Apple is all set to introduce iOS 14 in some time, and no reveal is good if you are not hyped about it by a million speculations and reveals flying around the internet . Adding to one such reveal is 9to5Mac, which has found Apple working on a way to let users access third party apps that are not installed on their devices, by investigating an early build of the latest upgrade to the OS.
The new feature will allow users to access ‘part of an app’s functionality’ according to 9to5Mac. As of now, this feature opens a link in its Safari Browser, wherein users can see a demo of sorts. With this change, the said functionality would happen in a floating window over the screen.
These windows will be called “Clips”, and will use its API-which will be directly related to the QR code reader, to allow Apple and iOS developers “to offer interactive and dynamic content from their apps even if you haven’t installed them.” The API will be accessed by scanning QR codes, which will then open up a window on the device that “that shows a native user interface instead of a web page.” On opening this window, users will have the added option to either install the app right away, or open it if the app is already present on the device.
9to5Mac also specified that developers will need to specify which part of the app is to be downloaded by iOS as an Over-The-Air package to read that content.
In contrast to the similar ‘Slices’ feature on Android, Clips are only accessible through QR codes as of yet, while Slices show parts of an app in Google Search Results and Google Assistant. However, it would not be outside the realm of possibility for Apple to add this feature to Siri in the coming future.
