At its 27th Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) keynote, Apple previewed iOS 10 and watchOS 3 platforms, announced that for the first time Siri was opening up to developers and revealed how it had spruced up iMessage with “emojification”.
Tim Cook also announced some key figures: the App Store now has two million apps, downloaded 130 billion times.
He said there were now 13 million registered developers building for Apple’s platforms, with 2 million added in the last year, and that Apple had paid out a total of $50 billion directly to developers.
The announcements showed a willingness to allow outside developers to get involved in services like Messages, Maps and Siri, reflecting an emphasis on its services business at a time when hardware sales were shrinking.
iOS 10
“iOS 10 is our biggest release ever, with delightful new ways to express yourself in Messages, a native app for home automation and beautifully redesigned apps for Music, Maps, and News that are more intuitive and more powerful,” Apple’s Senior Vice -President of software engineering, Mr Craig Federighi, said.
The new Home app will deliver a secure way to manage home automation products.
Siri for developers
For the first time, developers can build on the intelligence Siri offers and let users interact directly with apps using just their voice.
SiriKit is limited to those working with apps for messaging, phone calls, photo search, ride booking, personal payments and workouts, and they can also use Siri to control CarPlay apps, access climate controls or adjust radio settings within automakers’ apps.
Watch OS 3
Apple previewed watchOS 3, which will be available this fall as a free update to Apple Watch.
“Apple Watch is the ultimate companion for a healthy life and with watchOS 3, there’s now even more to love,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer.
Apple TV
Apple’s senior Vice-President of internet software and services, Eddy Cue, said there are over 6,000 apps on Apple TV, which was getting new Siri features and a single sign-on.
With single sign-on customers can authenticate video channels from their pay-TV providers by signing in once to watch all of their network TV apps.
New tvOS APIs and tools available for developers include ReplayKit to enable them to record and live broadcast from their apps; PhotoKit to allow third-party app access to photos and videos in iCloud Photo Library and iCloud Shared Stream; and HomeKit to create apps to control HomeKit devices from Apple TV. eTNews