15 ms·

App Clips for iOS

190 points by wodow 6y ago

danpalmer 6y ago
I'm excited for what this means for categories of apps that many users currently consider to be "junk" – restaurant ordering apps, parking apps, venue apps. There are many of these, and we often don't want download these, or when we finally cave in and do download them the friction of notifications and eventual deletion is a pain. With App Clips, and some of the features like "no install", 8 hours of push notifications and the ability to confirm a fixed location without location permissions, I think the UX is going to be significantly improved.
- tenaciousDaniel 6y ago
  A while back, there was an attempt to build a web-based solution to this problem. It was a card-based browser called Wildcard (their page is dead so posting an article) https://techcrunch.com/2014/11/13/wildcard-raises-10-million-launches-a-browser-built-for-the-mobile-web/ https://techcrunch.com/2014/11/13/wildcard-raises-10-million... It seemed like a really cool idea, shame it never took off.
  - notatoad 6y ago
    that looks similar to google's "physical web" project from 2016, which was apparently just as successful. https://blog.chromium.org/2016/02/the-physical-web-expands-to-chrome-for_10.html https://blog.chromium.org/2016/02/the-physical-web-expands-t...
- smnrchrds 6y ago
  What incentive do parking and venue apps have to implement this? The audience is captive. They push the app because either they do not want to spend the engineering effort to make a usable website or they want to siphon data from their clients. In either case, they will not have an incentive to spend more engineering time to get less data from customers.
  - thanatosmin 6y ago
    It seems within Apple's style that they will eventually require this to be implemented for certain types of apps.
    - dave5104 6y ago
      Can they, though? It seems like a lot of the use cases for App Clips depend on physical infrastructure being added in the real world, like the NFC sensors that project the existence of an App Clip. Apple likes to control, but I don't think they can really compel physical infrastructure.
      - snuxoll 6y ago
        You don't need any physical infrastructure for using App Clips. Ultimately they are launched via URL - that can be by physical NFC tags or QR codes, or just via Safari, a SMS/iMessage, etc.
  - WA 6y ago
    Why is this downvoted? This comment is spot on. The junk apps are junk because the businesses make them like that on purpose. You can also turn this around: what stops businesses right now from making extremely lightweight apps that don’t bother the user? The same forces that make companies slap tons of trackers and JS on their websites.
    - RandallBrown 6y ago
      > The junk apps are junk because the businesses make them like that on purpose. While this is sometimes true, I think it's more often the case the businesses make junk apps because they pay the lowest bidder to make them a bare minimum app.
      - Terretta 6y ago
        And the lowest bidder is often an app factory. See real estate apps or corporate travel apps for instance. A majority seem to be the same few practically unusable apps re-skinned.
- reaperducer 6y ago
  I'm excited for what this means for categories of apps that many users currently consider to be "junk" – restaurant ordering apps, parking apps, venue apps I have an old iPhone that serves a particular task in a closet and I almost never interact with it. Earlier this year I needed to do something physically with it, and noticed it was filled with dozens of parking, ride hailing, taxi, and transit apps I'd downloaded on my main iPhone over the last few years. (For those of you not in the iOS ecosystem, if two devices are on the came iCloud ID, downloading one can download the app to all of your devices.) With app clips, I won't have to go through and delete all these short-time-use apps on all of my devices when I get home from traveling. Edit for all those replying without understanding my situation: I don't want to disable app syncing entirely. Some apps I want to be synced on all of my devices. It's the one-time or short-term use apps I don't want. The ones that Apple is targeting with App Clips.
  - joshmlewis 6y ago
    This is a very easy setting to disable in your iCloud account.
    - reaperducer 6y ago
      It is, but I don't want to disable it. Some apps I want to be synced on all of my devices. It's the one-time or short-term use apps I don't want. The ones that Apple is targeting with App Clips.
  - abtinf 6y ago
    This feature can be turned off. Search for “automatic downloads” in settings.
  - deleted 6y ago
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- PeterBarrett 6y ago
  I'm excited for this too and I was very excited a couple of years ago when Android launched instant apps which were the exact same idea, but they never took off. Hopefully with Apples tighter control of NFC in their phones and better marketing they will become more prevalent. Even for interacting with your robot hoover or your headphones there's plenty of opportunities to create much better user interactions than your first step of onboarding to involve going to an app store.
  - lostgame 6y ago
    In my experience a lot less money comes out of Android, and feature parity is extremely important. If iOS didn’t have the equivalent feature, there was often no significant advantage to utilizing them on Android.
- jbob2000 6y ago
  This feature was created in the vacuum left by the slow and stale nature of web standards organisations. There should be a safe, simple way to develop a website that has all of these features. This would allow functionality like this to exist on platforms outside of Apple's control.
  - OkGoDoIt 6y ago
    Websites support Apple Pay, sign in with apple, being loaded from a URL/NFC/QR code, location API access, etc. The main thing websites don’t support is push notifications on iOS, and it seems like that would be a lot easier for Apple to implement then an entirely new app format. I don’t think you can really blame web standards organizations, this is entirely Apple’s decision. They want their proprietary App Store front and center.
  - _bxg1 6y ago
    > slow and stale nature of web standards organisations If there's one thing I've never heard the web platform accused of being, it's "slow and stale". The web platform has plenty of features for doing this kind of thing. It already partly serves this use-case, in practice. There are two reasons Clips will have an advantage: - Apple has done a lot to hamper Progressive Web Apps on its devices because they have a stake in platform lock-in. - The web, at least on mobile, is still never quite as good an experience as a native app. There are lots of fingers that can be pointed at different parties for why this is, but speaking as a web developer, I will readily admit that it's just not quite the same on some subconscious level.
- paulcole 6y ago
  Whats the incentive for these apps to make clips available? Why wouldn't the parking app you hate just keep forcing people to install it, likely to track and report as much data as possible as an additional revenue stream.
  - jaakl 6y ago
    Competition: if enough apps will implement it, it would become a standard user expectation.
  - saagarjha 6y ago
    Not every audience is captive. If Lyft offered this and Uber didn't, it might be a subtle push for me to prefer the former. Or maybe even walk/bike if neither adopts it.
- deleted 6y ago
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- someluccc 6y ago
  I see a very good business case for this for some companies. Think of uber or lime, there is very little user data can do for them, whereas instant availability has enormous potential to boost their business. Right now either a user has all the scooter/ride-hail apps or one or two. Every time a user looking for a scooter passes one they don’t have an app for, that’s lost business for them. If app clips allows users to use whichever scooter is closest to them it can drive overall usage way up.
  - hckr_news 6y ago
    Well maybe not Uber, but for sure for things like scooter or bike sharing. Now that I think about, do people really want to touch a bike or scooter that’s been lying around given potential exposure to Covid? Anyway I think there will be plenty of use cases for App Clips. And to add to that, I think Android/Google has had the Instant App feature for some time now, it’ll be interesting to see what sort of opportunities arise from this App clip/Instant App ecosystem.
