Apple’s Announcements at WWDC 2016 – Keynotes

Apple’s WWDC (World Wide Developer’s Conference) was held on June 13-17. Each year, over 5,000 iOS developers from around the world gather to learn more about the new releases in iOS, OS X, watchOS, and tvOS.

Earlier this week, Apple officially kicked off their annual WWDC event in San Francisco. WWDC was like Christmas for Apple developers.

As always, the event began with a keynote during which Apple announced updates for their iOS, OS X, watchOS, and tvOS platforms.

Although we haven’t had time to go through all the docs and samples yet, but we thought it might be useful to post some of our experience of new releases:

iOS 10
Big. Bold. Beautiful

Everything you love is now even better with iOS 10.

• Express yourself in bold new ways in Messages.
• Find your route with beautifully redesigned Maps.
• Relive memories like never before in Photos.
• Use the power of Siri in more apps than ever.

1. SiriKit

Now there is the ability to integrate with Siri.
SiriKit defines six distinct domains that an app can use to make services available to Siri:

• Audio or Video calling
• Messaging
• Sending or receiving payments
• Searching photos
• Booking a ride
• Managing workouts

If an app falls into one of the above listed domains, we should provide an Intents Extension point within an app. Siri deals with all of the nuances of language processing and semantic analysis, and translates the user’s request into an actionable item that we handle in our Intents Extension.

Want to dig more: Introduction to SiriKit

2. iMessage Apps

In the keynote, Apple demonstrated a ton of cool new features like link/media unfurling, reactions, message bubble effects. With the new Message framework, it creates extensions that let users send text, stickers, media, files and most intriguing: interactive messages.

Sticker Packs

The simplest type of extension is sticker packs.

Interactive Experiences

The APIs allow to create an entire experience right within the Messages app, even provide a custom user interface!

Want to dig more: API Reference

3. User Notifications

A new User Notifications UI framework has been introduced that allows developers to create rich notifications which was never possible before.
For example, notifications can now have embedded media much like the stock Messages app.

Note:

This is achieved through a new extension that is invoked when a notification is received and looks to be extremely powerful.

Want to dig more: User Notification

4. Security

Apple’s war for encryption continued at the 2016 WWDC event in San Francisco. Apple announced that it will require all iOS apps to use HTTPS connections by January 1, 2017. Apple will require all apps to enforce ATS, which will force the connections to HTTPS instead of HTTP.

Note:

HTTPS is simply the secure version of HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), the protocol for data communication online.

1. Apple will require all iOS apps using HTTPS connections before 2017, increasing security and privacy for mobile users.

2. The requirement comes through an enabling of ATS (App Transport Security), an iOS 9 feature that is currently not mandatory.

3. Apple is forcing the use of ATS/HTTPS marks a definitive shift in the company’s battle for encryption, and could win an audience with the privacy-conscious

Swift 3
Swifty

The important announcement of this year’s WWDC keynote was, without a doubt, the introduction of Swift 3.

The change from this year will have the biggest impact on developers due to the release of Swift 3 in late 2016, since it will require us to all make some major changes to our Swift code.

Swift 3 is conveniently packaged with Xcode 8, side-by-side with Swift 2.3. One of the biggest changes coming with Swift 3 is that, Swift 3 version is much more concise, and makes use of an enum to make it more “swifty”.

Lets check an example of working with strings:

// Swift 2.2
let content = txtDescription.text.stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet (NSCharacterSet.whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet())

// Swift 3
let content = txtDescription.text.trimming(.whitespace And Newlines)

The goal is to reduce verbosity in naming to make expressive code. In the long run it will make the language cleaner and more approachable for new developers.

Swift Playgrounds
Learn serious code on your iPad. In a seriously fun way.

Want to dig more: Swift API Design Guidelines,Github Swift Evolution

Xcode 8
It wouldn’t be WWDC without an update to Xcode!

Compare to last year, we were unable to use Xcode 7 unless migrates our source code to Swift 2. Xcode 8 provides a migration tool to convert existing code to Swift 3, which makes things much easier. It combines both Swift 2.3 (Source compatible with Swift 2.2) and Swift 3.
Feature of Xcode 8

1. Memory Debugger: This is a built-in tool that lets view the entire memory object graph of running application, so you can quickly isolate leaks and circular references. Even more, the new memory debugger can automatically detect memory leaks and help to quickly diagnose the problem.

