I'd like to know why Apple leaves it up to developers to decide if they want to support multitasking. eg. Why does Google get to decide that Gmail app doesn't support it? This is 2019.
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iPad Multitasking support: why do developers get to decide?
- Thread starter brilliantthings
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This. All apps that update or is a new release must support splitscreen etc after this date
I’m glad to hear that. Really gets on my nerves that Amazon video doesn’t support split screen and although picture in picture is supposed to be supported it just doesn’t work.
How does that work with apps that are landscape only like some games for example? Just curious.
This is a general problem when you add features to a platform that's been around a while.
While Apple does things to make it easier for devs, and to pave the way, developers still have to bring their stuff "up to snuff" to get new features in some cases. Split screen isn't something Apple makes devs support directly. Instead it's about supporting multiple window sizes, and the easiest way to do that is using Autolayout. That was introduced in iOS 6. Yes. 6. If you added support for Autolayout, you got automatic split screen support and support for newer screen sizes (12.9", 10.5", 11" Pro models).
Apple does this a lot: introduce feature A that developers need to support manually. But if they do, X, Y, and Z come along for free down the road.
Google in particular likes to use some middleware that gives them Android-like APIs on iOS, along with Android-like UI (see Material design all over Google Hangouts). Doing that means they save effort porting the app, since they are really porting Android libraries instead, and so all their apps come over more cheaply. But it means they will always be playing catch up with anything Apple does, because they bypass a lot of the "make things easier for devs" features by using Android libraries as middleware.
Not true. Carrot weather for example only works in full screen. If you try to slide over it will take over the whole screen.
Ok. What I want to say is I can always slide over supported apps while playing game, hence the “multitasking” thing.
As for the carrot weather though, they should support split view or slide over.
They are going to soon... But point still stands. Apps that don’t support splitscreen today. As in App A support splitscreen and app B doesn’t. If I drag in app B it will take over the whole screen. If I drag in app A it will open in split view. When Apple reinforces this app B must also support split view and splitscreen. Otherwise what are they reinforcing? My point was that games might be an exemption and will still behave like they do today. Or they force games to be playable in all states which I find unlikely.
Over a year already yet we still can find tons of apps not supporting iPhone X notch. So I am not sure how this enforcement would work after iOS 13 is released.
Now that you mention it. The reason why many apps don’t support iPhone X is because Apple is only requiring new apps to support it, not updated. I can’t find any mention of updated apps in the iPad for split view/screen. So adaption could be slow for iPadOS as well if they only require it for new apps. Hopefully it’s for updated apps as well.
And what, three, maybe 4 years since "Open In" as opposed to "Copy To" was supported in share sheets and still many apps don't support it. I understand why they do it as they do but I feel that Apple needs to be a bit more aggressive in driving adoption of new features.
I have a hunch that with the formal forking of iPadOS, we may see Apple be more aggressive on this. For productivity apps not to support this feature really hurts adoption overall.
That's why I asked what the source of this information about the March/April cut off was?
Could only see it mentioned in this article from digital trends
https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/ipados-review/
But I’ve read it a bunch from people on twitter.
Also found this about the iPhone X and iPad Pro res
https://www.macrumors.com/2019/03/20/apps-must-support-iphone-xs-max-as-of-march-27/
I was wondering if this was still happening. So I've just done a bit of research. It all came from "Video 224" at WWDC. Transcription here:
ASCIIwwdc - Modernizing Your UI for iOS 13
iOS 13 combines powerful new multitasking and productivity technologies with a refreshed look and feel for all applications. Familiarize yourself with new requirements to keep your app ready for upcoming versions of iOS. Discover improvements to search fields and a totally new way to present UI...
This is the relevant part:
"Make sure your application properly lays out to support any size, whether it is the smallest iPhone to the largest iPad.
And finally, make sure that your iPad applications also support Split Screen Multitasking.
Because all of this is going to be required by April 2020."
I can't wait.
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So today's Mac Rumors article confirms that developers need to update apps to iOS 13 SDK by April 30. Eight weeks...
www.macrumors.com
As of April 30, All Apps Submitted to App Store Must Use iOS 13 SDK or Later
Apple today informed developers that starting on April 30, 2020, all iPhone and iPad apps submitted to the App Store must be built with iOS and...
www.macrumors.com
So when is Apple going to require video apps support PIP? DirecTV app doesn’t support it. And of course the biggest offender is YouTube.
Great question. But I don’t think Apple will ever require apps to support PIP because Apple earns money from YouTube’s tiered subscription model.