    - spullara 6y ago
      Covid doesn't appear to transmit easily (or potentially at all) via surfaces.
- _bxg1 6y ago
  I agree, though I think there's also a more cynical side to it. I see it as a land-grab by Apple to bring use-cases that currently belong to the web, under the umbrella of their app ecosystem. I'm still excited because I think the user experience will be legitimately much better. But I am a bit concerned about the implications.
  - ladberg 6y ago
    Any time I try to order food on the web I feel like I have to make an account for some service I've never heard of and manually enter in credit card info. I fully welcome just being able to choose my order and pay with Apple Pay, nothing else needed.
    - _bxg1 6y ago
      Sign in with Apple and Apple Pay already exist on the web. Though I guess, Apple can't force companies to offer it on the web.
    - ryukafalz 6y ago
      That's an option on the web too though? Through both Apple's proprietary implementation and the standardized Payment Request API: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/apple_pay_on_the_web https://developer.apple.com/documentation/apple_pay_on_the_w... ...of course this requires developers to use it, but then so does App Clips.
      - _bxg1 6y ago
        Apple has a policy that any app developer who offers "Sign in with ___" for any company, has to also include "Sign in with Apple". That's not something they could do on the web.
        djxfade 6y ago
        They could revoke your keys (in theory). I don't think they would though
- deleted 6y ago
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- wenc 6y ago
  When Apple announced App Clips, it sounded like something I had seen in A16Z briefings -- people scanning QR codes on super-apps in China. It seems that Wechat has the concept of Mini Apps which are similar (but less seamless than Apple's App Clips). https://www.scmp.com/abacus/tech/article/3090269/ios-14-adds-apples-answer-wechats-most-powerful-feature https://www.scmp.com/abacus/tech/article/3090269/ios-14-adds...
- nojito 6y ago
  This is really to cut down on Google searches. In fact, if you go through many of the features in iOS 14 they are designed to let you do things without having to Google for information/links to do it.
chungus_khan 6y ago
What are people's thoughts on this compared to Google Play Instant? It seems quite similar to me on first glance, but the special QR codes seem like a good idea for making them more appealing to advertise/try.
- mav3rick 6y ago
  It's Google so they won't acknowledge that Google did it first. Will post comments on how they use Firefox and DDG.
  - jmull 6y ago
    Does it matter who did it first? Why would Apple mention or acknowledge this in developer documentation or, really anywhere else? It's not like it's a big secret they are trying to hold or a fraud they are perpetuating. Why is there anything wrong with not advertising it?
    - mav3rick 6y ago
      I am talking about people on HN and not Apple.
      - jmull 6y ago
        Ah, well, you were responding to a post that acknowledges Google Instant Play, so maybe not a great spot to claim HN people won't acknowledge Instant Play.
        mav3rick 6y ago
        Just look at the other comments.
        jmull 6y ago
        There are a bunch of comments talking about Google Instant Play, and none denying it came first that I can see.
jonplackett 6y ago
This will be really useful when the AR goggles launch. And for interesting AR or other fun (but ultimately throwaway) experiences before that. There's so much cool stuff you can only do with an app but currently there's just too much friction. I hear someone say "No one downloads apps anymore" daily. Well, now they don't have to, and we can still make the fun thing we want to.
EGreg 6y ago
So is this exactly like Google Play Instant Apps? https://developer.android.com/topic/google-play-instant https://developer.android.com/topic/google-play-instant
- reaperducer 6y ago
  Hopefully similar, but better. Just like Apple didn't invent MP3 players, but it did invent the iPod.
- dewey 6y ago
  Have you seen it being used in the wild already?
  - cglong 6y ago
    IME, Instant Apps are currently aimed at more of a "try our app" scenario, so I've never really seen them promoted in the wild, only through links I've tapped. I don't think there's much that would need to change to enable the types of scenarios Apple has been promoting.
  - isiahl 6y ago
    Instant Apps have been around 4 years now (just a guess) and I've only encountered them twice. When going to a Vimeo link or a CBC link.
  - curt15 6y ago
    CBC news has an instant app.
- deleted 6y ago
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mdszy 6y ago
I wonder how much of a potential there is for abuse with this system, one thing I thought of during the keynote was: 1. Someone sticks a malicious NFC tag on one of those rental scooters that opens a malicious App Clip 2. The App Clip seems like it could be for the rental service 3. App Clip maliciously takes your money and runs. Wonder how much something like that could become a problem or if Apple would be good enough about preventing/stopping it.
- codezero 6y ago
  That's a bloody clever trick :) I assume Apple is hoping to rely on its curated app store to protect against that, but that is more of a social attack, so maybe we'll see it happen or something similar. The "easy" fix is to make it obvious/hard to hide what the _real_ app clip should look like in-situ.
- jdminhbg 6y ago
  The defense here is presumably the same as against a "Starbux" app that faked orders to Starbucks and kept the money: it would either not make it past App Review and into the store or as soon as someone was scammed and complained, it would be taken down.
- deleted 6y ago
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- r00fus 6y ago
  It sounds like this sort of attack would not be widespread (because Apple would revoke the app rather quickly) but be great for spearphishing or high-value targets.
- jonny_eh 6y ago
  Couldn't this already be done with QR codes linking to a malicious website?
- innagadadavida 6y ago
  1. App clip needs to be registered with Apple 2. The web domain needs to link the App clip (Apple App Site Association file I'd presume). So this wouldn't work straight off as you describe. The NFC payload is just a url this url is sent back to Apple servers to load the App clip. What could work is someone uses a legit App clip and hijacks the corresponding web site and places a malicious payload and tricks the App clip to load the malicious payload and tricks the user to tap on NFC / QR code and exploits App clip. Even then the last line of defense - sandbox needs to be circumvented. Nevertheless, this is definitely a new attack vector and there will be exploits from NSAs.
codegladiator 6y ago
> Instead of asking for credit card information, you can take payments using Apple Pay. But can I ask for credit card information and not use "Apple Pay". The "instead" is super weird there. Also, why not just PWA ?
- dewey 6y ago
  Because if it's a part of a native app you can later download the "rest" of the app and it still has all your data already.
- reaperducer 6y ago
  But can I ask for credit card information and not use "Apple Pay". The "instead" is super weird there. "Apple Pay" doesn't mean Apple Card. You can have a bunch of different credit cards loaded into Apple Pay. Also, why not just PWA ? I hope companies go with this instead of PWA for the simple reason of bloat. Apple's payload restriction on App Clips is something like 10MB. Most PWA's blow that cap loading the page header and footer.
  - codegladiator 6y ago
    I guess if they put a restriction on pwa size, people will make them below 10 mbs. Right now there is no restriction on pwa size as such. and I am sure the size isn't the reason for going with this and not pwa.
  - vbezhenar 6y ago
    It's not like something won't allow those App Clips to download 100 MB after launch.
    - MBCook 6y ago
      They are limited to 10 megs of storage space. Unless you download the real app they can’t do that.
- r00fus 6y ago
  Sure you can do a PWA. But if you're doing e.g. a ticketing/parking app - it might just be worth paying the ApplePay tax to go with the friction-less experience for your app clip. You could make it easy to do ApplePay, and also have a "enter CC in the main app" approach.
