Meet SwiftUI – Apple’s New Interactive UI Framework for app development announced at WWDC 2019

A Brief History of Apple Products

Most Apple products thrived on a cutting-edge operating system called NeXTSTEP that used a programming language called Objective-C, until recently. Cupertino then adapted NeXTSTEP and made it into Mac OS X, which morphed into the macOS, iOS, watchOS and tvOS popular today. Mobile app development companies used APIs like AppKit and UIKit for developing apps for Mac and iOS.  However, according to some recent announcements Apple is replacing NeXT APIs with SwiftUI.

 

Swift UI: What and Why?

Swift UI was launched recently at WWDC 2019 to radically change the way app development experts make Apple products. It is an interactive framework that allows app developers to design applications for iOS, MacOS and tvOS. The unique feature of the framework in that it supplies the tools and APIs to developers for bringing the iPhone app solutions to other Apple platforms like Mac, TV and watch. This multi-paradigm, compiled programming language developed by Apple Inc. has lead to the farewell of previously popular NSObject that all Apple products used. All Apple devices would work with a native API for Swift development henceforth.

Here are some unique perks that Swift UI brings along for mobile app developers:

Generic Ease of Development

As mentioned earlier, Swift UI has revolutionised the way apps are developed for Apple devices. The programming language has realigned the technology Apple uses, to match the current trends of programming in the tech world.  The company has ensured that developers produce better apps with less code when they use SwiftUI. The user interfaces can be built for all Apple devices with just a single set of tools and APIs. The Declarative syntax allows a developer to simply state what your user interface should do, to implement it on the product. Thus the coding process has been simplified to save time and cost of mobile app development. The syntax also brings down the effort put in by developers to use animations in a product. They can select from a list of ready-made effects using minimal codes to execute ‘alive’ applications. Additionally, Xcode design tools keep the code and design in perfect sync.

Rich Native Apps for Apple Users

Modern app development experts are hooked to React Native for app creation.  React Native apps became popular because they could be developed in JavaScript and then compiled on both iOS and Android devices, thus offering huge conveniences to developers. Though convenient to make, these cross-platform apps lacked the performance prowess that a true native app displays.  Additionally, they required heavy extra coding from third-party libraries to ensure stellar performance in the end product. With the introduction of SwiftUI, Apple is allowing developers to build native apps from scratch and easily at that! During the run time, the SwiftUI system takes care of all the steps needed for flawless execution and even deals with interruptions on its own. As it can access all the native functionalities and technologies, it delivers engaging UI experience at a lightning fast speed.

Xcode 11

Apple introduced the avant-garde UI design tool that comes built into Xcode 11. The unique advantage of this tool is that it allows app designers to assemble UI with SwiftUI quickly, without any need for code. The Swift code is an automatically generated code. The modifications in the code are reflected in the Visual Design tools instantly. iPhone app developers will benefit from these automatic; real-time previews of the app UI, as they can assemble, test, refine their code to suit the needs of the product.  The distinct convenience of switching from and to graphical design & writing code; makes the UI development project very productive. It also encourages a close work association between software developers and UI designers.

Drag and Drop for iOS Developers

Following the theme of simplicity as promised, SwiftUI eases the whole app development procedure with its ‘Drag and Drop’ feature. The feature allows developers to pick an element and put in on board, customize it and re-arrange how it functions quite easily. Most of these visual editor options will also be available for code editors. Thus, developers will be able to monitor new modifiers for all controls when they are coding. This gives SwiftUI an edge over languages like Objective-C and Python.

Apple IDs

Using an Apple ID for sign in instead of going through the time-consuming ordeal of filling forms, verifying accounts and re-iterating passwords is the easiest way for secure user experience. A user can just sign in and start using the app ensuring easy onboarding. The two-factor authentication ensures that all user data is secure. Moreover, there is a new anti-fraud feature check that real humans are logging in instead of framed accounts and hackers.  There is also an email relay service that does not require users to disclose their personal email address but still makes it possible for them to receive important messages from the app developer.

Dynamic Replacement

The recent announcements about SwiftUI ensured that the Swift compiler and runtime would be fully embedded with Xcode 11. This allows iOS developers the convenience of building and running the applications they are working on, in real time. This means that the canvas will not portray the approximate reflection of UI design but will show the real-time, live version of the application to the developers working on it.  Additionally, Xcode would help swap the edited code in the live version of the application using the ‘dynamic replacement’ factor.

Previews

Another plus for designers opting to develop apps with SwitchUI framework; is the unique privilege of being able to create multiple previews of their design and then review them on multiple devices in different orientations.  This feature allows candid experimentation in terms of font, colour, layout in the product. These previews can work well on connected Apple devices like the iPad, iPod, Apple watch and TV too.

Apple Watch

Apple recently announced the watchOS6 and app store on Apple watch that functions without an iPhone, changing the way watches can serve humans. With this, it also underlined a huge scope of app development for Apple watch, that many businesses would like to exploit.

 

Conclusion

It is easy to conclude that with SwiftUI app development for Apple devices is as easy as it gets. The automatic functionalities like Dark Mode, Accessibility, Right-to-left language support and internationalization are a huge time saver on the development front. These features plus several others are going to help SwiftUI framework transform the way app development experts build apps for Apple devices forever. Also, the distinct native functionalities added to the SwiftUI are a huge attraction for app businesses seeking an engaging user experiences.