EasyMQTT 1.13.0 - Standby and other cool stuff
iOS 17 rolling out now and EasyMQTT 1.13.0 along with it. This update ships with a few compatibility updates to make certain iOS 17 features with, as well as a ton of under the hood improvements. There are some exciting plans for the future of EasyMQTT and some of the work done in this update will build the foundation for these future changes. But let’s dive in!
iOS 16 requirement
The minimum version has been raised to iOS 16. Over 95% of users are on this version now and apps targeting it are able to benefit from a few significant improvements. Users who have the app installed on older devices will be able to continue using it and just won’t receive any updates.
App intents
The shortcut actions have been converted to App Intents. This is a new framework by Apple introduced in iOS 16 that makes it easier to add new ways to interact with your app. Some examples: users will be able to use interactive widgets (coming soon) or the action button on the iPhone 15 to for example send messages from EasyMQTT. Overall this will open a lot of new possibilities and I can’t wait to start working on some of these new features!
Standby support
iOS 17 adds a new feature called standby. Standby is a new lock screen mode, where if your phone is charging and positioned on its side it will display widgets covering the whole screen. These can be customized and with EasyMQTT 1.13.0 you’ll be able to add EasyMQTT widgets there as well. I plan on further tweaking those, but graph widgets already look amazing!
Architecture change
Something more under the hood and technical, but starting this version EasyMQTT will go through a change of architecture. The goal is to move the app to use The Composable Architecture (TCA), which will make the app more testable and greatly improve reliability.
Along with that I will also be updating certain views, improving UI and UX along with it.
Subscription
With this version I’m experimenting with turning EasyMQTT plus into a subscription. Existing Plus users will continue to be able to use plus features and will effectively receive the “lifetime” in app purchase.
There are a few reasons for trying out subscriptions. One is to create a more steady and stable income stream which will eventually allow me to dedicate more time to EasyMQTT to improve the app.
Another reason is that with subscriptions I’ll be able to offer trials, letting users test out all the plus features before committing to them.
With a lower price, I think this will make EasyMQTT plus more accessible and should attract more users to check out these features. And since subscriptions aren’t for everyone, there will be a lifetime option available to buy.
That’s it for this release! There are some exciting new features coming up in the next few weeks, one thing that will be added is interactive widgets so keep an eye out for that!