In this constant advancements of technology, mobile phones are the most used electronic gadget reason being, they carry out most of the functions of a desktop/laptop by allowing users to choose things according to their needs. Hence, the number of app developers are increasing due to the reliability of smartphones has become an emergent need.
UWP was launched as a way for developers to create applications that could run on several devices, including Windows 10-powered PCs, mobiles, tablets, and even internet of things devices. It is certainly true that for developers who want to move from iOS to the Windows 10 and the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) the approach is dependent on which kind of an app is planned to be developed. There are various tools that can help any creator to be able to choose the appropriate approach.
But the question is, ‘what traits can be compared to iOS and Windows 10 Universal Windows platform’. There are a plethora of things that can be compared a few are listed below;
- User Interface
It is a necessity to ensure that the app a developer
creates should be able to set standards for the
app to perform and appear.
iOS facilitates developers and designers of iOS where they provide Human Interface Guidelines.
However, in comparison to UWP Windows Design, it allows the developers and designers to be able to guide through the creation of the app and resulting it to have an impeccable appearance. There are various sources that can be used by the developers to get detailed guidelines.
iOS has a markup language that renders and explains the UI with its various components which are the XIB and storyboards which are further edited through interface builder within the X code. Conversely, for Windows 10 UWP uses XAML which is edited by Microsoft Visual Studio and Blend or Visual Studio.
Apart from that, Data Binding is also an important aspect to look into as it allows an app UI to be able to render data also stay in sync with the data. iOS has no build in the binding system. The key-value observing is built upon to perform data binding. In Windows 10 UWP, the UWP platform handles the performance of data binding.
In order to understand every trait in the bubble refer to the link given below;
- Navigation and App Structure
| Trait | iOS | UWP |
| Layout | The composition of UI view controller which can be nested | Flexible layout system with the composition of layout panel classes. (With resulting properties of size and position). |
| Peer Navigation | Allows navigation between views of equal hierarchy. | Allows navigation between pages where a list of links or tabs can be encountered along the side of the content main page. |
| Hierarchical Navigation (between parent and child pages of a hierarchy) | Between levels of hierarchy | User can encounter a preview of content which can be selected to navigate to child pages |
| Splash Screen (Branding) | Apps with a launch image or XIB storyboard launch file. | Use of image or a coloured background. |
| Back Button Navigation | Controller has a back button added | Usage of Back Stack Property.
(Read more on https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/uwp/api/Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls.Frame#Windows_UI_Xaml_Controls_Frame_BackStack) |
- Tooling
Apart from the above mentioned points, there are concepts like data, App lifecycle and many other which are significant and hence it would be strongly recommended for a developer to refer and clearly understand them.
- Custom Inputs
iOS uses the SFSpeechRecognizer class to implement speech input and speech recognition and the Windows 10 UWP uses the speech recognition API in order to be able to interact with the app in the foreground. There is also the use speech-based Cortana interactions to launch apps in the foreground or background and to interact with background apps.
- Performance
When talking about iOS it provides an overview of the performance document which explains the guidelines for building apps which are fast and responsive. In Windows UWP there would be detailed performance guide explaining the performance goals, memory management, and others. Apart from that, there are different ways to improve performance like the optimizing views, the usage of threading and programming.
- Location and Mapping
iOS has always maintained a standard of being able to locate its products through the Core Location CLLocationManager, however, to find the current location and be to able to monitor the Windows 10 UWP there is the use of Windows Devices Geolocation (Read more on the given link- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/uwp/api/Windows.Devices.Geolocation ).
Talking about the display of maps, iOS has MKMapView and the UWP uses Mapcontrol XAML control which provides 2D, 3D, and street-side views. (Read more on the given link-
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/uwp/api/Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls.Maps.MapControl).
There is more to it which includes the geofencing, directions and geocoding and reverse geocoding.
- App-to-app communication
iOS facilitates the launching of another app while being able to share data if required which is done through app extensions which provide the ingress to app data and information. However, for Windows 10 UWP apps can be launched only if registered with a URI either with Launcher.LaunchUriAsync, or Launcher.LaunchUriForResultsAsync to retrieve back the data.
There are times when a developer needs to ensure that the requirement to allow the request from another app to launch an app needs to be done and therefore in iOS to allow an app to be invoked the packaging of the app extension enables data to be shared with other apps. That is when the apps are registered from custom URL scheme using the CFBundleURLTypes key in Info.plist. When understanding the Windows 10 UWP the URI scheme name is said to be registered on a protocol and later updated on the Application.On the Activated event handler. In addition, there is copy and paste and drag and drop content between the apps as well. It is said that there is a fair-standard of AIPs drag and drop ability provided by iOS.
- Software Design
iOS has common patterns used which are integrated into the platform called as the Model-View-Controller (MVC). In contrast to that, the Windows 10 UWP it does not use any specific pattern but is set well-used platforms while building UWP. Data Binding pattern is also used to clean and separate data and UI concerns. In addition, it can extend with a Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) pattern.
Recap
In this article, brief characteristics of the comparisons between the iOS and Windows 10 UWP can be encountered. There are many other traits and concepts like monetization, media and its design, the ever informative notifications that show the updates on an user’s screen and others which are essential for a developer to understand, to be able to decide iOS development Vs UWP.
References
Microsoft (2017) Available at URL:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/porting/android-ios-uwp-map#notifications (Accessed).
Microsoft (2017) Available at URL:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/porting/ios-to-uwp-root (Accessed).
