Curious about the roadmap/tips that lead to succeeding at iOS app development? Here we discuss the exact topics and concepts you must understand!
iOS App Development offers a big return on income compared to other mobile platforms. But not every company needs an iOS app. They can do just fine with their web counterpart. Granted that most people want to make iOS or Android apps for their businesses, it isn’t so limiting. Alternatively, some products are better suited for iOS apps instead of websites. It’s kind of universal for companies to launch their websites before they create an iOS app. There is always this debate about mobile-first, or web-first, which one goes first if you had to prioritize something, and oftentimes mobile loses out.
Learn about iOS Development
iOS is short for iPhone Operating System or the OS that runs on iMAC devices with M1 chips. iOS platform enables developers to develop an app in native languages like Swift and React native. Swift(or Objective C (rarely used now)) or create a cross-platform application using React Native (RN) with Javascript or Xamarin with C# and F#.
Tools/Technologies/Frameworks/Libraries Ideal For iOS App Development
Apple provides tools and resources like:
- Swift (Programming Language)
- Xcode (IDE & Editor) – Instrument analysis tools
- SwiftUI and Interface Builder
- Swift, C/C++, Objective C compilers
- CodeRunner (IDE & Editor) or AppX or PhoneGap or Fabric or AppCode
- Flawless (App Design) or Hyperion, Haiku, and Figma
- AlamoFire (Libraries) as it has HTTP methods, JSON parameters, response serialization, network enhancement, and authentication services, for creating iOS apps and accessories for Apple Devices like iMAC, macOS, iPhones, iPadOS, tvOS, and watchOS.
- iOS Software Development Kit (SDK) essentials like Cocoa Touch frameworks including UIKIT, PushKit, GameKit, Foundation Kit, and MapKit.
- Peckham (Plugin)
- RayGun (Debugging)
- AlamofireImage, Cocoapods, SDWebimage, and PromiseKit – Libraries
Use iOS App Development Frameworks
Make use of Apple Frameworks to manipulate iPhone, iPad, and Camera, add voice interaction using SiriKit, explore music with MusicKit, explore the power of machine learning with Core ML and explore the power of augmented reality with ARKit.
Prepare your Development Environment
- Download and launch XCode.
- Create New Project
- Build your app using the built-in iOS Simulator App including Xcode.
- Use iOS Simulator to visualize how your app looks and interacts on a real device (Simulate your app on a variety of hardware devices and iOS versions).
- Build and test XCTest framework or iOS Unit test
- Invite users to the app and collect feedback with the help of testflight before deploying it to the App store.
- Test push notifications, data storage using Core Data, make network calls to 3rd party APIs
- Upload a beta build of the app
- Use iTunes Connect for testing
Expedite iOS Development
- Get yourself a MAC computer with the latest version of Xcode (Apple’s IDE).
- Keep your iOS App updated
- Identify and understand the target audience
- Check the device’s compatibility with various versions of iOS
- Improve features that you have already made, like content and visuals, to fit mobile and let end-users recognize your brand. As with every mobile app, iOS app content should fit into the screen, and adjust to the left and right alignment, considering clarity, deference, and depth. Make use of a large font size for easier readability, and make use of a fluid and instinctive layout that avoids shadowing, bezels, and drops. Make a clean design that competes to focus on essential objects such as text and images. Enrich the content with animations, graphics, font style, font colour, and font-side to make it appealing and aesthetic. iPhone app development must adjust auto white balance, auto exposure, face detection, image fusion, noise reduction, highlighting details, and local tone mapping.
- Develop your application with resources from already existing channels and you will build an application that projects a similar look and feel as the rest of your brand.
- Create an impressive user interface
- Test the app before deploying it
Challenges with iOS App Development
Not every company needs a lot of iOS developers. Even if a company has an iOS app they don’t necessarily want to invest so much in mobile. And that’s because the use case doesn’t make much sense as they haven’t found what it does. It is also a struggle to convince companies to invest in higher iOS developers.
It’s really expensive to be an iOS developer. They have to develop iOS Apps on MAC Book. And there are lots of MAC products out there with varying price points. You can run Xcode on any Mac, but if you write it on Mac Book Air, it is going to be very slow. A 13” Mac Book Pro has minimum specifications of processing power that you require to run. And Xcode takes about 28.58 GB of space on your computer.
The financial burden is real, and it rules out so many people from becoming iOS developers. This is why web development catches on much faster because anybody, with any machine, from anywhere, can choose to develop a website. XCode is hard to work with. Compile times can be super long depending upon the machine that iOS developers use. It sometimes gives cryptic, hard-to-get messages, you often need to clear the cache, and restart the computer.
Postulate: Encircling Your Business with Like-Minded Technologies
iOS Development is a niche technology in a close ecosystem where things change but not so drastically. Top iPhone App Development companies cannot deploy things the way we want. Apple puts the “App Store Review Process” in place to ensure a level of security, which makes developers go through a review process every time they wish to update and deploy their app in the App Store. As they submit a binary to Apple, they review it in about 1-2 days, if they accept it, it goes to the App Store for publishing. But in case they reject it, it goes back to square one i.e development. Stay hooked with App Development Agency for more updates!