ozten 6y ago
ClickJacking target? I would have expected the App Clip UI to have better integration with OS or Safari browser chrome, so that it wouldn't be possible to spoof from a web page. Since it floats entirely within content, it seems like you could make a click jacking attack from a Safari experience. Just one screenshot, maybe this is mitigated somehow...
- jedieaston 6y ago
  The app clips still have to go through app review and the user is asked for consent before it is downloaded and launched. You also have to create them as part of a full app in the App Store (although for the restaurant ordering scenario, GrubHub or whoever would make an app clip for the small restaurant that didn't have a presence on the App Store).
  - ozten 6y ago
    Right. This would be simulating an app clip via HTML5 to trick a user into thinking they are using a safe app clip, but actually it is just a web page.
derefr 6y ago
Aside: when did Apple start putting out polished PR pages like this to "market" features to developers? I feel like this year is the first time I'm seeing them. There definitely wasn't anything like this push for when Core Data or Ubiquity came along, even though they both would have greatly benefited from it. The only pages for individual features I recall pure consumer-focused "explainers" of the benefits+implications of things like Gatekeeper, iCloud, or Time Machine. Is this just because this year's WWDC is online? Were they doing this sort of "hey, pay attention, this exists now, you should try building with it" PR in person before?
- seanalltogether 6y ago
  Apple probably knows that developers aren't the ones making the decisions on whether to implement app clips or not, product managers or the developers clients are.
- saagarjha 6y ago
  They've been doing it for a couple of years. Remember when Swift was launched?
BiteCode_dev 6y ago
So what google have done for the web with AMP, apple is doing to apps with clips? I feel like this could be achieved with better HTML5 support from the iPhone and the promotion of light PWA instead.
- y2bd 6y ago
  As said elsewhere in this thread, Google already has a direct analog with Google Play Instant Apps. Although I also wish Apple would put more than the bare minimum of support behind PWAs, from their perspective App Clips still have to go through the App Store vetting process, and therefore are (ostensibly) a safer choice than just granting more OS-level capabilities to PWAs.
  - BiteCode_dev 6y ago
    You don't need OS-level capabilities to order a pizza.
- anon102010 6y ago
  Every time I read these comments I realize that apple is going to dominate again. A PWA is not vetted! If you complain about a PWA apple cannot take it down! In your PWA / QR code utopia, after someone sticks a few bogus QR codes on parking meters, scooters and bike rentals etc that point to their phising PWA - trust is going to be toast. Seriously - chrome getting rid of subdomains used to trick users (wellsfargo.securedomain.com) in the browser bar also generated lots of complaints - and also helps users. Is this just a HN thing? Screw the 1B users who can't be bothered to become experts on every weird scam / original headers review etc? Because it get's a bit tiring on literally every thing that google / apple do.
  - wayneftw 6y ago
    > If you complain about a PWA apple cannot take it down! Browsers already protect people against malicious sites. You never saw Chrome warn you about it?
zuhayeer 6y ago
I thought App Clips were the most exciting part of iOS 14. I think there’s a real opportunity to utilize this for some guerrilla marketing (I hear a lot of it will work through deeplinking). It seems like a lot of it will be purchase intent based, but I can also imagine once Yelp implements this, you can deeplink to a 5 star rating. A Soundcloud rapper can now have folks scan into their new song and get a preview. Let these companies build the integrations and find creative use cases around them!
- macNchz 6y ago
  Given how often I encounter very broken deeplinks on iOS, this doesn't make me especially optimistic if there will now be another layer to it...I regularly click links on my iPhone that dump me into the app store despite already having the app installed, or that will open the app for a brief moment, only to switch me back into Safari, or banners on products/posts/pages that prompt me to "View in App" that just don't actually work properly. I haven't personally worked on an app with deeplinks in a few years, so I'm not sure what's going on, but it seems to be a widespread issue.
jbverschoor 6y ago
Ah. The good old times when you tried to squeeze your game into 10mb, optimize the hell out of it, so it was downloadable over cellular. These days apps are humongous without good reason
philplckthun 6y ago
I’m not sure why this isn’t highlighted more often, but I don’t see this just as a take on making web apps less relevant for iOS users. Rather what I see is a system to take on and take back control from the “app in app” WeChat ecosystem that has taken over so many parts of everyday life in China. It seems to me that Apple is looking to replicate that success, and sees the potential for apps that users don’t want to keep around permanently. It is indeed sad that this may discourage companies further from building solid web apps, especially if Android counters this system with their own, but I think it’ll mainly be interesting to see if and how it’ll affect WeChat in China.
- plokiju21 6y ago
  Android actually already has something similar: https://developer.android.com/topic/google-play-instant https://developer.android.com/topic/google-play-instant
  - Farbklex 6y ago
    Not similar. It is absolutely the same.
  - jeroenhd 6y ago
    Only Google Android, neither my current nor my previous phone have had the option to use instant apps. Maybe it's a region lock thing (I'm not in the US) but it's not globally available on all Play Services devices so I don't know what the point of putting effort into Instant Apps really is. It only makes sense to support all of Google Android or none of Google Android.
  - philplckthun 6y ago
    It’s great to see that that’s already supported! I wasn’t aware of that, and it’ll allow Google to pivot this feature towards a similar use-case. Right now however it seems to primarily be marketed to mobile game developers.
- deleted 6y ago
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dmart 6y ago
If App Clips launch instantly enough, this could be the beginning of a sort of "parallel Web" that delivers native applications instead of HTML. Which, of course, has both benefits and drawbacks. But it's an interesting idea.
gerash 6y ago
IMHO both this and the Android Instant Apps are half assed ideas. The ultimate goal should be working towards having the ephemeral nature of web apps while maintaining the native app performance. That is, access to raw sensors, running native code rather than JS and working offline. I know it's technically challenging but that should be the direction.
- mercutio2 6y ago
  How is downloading a < 10MB native instant app any worse than downloading a frequently-larger web app?
  - wayneftw 6y ago
    > ...a frequently-larger web app Got any stats for that? I was quickly able to find [0] and [1] which state that web page sizes are 1.5mb (median), 2mb (mean) and the average is about 3mb. [0] https://royal.pingdom.com/webpages-are-getting-larger-every-year-and-heres-why-it-matters/ https://royal.pingdom.com/webpages-are-getting-larger-every-... [1] https://speedcurve.com/blog/web-performance-page-bloat/ https://speedcurve.com/blog/web-performance-page-bloat/
    - fabiospampinato 6y ago
      Are those web apps or web pages though? Like I don't think blogs are what OP had in mind.
      - wayneftw 6y ago
        I'm not sure, that's why I'm asking for clarification. I'd like to know where the OP got their "frequently larger" stat from because I wasn't able to find one that specifically used the term "web apps".
    - gabagool 6y ago
      Is there a functional difference between "mean" and "average"? I've always thought that they're the same thing.
saagarjha 6y ago
The 10 MB limit is going to be very interesting, because it would instantly preclude the use of many SDKs that apps bundle these days "as a given". Unless there's a massive shift, things like Facebook login and analytics frameworks are just not going to work…maybe it'll cause developers to drop them from their full apps as well?
- ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago
  As a native Swift developer, I can live with this. I used to spend a lot of time, optimizing 8-bit images (PNG8), but gave it up, some time ago. This looks like I may want to revisit that exercise.
  - krzat 6y ago
    Perhaps that's why Xcode 12 supports SVGs now. Supposedly on iOS 13 they won't rasterized during build.
    - ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago
      Yay! I've heard that SVG has been supported for a while, but I have not used them (yet).
- trevor-e 6y ago
  If anything it will force analytics SDK makers to make their code leaner. I find it hard to believe that analytics SDKs need to be so bloated. And I think the goal is to get users creating accounts with Apple Sign-In rather than Facebook. IMO it's a perfect use-case. I don't want to give away sensitive personal information to these "throw away" apps, I'll create a temporary account with Apple instead.
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shay_ker 6y ago
I'm curious what Apple Pay and App Clips means for the ongoing browser wars and the web in general. The more and more Apple or Google create products that only work with _their_ hardware and _their_ browsers, where does that leave everyone else? Imagine scenarios like: - Want to use Apple Pay on your laptop? You'll need Safari! - Want to redeem a reward off a QR code in a store with your friends? If you switch to Safari right now, no problem! - Want to pay your parking meter in a rush? Safari has you covered! I'm aware of Google Play Instant, and I assume that App Clips will only accelerate the adoption of both technologies. But will they be adopted at the same rate, or with the same quality? And where does that leave the users? The web was wonderful in that, as long as you can access a website, you can have a (hopefully/roughly) similar UX. Now it feels like that semblance of access is being eroded with more ecosystem lock-in. Is it possible to open this up?
- scarface74 6y ago
  Apple Pay can be exposed with the Web Payments API implemented by every web browser. If you use the API, it’s exposed by each platform using its own payment standard.
- macNchz 6y ago
  Reminds me of ActiveX in the late 90s/early 2000s...tons of web applications developed exclusively for Internet Explorer on Windows. As a Mac user in high school/college at the time, I occasionally had to use the shared computers in the school library just to use certain web apps that were built with ActiveX.
pier25 6y ago
So for Apple it's OK that you download a temporary app from a website but they refuse to give PWAs access to essential features such as push notifications.
- hn_check 6y ago
  Yes. And that is okay for the vast majority of consumers as well. Are there compelling PWAs on other platforms that are killer apps? Somehow Apple always gets called out here (despite being one of the first to support PWAs and to enable advanced functionality), yet the average Android user I suspect has approximately zero PWAs installed. The average Windows user - Zero. The average Linux user - Zero. Make some killer PWAs that people cry for and the user base will demand it. But as is it seems to be mostly dreaming and imagination that Apple is the boogieman.
  - pier25 6y ago
    HEY could have been a PWA. The UI is just web after all. Edit: Also, an argument could be made that because Apple doesn't really want PWAs on iOS nobody is investing in make a good one for mobile.
  - enos_feedler 6y ago
    I would also add ChromeOS to this list. It has a decent install base and should be a killer platform for PWAs. Haven't seen anything notable here though either.
sktrdie 6y ago
I'm gonna be the web guy... have we given up on the web completely? Why not improve the signup/payments experience using Web APIs? Why not integrate safari more closely to what is required with these App Clips? It seems the only real reason that Apple isn't doing this is because it wants people to build for their App Store so they have control and possible revenue stream. From a dev perspective this feels like a lock-in: yet another platform to support
- orev 6y ago
  > It seems the only real reason that Apple isn't doing this is because it wants people to build for their App Store so they have control and possible revenue stream. You say it incredulously as if that’s not a valid reason. Of course that’s the reason. Money is the reason why most companies do things.
- solarkraft 6y ago
  All the cynical comments about Apple's ecosystem motivation certainly apply, but there's one much more mundane reason: UX. The best PWA still feels vastly worse than native versions (my reference is Twitter) and for Apple that's a huge factor, which I respect a lot.
  - theschwa 6y ago
    I'd also add reducing friction. It seems the goal here is to reduce the amount of time it takes to get the user to the exact functionality they need in the shortest amount of time with a user experience that makes it feel seamless.
    - vxNsr 6y ago
      A QR code is exactly the same thing. If you wanna talk NFC... how many people do you think are gonna buy apple's proprietary NFC broadcaster? either way though apple could use the same API to call a public website instead of a private call to a handicapped app. They're still downloading MBs of data. Not sure how big most websites are these days but I would surprised if most app clips don't go right up to that 10MB limit.
solarkraft 6y ago
Yes, Android has had it for years. The difference is that Apple will actually ship it, it will work and provide benefit.
codysan 6y ago
Looks like this could give Apple a bit of a head start with fleshing out some of their AR app offerings out in the real world. I imagine these will translate quite nicely into rOS / StarBoard, which gives Apple a slew of apps to use on day one.
gregsadetsky 6y ago
Sorry, I didn't follow the launch. Does anyone know whether App Clips can consume/produce audio? I'm working on a musical app -- is there a way for us to "demo" our app in App Clip format, considering that it uses the mic + speaker? Thanks!
- nexuist 6y ago
  Supposedly App Clips can use every framework available to a normal app, except for HealthKit, which they explicitly prohibited. They did mention that App Clips can activate the camera, so I'd guess you can at least ask for microphone permissions.
  - gregsadetsky 6y ago
    That’s very encouraging, thank you!
dangus 6y ago
This was probably the only part of the WWDC keynote that left a sour taste in my mouth. It’s the opposite of what I want. On the other hand, for the companies that insist on apps, I guess it’s an improvement. Kind of.
miohtama 6y ago
Apple has a patent on context sensitive app installs/appearances. Come acrosa it some years ago.
donarb 6y ago
One overlooked feature of this feature is the Sign in with Apple. You can use the App Clip to make a purchase and at the same time you give the vendor an anonymous email address which they can use to contact you with more information about their service. If you don't want any information, you can cancel that anonymous address. I don't see how this can be done in a web app.
- shafyy 6y ago
  There is Sign in with Apple on the web, too.
xyst 6y ago
I am actually excited to see this in the wild. I wonder how well it would work when cell reception is very bad (indoors or 3G)
MarkSweep 6y ago
It looks like this is a new way to get remote code execution on a locked iPhone: > NFC Tags: Users can tap their iPhone on NFC tags that you place at specific locations to launch an app clip, even from the lock screen. I assume you would have to still get your app through the App Store review, but once you get past that you "just" need a sandbox escape or a privilege escalation bug to own the device. I suspect this feature will be taken advantage of by forensics software.
whytaka 6y ago
I really think this is revolutionary. With Sign-In with Apple and Apple Pay, it's going to make real world digital commerce much more streamlined with Apple mediating as a guarantor for both sides. Like WeChat but unlike WeChat because privacy is respected.
silentfishwm 6y ago
We have been using these micro-apps in China since almost four years ago...
ngcc_hk 6y ago
May be I am old. Even though this is so different, I have the same feeling of sidekick in the DOS world ... do not know why.

