WWDC 2020: View from a developer’s eye 🧐
In the WWDC-2020 Keynote event, Apple has announced lots of cool features for iOS-14, iPadOS-14, watchOS-7, and macOS-Big Sur (version-11) which are very fascinating and exciting for the consumers.
Have a look at the new features going to be available with the respective OS.
I have studied and taken help from apple posted contents available publicly for creating this article.
As a developer, let’s have a glance at what all interesting APIs we can start exploring and pull up our socks for adapting new APIs that are shipping with new versions of Apple OSs.
App clips (iOS 14+)
An app clip is a small part of your app, it can be developed in the Xcode-12 project as your full app using the iOS-14 SDK. And since it’s small in size (Approx 10 MB), an app clip is fast to open even when it’s not already on the device. When you’re ready to submit for review, you’ll manage it as part of your full app in App Store Connect.
Users will be able to experience small offering features from your app clip in seconds. And when they’re done, you can offer the opportunity to download your full app.
There are interesting APIs to explore to provide this feature to our business client :
- Discoverable App Clip Codes (NFC Tags, QR Codes, Links in messages, Safari banners, Place cards in maps)
- How App Clip Works with Apple Pay
- How App Clip Works with Sign in with Apple.
Resources:
- App Clips Introduction
- Configure and link you App Clip
- Explore App Clips
- Design your App Clips
- Streamline your App Clips
WidgetsKit (iOS 14+)
New WidgetKit Framework will give you the power to design your widgets more sophisticated and elegant way to the customers with different sizes (small, medium, and large).
You can configure the widget with a timeline provider. The timeline provider tells WidgetKit when to update your widget’s content.
Since its API is available from IOS 14 and onwards. you must take a chance to design your widgets with SwiftUI.
For more details please check the following links:
Sources: Framework Documentation and Meet Widget Kit
ARKit 4 (iOS 14+)
ARKit helped the developers to achieve many Augmented Reality related exciting features to ship with the apps. With the new APIs of ARKit 4, you can enhance your user’s experience at different levels.
Let’s check out these APIs.
- Location Anchors (World Tracking and Geo Tracking to place virtual content on any geolocation through AR)
- Depth API (LiDAR scanner creates the topological map of the environment to collect the depth data of the images when the camera is on)
- Object Placement (Improvements in ray-casting)
- Face tracking (It detects all the depth of face so that you can easily detect the expression and layover any content in real-time. It requires True depth camera in the device.)
Location Anchor Availability:
Supporting cities currently: San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Miami.
Device configurations:
- A12 Bionic and newer ( iPhone XS, XS Max, XR +, and 2019 versions of the iPad Air and iPad Mini.)
- GPS
Resources:
- API Documentation
- Explore ARKit4
- Tracking Geographic Locations in AR
Scribble (iOS 14+)
It’s going to be really fun to explore new UIScribbleInteraction and UIIndirectScribbleInteraction APIs to provide a delightful experience with Scribble in your app.
It seamlessly works with standard text controls like UITextField, UITextView, UISearchTextField, Editable wen content, and web form fields but not for passwords.
Resources:
- Pencil Kit → Customising Scribble with Interactions
- Meet Scribble for iPad
- Inspect, modify, and construct PencilKit drawings
Record stereo audio (iOS 14+)
You can create the illusion of multidirectional sound, adding greater depth and dimension to your audio and resulting in an immersive listening experience.
You can capture stereo audio from a mobile device’s microphones, address the new special consideration called “input orientation,”. AVAudioSession API can help you learn how to provide a better recording experience.
Resources:
- Record stereo audio with AVAudioSession
- Overview and Documentation
Design iPad Apps for iPadOS14+ and macOS11+
Leverage your iPad apps with the new sidebar to increase efficiency by streamlining navigation and facilitating powerful drag and drop interactions.
As a developer, you should take advantage of the iPad’s versatile interaction opportunities by supporting multitouch, pencil, keyboard, and trackpad. Create adaptive layouts that respond to all size classes and orientation to support a great multitasking experience. Utilize every pixel of the screen to give an immersive experience to the users.
Just like Mac Apps modifications you need to focus on Layout, Inputs, Sidebars, and Toolbars.
For example observe apple developed apps in macOS Big Sur like Photos, Email, File, Calendar, Music, and other inbuilt apps to check new design styles.
Adopting these practices will make your iPad app easier to create a Mac Catalyst app that truly feels right at home on macOS.
Resources:
- Mac Catalyst (Available from Xcode 11)
- Creating a Mac Version of Your iPad App
- Design for iPad
Design Mac Apps for macOS Big Sur 11+
As macOS Big Sur now going to be shipped with a new look and feel so the developers have to be ready to adapt their Mac apps to embrace the new design of macOS Big Sur and its visual hierarchy, design patterns, and behaviors.
Developers have to focus majorly on new styles of SideBar, its controls, Window subtitles, ToolBar such as Navigational toolbar items, Search toolbar items, toolbar sections, accent colors, TextStyle and use of Symbol images (SF Symbols).
Resources: Adopt the new look of macOS
StoreKit Testing in Xcode-12
Here is great news for the developers who are working with in-App purchase for their App, Apple has introduced the development and test suite dedicated to StoreKit and in-App Purchase.
Major highlights are:
- A local environment for testing your in-app purchases without needing to connect to App Store servers.
- set up a test environment, create a StoreKit configuration file, and prepare to validate receipts locally.
- Test a variety of in-app purchase scenarios and automate those tests (like success purchase, failed purchase, interrupted purchase, external transactions, and Subscription offers) with the StoreKitTest framework.
- Improvements for testing in the sandbox environment.
- You can test it in all the simulators of iOS 14, tvOS 14, watch OS 7, mac OS Big Sur as well as on the physical devices.
- Create unit & UI tests with XCTest
- You have full control of the StoreKit in the Xcode environment without user interaction.
- You can trigger the renewal of the subscription for testing the scenarios offline.
Resources:
- Introducing StoreKit Testing in Xcode
- Setting up StoreKit Testing in Xcode
- StoreKitTest
- Testing at All Stages of Development with Xcode and Sandbox
Apple Silicon for Mac
Apple has announced they are going to use their own Apple Silicon chips instead of Intel-based chips in Macs.
From 22 June, the developers can apply for Universal App Quick Start Program to build, test, and optimize your next-generation Universal apps (Supporting both Intel-based Macs and Apple silicon chip) for macOS Big Sur.
As Apple has announced in the event, the first Mac with custom silicon may launch by the end of 2020, and it expects to transition its entire lineup within the next two years.
And the list goes on for more exciting APIs:
- Distribute binary frameworks — XCode-12
- Make your app visually accessible
- Meet Nearby Interaction
- Meet Safari Web Extensions
- Vision and Core ML
- One-tap account security upgrades
There is much more to study and get hands-on for the latest APIs. For more details please have a look at these sources:
