iOS 13 is upon us: App Developers, Innovate!

Just as Apple didn’t wait for everyone to have an iPhone before Steve Jobs announced the launch of the App Store back in 2008, you shouldn’t wait to implement the latest features from Apple in your business’s mobile app. This is even more true now with the significant changes coming to Apple’s latest operating system update: iOS 13. 

Many iOS app developers are arguing that mobile apps for businesses will lose a significant number of users due to device restrictions for the new operating system. They’re also saying that companies will have to spend time finding alternatives to outdated third-party libraries. Here at 3Advance, we believe that this update will increase total users for your business’s mobile app, just like the App Store announcement created lines all around the country for the chance to use the iPhone and the App Store. 

Your users are waiting for innovation. Anything that makes life easier and user experience better is quickly embraced. It’s not just implementing the latest bells and whistles that Apple has always pushed out every year — such as dark mode or a newer version of Siri. It’s also about the new and updated frameworks that not only make our iPhone app development jobs easier, but also offer you opportunities to create more innovative and engaging iOS apps for your users.

Of the multitude of new features to be included in iOS 13 that were revealed at Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference, two stand out as the most applicable to incorporate into all iOS apps being built or maintained now for iOS 13’s launch in September.

Sign In with Apple

If you only ever build or maintain your apps to fulfill the minimum requirements of the App Store, you are denying your users a better product and trying to protect a budget that will never grow without innovation. 

Apple’s new Sign In with Apple feature, which will be available across multiple Apple platforms and the web, is the perfect example of an additional feature that can make a big difference. This new feature will only be required on apps that offer third-party authentication. But why wouldn’t you want to give this to your users? Every user that has downloaded your app has an Apple account, which they can use to quickly sign into your app without filling out forms, verifying email addresses, and choosing new passwords. 

This not only speeds up the on-boarding process for your users but also gives them the ability to re-authenticate anytime with Face ID or Touch ID. Your users’ privacy will be protected because they don’t have to hand over personal data to third-party companies such as Google and Facebook. It’s not a question of whether Apple deserves to make this a requirement of your app; it’s a question by your users of when will your app finally give them the chance to use it.

SwiftUI

Of all the new features of iOS 13 presented at WWDC, the SwiftUI framework will save our business app development clients more money than anything else. Clients and their users may not be concerned with what’s happening under the hood of their app, or why many well-known iOS app developers have been calling SwiftUI a “game-changer” or even a “paradigm shift” in the iOS app development industry. But one of the most important things using SwiftUI will do is save IOS developers time, by at least a third, when building or updating your app. 

SwiftUI’s declarative syntax makes structuring user interfaces so much easier than trying to utilize UIKit framework without having to use the clunky storyboards and nib files. Even if you don’t know what that means, businesses should understand that it allows for easier implementation of new features in the future, continually saving time in the development and design process. 

Also, the introduction of the Combine framework into the Swift ecosystem now gives you a native way to reactively manage asynchronous events in Swift, meaning you don’t have to rely on third-party reactive frameworks for event-driven systems, making your UI even more responsive than before.

It won’t just be the idea behind your business’s iOS app that will attract users and keep them. It will be your willingness to innovate and incorporate the latest features from Apple that your users will appreciate most, and your tech will stand the test of time. App developers: Advance!

3Advance is an app development company in Washington DC that creates beautiful, simple mobile apps. If you’d like to learn how our UX-focused or AI-powered apps can move your business forward, drop us a line. We’d love to hear from you.