WWDC: Will Apple Launch a Real iPad/iPhone File System

WWDC 2017 is shaping up to be huge. There was lots of interest in Readdle’s creation of an effective iOS file system last week, today there’s a suggestion that Apple may plan to introduce one of its own.

iOS developer, Steve Troughton-Smith, claims to have seen a new Files app briefly on the App Store.

We don’t know if it is a files app – it’s just a placeholder, but we do know it needs iOS 11 and is called files. Of course, it could be a complete red herring, but judging from the speculation – and interest in last week’s story – it seems to me highly probable that this will be Apple’s attempt at an elegant file management system for iPads and iPhones.

What Might it do?

There’s little point second-guessing what this will do, but if it turns out to be something that enables iPad Pro and iPhone users to easily swap documents and other files between applications, then that’s going to be a good step forward for productivity on Apple devices. The video below shows how this works with Readdle’s version of such a feature.

I’m guessing this may also integrate with iCloud Drive in some way, but with an implementation that lets you keep content locally if you don’t want to put it in the cloud. It also makes sense that, say, the document you are creating on an iPad can be finished on an iPhone – which means I suspect some local network-based sharing between Apple ID’d devices.

Good Step Forward

I’ve watched Apple way too long to instantly assume the rumor will prove true, but if it does it will be interesting to see what ‘Files’ can do, and when we will be able to access them. And, of course, in related news, we hear users in the UK and elsewhere are beginning to find Apple’s TV app on their devices, which is something else to look forward to.

Meanwhile there continues to be speculation of new Macs, Siri speakers, smarter Siri and a whole lot more.

What are you expecting from this year’s show?