It’s finally here! iOS 8 has landed and with it comes the much anticipated support of extensions.
Android users are all too familiar with widgets, and extensions in iOS provide the same functionality albeit in a different manner. Extensions are elements that you can use to customize your experience using iOS and your device. For example you can add custom weather apps in Notification Center, share with Pintrest or similar social websites from the share menu, clip from the web with many note taking apps, and perhaps the most anticipated feature: custom keyboards.
Android users have been able to enjoy a plethora of good an not-so-good keyboards for a while, but one innovative style of “swiping” between letters on the keyboard has become so popular as to cause custom keyboards to be one of the most requested features in iOS. Now iOS users have access to a plethora of keyboards, from the aforementioned swipe style, to improved word prediction, to silly images and emojiis.
These extensions also integrate with the hardware of new devices. With iOS 8 Apple introduced HealthKit, a developer tool which measures and stores health metrics from sensors in the phone, and yes, the upcoming Apple Watch. A new generation of health apps will be able to use HealthKit to track your data and give you dynamic, personalized feedback.
Other apps, such as LastPass and 1Password, utilize the new extension capabilities to autofill passwords and other forms in Safari in iOS, just like on OS X devices. But their integration doesn’t end there. You can also set your master password to be filled via Touch ID, essentially making your fingerprint your master password, thus vastly increasing the speed of filling in usernames and forms securely.
These examples are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the use of extensions. With iOS 8 developers have been given the keys to the kingdom, so to speak, when it comes to iOS and we are going to be seeing a huge wave of app integration in the future. The adoption rate of using these features is incredibly high and only growing. While iOS 8 may not appear too different from iOS 7 on the surface, extensions and under the hood enhancements make this one of the most important releases of this mobile operating system. You just may not notice until you start exploring all the amazing new apps.