iOS Apps Are Coming To macOS - Eventually
Apple has given a sneak peak of its attempt to bring iOS apps to the Mac, teasing how iPhone and iPad apps will run on macOS. The news comes amid another denial from Apple that iOS and macOS will ever merge, though it will eventually mean apps currently only available through the App Store will also run on MacBook, iMac, and other Mac hardware.
As Apple's Craig Federighi pointed out during the WWDC 2018 keynote, it's not like Macs don't have access to multiple software environments already. "Mac users have access to a rich set of great native applications, apps that take full advantage of the power of Mac technologies," he pointed out.
"We see an advantage for the Mac to tap into the world's most vital ecosystem," Federighi continued. Describing it as the first step of an ongoing project, the iOS apps on macOS system won't be available for third-party developers until 2019. However, we'll see the first signs of it later this year.
"Phase 1 of this effort will be to test it on ourselves," Federighi said of the multi-year project. In fact, several of the new apps in macOS Mojave will use the system. That'll include the new News app, the Home app, and the audio recorder: they're all being ported over from iOS to macOS.
There are some big considerations involved, of course. iOS apps aren't used to dealing with trackpads, for example, or all of the varying hardware that the average Mac or MacBook uses. Still, it's something that AppKit, WebKit, and Metal all have to deal with, so it's not an insurmountable prospect.
It comes as Apple completely revamps the Mac App Store, bringing an entirely new interface to the download center. That will arrive in macOS Mojave later in the year, and Apple is presumably hoping that it will kickstart a new age in Mac software. It's been a fairly slow start for the Mac App Store until now, with some developers criticizing Apple for not embracing Mac apps in the same way that it has for iOS.
The combination of the new Mac App Store and, eventually, iOS apps on macOS is a two-pronged attack on the problem, then. We'll have to wait to see exactly how it pans out, though.