190 points by wodow 6y ago

I'm excited for what this means for categories of apps that many users currently consider to be "junk" – restaurant ordering apps, parking apps, venue apps. There are many of these, and we often don't want download these, or when we finally cave in and do download them the friction of notifications and eventual deletion is a pain. With App Clips, and some of the features like "no install", 8 hours of push notifications and the ability to confirm a fixed location without location permissions, I think the UX is going to be significantly improved.

tenaciousDaniel 6y ago
A while back, there was an attempt to build a web-based solution to this problem. It was a card-based browser called Wildcard (their page is dead so posting an article) https://techcrunch.com/2014/11/13/wildcard-raises-10-million-launches-a-browser-built-for-the-mobile-web/ https://techcrunch.com/2014/11/13/wildcard-raises-10-million... It seemed like a really cool idea, shame it never took off.
- notatoad 6y ago
  that looks similar to google's "physical web" project from 2016, which was apparently just as successful. https://blog.chromium.org/2016/02/the-physical-web-expands-to-chrome-for_10.html https://blog.chromium.org/2016/02/the-physical-web-expands-t...
smnrchrds 6y ago
What incentive do parking and venue apps have to implement this? The audience is captive. They push the app because either they do not want to spend the engineering effort to make a usable website or they want to siphon data from their clients. In either case, they will not have an incentive to spend more engineering time to get less data from customers.
- thanatosmin 6y ago
  It seems within Apple's style that they will eventually require this to be implemented for certain types of apps.
  - dave5104 6y ago
    Can they, though? It seems like a lot of the use cases for App Clips depend on physical infrastructure being added in the real world, like the NFC sensors that project the existence of an App Clip. Apple likes to control, but I don't think they can really compel physical infrastructure.
    - snuxoll 6y ago
      You don't need any physical infrastructure for using App Clips. Ultimately they are launched via URL - that can be by physical NFC tags or QR codes, or just via Safari, a SMS/iMessage, etc.
- WA 6y ago
  Why is this downvoted? This comment is spot on. The junk apps are junk because the businesses make them like that on purpose. You can also turn this around: what stops businesses right now from making extremely lightweight apps that don’t bother the user? The same forces that make companies slap tons of trackers and JS on their websites.
  - RandallBrown 6y ago
    > The junk apps are junk because the businesses make them like that on purpose. While this is sometimes true, I think it's more often the case the businesses make junk apps because they pay the lowest bidder to make them a bare minimum app.
    - Terretta 6y ago
      And the lowest bidder is often an app factory. See real estate apps or corporate travel apps for instance. A majority seem to be the same few practically unusable apps re-skinned.
reaperducer 6y ago
I'm excited for what this means for categories of apps that many users currently consider to be "junk" – restaurant ordering apps, parking apps, venue apps I have an old iPhone that serves a particular task in a closet and I almost never interact with it. Earlier this year I needed to do something physically with it, and noticed it was filled with dozens of parking, ride hailing, taxi, and transit apps I'd downloaded on my main iPhone over the last few years. (For those of you not in the iOS ecosystem, if two devices are on the came iCloud ID, downloading one can download the app to all of your devices.) With app clips, I won't have to go through and delete all these short-time-use apps on all of my devices when I get home from traveling. Edit for all those replying without understanding my situation: I don't want to disable app syncing entirely. Some apps I want to be synced on all of my devices. It's the one-time or short-term use apps I don't want. The ones that Apple is targeting with App Clips.
- joshmlewis 6y ago
  This is a very easy setting to disable in your iCloud account.
  - reaperducer 6y ago
    It is, but I don't want to disable it. Some apps I want to be synced on all of my devices. It's the one-time or short-term use apps I don't want. The ones that Apple is targeting with App Clips.
- abtinf 6y ago
  This feature can be turned off. Search for “automatic downloads” in settings.
- deleted 6y ago
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PeterBarrett 6y ago
I'm excited for this too and I was very excited a couple of years ago when Android launched instant apps which were the exact same idea, but they never took off. Hopefully with Apples tighter control of NFC in their phones and better marketing they will become more prevalent. Even for interacting with your robot hoover or your headphones there's plenty of opportunities to create much better user interactions than your first step of onboarding to involve going to an app store.
- lostgame 6y ago
  In my experience a lot less money comes out of Android, and feature parity is extremely important. If iOS didn’t have the equivalent feature, there was often no significant advantage to utilizing them on Android.
jbob2000 6y ago
This feature was created in the vacuum left by the slow and stale nature of web standards organisations. There should be a safe, simple way to develop a website that has all of these features. This would allow functionality like this to exist on platforms outside of Apple's control.
- OkGoDoIt 6y ago
  Websites support Apple Pay, sign in with apple, being loaded from a URL/NFC/QR code, location API access, etc. The main thing websites don’t support is push notifications on iOS, and it seems like that would be a lot easier for Apple to implement then an entirely new app format. I don’t think you can really blame web standards organizations, this is entirely Apple’s decision. They want their proprietary App Store front and center.
- _bxg1 6y ago
  > slow and stale nature of web standards organisations If there's one thing I've never heard the web platform accused of being, it's "slow and stale". The web platform has plenty of features for doing this kind of thing. It already partly serves this use-case, in practice. There are two reasons Clips will have an advantage: - Apple has done a lot to hamper Progressive Web Apps on its devices because they have a stake in platform lock-in. - The web, at least on mobile, is still never quite as good an experience as a native app. There are lots of fingers that can be pointed at different parties for why this is, but speaking as a web developer, I will readily admit that it's just not quite the same on some subconscious level.
paulcole 6y ago
Whats the incentive for these apps to make clips available? Why wouldn't the parking app you hate just keep forcing people to install it, likely to track and report as much data as possible as an additional revenue stream.
- jaakl 6y ago
  Competition: if enough apps will implement it, it would become a standard user expectation.
- saagarjha 6y ago
  Not every audience is captive. If Lyft offered this and Uber didn't, it might be a subtle push for me to prefer the former. Or maybe even walk/bike if neither adopts it.
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someluccc 6y ago
I see a very good business case for this for some companies. Think of uber or lime, there is very little user data can do for them, whereas instant availability has enormous potential to boost their business. Right now either a user has all the scooter/ride-hail apps or one or two. Every time a user looking for a scooter passes one they don’t have an app for, that’s lost business for them. If app clips allows users to use whichever scooter is closest to them it can drive overall usage way up.
- hckr_news 6y ago
  Well maybe not Uber, but for sure for things like scooter or bike sharing. Now that I think about, do people really want to touch a bike or scooter that’s been lying around given potential exposure to Covid? Anyway I think there will be plenty of use cases for App Clips. And to add to that, I think Android/Google has had the Instant App feature for some time now, it’ll be interesting to see what sort of opportunities arise from this App clip/Instant App ecosystem.
  - spullara 6y ago
    Covid doesn't appear to transmit easily (or potentially at all) via surfaces.
_bxg1 6y ago
I agree, though I think there's also a more cynical side to it. I see it as a land-grab by Apple to bring use-cases that currently belong to the web, under the umbrella of their app ecosystem. I'm still excited because I think the user experience will be legitimately much better. But I am a bit concerned about the implications.
- ladberg 6y ago
  Any time I try to order food on the web I feel like I have to make an account for some service I've never heard of and manually enter in credit card info. I fully welcome just being able to choose my order and pay with Apple Pay, nothing else needed.
  - _bxg1 6y ago
    Sign in with Apple and Apple Pay already exist on the web. Though I guess, Apple can't force companies to offer it on the web.
  - ryukafalz 6y ago
    That's an option on the web too though? Through both Apple's proprietary implementation and the standardized Payment Request API: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/apple_pay_on_the_web https://developer.apple.com/documentation/apple_pay_on_the_w... ...of course this requires developers to use it, but then so does App Clips.
    - _bxg1 6y ago
      Apple has a policy that any app developer who offers "Sign in with ___" for any company, has to also include "Sign in with Apple". That's not something they could do on the web.
      - djxfade 6y ago
        They could revoke your keys (in theory). I don't think they would though
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wenc 6y ago
When Apple announced App Clips, it sounded like something I had seen in A16Z briefings -- people scanning QR codes on super-apps in China. It seems that Wechat has the concept of Mini Apps which are similar (but less seamless than Apple's App Clips). https://www.scmp.com/abacus/tech/article/3090269/ios-14-adds-apples-answer-wechats-most-powerful-feature https://www.scmp.com/abacus/tech/article/3090269/ios-14-adds...
nojito 6y ago
This is really to cut down on Google searches. In fact, if you go through many of the features in iOS 14 they are designed to let you do things without having to Google for information/links to do it.

