Apple is working on a new way to provide specific parts of third-party applications in the system without having to install them. Based on an earlier version of iOS 14, the feature allows users to experience some parts of the app’s functionality by scanning the QR code.
If you open a link or scan the QR code today from an app that isn’t already installed on your iPhone or iPad, it will open the link in Safari. The application can provide a generic link that opens the app when it is installed instead of Safari. However, in the near future, iOS 14 code will use a new API internally called “clips” to change this.
It allows developers to provide interactive and dynamic content from their applications even if they are not already installed. The Clips API is directly related to the QR Code reader in the in-house version that we have access to, so users can scan the code linked to the application and then interact directly with it directly from the card displayed on the screen.
Suppose you receive a QR code with a link to a YouTube video, but you don’t have an official app installed on your iPhone. Using the iOS 14 and Clips API, you will be able to scan the code, and the video will be copied on a floating card that displays the local user interface instead of the web page.
The developer will need to specify which part of the application should be downloaded wirelessly by iOS to read the content. The floating card displays the option to download the full version of the app from the App Store, or the option to display the content of the installed application.
Android has a similar feature called “Slices”, which displays interactive parts of the app in locations such as Google search results and Google Assistant, so we can also imagine this integration with the Clips API and Apple’s Spotlight – although only iOS 14 beta code mentions that it works through QR Code.
