App Developer Chat: All Things iOS8

Yesterday on #AppDevChat we had a discussion about the latest from Apple’s WWDC announcements for iOS8.

AppDevChat is open to any app developers, marketers or others interested in learning about developing, creating, inventing, marketing apps. It happens every other Thursday at 1pm CST on twitter. We post the recap here.

Q1) What is the most shocking addition to iOS8 & why?

Predictive Keyboard & the ability for third-party keyboards was something I never thought to see in #IOS #appdevchat @QManning 

For me, the family account management was the most shocking & impressive. @misasongbird 

I think swift caught us all of guard. Not sure how nobody caught wind of this at all leading up to WWDC. @TheCodeBender 

I had no idea they were even thinking about a new language for iOS development. @BarrettBreshear 

Q2) What’s so exciting about predictive keyboard?

I’m enjoying the heck out of the predictive keyboard & find it to be much smarter than expected @QManning 

Anything that improves the overall user experience and simplifies the fundamental actions we use daily is exciting. I love that it will continually learn from you. Devices that know you and teach themselves to be better is def the future. @TheCodeBender 

Q3) For those of you using the Beta, what’s your input and first impressions?

Haven’t spent much time on it yet tbh but I think the greatness of iOS 8 lies in it’s subtleties unlike the iOS7 release.. well I would hope Apple is smart enough to make the device smart enough to be smart without sucking the battery dry! Things like answering a txt from the notification bar feel so nature and simple, love that they are focusing on this stuff. Continuity is another big one. Soo fundamentally simple yet so powerful. Things like answering a txt from the notification bar feel so nature and simple, love that they are focusing on this stuff @TheCodeBender 

#IOS8 Beta is buggier than the #IOS7 Beta was, which is surprising. Many crashes, some apps just don’t work at all. The keyboard is nice,. @QManning 

Q4) The announcement of Health & Home made a splash at WWDC, any real use for them or will they go the way of the iBook?

Health will only be as useful as the 3rd party apps that will power it and consume the information. @looklita 

Health is sort of useless, the changes to Mail are fantastic, & I’m excited about extensibility. Oh, and like #IOS7 beta, the #IOS8 beta is a battery hog. #HomeKit seems exciting & is a novel take on the home automation thing. #Health makes no sense yet & ties into nothing. @QManning 

Home was an interesting announcement but it seemed like a footnote they squeezed in at the end. Seems like a ways off.  @TheCodeBender 

Q5) How useful will the ability to have apps to talk to each other? How will this change relationships with other apps?

This seems 2 me that it will only be worth coding an app tie-in for others to utilize if your app is insanely popular @QManning 

… or else why would another app add in support for yours? if that makes any sense. @TheCodeBender 

Q6) What are our thoughts about the ability to create widigets in the dropdown? Excited? Overwhelmed?

This is a fantastic ad-on. Really opens up a host of “user-engagement” and “retainment” possibilites. With that said, user customizability is key here. I dont want my drop down spammed with 50 widgets. @TheCodeBender 

If it will let me get #Twitter & #Facebook posting at my fingertips, like #IOS6, I’m down for it. @QManning 

I think its definetly overdue, and they needed it to keep up with Android. @BarrettBreshear 

Q7) What about the continuity across devices?

Continuity is one of my fav announcements. So simple but if I had a nickel for everytime I emailed something to myself grrr @TheCodeBender 

#Continuity & #HandOff are the best things about #Yosemite & #IOS8. Not working in either beta, though  But so exciting!#Yosemite is pretty solid, overall. Audio issue with video chat aside. No #Continuity or #HandOff in it yet.  @QManning 

Q8) What were you hoping for? Any features #iOS8 forgot?

Nothing is missing that I wanted, actually. Not software wise – hardware wise, I’m still waiting to see whats up.  @QManning 

Need. New. Hardware. Need. iWatch. @TheCodeBender

Join us next time on #appdevchat on June 6/26 for a discussion about Google I/O