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iOS 9 Search and Universal Links→

iOS 9 puts a big focus on getting into apps faster and returning to where you left off quickly. As I wrote last night:

To achieve such new level of contextual interactions between Siri and apps, Apple is relying on deep linking, a feature that’s been available on other OSes or through third-party frameworks and that will be enabled by default on iOS 9. Deep linking refers to the ability to return to a specific area of an app at any given time. In Siri’s case, a deep link will let you return from Reminders to a message, but the technology will also power other areas of iOS to allow users to easily get back to where they left off in an app. For example, deep linking will be used to index content within apps for search. To make the process of moving between apps faster, Apple has built a new back button that will be displayed in the top left of the screen to return to the previous app with one tap.

Besides blurring the line between app and OS, seamless transitions between the web and apps will also be a fundamental theme of iOS 9. The implications are profound – especially for Google.

Apple is taking a dual approach with deep linking: they’re making it easy for users to navigate across apps (not to just launch them) and they’re building new technologies to expose app content locally and link webpages to apps.

Apple calls deep links to native apps Universal Links, and they work by specifying the path to sections of an app with a JSON file on a website.

In iOS 9, your app can register to open web links (using https or http) directly, bypassing Safari. This connection between your app and website helps Apple surface your app content in search results.

Universal Links fall under the bigger initiative of Search in iOS 9, which encompasses the web, Siri, local apps, and even apps that aren’t installed on a device.

App Search in iOS 9 gives users great new ways to access information inside of your app, even when it isn’t installed. When you adopt iOS 9 Search, users can access activities and content deep within your app through Handoff, Siri Reminders, and Search results.

As Apple elaborates:

For an example of how this works, imagine that your app helps users handle minor medical conditions, such as a sunburn or a sprained ankle. When you adopt iOS 9 Search, users searching their devices for “sprained ankle” can get results for your app even when they don’t have your app installed. When users tap on a result for your app, they get the opportunity to download your app.

If this sounds similar to what Google announced in April, it’s because the underlying idea is very similar.

Upon skimming through iOS 9’s documentation, my first impression is that Apple wants to further cut out Google from search on iOS not by removing traditional web searches, but by building a superior user experience. In theory, looking for content from an integrated search box and having results seamlessly transition to native apps or prompt to install new apps seems better than asking users to go to google.com. The new back button, Universal Links, and app/web indexing technologies are aimed at finding information quickly, navigating between apps easily, and connecting webpages to apps directly.

It remains to be seen if Apple’s solution will be widely adopted and if it’ll actually be better than Google search. I have many thoughts, but I’ll save them for the future.

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Apple’s Tim Cook Talks Diversity, Women→

Cook doesn’t subscribe to the idea that women just don’t want to be involved in tech — calling that argument a “cop-out.”

“I think it’s our fault — ‘our’ meaning the whole tech community,” he says. “I think in general we haven’t done enough to reach out and show young women that it’s cool to do it and how much fun it can be.”

Christina Warren interviewed Tim Cook about Apple’s diversity efforts, women and app development, and gender/racial equality in tech. As Cook suggests, it sounds like women will be on stage at Apple’s WWDC keynote today – a “finally” is appropriate in this case.

I asked Cook about the lack of women at WWDC keynotes. he smiled. “Look tomorrow,” he said. “Look tomorrow and let me know what you think.

Speaking of which, Jean MacDonald is currently running a crowdfunding campaign for App Camp For Girls 3.0. This is an important mission and you can show your support here.

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TestFlight, One Year Later→

Nick Arnott has taken a look at TestFlight a year after its relaunch and I agree with his overall take. I write about apps for a living (I currently have 74 betas in my TestFlight), and the simplicity of Apple’s system is unparalleled. I just need to give developers my email and that’s it.

I also agree with Nick’s comments on frustrations with using TestFlight. I hope that Apple will continue tweaking these aspects going forward.

I’ve experienced a few minor frustrations with as a user though. For example, I can’t accept an invitation from my computer — I have to accept an invitation from the device I want to test on. Also, TestFlight emails don’t contain any release notes. With other services like HockeyApp, developer release notes are included in the email, so you can decide from the email if you care about the update or not. Lack of these release notes from TestFlight means you’ll have to tap through to the app and view on your testing device to see if you want the update or not.

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“Laughing and Crying My Way Through the New Google Photos”→

My first watch of this video hit me emotionally in a way that’s hard to articulate. The film itself is a new kind of uncanny valley for digital artifacts: Assistant and its algorithms combined these clips in a way that no reasonable person would attempt. Ever. The result is surreal, random, creepy, sad, and oddly funny. It had to be a coincidence of timing that I had only just returned from visiting Grumpy on his deathbed. But partly because of that timing, this video present came at a moment when I was primed to appreciate it. Maybe it won’t be long before services try (and fail) to do this sort of thing on purpose, offering us narratives that highlight timely memories, or videos designed to fill anticipated emotional needs. My photos are still uploading.

