iOS 10 has landed and boy, does it have a lot of neat little features for us developers.
Along with all the new emojis and fancy iMessage effects, many of your favourite apps can now extend itself into more Apple places, such as iMessages, Siri, and Maps. In a nutshell, iOS 10 apps can integrate itself with Apple’s ecosystem of apps, such as iMessages, Siri, and CallKit.
iMessage integration
Probably the most interactive new feature of iOS 10 is the massive upgrade to iMessages. With iOS 10, developers can now write apps that integrate directly with iOS’s native messaging system. Besides the silly stickers and drawings, developers can write apps that tap into iMessage and allow users to interact with each other.
Your iOS 10 powered app can let users quickly pay with Apple Pay, send important notifications, share content, or even interact with one another on a custom interface you design, all within Apple’s iMessages.
Apply Pay on the web
Apple Pay is now on the web and it provides a near instant payment method. Online retailers should be excited about this change as previously, to make a payment online, you’d need to enter a bunch of credit card information and this is a considerable barrier where you could lose a customer. On iOS 10, customers can simply choose to pay via Apple Pay, authenticate with TouchID, and that’s it! Transactions are made simple and near instant.
If your customer has bank cards linked to their Apple Pay, the transaction is as seamless as an in-app purchase. Online retailers with Apple Pay technology can expect more conversions as the Apple Pay is streamlined and involves less steps in processing payments than traditional third party payment gateways.
SiriKit
Depending on your app, you can have Apple’s voice assistant Siri assist with simple commands via voice. With the new iOS 10 Siri framework, if your app is categorised as one the following, you can access the power of Siri.
- Messaging
- Ride sharing
- Photo library
- Peer to peer payments
- Workout
- Climate control and Carplay radio
While the list is small, Apple has stated they’ll open SiriKit to more categories in the future. For now, we can do neat little things like sending a message via MyMessageApp, send a payment via MyPaymentApp, find all photos of me with MyPhotoApp, or workout with MyFitnessApp, all with just Siri.
CallKit
A new exciting change is developer access to the native iPhone call management system. Developers can now develop apps where VoIP calls are directed to the iPhone’s phone call interface, even while outside of the app. This change lets users accept/reject an app phone call without the need to open the app itself.
Notable apps such as Skype and WhatsApp once required you to swipe the notification and enter the app to take a call. But with iOS 10, your calls can be taken through the regular iPhone interface. Consumers love familiarity so if your app uses some form of VoIP calls, implementing CallKit will boost your app engagement.
iOS 10 is certainly a goody bag of new features for us developers and we’re excited about working these new features into our apps. Even old apps can make use of these new features. Just give us a call or email and we’ll discuss the best strategy to bringing your app to iOS 10.