iOS Apps are developed under the IDE (Integrated Development Environment) known as
Xcode, which must be installed in the MacOS operating system.
The development of iOS mobile applications requires knowledge of programming in the Swift language of Apple, which is now open source, under license from Apache. Swift is used to create applications for Mac, iOS, Apple TV or Apple Watch ensuring integration with code in Objective C language.
Apple recommends a series of guidelines, to build iOS mobile applications that give a good user experience with its design, that respond quickly to commands, that adapt to different screen sizes, and that consume as little battery as possible.
A) Expected Behavior of iOS Mobile Applications
When you are going to publish an iOS mobile application in the AppStore, the app is required to contain the following additional information:
An Info.plist file that contains information known as the metadata of the application.
The hardware requirements or features that the iOS mobile application needs to run must be declared.
You must have one or more icons to present it in the user's application window.
You must also have a start image of the app, which is the image that is shown when the application is just launched and is just loading.
B) Well-defined execution states
Applications go through several states of execution from the start until it is finally closed. In this way, the application follows a series of execution states, when it is executed in the foreground, or when it is in the background, and then it is resumed.
IOS mobile applications must then handle these states very well, in order to have the expected behavior, such as making the least possible use of battery while in an airplane mode. As a result, it is recommended that you meet with top app development companies.
C) Efficient execution in iOS multitasking
The iOS multitasking allows you to keep an app in the background, reducing your battery usage, but with the ability to quickly return to its previous state, when the user returns to the App. That is why you need the mobile application to use
iOS multitasking, to protect a very valuable asset for users, which is the charge of your battery.
D) Standard communication between iOS mobile applications
iOS and Mac have developed an access control technology known as Sandbox, which allows apps to have limited interaction with each other. So if a communication between apps is required, the interfaces specified by Sandbox must be handled.
E) Tuning the performance of iOS Mobile Applications
Apple recommends making a series of modifications to the App, in order to make efficient use of different hardware resources.
Among the tips recommended to improve the performance are:
1. Efficient use of battery charge
- Reduce energy consumption
- Avoid polling the CPU (continuous requests to the CPU so that it does not go to sleep).
- Let the system automatically turn off the screen, without forcing it to keep it on in any unattended operation.
- Avoid accessing the disk very frequently.
- Do not draw very fast on the screen, which consumes a lot of energy.
- Gather tasks to execute at the same time.
- Make an efficient use of the accelerometer, only when necessary.
- Connect as little as possible to external servers, only when necessary.
- Large bursts of data must be transmitted in short periods of time, thus minimizing WiFi or Mobile 3G/4G radiation, which consumes a lot of battery power.
- The use of central location functions should be minimized so that they use GPS, the cellular network and WiFi as little as possible.
- Connect as much as possible to WiFi networks, connections to the cellular network consume more energy.
Efficient memory use
It is recommended that Apps use the least amount of memory possible. In this way, the system will have more memory available for the applications that are in the foreground, making faster the response of iOS to the tasks of the mobile applications that are running.
For this case it is recommended to:
- Handle low memory warnings, in order to free up unnecessary memory.
- Reduce the memory footprints of the app.
- Impose limits of memory to the resources.
- Avoid solving problems that require unknown memory sizes, which at some point may overwhelm the capacity given to the app.
Adjust the code for Internet
iOS mobile applications use many functions to create internet connections, to send and receive data. Apple makes the following recommendations in this regard:
- Define as possible the data formats of the protocols used.
- Transmit packets in bursts if possible.
- Avoid protocols that use excessive interaction.
Airplane alerts
The application must also consider showing a connection alert to the WiFi network when the device is in
airplane mode.
2. Improve the management of archives
It is recommended to minimize the amount of writing to the disk. For this it is recommended to:
- Group modified content to minimize the number of write-to-disk blocks.
- Write to disk only the portion of the file that changes.
- If the data is structured, it is better to use an internal database, such as Core Data or SQLite.
- Avoid writing cache files to the disk.
3. Execution of backup copies
It is recommended to make backup copies efficiently and host the files according to their characteristics, in the directories where the app is stored.
In this way, when an app is automatically synchronized to iCloud or through iTunes, the necessary data is taken into account so that the iOS mobile application can be restored successfully, without the need to occupy so much space.
4. Do not take complex tasks to the main execution flow
When performing long tasks that can take a long time, it must be guaranteed that the user can continue working, making the tasks run in a flat or background.
If the system detects an application that is blocking the main flow for a long time, it stops the app forcibly, to avoid putting the stability of the device at risk.
These are a series of recommendations that Apple makes to create an application that follows guidelines that allow it to be agile, responsive and that uses the resources of memory, CPU, and battery in the best way possible, to give the best user experience. You should ensure that you meet with mobile development company when creating an app.