Ryan Gantz has shared a personal story about photos he took at family events and how Google Photos put them all together automatically. The result is indeed funny and weird at the same time, but Ryan ended up appreciating it anyway.

There have been some interesting discussions about privacy and the value of Google Photos over the past week. So far, I agree completely with Manton Reece:

My family photos are the most important files I have on my computer, and I very rarely share any photos of my kids publicly. But ironically I’m willing to overlook some of the privacy concerns around this exactly because the photos are so valuable to me. I want multiple copies in the cloud, and I want the power of search that Google has built.

“Kind of creepy but I appreciate it” seems to be a common theme around Google Photos.

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Connected: Intellectual Ambiguity→

This week, Stephen and Myke talk to Russell Ivanovic about Google Photos and then go on to make their WWDC predictions.

I couldn’t join Myke and Stephen this week, and, as usual, they did a great job at covering Google’s announcements and predictions for WWDC 2015. You can listen to the episode here.

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What Twitter Can Be→

Chris Sacca’s essay on what Twitter can become is worth a read if you’re interested in the future of the company. The piece contains several interesting ideas for enhancements to Twitter’s curation, discovery, and timeline design – this bit on Nuzzel in particular:

A third way to organize content from Twitter is to highlighting what the Tweets are linking to. If you’ve used Nuzzel (disclosure: one of our portfolio companies) you know exactly what I mean and how simple yet magical that experience can be. If you haven’t used it, try it. Nuzzel makes Twitter better.

Want to know what are the most popular articles linked to on Twitter? That should be a channel. What are the most popular sites linked among the people we follow or people that our friends follow? Great channel. Which books are people Tweeting about? Channel. Which videos are garnering the most attention? Channel. Any particular .gifs blowing up? Channel.

I use Nuzzel every day, and I love it. As I argued last year, I’m a fan of Twitter’s experiments with the timeline on iOS, but I also believe they should experiment more and break free of old ideas about Twitter. I disagree with some of Sacca’s proposals, but the entire piece is spot-on.

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Apple’s Privacy and Cloud Services→

Thomas Ricker, writing for The Verge in response to Tim Cook’s speech on privacy and cloud services:

Arguably, Google Maps is better than Apple Maps, Gmail is better than Apple Mail, Google Drive is better than iCloud, Google Docs is better than iWork, and Google Photos can “surprise and delight” better than Apple Photos. Even with the risks.

If Apple truly cares about our privacy then it should stop talking about how important it is and start building superior cloud-based services we want to use — then it can protect us.

As John Gruber eloquently commented:

There’s much I would quibble with regarding Ricker’s piece, but his conclusion, quoted above, is spot-on. Apple needs to provide best-of-breed services and privacy, not second-best-but-more-private services. Many people will and do choose convenience and reliability over privacy. Apple’s superior position on privacy needs to be the icing on the cake, not their primary selling point.

This is a tricky scenario: is machine learning the only way to build intelligent services and client apps for the future? Google Photos is showing impressive results in recognizing places, objects, and people – but at the cost of letting Google’s cloud analyze your entire memories and visual history. It’s only natural for some people not to be okay with that today.

Will consumers start demanding that sort of intelligence going forward? Is there any way to build intelligence at scale without being creepy? Is privacy a product or a feature?

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Apple Support Document on HomeKit and Apple TV→

Following the launch of the first HomeKit devices yesterday, Apple has published an official page with a list of compatible products and a support document detailing the setup process for HomeKit.

In that document, Apple confirmed the long-rumored “hub” feature of Apple TV:

If you have an Apple TV (3rd generation or later) with software version 7.0 or later, you can control your HomeKit-enabled accessories when you’re away from home using your iOS device.

Sign in with the same Apple ID on your iOS device and Apple TV, and you’ll be able to use Siri commands to remotely control your accessories.

Earlier today, The New York Times reported that Apple won’t announce any new Apple TV hardware at its upcoming WWDC. Considering that HomeKit (which is rumored to get some stage time next week) can already work on the current-gen Apple TV, it’s no surprise Apple may prefer to sell the current model and wait to get the next generation just right. It’ll be interesting to see Apple’s plans for the Apple TV as a connected home hub unfold over the next few months.

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Clips 1.2→

Clips, developed by Clean Shaven Apps, is an app I use on a daily basis to copy multiple bits of text and move them between apps using a widget, an action extension, and a fantastic custom keyboard – one of the few keyboards I keep on my devices, in fact. I reviewed the app when it came out last September, and I’ve been using it since.

Today, Clips 1.2 has been released with a refreshed design, Apple Watch support, and a faster keyboard. While I’m not sure why I’d want to use Clips on my Watch, I believe it can be useful to those who use the app to store text they access frequently and not as a temporary holding place for clipped items. I’m a fan of the new dark design and the increased contrast between URLs and plain text, and I continue to appreciate the time the app saves me when composing articles, researching topics, and collecting a bunch of notes from different apps with just a few taps. Clips is the epitome of iOS 8’s extensibility features for productivity apps, and it’s one of my must-have utilities.

Clips 1.2 is available on the App Store.

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