8 iPhone App Development Trends in 2019

iPhone app development trends for the year 2019 has not much changed from the year 2018.

Let’s brush up our iOS app development trends of 2018 that we had discussed in 2018:

1. Augmented Reality
2. Core Machine Learning
3. Swift4
4. Artificial Intelligence & Contextual Learning for Siri
5. Apple Pay
6. Apple HomeKit
7. File Management

Among all of these, we only need to say goodbye to Swift4 and the File Management. So, some of the iPhone app development trends from 2018 are going to stay in 2019 and in the upcoming years. But, there are a few more trends to be added to the list.

Let’s get to them straight away.

iPhone App Development Trends 2019

1. Augmented Reality

It was the launch of iOS 11 which brought Augmented Reality (AR) to the hands of the iPhone app developers.

We, being the iOS app developers, started using the powers of Apple’s ARKit framework to make our clients’ apps much smarter.

Let’s have a look at how the leading enterprises are already utilizing the power of Augmented Reality (AR):

IKEA Place allows the customers to imagine how their products would look into their home virtually without bringing the products at home.

American Airlines brings real-time information on what is where near you at the airport terminals. You can choose your way towards your departing gate, a coffee shop or the nearest restroom.

Recently, with the advancements in Apple’s ARKit framework, Apple is trying to do “Augmented Reality Interface for Interacting with Displayed Maps” with its new patent application . This means that Apple wants to use advanced ARKit in the Apple Maps to help people navigate to unfamiliar places using their iPhones.

This would be really interesting and fun to see live in action.

It’s the time you use ARKit framework in your next iOS application development. Also, the Augmented Reality (AR) will become the must-have feature in the upcoming on-demand apps.

If you are looking to develop iOS apps like Zomato or UberEats food delivery apps, you need to consider AR for sure in 2019.

2. Apple ATS TLS 1.2

Apple never compromises on the security aspect and we have been experiencing this for the years now.

According to some studies, there are more malware attacks on Android smartphones compared to iOS ones. All thanks to Apple for its tight control over what kind of apps get launched on the App Store.

A few months back, Apple shared that the company will team up with Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla to protect the web traffic. According to their statement, Apple’s security team is looking to bring the App Transport Security (ATS) compliance, TLS 1.2 which they say is ‘security fit for the modern web’.

What is TLS?

The Transport Layer Security (TLS) provides safer and authenticated confidential communication.

For almost 20 years, TLS version 1.0 and 1.1 have been used across all the Apple platforms and we already knew there were a few bugs within the same.

From March 2020, TLS 1.0 and 1.1 will no longer be supported across any of the platforms and there will be TLS 1.2 as a standard ATS compliance for all the Apple platforms.

The year 2019 and beyond will be the years of higher security for the iOS applications reducing the developers’ hassles of adding more security add-ons.

3. AI-based Siri Shortcuts

“Siri is one of our best friends.” We hear this a lot from the iPhone users. And, people also call Siri as their boredom killer as it interacts smartly.

According to Loup Ventures, out of 800 questions asked to Siri, 74.6% were answered correctly during the tests. And, Siri got good numbers when compared to Amazon Alexa (72.5%) and Microsoft Cortana (63.4%).

That means Siri has become a smarter digital voice assistant using Artificial Intelligence (AI). With the launch of iOS 12, Siri started providing integration to the third-party iOS apps with the name, Shortcuts. If you read the features of iOS 12, this is an amazing one.

So, now the iOS app developers can build the iPhone applications that trigger certain functions using Siri quite easily and quickly. More and more business owners would have business ideas around the same to become successful. And, the app developers would build their apps using the Siri Shortcut.

Apple has started taking this function seriously which was missing in the Apple platforms for years now. So, the company is now hiring people for improving their SiriKit and enhance this Shortcut functionalities.

So, AI-based Siri Shortcuts will be seen more and more trending in the year 2019 and even beyond.

