iOS 8 App Extensions, Widgets, Custom Keyboards, Document Picker etc.

iOS 8 has come up with a feature known as Extensibility. It allows developers extend select areas of the system by supplying an app extension and it lets developers do things outside of their own apps. This was not possible earlier, except through jail-breaking.

There are six “extension points” defined that the developers can target to. The extension points are share, photo editing, widgets, custom actions, custom keyboard and storage provider. These extension points and how things can be done faster on your iOS device is discussed below.

Apple iOS8 is integrated with sharing to Pinterest along with share content to Facebook, Twitter etc. The sharing system has been made more advanced with iOS 8 and app developers can provide their own sharing options in other apps.

Today Widgets

There are many information you would like to see on your stocks, weather forecast, order status etc. without using special applications With iOS 8, developers can write for own use in the Today tab of the Notification Center or on the lock screen.

Actions

An action is a very robust extension. With Action extension, users can view or transform content within the context of another app. Using this extension with new iOS 8; it has been made very easy and native to work on the same data with multiple apps.

Custom Keyboards

iOS 8 allows for custom keyboards and let third-party developers write their own keyboards that the user can use it on his own system. Some popular companies such as Swype, SwiftKey and Fleksy are coming up with their keyboards available when iOS will be available for public.

Photo Editing

Editing of photos from your library using a third-party app is quite difficult. Now with iOS 8, photo editing has been made easier by its own app’s photo or video editing interface and you can make changes, apply your favorite filters and presents and save the edited photo being within the App itself.

Storage Provider

Apple has made it lot easier to deal with files across multiple apps. It allows files Services such as Dropbox, Google Drive etc. to be defined as “Storage Providers” and as such files can be stored and retrieved in these services with ease. It also makes it simpler to work on a single file from multiple apps and it won’t create multiple copies.

With Extensibility feature, Apple has let go of its tight control over iOS and provided an even better platform for developers for building up of some very useful tools for users. So, get ready to explore the functionality of apps with extensions feature.

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