Why I think WWDC 2018 will be huge for iOS platform and iOS developers

Since I have been an iOS developer for about 8 years and also been an Apple fan for more than a decade. From my experience, I think I see something in iOS 11 which led me to think that WWDC 2018 (or maybe 2019) will be a very huge WWDC for iOS developers that may change iOS platform into another level

About 5 years ago, Grant Paul discovered a private iOS feature Remote View Controller in iOS 6 which is based on XPC technology that allows a process to communicate to another process in a secure way. At that time Apple used it to power the Mail Compose API.

However, the interesting thing about this hadn’t happened until 2 years later. Apple introduced Extension feature in iOS 8 which was developed and built on the Remote View Controller. And as you may know, Extension is one of the most important technologies in iOS platform now. There were 7 extension points when it lunched in iOS 8, now it has more than 20 extension points and new to come every year.

Fast forward to 2017, I think I saw some hints on what will be the next big change in iOS platform. Apple acquired Workflow app team in March and NSFileProviderService API in File Provider introduced in WWDC 2017 in June.

Workflow is an award winning iOS application for doing automation works in iOS. It can chaining multiple work into a flow of actions and also support performing actions with another application via URL scheme mechanism.

NSFileProviderService API is a new XPC technology based API that provides a custom communication channel between an app and a File Provider extension. The interesting part of this API is that the app and the File Provide don’t need to be from the same developer.

By combining those 2 powerful things plus the great Developer Experience on API design from Apple, I think we’ll see a new powerful mechanism for doing an automation in iOS comes with a new powerful API for doing an communication between apps to support the automation.

Workflow would play an important part for users. It would allow users to run, create and manage their automation flows. There also would be the new framework, mechanism or technology for developer to support the automation flows in their app. It would be based on the XPC mechanism that Apple already laid some groundwork in iOS for NSFileProviderService API. This will allow an iOS app to communicate directly to other apps in a better, fast, and secure way than the URL scheme and also provide a better, fast and seamless experience for the users too. The NSFileProviderService is like what Remote View Controller was 5 years ago, a glimpse to the new techology in the future, in my opinion.

If this is true, this Workflow and the new technology will open a new opportunity for developers and will greatly enhance the iOS platform like what Extensions did 4 years earlier, or maybe even more than what Extensions did.

How powerful it could be? Think of this scenario, user can create a workflow recipe consisted of some actions from many apps. They can run their recipe from, let’s say the Workflow app, and then iOS will perform those actions and talk to some apps if needed without any asking user for more interaction. And since user start this action by running a Workflow recipe, it may not need more confirmation from user

I think we may see this new technology/API in WWDC 2018. However, this is a very important concept and also very complicated topic. Also there’s a huge concern about user privacy. So there’s a chance that Apple want to give it some more time and that means we may not see it in WWDC 2018 (if Apple is working on it for real) but we should be see it in WWDC 2019 at the latest in my opinion.

I can’t wait to see what’s coming in WWDC 2018