4. Core Machine Learning (ML) 2

When we had discussed the iOS app development trends for the year 2018, Core ML came with the computerized vision technologies that detect faces, natural language processing, and AI game development.

Now, the newer version, Core ML 2, is expected to play a very essential role in developing Apple’s future hardware-ready products. It is said that Apple’s Core ML is 30% faster with the help of batch prediction technique.

This new Core ML 2 toolkit allows the iPhone app developers to use quantization in reducing the 75% of the trained machine learning models’ size.

Source

Also, the company is planning to include the chip named, the Apple Neural Engine (ANE) to accelerate all the functionalities of the Machine Learning (ML) in their upcoming devices. Using this chip, even the third-party developers would be able to execute their own AI within their devices.

This increases the craze among the iOS app developers to use Core ML 2 in developing feature-rich, high-performing, responsive, and interactive iPhone and iPad apps.

So, definitely, Core ML 2 will be the eye-catching trend among the other iPhone app development trends of 2019.

5. Apple Pay

A few months back, Tim Cook said that more than one billion Apple Pay transactions took place in the Q3 of 2018 in the company’s earnings call.

Also, in a study by Loup Ventures, Apple Pay transactions is expected to see 200% growth by 2019. This clearly states that Apple products are soon going to see more integration of Apple Pay making the online transactions more secured.

Source

So, while looking to integrate a payment gateway in an app, iOS app developers would look forward to integrating Apple Pay to encourage more secured transactions.

6. Apple HomeKit

According to research by Statista, more than 45 million smart home devices will find their homes in the U.S. by the end of 2018.

Now, if we talk about household penetration research by Statista, it is expected to reach 53.9% by the year 2023.

This calls for a huge acceptance of smart home devices across the globe but especially in the United States. So, there is a huge opportunity for business owners to build IoT devices and apps to generate huge revenues and become successful.

The increasing demand for smart home devices leads to an increasing number of apps being developed using Apple HomeKit. Hence, Apple HomeKit is yet to stay in 2019 and beyond.

7. Swift 5.0

We are here to discuss the iOS app development trends for the year 2019 and we cannot overlook the updates that are planned or expected for 2019 itself.

Most experts predict the Swift 5 release date to be around April 2019, looking at the previous release date cycles. And, obviously, the updates that Swift 5 would bring will be equally important for the iOS app developers in the year 2019.

The newer version of Swift i.e. 5.0 will bring ABI (Application Binary Interfaces) stability. The ABI stability will help the iOS app developers to embed the Swift libraries with the runtime. This embedding takes place within the operating system that is compatible with the iOS apps developed using Swift 5.0 or later.

Due to the absence of ABI Stability, Objective C was being used over Swift. But, with the Swift 5.0, there is no other reason left to not choose Swift for iOS app development. Also, the ABI Stability in Swift 5.0 will drastically reduce the app size.

The Swift 5.0 will create a trend among the iOS app developers to choose Swift for their overall iOS app development from 2019.

8. iOS 13 Predictions

Just like Swift 5.0, iOS 13 is expected to be released in 2019. The experts predict that it will most probably be released during the WWDC in June 2019.

With iOS 13, more rumors are regarding the AI-based voice assistant, Siri. We predict that just like the Google Assistant, Siri will become smarter enough to personalize the responses that you get and will make calls for you.

The iOS 13 will be more of the Internet of Things (IoT), AI-based Siri, Core ML 2, and the Augmented Reality (AR) functionalities to take the technology to the next level.

iOS App Development Predictions in 2019

When we discussed the iOS app development trends for 2018, we said that these trends are going to stay longer than just 2018. And, that’s what we are seeing for another year, 2019.

Apple’s current focus is on completely utilizing technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning (ML), and Augmented Reality (AR).

The goals are clear for Apple teams which includes-

And, to achieve this, the company is going to advance on all of its platforms including iOS. So, all of the above iPhone app development trends are going to make revolutionary iOS apps to bring more business to the owners and more success for the developers.

What’s going to trend in the iOS app development segment in 2019? Share with us and we would give them the mention.