Get Ready for iOS 12 and Xcode 10

David Ortinau

Support for iOS 12 and Xcode 10 to accompany Apple’s Xcode Gold Master (GM) release has just been announced! We have also published updated documentation and samples to help you quickly get started with all the latest new features. Now, build your Xamarin.iOS (and of course Xamarin.Forms for iOS) applications with Xcode 10 GM and submit your iOS 12, tvOS 12, and watchOS 5 applications to the Apple App Store.

Get Started with iOS 12

For a detailed walkthrough of getting setup with your environment, check out our Getting Started Guide for iOS 12. In short, you’ll:

• Download and install Xcode 10 GM from the Apple App Store.
• Download and install Xamarin.iOS from the Stable channel in VS Mac. On Windows, Visual Studio 2017 will prompt for an update as it rolls out.

And that’s it! Xcode 10 is now your default installation and it will be used by Visual Studio to build your iOS projects. Review this setting from Preferences > Projects > SDK Locations > Apple.

What’s New in iOS 12?

iOS 12 provides the next generation of existing features SiriKit and ARKit. It also introduces some new features for interacting with HealthKit and seamlessly integrating security features for strong usernames and passwords.

Siri Shortcuts Siri continues to open up to more applications and useful scenarios by introducing Siri Shortcuts and Custom Intents. Thanks to the new intent definition file, you can describe your own intents to be supported by your app. Those intents are then what your app “donates” as shortcuts to Siri in order to initiate actions within your app experience. Each shortcut may be triggered by voice command or tapping the option when searching with Siri. Check out the Soup Chef example below that demonstrates using Siri to place an order.

Docs: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/ios/platform/introduction-to-ios12/siri-shortcuts Sample: https://developer.xamarin.com/samples/monotouch/ios12/SoupChef/

ARKit 2.0 iOS 11 introduced ARKit with a host of great features for things like using device sensors, camera features, horizontal planes (vertical planes in iOS 11.3), and face detection. Building upon that foundation, ARKit 2 delivers the next generation of augmented reality features for iOS including:

• 3D Object detection and tracking
• Environment Texturing – real world object reflection
• Persist AR environments between sessions
• Multi-person experiences

Larry O’Brien recently blogged about several of these new features in Exploring New iOS 12 ARKit Capabilities with Xamarin.

Docs: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/ios/platform/introduction-to-ios12/arkit2 Sample: https://developer.xamarin.com/samples/monotouch/ios12/ScanningAndDetecting3DObjects/

Natural Language Framework Introduced in iOS 12, the Natural Language Framework provides language recognition, word and phrases tokenization, tagging parts of speech, and more. Whether you’re just detecting if the language is Spanish or Portuguese, or perhaps wanting to combine these features with CoreML, check out our docs and sample.

Docs: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/ios/platform/introduction-to-ios12/natural-language Sample: https://developer.xamarin.com/samples/monotouch/iOS12/XamarinNL/

Hit the Ground Running

Here are a growing set of iOS 12 samples for you to explore that cover the features mentioned and much more. As we release updates and address any known issues, stay on top of all the latest details by checking for updates in Visual Studio.

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David Ortinau Principal Product Manager, .NET Multi-platform App UI

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