Most iPhone users only use, at most, five or six apps a day, and developers are taking advantage of iOS 8 features to make sure their apps reach users before they even open them. New features include today screen widgets, interactive notifications, and ways for apps to share content and talk to other apps and devices. These are the biggest changes that mean the most opportunities for iOS developers since third-party developers were invited to create apps for the iPhone. Remember when it first came out? The only apps were ones that Apple created or had installed on the phone when you first got it, like weather, stocks, and a YouTube video player app.
The interactive notifications will allow users to take action (open the app or ignore it) or even buy stuff, without even opening the app itself. Apple is also going to introduce software widgets that will take a subset of content from an app and make it available on the Today screen, like ESPN could show sports scores, for example. The final - and perhaps largest - addition is going to be extensions, which allow apps to communicate with each other; for example, users could save to Evernote or Dropbox from within another app with just one click. HomeKit will allow apps to connect to other devices like locks, thermostats, and home climate control systems.
