In this Darwinian era where you need to thrive in the constantly-changing market, the use of Apple devices has been increasing. This changing market requires iOS developers to incorporate the next-gen technologies in iOS apps to increase usage and offer the ultimate customer experience.

In this article, we will walk you through a torrent of the top 16 iOS development trends that are transforming the mobile market.

16 iOS App Development Trends That Are Changing The Future

The Rise Of 5G

5G has been around for a long time but this year, it has become more than just a buzzword. Tech companies and enterprises have started incorporating 5G at full scale and shortly, we will see a drastic rise in the number of 5G-enabled devices.

Experts predict that in the coming years, there will be above 650 million 5G-enabled smartphones accounting for around 47% of all the devices. Here is a take on how 5G smart devices are projected to grow in the upcoming years.

Smart Apps For Foldable Devices

Although smart foldable devices are at the bottom of the smartphone market share, things will change in the coming years. According to a market study, 50 million foldable units will be shipped in 2022. The future of iOS app development for foldable smart devices is bright and your apps should run flawlessly on these devices.

Foldable devices provide a larger screen that has a deep impact on the users. These large screens offer a unique experience.

• With multiple windows and tabs, users can perform several tasks simultaneously
• Larger screens offer more space for an immersive experience and detailed features

Smart apps for foldable devices are one of the futuristic iOS app development trends of 2022.

App Clips

App Clips is a futuristic solution and one of the latest iOS app development trends. This technology allows the users to utilize one part of an application to understand and analyze it before getting the full version.

App Clips are generally straightforward and serve a single task such as booking a room, renting a tent or a bike, paying the bill and other operations. These functional demos of applications are generally lightweight (<10 MB) and the users can install them quickly after scanning a QR code.

These miniature versions of apps are safe to use as regular applications and they get reviewed by the App Store moderators regularly. App Clips are quick solutions for users who walk a mile an hour.

Mobile Commerce

Modern shoppers have everything but time. With the help of smartphones and iPads, the users can easily place an online order and have their products delivered right at their doorsteps conveniently. Mobile Commerce is already playing a vital role in the eCommerce industry despite the pandemic. Sales automation, customer loyalty modules, discount coupons, push notifications, and more customer-oriented features are transforming modern mobile commerce.

The most common features that modern business owners want to incorporate into their online store are one-click ordering, voice search and multi-channel retail. Mobile commerce offers them a one-stop solution to have everything under one umbrella.

According to estimates, the retail Mobile Commerce sales in the US exceeded $360 Billion in 2021 and by 2025, this figure is forecast to grow more than twofold, amounting to almost $710 Billion. In the coming years, Mobile Commerce will account for exponential growth for a growing proportion of retail sales in the North American mobile market.

Enterprise Mobility

Pandemic made it very clear that commuting to the office daily was the last thing employees would do. Working in the comfort of your home, relaxing on your couch is the new norm and this has become a great alternative. Several enterprises and businesses are making plans to continue working remotely. Hybrid is the new option and some social media giants have announced that their employees can work from home permanently.

For this reason, the IT market will see an increase in the demand for corporate apps to streamline workflows and communication for remote collaboration. The introduction of AR and VR in running the virtual interfaces of the software and business operations is transforming the mobility of several enterprises. Many companies have already introduced this concept and soon, 80% of the workforce will be virtually connected with the network.

Use Of Apple Pay

The increasing number of smartphone users is increasing the number of online payments. It is quite easy to integrate online payment with Apple Pay. Apple Pay is well known for its security, one-click payment options, and convenience.

Apple Pay is one of the growing payment gateways and allows payments using the NFC feature embedded in the devices. It does not save the card details and quickly delivers the funds to the merchants. This is a phenomenal trend of iOS app development and has seen exponential growth in the number of users.

CloudKit

Cloud-based iOS applications deserve a separate place in the top iOS app developments trends of 2022. These cloud-integrated applications are capable of storing, managing, and organizing huge amounts of data.

CloudKit is a tool for transferring data that acts as a catalyst for developing dynamic iOS applications. There are only a few limitations in fulfilling the complex tasks and meeting the users’ expectations.

The use of cloud technology is increasing manifold as it provides a secure, centralized repository for cost-effective business operations. iOS applications that use this technology store the essential files and backup the documents.

Cloud integration is one of the latest iOS app development trends changing the mobile market.

Improved Security

Smartphones store passwords to websites, social media accounts, app data, search queries, and sensitive bank details. With the increasing number of cybercriminals, it is essential to secure sensitive data.

According to a study, in 2021 alone, the average cost of a data breach reached $4.24 million. Higher levels of data security and multi-factor authentication attract more users.

Apple carries a strong reputation for multiple features that offer brilliant security systems. Building an iOS app supports AppTransport Security (ATS) by default. ATS provides a higher privacy level for all the newly published iOS apps. Other features such as TLS pinning and end-to-end encryption protect the data. In the coming years, the developers will implement impenetrable security to all the apps and this trend will become the new normal.

Smart Wearables

2020 witnessed a boom in the wearable device industry. Google announced a unified-wearables platform with Samsung’s Tizen platform that boosts the startup time of the app by 30%.

