Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference happened earlier this week. The conference was held virtually for the first time, due to obvious reasons. Most of it felt pre-recorded, but it was nonetheless packed with some major updates.
I’d like to briefly talk about some of them.
App Clips
This aims to radically change how you discover apps. App Clips are small versions of existing apps that allow you to accomplish small transactions like pay for parking, view a product or borrow a scooter. For these micro-transactions, it replaces the 3-step task of finding, installing and opening an app with a 1-step task of opening an App Clip. How you discover an App Clip is supposed to be automatic through several ways at the moment — 1) iMessage: a friend sends you a text with an Etsy product and you can open the corresponding App Clip right away w/o going on the App Store and installing Etsy and signing up / onboarding; 2) Apple-only QR-code / NFC tag: your phone scans an Apple QR Code / NFC tag somewhere outside like on a parking meter, and it opens the clip that lets you pay for parking with Apple Pay; 3) Web: you’re browsing a web page, and it’s somehow associated to an App Clip, which can let you open the corresponding clip; 4) Apple Maps: a place on Apple Maps like Starbucks can have a corresponding clip which can let you order coffee.
The concept behind App Clips is not a new one. Interestingly, I had this product idea a few years ago:
But, without users having a directing app on their phone already, this idea wouldn’t have been possible on iOS or Android. Because of the nature of the operating systems of Apple and Google, only Apple or Google themselves could make this kind of discovery work seamlessly. However, it looks like Android has had a feature called “Instant Apps”{:target=’_blank’} for a while and it hasn’t really been a hit. Judging from the lack of proliferation of “Instant Apps”, App Clips may turn out to be not as radical as Apple envisions.
Through App Clips, one of the things that Apple has essentially done here is create an Apple-only QR code standard that doesn’t work with other devices, making this closed ecosystem even more isolated. One can argue that Apple makes these kind of moves because their platform only works well when they have control over every component. But the other perspective is also a valid concern — that Apple makes its ecosystem more closed so that the people who don’t have iPhones feel more left out and they give in to buying an iPhone. That, in turn increases Apple’s quarterly financials. That being said, QR codes have only been successful in particular regions. In the West, QR codes are everywhere but most people don’t use them. I’ve never used a QR code in North America to load an app or website in the last 10 years. I’ve only ever used it for enabling two-factor auth through authenticator apps. However, lots of people in Asia use them. In India, I’ve used Paytm QR codes to pay for stuff.
It’s hard to tell whether App Clips will work or not, especially in the West, where there are more iPhones. What’s clear to me though, as an app consumer and developer, is that the way apps are discovered right now needs radical improvement, and due to the tight control Apple and Google wield over their ecosystems, as long as we consume software in these walled gardens, only they are in a position to make app discovery truly better.
Places
Apple is improving Maps to improve trip planning and local discovery. This is exactly what I set out to do in October 2019 with the maps product I was working on. However, as per my post earlier this month{:target=’_blank’}, it just didn’t make sense to launch a city exploration app during a pandemic. However, I’m glad Apple is working on this problem. At the moment, it seems the improvement is basically aggregation of city guides created by bloggers or popular brands, presentation of these guides alongside places you’re looking for and the ability to save and organize them to plan trips.
Whether Apple does it or Google does it, our mobile maps of today need major improvements. There are so many opportunities to make the experience of discovering places better — but Apple and Google only seem to be working on 10% of them.
Widgets
Widgets looked cool. Essentially, imagine widgets as a way to make icons on your homescreen bigger and their ability to show live content within those widgets. It could be weather, music, stocks, your calendar — the possibilities are endless. It’s really up to the app developers to think of ways to make people’s lives more convenient through meaningful widgets. It’s unclear whether people will actually use the feature or not. Very few people use widgets in the state they’re in today on their iPhones or Macs. Are widgets in their present form just not useful enough? Or because widgets are always seperated from the main points of contact (homescreen, desktop) people can’t really access them easily? Or do people not really care about widgets? I’m fascinated by these questions and I’ll be waiting for iOS 14 so I can determine the value homescreen widgets can bring to my life.
That said, this essentially seems like a “catch-up” move by Apple to Google. Android has had SmartStack for ages and users have been customizing their homescreens or “App Drawers” on Android in a million ways over the last few years.
Conclusion
Overall, WWDC is always intriguing to watch. WWDC day is well-established in the tech world as an afternoon on which people don’t really get any work done. After all, the future of mobile platforms is important for anyone in technology and without a doubt, Apple shapes much of the direction.
The pre-recorded feel of the 2020 one wasn’t as fun. It’s always entertaining to hear the woos and boos of the live crowd and the celebrity sightings. However, amidst a worldwide pandemic, that was clearly not an option this year.
I’ve already expressed how wary I feel about the closed ecosystem of Apple that exists in the guise of openness. It’s not good for the world, and its eventual demise is inevitable. However, for the near term Apple’s future still seems good. Apple devices are shiny, new objects everyone wants to own. In comparison to other hardware and operating systems, the Apple experience feels slicker. And as expected, Apple has been shipping more affordable phones, tablets and desktop machines. With their decision to abandon Intel chips moving forward, their machines are only going to get faster.
That said, I’m honestly starting to get tired of Apple executives describing everything they make as “gorgeous” and their inauthentic claims of “inventing” things that already exist. More often than not in the last few years, their products have not really “reinvented” anything. There was a time when Apple reinvented stuff and it felt justified (and an admirable, clever marketing ploy) that they refer to themselves as inventors. But every year in my recent memory, their annual event becomes slightly more boring and they become less of inventors and more guarders of their closed ecosystem and gargantuan bottom line.