iOS app development trends that will dominate 2019

Apple has always had a key role in bringing about change. Its hardware becomes more sophisticated year by year and the iOS platform gets in step.

Every year, the trillion-dollar company has quite a lot to share. Apple’s latest updates in September featured a couple of new devices and showed that new processing, graphics, and AI power can make a difference.

The long-awaited iOS 12 release introduced key features that make the iOS operating system even more reliable and competitive and can make your iPhone and iPad experience even more delightful. These recent technological advancements have spurred iOS app developments that will likely rule 2019. So, what’s the buzz in mobile app development on iOS?

Let’s go into details to see what trends set the tone for the future of the industry.

1. Hey Siri, what about Artificial Intelligence?

Ever since Apple launched AI personal assistant Siri, it has gained broad traction worldwide. No doubt, it’s getting smarter over time.

Apple released its latest SiriKit for iOS developers to enable iOS and watchOS apps to work with Siri just using voice. There are many benefits of integrating SiriKit with your app, including access from the lock screen and hands-free use .

Siri Shortcuts intelligently suggest shortcuts to actions that you may want to perform using an app. Consequently, you can determine which actions in your app are suitable for users and what they’d like to do in the future. Apps tell Siri about these actions by specifying them as relevant shortcuts.

You can also run shortcuts by voice and create your own with the new Shortcuts app.

2 . Machines continue to learn

Artificial Intelligence has been a true game changer in mobile app development, and Apple has the lead when it comes to leveraging machine learning in their chips. The company has unveiled its core processor - the 7-nanometer A12 Bionic - which includes a "Neural Engine" for tasks related to machine learning, such as Face ID and the new customizable Animoji called “Memoji.” This new AI brain will let devices perform multiple tasks, like taking better photos and recognizing unhealthy heartbeat patterns. Just think, the A12's built-in circuitry performs 5 trillion operations per second. That’s a sevenfold increase in comparison with A11.

It is worth mentioning here that recently Apple launched a framework, Core Machine Learning 2 (CoreML 2), that allows for the creation of high-performance and highly responsive applications, as compared to general iOS apps. This framework is also used for analyzing natural language text and deducing its language-specific metadata.

CoreML 2 also covers tasks such as language and script identification, lemmatization, parts-of-speech tagging, and training and deploying custom natural language models.

3. Embracing the power of AR/VR and 3D

During the latest updates, Apple showcased several improvements for ARKit 2, which is the next generation of its augmented reality app development platform coming in the 12th iOS edition. It offers improved face tracking, the ability to measure objects with your iPhone and iPad, and support for 3D object detection.

Also, creating a multi-user AR experience is not a problem anymore. Apple’s AR is now shared, persistent and even more engaging than before. With ARKit 2, users can create a piece of AR art that can be viewed later in the same place by another person. It will enable iOS developers to build multiplayer games and simulations, which was not possible earlier.

So, which apps should you try to test what ARKit has to offer? The best ARkit-enabled apps include Houzz, Dance Reality, and Giphy World.

No doubt, ARKit 2 (for AR/VR app development) and SceneKit (for 3D graphic designing) will dramatically enhance the development of simulated environment apps, inevitably becoming one of the top iOS development trends for 2019.

4. Thinking sensibly about security

While discussing iOS app development trends, it is essential to consider the fact that hackers are evolving faster than technology. Apple has managed to create an enterprise-wide, security-minded culture that can help users maintain a safe working environment.

For the company, it’s vital to continuously improve its security to prevent data breaches and cyber attacks. It’s not just another app development trend, but the company's commitment to upgrading its privacy policy while releasing updates.

Now it’s possible to use the Authentication Services framework to integrate password manager apps with Password AutoFill. ASWebAuthenticationSession is utilized to share persistent cookies and website data between an app and Safari for a single sign-on experience.

5. IoT...Let’s get connected!

According to Statista, 75 billion devices will be connected to the Internet by 2020. That’s why this list of iOS development trends would be incomplete without mentioning the Internet of Things.

Apple managed to introduce a highly secure IoT ecosystem called HomeKit, thus unlocking numerous opportunities for developers as it will help easily connect with any IoT devices.

HomeKit apps enable users to communicate with and control connected home automation accessories and to discover compatible accessories and configure them. Users will be able to create actions to control such devices grouping them together as well as managing them with the help of Siri. Sounds groundbreaking, right?

It seems that during the coming year, all these advancements will help to truly unleash the potential of connected solutions in our everyday life.

6. ...for everything else, there's Apple Pay!

After a successful roll-out in America, Apple Pay has spread to many more countries and is becoming more and more popular. Apple Pay is supported by all Apple devices and is good for its security, as you don’t need to save your card details.

Therefore, in the upcoming year, iOS app development will likely follow a cashless policy and developers will continue to adopt Fintech innovations.

7. Swift 5 and cross-platform apps

Apple's Swift is now ranked among the top programming languages and continues to grow rapidly. Currently, there are over 350,000 apps written in Swift on the App Store. Created as a replacement for Objective-C, it has become a go-to language for writing native i OS or Mac OS apps.

This coding language is praised for its numerous advantages such as simplicity, scalability, and safety. No doubt, Swift has a bright future. In early 2019, the updated Swift 5 will be released, giving developers even more opportunities for successful app development.