2. Interface Builder Improvement: Have you ever tried zooming out in Interface Builder, then tried to drag in a button, and realized that you couldn’t unless you were at 100% zoom level? Interface Builder in Xcode 8 now allows to edit scenes at any zoom level.

3. Source Code Editing: Create own Source Code Editor Extensions to customize the coding experience. There is a new Xcode template to get started with, and when you’re finished, can distribute extensions via the Mac App Store or as a Developer ID signed binary through any other medium.

4. Performance Improvement:Apple claims that Xcode 8 is radically faster in several categories – for example Indexing Tests can be up to 50 times faster.

MacOS Sierra
What can your Mac do now? Just ask.

Goodbye, OS X. Hello, MacOS. After 15 years, OS X has been renamed to MacOS to better align with the other three platform names. The latest version of MacOS is MacOS Sierra.

MacOS Sierra helps to rediscover best photos, shop more securely online, and work more seamlessly between devices.

1. Siri

Siri makes its debut on Mac, with new capabilities designed just for the desktop. The handy features of Siri on iOS are now on Mac, along with brand-new ways to help with the things you do every day on your desktop.

• Just like you, Siri can do great new things on a Mac.
• Ask Siri to do its thing while you do yours.
• Let Siri locate your files for you.
• Keep Siri results where you can always find them.

2. Apple Pay for the Web

The web, now accepting the easiest and safest way to pay. This is huge for any developers working on a website with eCommerce.

Want to dig more: Apple Pay js

3. Apple File System (APFS)

Apple has announced an entirely new file system!

The current file system used by default, is HFS+ which was released in 1998 when floppy disks were still a thing. Today, most – I am looking at you base model iMac with your 5400RPM HDD – new systems include fast Flash based SSDs. The Apple File System was designed with Flash/SSD in mind and built with native encryption.

Cloning provides the ability to create instant “copies” of files and directories that cost nothing in disk space. Due to the copy-on-write behavior the cloned files and directories are not actually copied unless modifications are made. The snapshotting ability allows the system to create a read-only instance of the data so that it can be efficiently restored to a given point in time.

4. Photos

Rediscover memories in beautiful new ways.

5. Universal Clipboard

Copy on one device. Paste on another.

6. iCloud Drive

Your Desktop and Documents folder. Accessible on all your devices.

7. Optimized Storage

When you need more space, let your Mac find it for you.

watchOS 3
Feels like a whole new watch.

It’s a common opinion that the Apple Watch platform has been a bit of a flop with regard to app development. It has been missing something since the beginning: speed. Launching apps on the watch is simply painful. In this keynote, the main focus was making apps launch instantly.

1. Speed Enhancement

The big things behind the speed enhancements of the watch is the introduction of Snapshots, the Dock, and Background Tasks. The three of these combined allow watch apps to stay up to date and available to the user at a moment’s notice.

2. SceneKit and SpriteKit Availability

You can now utilize both SceneKit and SpriteKit in the watch apps. At first mention it looks like just for games, but Apple explained another use case: creating nice custom animations for regular apps as well. The current limitations of UIKit on the watch prevent developers from creating custom animations. But with watchOS 3, you can add live 3D rendered content to an apps using .scn files bundled with resources, or can opt to create interactive 2D animations with bundled .sks files.

Business travelers in emergencies will be able use the SOS feature to connect to 911 and get notifications and GPS coordinates sent to their emergency contacts. It works in different countries as well, so you don’t have to remember different emergency numbers.

tvOS
The updates to the tvOS SDK seem pretty light.

Single Sign-On

There is a new concept of single sign-on for TV providers so that users can authenticate with their provider once and be logged in to all supported video channel apps. So if developing an apps need this level of authentication, please check out the Video Subscriber Account framework!

Below are more frameworks available to developers:

• External Accessory
• HomeKit
• Multipeer Connectivity
• Photos
• Replay Kit
• User Notifications

Conclusion

It’s never been a better time to be or become a iOS developer. We haven’t had a chance to look through everything yet, so feel free to post any of your own thoughts, or anything we may have missed!

In the meantime, we’ll be working on making a demo about the new release. Stay tuned!

Want to share something innovative about the new release? Feel free to write us at [email protected].

Thanks for your time reading this article.