Apple is Developing 'Clips' Feature For Using Apps Without Requiring Full Downloads (9to5mac.com) 32
Apple is working on a new way to offer specific parts of third-party apps across the system without needing to have them installed, 9to5Mac has learned based on an early build of iOS 14. From a report: The feature would allow users to experience parts of an app's functionality by scanning a QR Code. If you open a link or scan a QR code today from an app that you haven't installed on your iPhone or iPad, it will open that link in Safari. Apps can provide universal links, which open the app instead of Safari when the app is installed. But that could change in the near future with a new API internally referred to as "Clips" found on iOS 14 code. As 9to5Mac has analyzed this new API, we can say that it allows developers to offer interactive and dynamic content from their apps even if you haven't installed them. The Clips API is directly related to the QR Code reader in the build we have access to, so the user can scan a code linked to an app and then interact with it directly from a card that will appear on the screen.
Re: Erstmal Deutsch lernen. (Score:2)
Wer andern eine Bratwurst brät,
hat ein BratwurstbratgerÃt!
ActiveX lives (Score:3)
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Can anyone tell me of any possible useful use case for this functionality?
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Apple Maps (yes, I know) provides Yelp ratings in the app, but if you want to tap them to bring up actual reviews or images of the place (e.g. pictures of a menu), you get punted to the App Store to download the Yelp app. If it were possible to view a card with that information without downloading an app I'd rather not have cluttering my device, I'd welcome it.
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If Yelp just rendered HTML instead of trying to sell their tracking app, this would solve everything. Their app is just a glorified HTML browser anyway.
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Can anyone tell me of any possible useful use case for this functionality?
I think it's intended to give you a quick idea of what the app is like, to entice you into downloading and installing the full app when you otherwise wouldn't have bothered. (Of course it could well have the opposite effect -- why download the full app when the functionality you want is available without the hassle of doing so?)
Doesn't Android already have something like this (Score:2)
I seem to remember Android had added some ability to do partial app downloads a year or two ago, though maybe what they were doing was for a different purpose. I can't find anything on Google about that.
Re: Doesn't Android already have something like th (Score:1)
Yes, I remember that too.
I never saw it in action though.
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I seem to remember Android had added some ability to do partial app downloads a year or two ago
Got a pop-up on my Android phone this week for the related permissions request for some random "no install app", so yeah.
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I think that you're probably thinking of "instant apps" [android.com], which sounds like roughly the same thing as this proposal.
It doesn't seem to have caught on very much; apparently you have to get your app size down to be fairly small, which probably entails a lot of development effort for many apps. I can't remember ever seeing it in the wild; the only reason I remember it was that I was doing some research on Android app development recently and ran across the terminology.
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I've encountered it for games. The first couple of levels in, say, a puzzle game are playable without installing.
Huawei too Re: Doesn't Android already have someth (Score:2)
They have "Quick Apps".
IMO, PWAs are the way to go.
Webapp or Instant? (Score:2)
Webapps (PWA), Steve Jobs' original vision for Apps on iPhone
Instant Apps [android.com], something Android has had for years.
Re: Webapp or Instant? (Score:1)
Are there any real-world examples of Instant Apps being actually used? :D)
I have yet to see one.
(Oh, believe me, with a 64kb/s throttled mobile connection and no wifi, I *would* notice.
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CBC news uses it.
On Chrome on your Android, go to https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/covid19-modelling-projections-1.5527365 [www.cbc.ca], and on the page it will show you a link to open the instant app version.
While doing this requires you to click to re-open the site, I've had news alerts in my notifications open the instant app instead of the news site. This will just let you see one as a test. But not many sites seem to use it
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Or X style remotely displayed apps, because you don't need to VNC style share a whole desktop when the whole app is in one window.
Re: Webapp or Instant? (Score:2)
... or QuickApps
https://developer.huawei.com/c... [huawei.com]
What could possibly go wrong? (Score:1)
Including camera/microphone permissions? (Score:1)
You know... to exploit the latest hacks we read about here, a few days ago. :D
Re: Including camera/microphone permissions? (Score:2)
The camera exploit was fixed on January 18th, the other exploits were fixed on March 24th.
https://www.macrumors.com/2020... [macrumors.com]
QR code scanning is a pain (Score:2)
Scanning for QR codes is inconvenient on an iPhone currently because you have to bring up the camera. They need to enable scanning of nearby QR codes upon phone waking up and gesture. Otherwise its too much of a hassle.
Re: QR code scanning is a pain (Score:2)
wow, seriously?
It's as easy as it could possibly be, IMO.
Weren't these called demos? (Score:2)
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Yeah, but nobody has 3.5” floppy drives anymore... so Apple had to think of an alternative delivery mechanism.
Call it Quibi Apps... (Score:2)