools which says "Download as app", however this is pretty much the same as a usual project - is there a way to make apps special, or are they just the same?

**Tags:** ev3, mindstorms, programming


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2023-12-22. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

As you guessed, the only real difference between an app and a project is which menu they appear in on the EV3.

Going a bit deeper though (and taking the title question literally), the LEGO "apps" that come pre-installed on the EV3 are not written using the LabView-based software. They are written in the LSMASM programming language, which is a language created specifically for the EV3. The source code for these can be found [here](https://github.com/ev3dev/lms2012-compat/tree/ev3dev-stretch/lmssrc).

You can modify these or create your own and compile them with the [lmsasm compiler](https://github.com/ev3dev/lmsasm) to create your own more advanced apps that can make use of all available EV3 bytecodes that allow you to do things you can't do in the other block programming languages.


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