What the new additions to the classic iOS brew mean for App Developers.

iOS 14 has now been officially launched and it has us dumbstruck in awe. Apple has really stepped up their game to compete with Android in their classic fashion of adding features to iOS with a tinge of their special sauce to make it feel brand new. These massive changes mean that app developers across the world need to take a step back and reiterate on how to approach developing apps in a way that incorporates the new features of iOS.

You can read a detailed list of new features included in iOS 14 in this article.

For the sake of simplicity and context, let’s just dive right into the features that will make a huge impact on the app development process:

Widgets For Apps

A feature most associated with Android, widgets were not really a thing for iOS apps but according to recent announcements, widgets are making an appearance in the latest iOS, which would allow users to access their app specific data at a glance.

This feature has the potential to change the way apps are developed for iOS. Having important data available on the home screen without actually opening the app has a massive impact on user experience, all of it positive. Of course, building widgets for iOS apps will become a norm but it can be utilized to promote ease of access to users and have a huge scope of improving engagement statistics as well as implementing marketing strategies.

Mini Apps (App Clips)

The newest and the most (to be) popular feature of iOS is undoubtedly the ‘App Clips’ feature. It is one feature that differentiates this version from the rest and changes the app development ideology drastically. App Clips allow users to open a lightweight version of the app that they want to use without actually downloading the app, hence saving storage space and providing a way to link different apps together seamlessly.

This opens up a lot of new room for perspectives on how to tackle this feature. Making apps eligible for this feature would require a great deal of in-depth analysis of functionalities of apps and which ones are important enough for the ‘clipped’ version. Technically, app clips wi run on the native SDK and are expected to be less than 10 MB in size, which does force a lot of thought into app development as well as refactoring old apps to support this feature.

New Location Permissions

Apple has updated its location permissions in a more ‘broader’ sense. With iOS 14, users can share their ‘Precise’ location with apps or choose to share ‘approximate’ locations. This feature does improve privacy and security to a certain extent but also has developmental implications.

First, it means that developers have to change their location APIs to support such a feature, services like geofencing and beacons don’t work with approximation as locations recomputation requests are sent only once per 4 hours. Atleast, iPhone users won’t run out of juice as quickly now.

Another addition to this feature is a one time access of ‘Precise’ location of the user demanded by the app where the user can share their exact location once for apps that require it as a core feature. Lots to do for privacy now.

Indicator Lights For Cameras

Another feature centered around privacy, iOS apps have made it a mandate to switch a small LED indicator on whenever the camera or the microphone is in usage, no matter if the app is running in foreground or background (green for camera and orange for microphone).

It does not have a major impact on app development processes but it is critical to include in all future as well as existing apps that use these hardware. Privacy is important, but so is iOS app development guidelines.

IDFA & In-App Data Collection

A major breakaway from the previous process, Apple has now made it mandatory for apps to ask for permissions to track users across other websites with its IDFA. The power is now give to the users to either allow being tracked for advertising content or not be tracked and secure themselves, which is changeable through app settings.

Another feature that promotes transparency is the strict disclosure of data that an app collects about the user, which is to be shared by the app developer and is available to be viewed in the App Store Connect.

One-Time Passwords: Enhanced Security

With iOS 14, Apple has added domain-bound codes to make OTP messages more secure. How this works is that the OTP received by SMS for, say, a login request is bound to the domain of the requestor and will only be accessible by that domain or app. This change effectively makes it harder to spam and use malicious websites to make targets out of users and improves autofill and two-factor authentication that many apps use today as an added layer of security.

These implementations do bring the developers into the light and give them a sense of responsibility towards Privacy Policies and clear communication about them will lead to maximum adoption and bring about a sense of trust between the devs and the users, which is really important.

iOS 14 is absolutely extravagant and it has ushered a new dawn of development practices for app devs around the world. It is an opportunity to create astounding apps and make significant changes to how development is approached. I hope this article gives you the insight that you need to prepare yourself for the next revolution in the Apple ecosystem.

I am Digvijay Wanchoo. I love video games and decimating lives with humorless puns. I’m the resident A. Manager, Marketing & Communications at GeekyAnts and I will always be your source for all updates on the GeekyAnts creative colony. You can also talk to me on Twitter.