Apple WWDC 2020 event 22 Jun, 2020 to 26 Jun, 2020 started with a lot of hype and the company does live up to the hype, hey it’s Apple’s Developers Conference , it may just be best. The whole agenda of WWDC was to let Apple’s customers and developers know what they have been upto with their Software. Since Apple’s software has set a standard for the industry, it not uncommon to wait for this event and see what great things Apple brings to the table. While this year has been rough, Apple definitely is pushing hard in its core domain. This year Apple’s WWDC was completely online, I wonder how they would be able to pull this off, but bravo, it was great.
I would like to share my thoughts on the WWDC conference, they kind of hype you up all about their apps and iOS 14 update, But i wanted to give you my reaction on the this as a developer.
Table of Contents
The first thing…
The first thing we need to understand is that the apps are completely dead by now. Reports suggest that most users frequently use only three apps, while other apps are downloaded either for a specific task or just installed, forgotten, and eventually deleted. The Average time of most of the users is mostly concentrated around the top 10 apps in the App Store or Play Store. The app market is almost saturated by now.
Apple doesn’t want to tell you that the fact that 97% of the app usage is focused in the top 10 apps, so when they go around around telling their users about their little improvements here and there, you need to keep in mind that those features will not be applicable to you if you app is not in the top 10.
The Widgets
This is one of the things which Android has had for years now, thanks to Apple for it cool again.
You can have widgets of three sizes small, medium and large. you can place them in your home screen and the apps will make a place for it. You can also create what Apple calls it “smart stack”, which is all the widgets of the same size in a scroll fashion which can scrolled to your liking.
picture-in-picture mode
Apple also announced the picture-in-picture mode, which was already on android. But do keep in mind that you won’t be getting this feature for YouTube, Why ?
Well, Apple will have to work with other developers at Google and YouTube to make this thing work. The developers at YouTube have figured out how to make it work on Android devices and Tablets. But the picture-in-picture mode for YouTube doesn’t even work on iPad as well, so you can expect it won’t be coming out for iPhone. Unless Apple decides to collaborate with developers to make it work.
If one of the top video consumption app is not getting that feature, then that’s pretty much dead.
iMessage
Now talking out some of the new features at iMessage, now you can ping your most important conversations. Thanks Apple but most people outside U.S don’t use iMessage, because it’s not compatible with android devices, in countries outside U.S, iMessage is a joke.
how can you possibly communicate with a messaging system that intentionally locks you out. So what we have been seeing in the past years that Apple has been building this ecosystem which locks you inside a wall. Apple is creating a barrier, in which in order to use their services you will have to get all your family and friends use their services.
Apple’s Migration
The most important talk that might affect you, if you are a developer. So Apple announced that they will be migrating off of Intel to their custom made Apple Silicon. With this move the developers will now be able to ship iPhone, iPad apps to MacOS which is great for the users.
There are also rumors that Apple may be dropping the support for hardware virtualization, which essentially means you will not be able to dual boot into Windows or Linux system if you would like to.
If you are an individual developer and want your product / app to reach many users, you will have to decide if you are going to support for Apple ecosystem or the Android / Windows platform.
Apple has claimed that the migration from Intel’s chip to their own would take around 2 years. which is great. but do keep in mind that there will be time that you will be in between. If you purchase a mac product now, the product may not be supported after the two years.
Rosetta 2
Rosetta is a translation process that allows users to run apps that contain x86_64 (Intel architecture) instructions on Apple silicon. Rosetta is meant to ease the transition to Apple silicon, giving you time to create a universal binary for your app. It is not a substitute for creating a native version of your app.
To the users, this will be transparent. If an executable contains only Intel instructions, MacOS will automatically launch Rosetta and begin the translation process. the system then launches the translated executable. However the translation process takes time and hence will take time to load and will be slower to run.
Translation App
With the iOS 14 you’ll also be getting a new translate app, which will do translation of conversations in real time, that too in the offline mode.
Supported languages include Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.
In their words “
Here’s how Apple explains the feature:
Automatic language detection transcribes the original and translated text on the appropriate sides of the screen, followed by translated audio. Translate uses advanced on-device machine learning and the powerful Apple Neural Engine to enable natural-sounding conversations.
App clips
this feature gives information from relevant apps throughout the iOS 14 interface, without needing to download that app. This feature may be used when you want to do some specific task but don’t want to download the entire app, like making in app payments
Do note that the payment feature will only work with Apple pay. Also do use this features there need to be App clip code, NFC, Qr codes which needs to be scanned to work.
Emoji Search
You can now search for an emoji from the keyboard. Why is this even counted as a feature.
Third party
Now you can choose a third party app as default apps for email and browser. This is would be a welcome change for those who prefer third-party apps to Apple’s own apps.
MacOS Big Sur
Apple has referred this as the biggest update for MacOS since MacOS X. the icons are redesigned. new features for Safari and Messages and more..
MacOS will now have a Control Center, which delivers quick access to controls right from the desktop. Also the Notification Center has been updated with more interactive notifications and redesigned widgets in different sizes, matching the design of iOS14.
Safari now supports a new Privacy Report that delivers added visibility into how Safari protects browsing activity across the web. Users will be able to control when and which websites a Safari extension can work with.
In Messages you can now pin conversations, user can also create and customize their emojis on Mac. Inline replies are now a thing in Apple, you can mention a person in group messages with @person.
Hope you like the Apple WWDC 2020 roundup. Do let me know your thoughts on the Apple’s Developers Conference.