WWDC22: Apple makes devs API-er with Weather and more

The most crucial announcements at WWDC always take a little while to show themselves, so, what’s new for developers at WWDC so far?

Developers, developers, developers

Apple has introduced an array of new tools, technologies, and APIs developers can use to create better apps. These include the big ticket numbers, such as Widgets on the lockscreen, but also include new APIs to give existing and future apps new features. Some examples of these that Apple wanted to discuss include:

• WeatherKit: integrate Apple Weather forecast data directly into apps.
• Xcode Cloud: Now available to every Apple Developer Program member.
• Metal 3: Create breathtaking graphics with accelerated performance along with improvements to Swift, SwiftUI, and Xcode.
• SKAdNetwork gives ad networks and developers tools to measure how ads perform while still preserving user privacy.

What Apple says

“We love collaborating with our developer community and providing them with new innovative technologies that enable them to build the next great generation of apps,” said Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations and Enterprise and Education Marketing in the company’s annual boiler plate PR statement.

“With powerful new APIs for widgets on the Lock Screen, new services like WeatherKit, the availability of Xcode Cloud to help every Apple developer build apps faster, and new gaming capabilities with Metal 3, developers have more tools than ever to create app experiences that their users will love.”

Xcode Cloud Now Available

Xcode Cloud is a continuous integration and delivery cloud service designed specifically for Apple developers. It enables developers and teams of all sizes to build, test, and deliver high-quality apps even more efficiently by automatically building apps in the cloud to free up their Mac for other tasks. It delivers things developers need to test apps, such as parallel testing on simulated versions of every Apple device. Xcode Cloud is now available to more developers. All will get 25 hours per month free through December 2023. Developers can find more information on available plans for Xcode Cloud here.

Important Xcode 14 improvements

Apple says Xcode project builds are up to 25 percent faster while the app is now 30 percent smaller to download. It also offers downloadable simulator runtimes for watchOS and tvOS. The new multiplatform target creates a single SwiftUI interface for use across all Apple platforms and SwiftUI live previews are now interactive by default, so changes are immediately live, and developers can much more easily create variants. The new App Icon feature in Assets Catalog allows developers to provide a single icon size for all platforms, and Xcode automatically generates all the required assets for the app. Xcode includes language and editing enhancements with smarter autocompletion, and additional dynamic snippets get developers to the code they want to write faster.

Metal 3 is quietly a big deal

Metal 3 has been developed to exploit Apple silicon. That means things like MetalFX Upscaling will quickly render complex scenes and apply high-quality spatial upscaling and temporal anti-aliasing faster to make games feel more responsive and graphics that look stunning. A new Fast Resource Loading API minimizes wait time by providing a more direct path from storage to the GPU, so these experiences can swiftly get high-quality textures and geometry. That’s a big step toward photo realism and likely also a major step to AR.

Swift and SwiftUI improvements

Swift adds string processing capability with new regular expression literal support built directly into the language, allowing developers to quickly check the correctness of their regular expressions and extract information with less code.

Swift Package Manager offers new Package Plugins to make it easier for developers to run custom commands on their projects, and even upload and share the commands with others.

SwiftUI, Apple’s next-generation user interface framework, features an enhanced navigation API to make it easier for developers to control how their app moves from view to view. Custom Layouts let developers go beyond common app layouts and create versions that work best for their app designs, while Swift Charts can be customized to almost any charting need so developers can better visualize the data in their apps.

Take the WeatherKit with you

WeatherKit enables developers to integrate the same world-class global weather forecast that powers Apple Weather directly into their apps. Using high-resolution meteorological models combined with machine learning and prediction algorithms, Apple Weather provides current weather, 10-day hourly forecasts, daily forecasts, and historical weather.

WeatherKit is available to developers through both native Swift and REST APIs, and comes with 500,000 API calls per month included with an Apple Developer Program membership.

Developers who need more will be able to purchase additional tiers of service right in the Apple Developer app starting this fall.

Privacy-Focused Approach to Measuring Ads

The SKAdNetwork API comes with new features designed to help ad networks and advertisers better measure how ads perform in apps or on the web while still preserving user privacy. Hierarchical source IDs increase a developer’s ability to optimize their campaigns without increasing the risk of cross-app tracking of individuals. SKAdNetwork also features hierarchical conversion values to allow developers to receive more information about conversions for smaller campaigns, and developers can better calculate return on ad spend by offering multiple conversions at defined time windows.

And even more new APIs

Some of the latest APIs available to developers include:

• Widgets on the Lock Screen: Developers can share the same code between their widgets on the Lock Screen and complications on Apple Watch, based on the new WidgetKit API.

• Live Text: Developers can now offer users the ability to grab text straight from photos and videos found in their apps, or through a live camera feed. Live Text is processed on device for greater user privacy and performance.

• Collaboration tools: The rich collaboration features built into Messages are available to third-party apps. Developers can also highlight shared content in a new Shared with You section of their app.

• Passkeys: Passkeys are next-generation credentials that are more secure, easier to use, and designed to work in apps as easily as they do on the web.

• MapKit: Third-party apps can include the detailed 3D city experience and Look Around for a richer user experience. New Apple Maps Server APIs offer faster and easier Maps integrations.

• Focus filters: Developers can adjust the content of their apps based on the user’s current Focus.

• Automatic Shortcuts: Developers can now use App Intents to enable their apps to be used with Siri and Shortcuts, without user setup required.

• watchOS 9: VoIP calls are now supported with CallKit.

• RoomPlan: Developers can use the LiDAR Scanner on iPhone and iPad to create a 3D floor plan for a room, with dimensions and type of furniture included.

• Live Activities: Using WidgetKit, developers can keep their users up to date with the most current information for an activity or event right on the Lock Screen.

Also read:

• WWDC22: Apple Watch gets big health upgrades
• WWDC, iOS: Lockscreen gains widgets, more ways to share
• WWDC opens doors with good news from AirPods & HomePods

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