Apple WWDC19 Day 3
June 5, 2019
Lots more from the past 24 hours, so here’s a few more items, and a bit more expansion.
The Reality of AR
Apple is continuing its improvement to bring AR to life without the need for additional hardware or accessories. Improvements in ARKit3 and Reality Kit will drastically improve the experience, specifically People Occlusion which can be enabled/disabled, and 2D or 3D people animations. Both should allow even more interaction within AR when included in app. They’re also making it, “as simple as Keynote” to build objects in AR for developers.
Watch Outs: brands should start finding new and innovative ways to virtually immerse users within their apps. However, experiences should be fun, repeatable and converting in some fashion, whether that’s “Order Now” for virtual clothing or furniture, or “Take Me There” for destination apps. The key will be to not be novel, but fun, informative, and engaging.
The Dark Side
Apple revealed today how simple it will be for developers to code for Dark Mode for existing apps. This may, or may not, be huge for brands. What’s interesting is almost every element is still customizable in Dark Mode. And it went beyond just a change in theme. Apple has created entirely new color schematics and “dark” experiencers to complement the lighter side.
Watch Outs: brands need to IMMEDIATELY work with their development team to see how their app will look in iOS13 Dark Mode. From here, developers should work alongside brand creative teams to ensure the creative teams AND brand police have a seat at the table. It’s unclear how many users will adopt Dark Mode on day-one of iOS13, so brands should consider their user base to determine where this update may fit in the development cycle. At the very minimum, ensuring the app looks “on brand” when operating in Dark Mode, if not fully optimized for the experience.
Apple Sign-on
Everything previously shared appears true, other than the deprecation of support for other logins, like Google and Facebook. Apple is pushing this to be a more secure, verifiable way to ensure the user is real and not a bot. Implementation seems fairly straightforward, and Apple was BIG on not collecting more information than you need, except, they will only provide three data points on the user; an Apple User ID, Email and Name. No other fields appear available at this point.
Also, while Apple did demo how easy it was to implement and what the service will return back if a user has already signed on, or has signed-off, or doesn’t have valid credentials, I was still unclear as to what happens when a user already has created an account, say either through a web site or previous version of an app.
Watch Outs: brands should consider the relevance of the feature. It’s very likely regular users won’t know this feature is available with iOS13 for a bit of time. Those brands that require a login through Facebook or another third-party login should seriously consider this new feature. In any event, ensuring you’ve tested for all various user experiences – new account, existing account, etc. – should be included in any app QA when introducing the feature.
There’s a Machine in Your Pocket
Apple is challenging developers to activate and use the hardware and software technology within their latest devices. Plenty of sessions have included machine learning and using the neural chip to do complex, highly fast calculations and modeling directly on the device, vs. sending to the cloud or to another computer.
It definitely seems like Apple is contending with a, “we build it, but no one has come.” I’m sure many brands and apps are tapping into the power of the hardware, but probably not with the frequency or adoption of the overall iPhone/iPad market. Admittedly, I can’t think of any app I have installed that uses any form of machine learning native on my device.
Watch Outs: overall this feature feels very enterprise or for the mathematics and sciences. Organizations in these sectors would likely stand to benefit the most from these technologies. The average consumer wanting to check the weather … maybe won’t need local-device modeling enabled.
Overall, there are some significant changes coming with the recent updates. Brands should evaluate when and where it makes sense to implement. Most of these won’t require any major updates to coincide with the release of iOS … well, except maybe for Dark Mode.
Post Tags:
Apple, AR, Dark Mode, WWDC, WWDC19,