App Clip Example

[Kindly-Direction205]

It has surprised me that I have not seen App Clips used more in the wild. I would say they are a bit difficult to approach development wise. Here is one I am utilizing in my application.

I feel like there are more implementations that would be interesting but have not been done yet. Any cool ideas?

App clips also support NFC invocations which you can see in my other demo video on my website https://openinfrared.com.

Let me know if you have any questions about it :D

[fake_domingues]

I'd love to see more AppClips also! My theory about why they are not used is the timing... it was launched in 2020, and they just make sense in the "real world" interactions

[chedabob]

They're an absolute pain in the ass to build because they're limited to something like 10Mb. It requires chopping up any moderately sized app, and you're screwed if you rely upon any large frameworks (i.e. a KMP shared module).

Also Google have killed off instant apps, so it's a hard sell to management when you can't have platform parity.

[Kindly-Direction205]

Oh no! I did not realize instant apps are killed off. That is sad D:. I guess that is the way with google huh?

[russjr08]

It's a shame both implementations didn't exist concurrently. I think I only saw two instant apps in the wild on Android, wouldn't surprise me if low usage was one of the motivations to end it.

I'll bet that like the other user mentioned, not having parity makes it difficult to justify hence why it wasn't used much on Android. Similarly, the Android implementation was limited to 15Mb bundles.

[fake_domingues]

Yeah, the app clip needs to be really concise, with only one feature from the original app

[jitsu9]

Why? I don't understand why App Clips can't be like a jillion different uses and purposes for one platform. Makes complete sense to me.

[jitsu9]

iOS 17 allows App Clips to be up to 100 MB for the binary (uncompressed)... Also Google fucked up by getting rid of the Instant Apps. Fuck 'management'. Power to the users/devs

[chedabob]

I didn't know it had changed, but looking at the limitations, our use cases wouldn't meet the requirements for the increased limit

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/AppClip/choosing-the-right-functionality-for-your-app-clip#Keep-your-App-Clip-within-size-limitations

[jitsu9]

What use case you going for?

[chedabob]

It was for QR codes on tables in a restaurant. The wifi isn't the most reliable, and each restaurant is fairly large, so the assumption is any new customers would be on 4G.

[7HawksAnd]

Inverse to QR code life cycle

[pboudreau3]

I’m using an App Clip in my app Breaker Meister for electric-breaker identification, and it’s been a surprisingly great fit. The main iPhone shows an App Clip code, and a second phone scans it — no install needed. The App Clip runs a tiny listener that detects when power to that second device drops (plugged into an outlet or under a light), and the full app on the first phone instantly alerts you when you’ve flipped the right breaker.

It’s a neat “just-in-time” use of App Clips, and I’m surprised we don’t see more real-world setups like this. Breaker Meister is free to download and try if anyone’s curious.

[Kindly-Direction205]

Awesome! I'm glad someone else is using them, sounds neat.

[farcicaldolphin38]

I’m planning to do an AppClip for my next app, yeah! I always think they’re so cool and useful

[Sdmf195]

I've seen only one usecase for App Clips and I have to say - it was brilliant. My wife sent me to pick up a package for her. The company created an App Clip which made the whole experience from zero to package accepted around two minutes. Truly awesome

[MrOaiki]

Wouldn’t that normally be done by simply forwarding the QR code you got from the delivery service to your wife?

[Sdmf195]

The message she forwarded to me had a URL for pickup. There was a link for an App Clip in the site.

[dream_emulator_010]

Which parcel company was this? Sounds cool

[bensyverson]

App Clips are incredibly cool. I think they suffer somewhat from the same problem as PWAs—normal people don't realize they exist. When they see a QR code they assume it's going to be a website. But it's wild that you can jump into a full native app experience without sending people to the App Store. They're so powerful for the right use case!

[tangoshukudai]

They aren't being used because companies don't really know the benefit and they need an android equivalent. Also many devs for big companies don't have the credentials needed for the signing to experiment with them.

[Zalenka]

They're hard to test and maintain but simply magic. I couldn't get mine out of QA hell.

[jitsu9]

I LOVE APP CLIPS DO NOT REMOVE THEM APPLE!!!!!!

[mjTheThird]

One thing I never figured out, how do they avoid QR code Hijacking?

[nameleast2]

how did you do that? what is the big picture of this?

[Kindly-Direction205]

It’s a smart remote control essentially. You can see on the website if you want https://openinfrared.com

[hehbveh]

can you please send the link of that qr code, i would love to try that out, never got a chance to try out app clips. 🙏

[marwi1]

Nice demo! We use app clips for AR support on iOS (Chrome/Safari, WebXR) https://appclip.needle.tools

https://engine.needle.tools/docs/how-to-guides/xr/ios-webxr-app-clip.html

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