10 ways to take advantage of iOS 8's new technical features to build more powerful mobile apps

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【51CTO translation】The new API combination brought by iOS 8 promises to make daily use of mobile users more convenient and easy. However, according to the Forester research report, in order to fully realize the huge potential of this valuable opportunity, it requires both unremitting efforts and considerable financial investment.

The new features of iOS 8 will help CMOs rethink their mobile application development plans, thereby bringing iPhone and iPad customers into an unparalleled "mobile time" - through this window in the palm of your hand, you can seize more effective and fruitful marketing opportunities. For those CIOs who focus on application development within their companies, another round of high-intensity busy period is about to begin.

iOS 8 includes more than 4,000 new application programming interfaces, many of which are designed to simplify the daily lives of mobile device users. However, taking full advantage of these potential features requires both unremitting efforts and considerable financial investment. According to a research report released by Forrester, the cost of creating and developing applications for iOS 8 has increased by about 20% compared to before.

Forrester also highlighted ten ways that CMOs and CIOs can take advantage of iOS 8 to improve their customers’ mobile app experience while taking advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform the mobile timeframe.

1. In iOS 8, Apple finally opened the door to third-party developers, allowing them to access Touch ID through the thumb scanning mechanism on the Home button to achieve authentication functions. Enterprises should integrate this feature into their own applications, which is also a great opportunity to impress customers. The idea of ​​​​developers should be to use Touch ID to help users complete the necessary authentication and security as inadvertently as possible. According to the Forrester report, this way, customers can completely follow the application installation or purchase process to perform touches or other operation steps, so that authentication can be integrated in a seamless way.

2. Apple's long-awaited Apple Pay service promises to bring the mobile wallet era to life. Apple's massive business scale and key partnerships, coupled with the unprecedented sales of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus (10 million units sold in three days has broken all records), have plenty of room for Apple Pay to grow. If Apple Pay really takes off and is widely accepted, companies will certainly want to be the first to introduce Apple Pay functionality into their applications as soon as possible.

3. Apple iOS 8 makes it more difficult for third-party applications to track the user's current location. Now applications must ask users in the form of options whether to allow them to track their location "always", or only "track while in use" or never allow tracking. Although this will make it more difficult for marketers to grasp the user's behavior patterns and activity trajectories, such as providing customers with corresponding electronic coupons when they are in a store, excellent applications can guide customers to turn on the "always" function and successfully defeat competitors - from another perspective, this is also a good thing with huge development opportunities.

"First, make sure that when the app asks for location information, it can provide customers with significant value that can be presented through a single pop-up window; second, consider other alternative factors that can replace the customer's physical location information," Forrester recommends in the report. "The ideal scenario is to indirectly obtain the customer's location when they are at a certain location through scanning, NFC, or logging in."

4. The notification system in iOS 8 not only provides information snippets, but also allows users to directly operate on related content, such as deleting emails and replying to tweets. For CMOs, notifications can be regarded as a key way to communicate with customers during mobile time, and its efficiency is much higher than requiring customers to open the main application. In other words, if the design of "buy" buttons can be added directly to the notification information, marketers will definitely be very happy.

"Cruise companies could provide passengers with permission to schedule a later flight if necessary," Forrester said in the report. "Alternatively, credit card companies could require child cardholders to obtain parental permission before making a payment."

5. iOS 8 supports extensible widgets for apps in the "Today" feed screen, and allows apps to use its import and export functions. What does this mean? For example, an airline CMO can insert a widget in the "Today" feed screen that allows passengers to use it to check flight information. In addition, iPhone device users can also use credit card applications to print sales invoices. In addition, Forrester also listed some other design ideas in the report.

6. HomeKit in Apple iOS 8 allows applications to communicate with settings within the home environment. This is equivalent to opening a new market and ecosystem door for companies, allowing them to sell services, accessories, and other connected devices that complement iOS applications in a richer way, thereby helping them to smoothly control or obtain important information related to these devices.

"Current applications can monitor the usage and performance of connected products," Forrester noted in the report. "Based on this output, the application can send reminders to charge the device, sync data, change filters, or shut down the device."

7. Similarly, HealthKit in Apple iOS 8 allows applications to communicate with other applications and devices to monitor various indicators and parameters closely related to the physical health of Apple device owners. The data collected and summarized by HealthKit can be analyzed and used to generate suggestions and opinions that help improve health.

"While not yet comprehensive, HealthKit has the potential to become a major platform for healthcare providers and consumers, giving them access to broader and more accurate health data, enabling them to make better treatment choices and reduce costs," Forrester said in its report.

8. Consumers often use other devices, such as iPads and MacBooks, before pulling out their iPhones and entering a mobile session. This means that CMOs can’t just focus on the mobile platform. Apple has introduced Handoff in iOS 8, which can work with OS X to build a seamless task handling experience—we can smoothly switch between the two operating systems without knowing it. This is an important feature that should be considered in the mobile experience: Forrester’s survey of digital business professionals showed that 44% of respondents said their main upload is to provide a consistent experience across different mobile devices.

9. The iPhone 6 Plus has a whopping 5.5-inch screen, and the iPhone 6 is also a size larger than its predecessor. CMOs and their marketing apps can use the extra real estate to accommodate their marketing messages, strengthen brand awareness, and even provide more features. Sounds good, right? But this idea is a completely different picture in the eyes of CIOs - they now need to redesign their apps for more screen sizes. CIOs may be tempted to scale their iPad versions of their apps to fit the iPhone 6 Plus screen, but Forrester advises against it. iPads typically gain network access through WiFi connections, while iPhones mainly use cellular networks as a data source - and different apps often reflect this difference in positioning, Forrester said.

10. Through the extension API, iOS 8 supports custom keyboards and the corresponding shortcuts and special characters, and allows users to quickly complete input operations by sliding. Yes, this may not sound like a big deal. But CMOs, please note that you now have the ability to design a more suitable keyboard solution for your application to replace the user experience of Apple's default soft keyboard. Please do not ignore this point. After all, under the influence of the concept of mobile time, every minute and every second will have a huge impact on the future fate of the company.

Original title: 10 Ways CIOs and CMOs Can Tap iOS 8 for Better Mobile Apps

Nuka-Cola Translation