Issue 556

29^th April 2022

Written by Dave Verwer

Comment

This week saw many developers receive notices from Apple saying they will remove apps from the store that haven’t been updated for more than two years. I actually thought Apple had done this before, but I can’t find any evidence that they did. From the wording in the notices, though, it seems likely to happen this time.

The stats in this article from Ariel Michaeli are worth looking at and show more than 750,000 live apps that could be in this situation. I don’t expect Apple to blanket remove them all, but this is a big problem. It’s especially rough for game developers as games are less likely to break on more modern versions of iOS and are more likely to be “completed objects”.

Part of the problem is that the effort needed to update an app for compatibility with a new iOS release can be significant, especially for smaller developers. The requirement to add retina assets was the end of one of my early apps, as it would have meant commissioning a whole new set of artwork for it, and it was very artwork-heavy. Instead, I decided to retire the app.

Does the answer lie in better backwards compatibility? Resubmission of an app that still compiles without changes and where developers don’t need to make significant platform updates would be a much easier pill to swallow, but even that would come with a cost. Backward compatibility costs time and effort and slows down moving the platforms forward. Is it worth the trade-off? Also, would the App Store really be a better place today if my app from 2012 with non-retina artwork were still available? I don’t think it would.

With so many apps, it can’t be a case of looking at each one individually. There needs to be a rule, and I think I’m with Apple that the trade-off is worth it in this case, even though it’ll be a shame to see some working apps fall as part of the change.

Dave Verwer

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News

As time goes on, it’s evident that Apple is serious about open-source Swift, especially where it relates to Swift on the Server. Do you need some evidence of how serious? Just check out this annual review from the SSWG written up by Tim Condon.

Matt Gallagher investigates and finds … well, you could draw a few conclusions from his findings, but this is a good takeaway:

Do you need 32GB for iOS dev? No, but memory up to 32GB is rarely wasted when IDEs are involved, even the difference is subtle.

Tools

This new app from Stefan Blos and Amos Gyamfi is a great way to experiment with the various built-in SwiftUI animations. Use it to learn or tweak parameters to get everything looking perfect. It’s free, too, so what are you even waiting for? 🚀

For full disclosure, this app is published by Stream, who regularly sponsors this newsletter.

Code

I like the idea of Nick McConnell’s “screen flow manifesto”, and if you’ve been struggling with multi-screen or branching navigation flows in SwiftUI, then this is worth a read as it’s something he’s been working on for a while now.

I enjoyed this post from John O’Reilly talking about migrating code from Combine to Apple’s new AsyncAlgorithms package and AsyncSequence.

What is Swift missing? Helge Heß says view controllers!

Design

I couldn’t agree more with the ideas presented by Soroush Khanlou in this post as a way to control how many colours your app uses. My colour names definitely need work compared to his, though! 😅

If you have even a passing interest in ever creating a menu bar extra for a Mac app, you need to read this post from Marc Edwards. It’s really that simple. 👍

Videos

What if the Swift reference guide was an unabridged video series? Darrell Root has made that a reality!

Jobs

Senior Staff Engineer, iOS @ MyFitnessPal – Our users rely on the MyFitnessPal iOS app to power their health and fitness journeys every day. You’ll have the opportunity to positively impact those users In addition to technical expertise, you’ll find that your teammates value collaboration, mentorship, and inclusive environments. – Remote (within US timezones)

iOS Developer @ Konrad – Konrad is an amazing community of the brightest minds in tech. We build bleeding edge mobile applications for some of the largest, most exciting companies in the world. We have a team of 250+ developers that work with the latest technologies. – Remote (within US timezones) with some on-site work (Canada)

Mac & iOS Software Engineer @ Flexibits Inc. – We make Fantastical and Cardhop, award-winning calendar and contacts apps for Mac and iOS. We were honored to win Apple’s Mac App of the Year in 2020 and we’re looking to make our apps even better! Our team is a 18 person, fully-remote company spread across the US and Europe. – Remote (within US or European timezones)

Are you looking for a new job? Don’t forget there are native apps for iOS and macOS over at iOS Dev Jobs!

And finally...

It was a more innocent time. 🍻