Tag: SharePlay

Apple starts WWDC22 with many great announcements for developers

by Danis Tazetdinov

WWDC22 is here! Apple's annual conference started with Special Event day, Keynote, State of the Union and Apple Design Awards.

Apple Developer Center

It actually started on Sunday June 5th. Apple presented its new Apple Developer Center to public. Center provides an opportunity to development teams to participate in workshops hosted by Apple and meet Apple teams while working on interesting projects. Overall, Apple Developer Center brings Apple Store aesthetics to developer-focused venue.

Apple did not provide any announcements on how often it would invite developers to visit Developer Center, but general recommendation is to monitor for emails and news in Developer app.

Keynote

Before going into OS updates, let's mention Apple M2 announcement which is iterates over success of M1. New chip is presented in new MacBook Air with design following recent MacBook Pro principles. New MacBook Air is fan-less and provides full day battery life.

M2 MacBook Pro 13" is also announced with no body changes.

iOS 16

iOS 16 brings many new features including:

  • Personalizable Lock Screen with widgets based on WidgetKit;
  • Live Activities which extends notifications on Lock Screen with realtime updates;
  • Focus mode API for developers – Focus Filters;
  • Live Text API;
  • Shared With You API;
  • Collaboration API to allow easy collaboration start via Messages app;
  • Improvements in Apple Pay, Apple Pay Later, Apple Pay Order Tracking;
  • SharePlay in Messages;
  • Developer mode should now be explicitly enabled on devices to allow debugging or UI automation testing;
  • Simpler way of integrating Siri support – App Intents.

iPadOS 16

iPadOS gets more desktop-like features:

  • M1 iPads will now be able to use Stage Manager – display up to four applications per screen (totaling with 8 apps when connected to external display) at the same time, and resize app windows;
  • Finally iPad gets its own Weather app.

watchOS 9

watchOS 9 brings many features focused on fitness and health including:

  • AFib constant monitoring will help people to monitor their condition and check how their behavior affects it;
  • New monitoring features will help better understand the quality of the workouts and overall fitness progress.

macOS 13 Ventura

macOS also gets attention this year:

  • Continuity camera now allows using iPhone in video conferencing;
  • Also FaceTime calls could be handed off to Mac easily;
  • Stage Manager is here to help with window clutter.

Xcode 14

Xcode 14 focuses on developer performance and adds multiple useful features for developers. Xcode Previews were rebuilt and are expected to run more smoothly.

Frameworks

As always, many existing frameworks get important updates:

  • SwiftUI gets new charts library, new approach for navigation and navigation views;
  • Metal 3 focuses on performance for resources and shaders;
  • Nearby Communications (UWB) improvements;
  • MapKit brings Maps features including Look Around to third-party apps;
  • WeatherKit for weather apps;
  • And many more...

App Store Review Guidelines are updated

2.5.4: Deleted requirement that apps using location background mode include a reminder that doing so may dramatically decrease battery life.
4.2.3: Deleted requirement to include sufficient content in the binary for the app to function at launch.
4.7: Deleted restriction on lotteries or charitable donations in code that is not embedded in the binary.
5.2.5: If your app displays Apple Weather data, it should follow the attribution requirements provided in the WeatherKit documentation.
5.3.3: Deleted restriction on purchasing lottery or raffle tickets or initiating fund transfers in the app.

Apple Developer

New Human Interface Guidelines are published

New Apple Human Interface Guidelines are now unified across platforms, provide links to relevant talks and design resources.

Apple Newsroom:

Apple Developer:

Productivity apps are also using SharePlay

by Danis Tazetdinov

Following news on Zillow app started using SharePlay it is now turn for productivity app to adopt this feature.

Task management app Reality Tasks is now using SharePlay.

You can now share collections easily via SharePlay! Share tasks by just clicking on the blue button in the bottom right corner.
After you finish your FaceTime call, you will be still able to edit the same collection in real-time due to the cloud sync. The feature works across iOS and macOS as well.

Reality Tasks – what's new

Reference: ‘Reality Tasks’ is the latest productivity app to take advantage of SharePlay

App Store: Reality Tasks: Kanban & To-Do

SharePlay makes its way to house rental apps

by Danis Tazetdinov

Zillow app adds support for SharePlay for collective browsing of homes for rent.

