How to make your app ready for iOS14?

With the iOS 14 around the corner, you've probably already asked yourself the question: Is my app ready for iOS14? In the past, the release of iOS13 has brought some surprises.

The process of making your app iOS14 consists of 2 steps:

1. Make sure that the existing app(compiled with Xcode 11.X & iOS 13 SDK) is running fine on iOS 14 (beta)
2. Compile the app using the Xcode 12.X and iOS 14 SDK

There is some time before you can get ready for step 2, as Xcode 12 (and iOS14) are still in beta. Even when the GM is released, it will take some time till all the infrastructure providers (like CI or Google Labs) update their stack. Nonetheless, it is definitely about time to make sure that your current app build is running well on the iOS 14 environment.

Updating your test device to beta OS

Usually, the most straightforward way to test your app with the beta iOS version is to install the beta iOS on the test device. However, your device selection might be limited, and you might encounter issues testing the app on different setups(iPadOS or watchOS anyone?:D)

Running the app on the simulator

The obvious solution to this problem is to use the iOS Simulators. The simctl program comes with help.

1. Launch the iOS 14 simulator you'd like to test, and close the other simulators. You can easily select the device by going to the menu bar item File -> Open simulator -> ..
2. Build the project in Xcode 11.X
3. In Xcode's project navigator, go to -> Products and find the .app file
4. Show the file inspector(cmd + option + 1)
5. Copy the Full path to the .app file
6. Open Terminal and type

xcrun simctl install booted <paste path to YourApp>.app

It will install the given app on currently running iOS simulator!

While this works great to help you identify the possible bugs, it is hard to debug once you find them. Luckily, the solution to that problem is even more straightforward.

Debugging

If you want to debug your current app build with the iOS 14 beta OS, the required steps are even less:

1. Launch the iOS 14 simulator you'd like to test, and close the other simulators. You can easily select the device by going to the menu bar item File -> Open simulator -> ..
2. Open your project in Xcode 11.X
3. Go to the Destination menu (next to your Scheme, on the top left corner) ... and you can see that the iOS14 simulator is already listed there! Pretty cool, huh?

What are your experiences with iOS14 so far? Have fun debugging!

If you've found this piece useful, you can follow me on twitter @mzygar not to miss the next articles. Feel free to reach out if you are having issues trying this out