chungus_khan 6y ago

What are people's thoughts on this compared to Google Play Instant? It seems quite similar to me on first glance, but the special QR codes seem like a good idea for making them more appealing to advertise/try.

mav3rick 6y ago
It's Google so they won't acknowledge that Google did it first. Will post comments on how they use Firefox and DDG.
- jmull 6y ago
  Does it matter who did it first? Why would Apple mention or acknowledge this in developer documentation or, really anywhere else? It's not like it's a big secret they are trying to hold or a fraud they are perpetuating. Why is there anything wrong with not advertising it?
  - mav3rick 6y ago
    I am talking about people on HN and not Apple.
    - jmull 6y ago
      Ah, well, you were responding to a post that acknowledges Google Instant Play, so maybe not a great spot to claim HN people won't acknowledge Instant Play.
      - mav3rick 6y ago
        Just look at the other comments.
        jmull 6y ago
        There are a bunch of comments talking about Google Instant Play, and none denying it came first that I can see.

jonplackett 6y ago

This will be really useful when the AR goggles launch. And for interesting AR or other fun (but ultimately throwaway) experiences before that. There's so much cool stuff you can only do with an app but currently there's just too much friction. I hear someone say "No one downloads apps anymore" daily. Well, now they don't have to, and we can still make the fun thing we want to.

EGreg 6y ago

So is this exactly like Google Play Instant Apps? https://developer.android.com/topic/google-play-instant https://developer.android.com/topic/google-play-instant

reaperducer 6y ago
Hopefully similar, but better. Just like Apple didn't invent MP3 players, but it did invent the iPod.
dewey 6y ago
Have you seen it being used in the wild already?
- cglong 6y ago
  IME, Instant Apps are currently aimed at more of a "try our app" scenario, so I've never really seen them promoted in the wild, only through links I've tapped. I don't think there's much that would need to change to enable the types of scenarios Apple has been promoting.
- isiahl 6y ago
  Instant Apps have been around 4 years now (just a guess) and I've only encountered them twice. When going to a Vimeo link or a CBC link.
- curt15 6y ago
  CBC news has an instant app.
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mdszy 6y ago

I wonder how much of a potential there is for abuse with this system, one thing I thought of during the keynote was: 1. Someone sticks a malicious NFC tag on one of those rental scooters that opens a malicious App Clip 2. The App Clip seems like it could be for the rental service 3. App Clip maliciously takes your money and runs. Wonder how much something like that could become a problem or if Apple would be good enough about preventing/stopping it.

codezero 6y ago
That's a bloody clever trick :) I assume Apple is hoping to rely on its curated app store to protect against that, but that is more of a social attack, so maybe we'll see it happen or something similar. The "easy" fix is to make it obvious/hard to hide what the _real_ app clip should look like in-situ.
jdminhbg 6y ago
The defense here is presumably the same as against a "Starbux" app that faked orders to Starbucks and kept the money: it would either not make it past App Review and into the store or as soon as someone was scammed and complained, it would be taken down.
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r00fus 6y ago
It sounds like this sort of attack would not be widespread (because Apple would revoke the app rather quickly) but be great for spearphishing or high-value targets.
jonny_eh 6y ago
Couldn't this already be done with QR codes linking to a malicious website?
innagadadavida 6y ago
1. App clip needs to be registered with Apple 2. The web domain needs to link the App clip (Apple App Site Association file I'd presume). So this wouldn't work straight off as you describe. The NFC payload is just a url this url is sent back to Apple servers to load the App clip. What could work is someone uses a legit App clip and hijacks the corresponding web site and places a malicious payload and tricks the App clip to load the malicious payload and tricks the user to tap on NFC / QR code and exploits App clip. Even then the last line of defense - sandbox needs to be circumvented. Nevertheless, this is definitely a new attack vector and there will be exploits from NSAs.

codegladiator 6y ago

> Instead of asking for credit card information, you can take payments using Apple Pay. But can I ask for credit card information and not use "Apple Pay". The "instead" is super weird there. Also, why not just PWA ?

dewey 6y ago
Because if it's a part of a native app you can later download the "rest" of the app and it still has all your data already.
reaperducer 6y ago
But can I ask for credit card information and not use "Apple Pay". The "instead" is super weird there. "Apple Pay" doesn't mean Apple Card. You can have a bunch of different credit cards loaded into Apple Pay. Also, why not just PWA ? I hope companies go with this instead of PWA for the simple reason of bloat. Apple's payload restriction on App Clips is something like 10MB. Most PWA's blow that cap loading the page header and footer.
- codegladiator 6y ago
  I guess if they put a restriction on pwa size, people will make them below 10 mbs. Right now there is no restriction on pwa size as such. and I am sure the size isn't the reason for going with this and not pwa.
- vbezhenar 6y ago
  It's not like something won't allow those App Clips to download 100 MB after launch.
  - MBCook 6y ago
    They are limited to 10 megs of storage space. Unless you download the real app they can’t do that.
r00fus 6y ago
Sure you can do a PWA. But if you're doing e.g. a ticketing/parking app - it might just be worth paying the ApplePay tax to go with the friction-less experience for your app clip. You could make it easy to do ApplePay, and also have a "enter CC in the main app" approach.