Collaborative shopping is enabled by a new feature for FaceTime called SharePlay. During a FaceTime call, Zillow app users can start a SharePlay session in order to search together, explore maps and view listing photo galleries in sync on Apple mobile devices. SharePlay is available to anyone on an iPhone or iPad running iOS 15.1 or iPadOS 15.1 or later.

Zillow
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Zillow

Zillow: America's favorite pastime -- Zillow surfing -- is now a group sport with SharePlay on iPhone and iPad

App Store: Zillow Real Estate & Rentals

Reference: Zillow Adds FaceTime SharePlay Feature for Collectively Browsing Homes

Apple releases iOS 15.2, macOS 12.1, Xcode 13.2 and other platforms

by Danis Tazetdinov

Big day for Apple users – macOS 12.1 Monterey with SharePlay support is released. iOS/iPadOS 15.2 is also released together with watchOS 8.3 and tvOS 15.2.

Important new features in the updates:

  • SharePlay is available on macOS 12.1 Monterey;
  • iOS, iPadOS, watchOS provide App Privacy Report allowing users to inspect app network activity in a friendly form;
  • Communication safety features for children are added, will notify children of potentially unsafe content;
  • Digital Legacy is now added allowing users to designate people to take care of Apple ID when user passes away;
  • Updates add support for Apple Music Voice plan;
  • Xcode 13.2 brings support for upcoming Swift Playgrounds 4 project format;
  • Swift Concurrency back deployment is now enabled in Xcode 13.2.

Xcode download from App Store might be broken for now

According to Developer Forums thread there might be issues with Xcode 13.2 downloaded from App Store. This issues might also be already resolved. In case, you see similar behavior, please use Developer Downloads section to get Xcode 13.2.

Together with macOS Monterey, Apple also pushed security updates for macOS Big Sur and macOS Catalina.

Apple also updates Developer Agreement to reflect changes related to Swift Playgrounds 4 and Xcode Cloud.

HomePodOS gets 15.2 update which brings new Siri languages including Dutch and Russian, hinting new territories for HomePod sales. tvOS 15.2 also gets new languages supported for Siri.

Notably, Universal Control feature is postponed til Spring 2022.

Release notes:

Reference:

Apple publishes Release Candidate for its platforms

by Danis Tazetdinov

Release Candidate is published for upcoming OS releases.

These updates include Apple Music Voice Plan support, service history is now tracked on the phone.

Also, iOS now includes App Privacy Report.

iOS & iPadOS 15 introduced the Record App Activity feature in the privacy settings, allowing people to save a summary of sensor, data, and internet access by apps on their device. In iOS & iPadOS 15.2, this activity is presented in Settings in a new UI called App Privacy Report. This is a great opportunity to review your app’s sensor, data, and internet usage. To view your activity in the report, go to Settings > Privacy > App Privacy Report > Turn On App Privacy Report. Activity will show once you use your app. (78696668)

iOS & iPadOS 15.2 Release Notes

Siri gets Dutch language support on HomePod in this RC hinting upcoming availability of HomePod in Netherlands.

Legacy Contacts are also enabled in RC.

macOS 12.1 Monterey now supports SharePlay, but Universal Control is still missing. Also RC includes a lot of fixes, including problems with charging, "notch" and others.

watchOS 8.3 RC now enables ECG in China and adds Assistive Touch support to older models.

Corresponding Xcode 13.2 RC is also released.

Beta download: Beta Software Downloads

Release notes: iOS & iPadOS 15.2 Release Notes, macOS Monterey 12.1 Release Notes, watchOS 8.3 Release Notes, tvOS 15.2 Release Notes, Xcode 13.2 RC Release Notes

Reference:

New beta for iOS, macOS and other OSes are published

by Danis Tazetdinov

Apple publishes iOS/iPadOS 15.2, tOS 15.2, watchOS 8.3 and macOS 12.1 beta 2. No new Xcode 13.2 beta is published so far though.

Notable changes include:

  • Legacy contacts settings are added to iOS
  • Mail app now provides access to iCloud+ Hide My Email feature
  • iOS 15.2 beta 2 now includes Communication Safety features for children (notable change from initial draft is removal of parent notification)
  • Find My now allows to scan nearby AirTags and other items
  • SharePlay is enabled for macOS 12.1
  • Universal Control is still not enabled in macOS beta