Apple Releases iOS 8 SDK with Over 4,000 New APIs

Apple released Monday its iOS 8 SDK, said to be the biggest developer release ever with more than 4,000 new APIs, giving developers the ability to create new apps.

iOS 8 allows developers to further customize the user experience with major extensibility features like Notification Center widgets and third-party keyboards.

It introduces frameworks such as HealthKit and HomeKit. iOS 8 also includes Metal, a new graphics technology that maximizes the performance of the A7 chip and Swift, a new programming language.

“With more than 800 million iOS devices sold worldwide, the opportunity for developers is huge,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering.

iOS 8 offers developers frameworks including HealthKit APIs that provide the ability for health and fitness apps to communicate with each other.

With your permission, each app can use specific information from other apps to provide a more comprehensive way to manage your health and fitness. For example, your blood pressure app could share its data with a physician app, so your doctor can provide high-quality guidance and care.

iOS 8 also includes Touch ID APIs enabling developers to securely authenticate users within apps, protect logins and user data, and unlock keychain items.

With iOS 8, developers can provide authentication with a successful fingerprint match while keeping your fingerprint data safe and protected in the secure enclave.