It’s No More a Secret: iOS And MacOS Are about to Merge In 2018

Although the tech giant has always been denying that merger of its mobile and desktop operating systems. But from 2018, it is all set to start exploring the new road by giving developers the ability to create apps which work on iPhones, iPads, and Macs. This means apps could be controlled via touchscreen, mouse or trackpad— and would be equally at home on both iOS and macOS. The project is planned as a multilayer effort that will start rolling out as soon as possible or may be announced at the company’s annual developer’s conference in the summer.

Apple has been rumored to be unifying iOS and macOS for years now, even though the company’s current CEO Tim Cook isn’t a big fan of the unified experience. According to him, you can converge a toaster and a refrigerator, but those things are probably not going to be pleasing to the user. The idea behind merging iOS and Mac apps is almost like Microsoft’s Universal Windows Platform. For those who have no idea regarding the Microsoft’s platform, it allows professionals to build a single app that can adapt across computers, laptops, tablets, phones, game consoles, AR headsets, headless hardware, and more. Although it hasn’t touched much of success and it even fails to attract any of the big names to build UWP apps to this date. 

The company intends to roll this out as part of the iOS and macOS fall updates (version 12 and 10.14, respectively. The system would unify development environments for both of Apple’s main computing platforms, iOS, and macOS. In fact, many of the iphone developers have been overjoyed hearing this as they believe creating common apps with a single app store could go a long way towards helping improve the situation. If we check from the user perspective, it would be a lot easier for users since they could stay assured that when they get a piece of software in one place that also works in the other without issue.

Though everything still remains unconfirmed, but if it does happen, it could be big for both layers.