Issue 475

25^th September 2020

Written by Dave Verwer

Comment

It’s always hard to tell which features of a new iOS release are going to be a hit with your app’s users. Should you spend time creating a widget, an App Clip, adding support for Siri, or any of a multitude of other system features that Apple adds each year.

It gets even trickier to make those decisions when you’re weighing Apple’s development priorities (new operating system features) with new functionality that’s more closely aligned with your app’s goals. Is adding support for a brand new API going to lead to a featured story on the App Store? Is that bump in sales for a few days going to be better for your business than implementing that feature that a hundred customers have requested? It’s a balancing act.

If you decided to implement a widget this year, or even made a whole new app with the technology, it’s fairly safe to say that it was the right decision. But it’s so easy to say that in hindsight. It could just as easily have turned out to be a mistake.

I can’t offer any concrete advice at the end of this, except to say that there’s a cost to everything, and choosing the right development priorities is never trivial. Congratulations to everyone who saw widget-based success this week, but also to those who prioritised user feature requests too. I hope your customers remember that you went the extra mile for them as they email you asking why you don’t have a widget yet. 😂

Dave Verwer

Sponsored Link

Create a profile on Vettery to connect with hiring managers at startups and Fortune 500 companies who are looking to grow their mobile dev teams. Sign up - it’s free for job seekers!

News

This is a very interesting post by Miguel de Icaza talking about the benefits of having a trusted App Store. He argues for some rule amendments, as well as several changes to the purchasing UI and App Store listing pages.

The Swift Weekly Brief has been a fantastic resource for many years now, and one thing I love about it is that it’s not just dependent on one person producing it. In this post, Bas announces that he is stepping down and that the brief will no longer arrive by email. However, it will continue! If you’re not yet reading it - and I don’t know how that’s possible, it’s the perfect complement to this newsletter. You should subscribe via RSS now that the email is gone.

I want to say a huge thank you to Bas, and everyone who has contributed to the brief over the years, and an even bigger one to Kristaps Grinbergs who will continue writing it.

I’m not sure I can see this becoming more than a curiosity, but if you’re not afraid of a few sharp edges and want to build with Swift on Windows. Off you go! Of course, now I’ve said that it means it’ll be the most popular platform for Swift within 6 months. 😂

Code

I’m not afraid of long class names, but if you’re working on a large project, then you might find yourself getting overwhelmed as you try to find another variation of a class name that isn’t already in use. Or you could read this post from Joe Fabisevich instead.

If someone told me they had written 1,500 words on Label, the new SwiftUI control that places an image next to a text label, I’d struggle to believe them. As with most Apple APIs though, there’s more to this view than meets the eye. Let Federico Zanetello show you.

Business and Marketing

Yes, this post from Joe Masilotti is about a web app rather than an iOS app, but the principles are just the same. That’s not to say that every app should be built in a month, but there’s value in proving demand with an MVP and getting a paying customer is a good first step. 👍

As an independent developer, it’s easy to get tied up feature development, and it takes serious discipline to stick to a regular release schedule. It’s even harder if you have multiple apps. I enjoyed this post from Matthias Gansrigler on the problem, and how he’s planning keep on top of it.

Books

I really enjoy Kevin Renskers’s book reviews. They’re thorough and honest. If you hadn’t yet pushed the button on Thinking in SwiftUI, then this might change your mind.

Jobs

iOS Developer @ sengaro – We’re looking for a mid/senior-level iOS developer for our team at sengaro. You’ll be working on a wide variety of apps - from public transportation, news, frameworks, to apps used in the medical sector. Ideally, you’ve been in the field for 3+ years, but experience and seniority are less important to us than personality - we’re looking for a good fit to our team, not just to fill a job! – Innsbruck Austria

iOS Developer @ Doximity – Doximity, the medical network used by over 70% of US clinicians, is hiring passionate iOS engineers (remote friendly!). You’ll get to be part of an amazing product team and work on an app that is constantly evolving. Use your skills (Swift, MVVM, FRP) to be an integral part of our newly launched telemedicine feature. Apply today! – Remote within the US

And finally...

Never miss a terminal bell again…

Also, I love that this was submitted as an iTerm pull request, even if it was in jest.