Apple WWDC 2014: Why developers are happy with new features in iOS 8

The keynote address at Apple’s 2014 WWDC conference has sparked off concerns that Apple is in fact trying to kill some apps by incorporating features from some apps into OS X 10.10 and iOS.   Popular apps such as WhatsApp, Dropbox, SnapChat, Skitch, YouSendIt, We Transfer are affected thanks to some changes that Apple has introduced in its two big operation systems. You can read more about that here.   But it isn’t all bad for developers and most of them are actually quite happy with Apple’s offerings at WWDC, according to a report on Mashable. According to Christina Warren from Mashable,  the developers are happy overall.   What has excited the developers in particular is the HealthKit API, the new PhotosKit API, Extensions (which will allow apps to talk to each other, create widgets) and of course the new programming language Swift.   Ron Levy, CEO and co-founder of photo-management app Flayvr told the website that where the PhotosKit API is concerned, “this really shows how Apple are opening up and enabling developers to offer more native-style solutions.”   Where the HealthKit app is concerned, developers are excited about the kind of potential it offers. Another developer Joe Nedumgottil wrote on his blog,   “My Fitness Pal is one of the leading food trackers. Right now, they require other companies to sign an agreement with them to access their API, with its food database and other entries. If My Fitness Pal feeds this data into the Health app, any other app can grab the data from there without needing to sign anything with My Fitness Pal. They would be giving up a lot of control to Apple by allowing Health access to their data. Same goes for other heavyweights like Runkeeper, Fitbit, etc.    What has also impressed developers according to the Mashable report is that “Apple has opened up so many part of iOS 8 to them.”   For instance now third-party apps can share their Photo filters in the main photos apps, third-party keyboards can be installed. Also developers can now create widgets which can be added to the Notification Center.   What has impressed developers a lot is also Swift, the new language for coding on OS X and iOS. One app developer, Moshe Berman, felt that Swift may lower the barrier to entry “for iOS or Mac development.”     Apple says that Swift is much faster than Objective-C, and for the company this is the the future of development across iOS and OS X. Swift code can live right besides C and Objective-C code in the same app and this means is that developers can seamlessly interchange languages.   Of course  not all app creators were happy with Apple.  WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum had tweeted out after the WWDC Keynote address saying, “very flattering to see Apple “borrow” numerous WhatsApp features into iMessage in iOS 8 #innovation”   Koum didn’t specify which update he was referring to it was pretty evident that Apple’s ‘new’ version of iMessage was looking pretty similar to other messaging apps including WhatsApp. iMessage now has the option to insert audio, video and location information into conversations, all of which are available on apps like WhatsApp, Telegram.   And while developers are right to rejoice at the new APIs for creators of other apps such Dropbox, SnapChat etc, Apple’s new iOS 8 features are worrying for the right reasons.