According to market research, the number of connected smart-wearable devices reached 453 million in 2017 and will increase to 929 million by 2022.

This indicates the rise in smart wearable technology which is one of the essential iOS mobile app development trends of 2022. This iOS app development trend will help you offer seamless digital experiences to your target audiences.

iBeacon

Businesses in the retail industry can benefit from a BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) called iBeacon. This emerging trend enhances the customer journey and offers a smooth online shopping experience. It is more accurate than the GPS and can also work inside buildings and movie theatres.

iBeacon sends targeted marketing messages to potential customers when they are close to the special offers, advertisements, digital banners, reminders, and coupons. This technology will change the way businesses communicate with Apple customers. iBeacon is the emerging iOS application development trend that is quickly grabbing attention as a futuristic marketing tool.

Chatbots

AI-driven smart chatbot is not just a buzzword in the iOS mobile app development industry. These programs are replacing teams of employees and a growing number of organizations have decided to implement this emerging technology in their websites and iOS applications.

Here is how the customers and businesses can benefit from Chatbots:

• Chatbots automate customer service and other routine tasks and help the organizations save time and costs
• Clients and customers can get 24/7 support which enhances customer satisfaction
• Chatbots enable the employees to focus on the bigger picture and improve the products globally rather than spending time on customer service
• Chatbots are not affected by human emotions which makes them immune to negativity

Considering the above pointers, chatbots can improve business performance and are a great scope for action in the modern-day iOS app development trends.

Blockchain

The combo of Blockchain and Machine Learning finds its use in different industries and helps in decentralized encryption of sensitive information. Businesses dealing with data management use this technology. Blockchain secures transactions and adds multiple layers of security.

With Apple’s technology that creates and verifies timestamps, the incorporation of Blockchain adds a layer of security to the iOS mobile applications. Blockchain helps the Apple ecosystem root out any malicious activities in the network and provide a more secure environment to app users.

By 2024, Blockchain wallets will stockpile $20 billion in revenue. According to estimates, there are over 81 million Blockchain wallet users and this number will increase in the coming years.

Artificial Intelligence & ML

After the ground-breaking success of FaceApp, most of the users wondered: What to expect next? That is when Artificial Intelligence brought a few new features that propelled our expectations to a whole new level.

AI and ML have already introduced a few features:

• Faster face recognition
• Cybersecurity to help in analyzing the collected data
• Hyper automation for improved employee productivity and better customer service

Apple has introduced Core ML which is optimized to improve the performance of different model types. Core ML leverages Apple’s hardware that minimizes memory usage and power consumption.

The next-gen iOS app development process will introduce speech recognition features to transcribe the speech into text. AI has been one of the top iPhone app development trends for the last few years. The perfect combo of AI and ML will set a benchmark for iOS application development for 2022.

AR & VR

Pokemon Go has already paved the way for AR in iOS application development. The use of the latest technologies in mobile applications is gaining some pace. Integrating mobile apps with AR and VR increases customer loyalty and enables them to experience a dynamic simulated world.

Augmented Metaverse will merge the real and virtual worlds into a single immersive reality that is bound to touch every person on the planet. Augmented Metaverse is the future of technology.

LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) technology is more about using light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure the range. This technology is witnessing more support on consumer devices such as the iPad Pro 2020, iPhone 12, and Pro 12 Pro Max. LiDAR will be the new feature in the latest iPhones in 2022.

This perfect combo of AR VR is the next ios mobile app development trend of 2022.

Swift

iOS app development starts with a suitable programming language. For iOS developers, Swift is a well-established tool that is easy to learn and utilize. Swift is widely used across the iOS app development teams in Slack, LinkedIn, SkyGuide, and more.

What makes Swift so productive and convenient? Some features like clear syntax, module stability, APIs, and compatibility help the developers focus more on code quality and logic.

Swift6, the upcoming release, will bring a few changes. iOS developers can expect a rise in the capabilities of the language. According to the experts, Swift6 will support various platforms other than iOS.

This new update will offer several advanced changes and a new engine for diagnosing the problems. In addition to that, developers can create APIs and designs effectively while the protocol extensions streamline the code.

Gaming & Mobile Entertainment

Mobile gaming apps and entertainment have become a vital part of our life. A huge portion of mobile gamers cannot imagine spending a single day without mobile games.

Giants such as Amazon Prime and Netflix have around 75% active subscribers in the US and Canada. On top of that, with over 160 million gamers across the globe, mobile devices are favourite among gamers. This amounts to over 90% of the gamers in the US.

Conclusion

There are about 1.96 million apps on the Apple App Store. How do you make sure that your iOS mobile app stands out?

So in this article, we walked you through the futuristic iOS mobile app development trends and how you can leverage them to offer robust and feature-rich apps to your customers. Given the rapid rise in the new emerging technologies like AI, Blockchain, ML and more, the mobile app development industry will continue to expand.

Building an iOS application might take forever and is usually a time-consuming endeavour. Why not contact an iOS app development company to take care of your specific iOS app development requirements while you focus on expansion?

DRC Systems is a leading iOS app development company having clients across the globe. Our forte in addressing specific business challenges and transforming them into efficient solutions for the iOS platform makes us leaders. Contact us today for a free consultation!