ozten 6y ago

ClickJacking target? I would have expected the App Clip UI to have better integration with OS or Safari browser chrome, so that it wouldn't be possible to spoof from a web page. Since it floats entirely within content, it seems like you could make a click jacking attack from a Safari experience. Just one screenshot, maybe this is mitigated somehow...

jedieaston 6y ago
The app clips still have to go through app review and the user is asked for consent before it is downloaded and launched. You also have to create them as part of a full app in the App Store (although for the restaurant ordering scenario, GrubHub or whoever would make an app clip for the small restaurant that didn't have a presence on the App Store).
- ozten 6y ago
  Right. This would be simulating an app clip via HTML5 to trick a user into thinking they are using a safe app clip, but actually it is just a web page.

derefr 6y ago

Aside: when did Apple start putting out polished PR pages like this to "market" features to developers? I feel like this year is the first time I'm seeing them. There definitely wasn't anything like this push for when Core Data or Ubiquity came along, even though they both would have greatly benefited from it. The only pages for individual features I recall pure consumer-focused "explainers" of the benefits+implications of things like Gatekeeper, iCloud, or Time Machine. Is this just because this year's WWDC is online? Were they doing this sort of "hey, pay attention, this exists now, you should try building with it" PR in person before?

seanalltogether 6y ago
Apple probably knows that developers aren't the ones making the decisions on whether to implement app clips or not, product managers or the developers clients are.
saagarjha 6y ago
They've been doing it for a couple of years. Remember when Swift was launched?

BiteCode_dev 6y ago

So what google have done for the web with AMP, apple is doing to apps with clips? I feel like this could be achieved with better HTML5 support from the iPhone and the promotion of light PWA instead.

y2bd 6y ago
As said elsewhere in this thread, Google already has a direct analog with Google Play Instant Apps. Although I also wish Apple would put more than the bare minimum of support behind PWAs, from their perspective App Clips still have to go through the App Store vetting process, and therefore are (ostensibly) a safer choice than just granting more OS-level capabilities to PWAs.
- BiteCode_dev 6y ago
  You don't need OS-level capabilities to order a pizza.
anon102010 6y ago
Every time I read these comments I realize that apple is going to dominate again. A PWA is not vetted! If you complain about a PWA apple cannot take it down! In your PWA / QR code utopia, after someone sticks a few bogus QR codes on parking meters, scooters and bike rentals etc that point to their phising PWA - trust is going to be toast. Seriously - chrome getting rid of subdomains used to trick users (wellsfargo.securedomain.com) in the browser bar also generated lots of complaints - and also helps users. Is this just a HN thing? Screw the 1B users who can't be bothered to become experts on every weird scam / original headers review etc? Because it get's a bit tiring on literally every thing that google / apple do.
- wayneftw 6y ago
  > If you complain about a PWA apple cannot take it down! Browsers already protect people against malicious sites. You never saw Chrome warn you about it?

zuhayeer 6y ago

I thought App Clips were the most exciting part of iOS 14. I think there’s a real opportunity to utilize this for some guerrilla marketing (I hear a lot of it will work through deeplinking). It seems like a lot of it will be purchase intent based, but I can also imagine once Yelp implements this, you can deeplink to a 5 star rating. A Soundcloud rapper can now have folks scan into their new song and get a preview. Let these companies build the integrations and find creative use cases around them!

macNchz 6y ago
Given how often I encounter very broken deeplinks on iOS, this doesn't make me especially optimistic if there will now be another layer to it...I regularly click links on my iPhone that dump me into the app store despite already having the app installed, or that will open the app for a brief moment, only to switch me back into Safari, or banners on products/posts/pages that prompt me to "View in App" that just don't actually work properly. I haven't personally worked on an app with deeplinks in a few years, so I'm not sure what's going on, but it seems to be a widespread issue.

jbverschoor 6y ago

Ah. The good old times when you tried to squeeze your game into 10mb, optimize the hell out of it, so it was downloadable over cellular. These days apps are humongous without good reason

philplckthun 6y ago

I’m not sure why this isn’t highlighted more often, but I don’t see this just as a take on making web apps less relevant for iOS users. Rather what I see is a system to take on and take back control from the “app in app” WeChat ecosystem that has taken over so many parts of everyday life in China. It seems to me that Apple is looking to replicate that success, and sees the potential for apps that users don’t want to keep around permanently. It is indeed sad that this may discourage companies further from building solid web apps, especially if Android counters this system with their own, but I think it’ll mainly be interesting to see if and how it’ll affect WeChat in China.

plokiju21 6y ago
Android actually already has something similar: https://developer.android.com/topic/google-play-instant https://developer.android.com/topic/google-play-instant
- Farbklex 6y ago
  Not similar. It is absolutely the same.
- jeroenhd 6y ago
  Only Google Android, neither my current nor my previous phone have had the option to use instant apps. Maybe it's a region lock thing (I'm not in the US) but it's not globally available on all Play Services devices so I don't know what the point of putting effort into Instant Apps really is. It only makes sense to support all of Google Android or none of Google Android.
- philplckthun 6y ago
  It’s great to see that that’s already supported! I wasn’t aware of that, and it’ll allow Google to pivot this feature towards a similar use-case. Right now however it seems to primarily be marketed to mobile game developers.
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dmart 6y ago

If App Clips launch instantly enough, this could be the beginning of a sort of "parallel Web" that delivers native applications instead of HTML. Which, of course, has both benefits and drawbacks. But it's an interesting idea.

gerash 6y ago

IMHO both this and the Android Instant Apps are half assed ideas. The ultimate goal should be working towards having the ephemeral nature of web apps while maintaining the native app performance. That is, access to raw sensors, running native code rather than JS and working offline. I know it's technically challenging but that should be the direction.

mercutio2 6y ago
How is downloading a < 10MB native instant app any worse than downloading a frequently-larger web app?
- wayneftw 6y ago
  > ...a frequently-larger web app Got any stats for that? I was quickly able to find [0] and [1] which state that web page sizes are 1.5mb (median), 2mb (mean) and the average is about 3mb. [0] https://royal.pingdom.com/webpages-are-getting-larger-every-year-and-heres-why-it-matters/ https://royal.pingdom.com/webpages-are-getting-larger-every-... [1] https://speedcurve.com/blog/web-performance-page-bloat/ https://speedcurve.com/blog/web-performance-page-bloat/
  - fabiospampinato 6y ago
    Are those web apps or web pages though? Like I don't think blogs are what OP had in mind.
    - wayneftw 6y ago
      I'm not sure, that's why I'm asking for clarification. I'd like to know where the OP got their "frequently larger" stat from because I wasn't able to find one that specifically used the term "web apps".
  - gabagool 6y ago
    Is there a functional difference between "mean" and "average"? I've always thought that they're the same thing.

saagarjha 6y ago

The 10 MB limit is going to be very interesting, because it would instantly preclude the use of many SDKs that apps bundle these days "as a given". Unless there's a massive shift, things like Facebook login and analytics frameworks are just not going to work…maybe it'll cause developers to drop them from their full apps as well?

ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago
As a native Swift developer, I can live with this. I used to spend a lot of time, optimizing 8-bit images (PNG8), but gave it up, some time ago. This looks like I may want to revisit that exercise.
- krzat 6y ago
  Perhaps that's why Xcode 12 supports SVGs now. Supposedly on iOS 13 they won't rasterized during build.
  - ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago
    Yay! I've heard that SVG has been supported for a while, but I have not used them (yet).
trevor-e 6y ago
If anything it will force analytics SDK makers to make their code leaner. I find it hard to believe that analytics SDKs need to be so bloated. And I think the goal is to get users creating accounts with Apple Sign-In rather than Facebook. IMO it's a perfect use-case. I don't want to give away sensitive personal information to these "throw away" apps, I'll create a temporary account with Apple instead.

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shay_ker 6y ago

I'm curious what Apple Pay and App Clips means for the ongoing browser wars and the web in general. The more and more Apple or Google create products that only work with _their_ hardware and _their_ browsers, where does that leave everyone else? Imagine scenarios like: - Want to use Apple Pay on your laptop? You'll need Safari! - Want to redeem a reward off a QR code in a store with your friends? If you switch to Safari right now, no problem! - Want to pay your parking meter in a rush? Safari has you covered! I'm aware of Google Play Instant, and I assume that App Clips will only accelerate the adoption of both technologies. But will they be adopted at the same rate, or with the same quality? And where does that leave the users? The web was wonderful in that, as long as you can access a website, you can have a (hopefully/roughly) similar UX. Now it feels like that semblance of access is being eroded with more ecosystem lock-in. Is it possible to open this up?

scarface74 6y ago
Apple Pay can be exposed with the Web Payments API implemented by every web browser. If you use the API, it’s exposed by each platform using its own payment standard.
macNchz 6y ago
Reminds me of ActiveX in the late 90s/early 2000s...tons of web applications developed exclusively for Internet Explorer on Windows. As a Mac user in high school/college at the time, I occasionally had to use the shared computers in the school library just to use certain web apps that were built with ActiveX.

pier25 6y ago

So for Apple it's OK that you download a temporary app from a website but they refuse to give PWAs access to essential features such as push notifications.

hn_check 6y ago
Yes. And that is okay for the vast majority of consumers as well. Are there compelling PWAs on other platforms that are killer apps? Somehow Apple always gets called out here (despite being one of the first to support PWAs and to enable advanced functionality), yet the average Android user I suspect has approximately zero PWAs installed. The average Windows user - Zero. The average Linux user - Zero. Make some killer PWAs that people cry for and the user base will demand it. But as is it seems to be mostly dreaming and imagination that Apple is the boogieman.
- pier25 6y ago
  HEY could have been a PWA. The UI is just web after all. Edit: Also, an argument could be made that because Apple doesn't really want PWAs on iOS nobody is investing in make a good one for mobile.
- enos_feedler 6y ago
  I would also add ChromeOS to this list. It has a decent install base and should be a killer platform for PWAs. Haven't seen anything notable here though either.

sktrdie 6y ago

I'm gonna be the web guy... have we given up on the web completely? Why not improve the signup/payments experience using Web APIs? Why not integrate safari more closely to what is required with these App Clips? It seems the only real reason that Apple isn't doing this is because it wants people to build for their App Store so they have control and possible revenue stream. From a dev perspective this feels like a lock-in: yet another platform to support

orev 6y ago
> It seems the only real reason that Apple isn't doing this is because it wants people to build for their App Store so they have control and possible revenue stream. You say it incredulously as if that’s not a valid reason. Of course that’s the reason. Money is the reason why most companies do things.
solarkraft 6y ago
All the cynical comments about Apple's ecosystem motivation certainly apply, but there's one much more mundane reason: UX. The best PWA still feels vastly worse than native versions (my reference is Twitter) and for Apple that's a huge factor, which I respect a lot.
- theschwa 6y ago
  I'd also add reducing friction. It seems the goal here is to reduce the amount of time it takes to get the user to the exact functionality they need in the shortest amount of time with a user experience that makes it feel seamless.
  - vxNsr 6y ago
    A QR code is exactly the same thing. If you wanna talk NFC... how many people do you think are gonna buy apple's proprietary NFC broadcaster? either way though apple could use the same API to call a public website instead of a private call to a handicapped app. They're still downloading MBs of data. Not sure how big most websites are these days but I would surprised if most app clips don't go right up to that 10MB limit.

solarkraft 6y ago

Yes, Android has had it for years. The difference is that Apple will actually ship it, it will work and provide benefit.

codysan 6y ago

Looks like this could give Apple a bit of a head start with fleshing out some of their AR app offerings out in the real world. I imagine these will translate quite nicely into rOS / StarBoard, which gives Apple a slew of apps to use on day one.

gregsadetsky 6y ago

Sorry, I didn't follow the launch. Does anyone know whether App Clips can consume/produce audio? I'm working on a musical app -- is there a way for us to "demo" our app in App Clip format, considering that it uses the mic + speaker? Thanks!

nexuist 6y ago
Supposedly App Clips can use every framework available to a normal app, except for HealthKit, which they explicitly prohibited. They did mention that App Clips can activate the camera, so I'd guess you can at least ask for microphone permissions.
- gregsadetsky 6y ago
  That’s very encouraging, thank you!

dangus 6y ago

This was probably the only part of the WWDC keynote that left a sour taste in my mouth. It’s the opposite of what I want. On the other hand, for the companies that insist on apps, I guess it’s an improvement. Kind of.

miohtama 6y ago

Apple has a patent on context sensitive app installs/appearances. Come acrosa it some years ago.

donarb 6y ago

One overlooked feature of this feature is the Sign in with Apple. You can use the App Clip to make a purchase and at the same time you give the vendor an anonymous email address which they can use to contact you with more information about their service. If you don't want any information, you can cancel that anonymous address. I don't see how this can be done in a web app.

shafyy 6y ago
There is Sign in with Apple on the web, too.

xyst 6y ago

I am actually excited to see this in the wild. I wonder how well it would work when cell reception is very bad (indoors or 3G)

MarkSweep 6y ago

It looks like this is a new way to get remote code execution on a locked iPhone: > NFC Tags: Users can tap their iPhone on NFC tags that you place at specific locations to launch an app clip, even from the lock screen. I assume you would have to still get your app through the App Store review, but once you get past that you "just" need a sandbox escape or a privilege escalation bug to own the device. I suspect this feature will be taken advantage of by forensics software.

whytaka 6y ago

I really think this is revolutionary. With Sign-In with Apple and Apple Pay, it's going to make real world digital commerce much more streamlined with Apple mediating as a guarantor for both sides. Like WeChat but unlike WeChat because privacy is respected.

silentfishwm 6y ago

We have been using these micro-apps in China since almost four years ago...

ngcc_hk 6y ago

May be I am old. Even though this is so different, I have the same feeling of sidekick in the DOS world ... do not know why.