Early this year, Apple announced the release of its iOS 10.3 update. While most of us have updated our phones to the new version, only a few may know the real improvements it has brought. We usually update our phone because it keeps prompting us, believing an obvious reason that the new version will be an enhanced one.
But Apple- the second-largest smartphone seller (after Android) has really shown spectacular extremes with this new iOS 10.3 version, especially for the app owners and developers. They have updated it to iOS 10.3.2 within one month.
Connecting the dots so perfectly, Apple Inc. leaves no room for bugs and shortcomings. The iOS 10.3 update took over seven betas before the final launch, and has brought features that can prove to be invaluable for all the app owners having their apps in the Apple App Store. It has been a game changer in the past few months, especxially for iOS application development.
So, what is the remarkable iOS 10.3 has brought to the table. Here’s the breakdown:
Targeting all iOS compatible device including iPhone 5S and later, iPad 4 and above, iPad mini 2 or later, iPod pro range and iPod 6 and later, the 10.3 will update the file system of your device to Apple File System (APFS). This has replaced the veteran HFS+ file system. It will preserve the existing data on your device;however, with any other software update, it’s always recommended to take a backup of your data before updating.
With a huge data of customers and users on their phones, the app owners and iOS developers can stay carefree and get the update immediately. iOS itself will take care of it.
One of the many reasons why people delete apps from their phone is due to insufficient storage space. But Apple has taken good care of it in its new 10.3 update. The APFS will save space (up to 1-7 GB depending upon the storage of your device) and thus, optimizing for solid space storage.
Now, the developers and customers can interact on the same platform for reviews and ratings. Experts say that the new version has a StoreKit API, which allows customers to rate the app without leaving the developer’s version of it. So, it has become easy for customers to provide rating and reviews without leaving the app.
With the StoreKit API, as the developer/ app owner will reply to a review, the customer will be notified and can immediately see the comment. Thereafter, you have the option of showing the comment to the public. This is one of the major amendments in the operating system. Stay in-app will simplify the overall rating experience for customers and it will certainly increase the number for app owners. This will be very handy.
Further, app owners get a chance to improve bad reviews by replying to customer’s feedback straight away, clearing their doubts or solving their queries instantly. As and when done, you can notify the customer on the app and the customer can replace the bad review with a good comment.
iOS users can provide feedback to app store reviews as ‘Helpful’ or ‘Not helpful.’
Yet another feature that has come up as a great surprise to the app owners is the dynamic access to change the app icon. To give you better oversight and control, Apple experts have tweaked a simpler and convenient way for developers. You can simply modify the app icon without having to submit any new update request for the app to the app store.
This will work amazing when app owners would want to make any seasoned updates like on Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Year. Together with, the developers can change the icon color and design on the spot by taking suggestions from the users and implementing the most voted one.
While Siri gets smarter to access and assist on the various apps like sports, music, eCommerce, restaurant, it is an added advantage for app owners as the number of customers using mobile apps for the various tasks is surging. Siri can now pay bills, check statuses, schedule ride with Uber, provide answers to Cricket scores and stats pulling it from the International Cricket Council (ICC) and Indian Premier Leagues (IPL). Siri also knows how to update the user about live scores, team players, ranking, match dates and much more.
As users open and close the apps, they can see them appearing with round edges. The animation is delightful.
A good chance for app owners to get customers even while they are driving as CarPlay provides shortcuts in the status bar for the last checked and/or used apps. Apart from curating the daily playlists and new music categories in Apple music, CarPlay in 10.3 now allows to quickly access the three most recently used apps while driving.
There are several other minor updates like home app support for accessory battery level status, support for searching ‘parked cars’ in maps, hourly weather update in maps using 3-d touch on the displayed current temperature, voiceover stability improvements for Safari, Mail and Phone and more.
Have you updated your phones to iOS 10.3? Not yet? You may be losing a lot of potential customers that otherwise will be taken away by your competitors. Do it right away.
We are all eagerly waiting for iOS 11 announcements this September hoping that it will deliver a more seamless experience by the smartphone giant.
Heena Banga is a Senior Content Developer at Konstant Infosolutions- a globally recognized mobile application development company. She leads marketing and growth initiatives at the company using a mix of technical and business content tactics. Heena also contributes articles to CrowdReviews, OpenSourceForU, Sociableblog, ducttapemarketing, PAYMILL blog. She hopes to enjoy a business conversation onboard a commercial space flight someday. Her ultimate goal is to combine business and writing and go into Advertising.
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