Steve Troughton-SmithGetting into the WWDC groove by investigating SharePlay support in @broadcastsapp. It’s trivially easy to implement, and it seems to just work
Bumped @broadcastsapp to v3.2 to account for the new watch app and SharePlay support, so I can bundle them together. Making sure to keep the scope of this update pretty small, as it's not intended to draw out into an iOS 17 update over the summer
I am still figuring out how other apps implement SharePlay, but I'm reasonably happy with how it works in @broadcastsapp now in this initial version. You can start up a session over iMessage, then any participant can start playback of a station. Station name/address/artwork is shared directly through SharePlay, doesn't need to already be in your library. Could make for a fun 'watch party' mode for audio-only streams like podcasts or live events
There's no visionOS SDK yet, but I can prepare for the ornaments API by making the @broadcastsapp layout more flexible. This may lead to bigger UI changes down the road to the iPad version, which I'll probably roll into a v4.0? For now, it's just decoupling some layout elements
On visionOS, I expect to place the @broadcastsapp playback toolbar in an ornament (simulated at the bottom of the window here instead), and the Now Playing screen to open as a new window — like the Mini Player on macOS. It took just a little bit of rewiring, and expanding code I had for Mac Catalyst, but getting these changes in now should hopefully mean when I build and run upon release of the visionOS SDK that everything ‘just works’
The redesign continues; I added a 'reality' device idiom (that corresponds to iPad) so I can test all my visionOS code paths at will. I'm trying to match what we saw of the visionOS Music app, and predict the navigational layout structure I'll need to light up properly when the SDK launches. I even have my ornaments prepped and ready, just ifdef'd out 😂
I added an AppKit target to the @broadcastsapp codebase just to experiment, and of 245 source files only 11 are portable 💀 All the pre-existing SwiftUI code is uncompilable, because even basic things like size classes don't have a macOS equivalent or translation. I continue to believe that the AppKit SwiftUI target is simply a dead end and needs to be rolled into the Universal app platform instead. I don't want to continue with this bringup experiment at all
If WWDC had got me thinking about SwiftUI again, even slightly, working on the @broadcastsapp watch app has definitively dissuaded me. I'm so unhappy with the development experience that I would discontinue the watch app in a heartbeat if it didn't have users. Every element is a battle, and I've wasted so much time trying to get it to work 'correctly’; if I had UIKit, I would have been done in a day and shipped months ago. Almost at the point where I git revert everything and go back to WatchKit
I think that's what I'm gonna do; shelve the updated watch app for the time being. There are other updates I want to ship and I don't want this holding me back, plus I don't have an actual Watch to do testing on anymore for such a significant revamp so it's probably for the best. Broadcasts v3.2 with SharePlay can continue on without it
Finally after 4 years I've renamed the Broadcasts Xcode project to 'Broadcasts’, and given the whole project structure a cleanup 😄
Tweaked my xrOS test scene to more closely simulate visionOS, so I can prototype my layouts and make sure the right code paths are firing
While I have a little downtime, I’m giving the tvOS app a look over to see what more of the Broadcasts experience I can expose. The Station Browser is a tough one, as it has a lot of non-tvOS-safe UI elements, but I'm doing the basics in getting things compiling at the very least. Now Playing though has been a frequent request
Though it's not actually visionOS, my little prototyping view controller is proving invaluable at reminding me which other parts of my UI need to be updated to not use static background colors. It's nice to have a core app structure that is flexible enough to cope with all these changes, for once. Having lived through the dark, painful years of rewriting iOS 6 designs for iOS 7+ and a dozen new device sizes, this is pretty refreshing
I put together this prototype over a year ago, and it's kinda neat that my floating toolbar wasn't too far off what they actually did in visionOS
This is a special moment for me, so I'll share it with you too: this is the first launch of @broadcastsapp natively on visionOS. It's alive! 🧟
Lots of work to do, but this is promising
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't completely overwhelmed by how much effort I see before me to try and support visionOS properly across any one of my apps, nevermind all of them 😵💫
Kinda neat that my Help framework just works out of the box on visionOS 😄
My fun little experimental menu bar view kinda feels like it could work on visionOS. I should stick it into an ornament…
I’m pretty darn glad Vision Pro isn't shipping in September, that's for sure 😅
Even so, I'm pretty happy so far with the bringup process
Now all my codepaths are in order, @broadcastsapp is pretty much fully-functional on visionOS. There's still plenty to learn re metrics, control sizes, and best practices, but what you see here is pretty close to what I would expect to ship at launch. It's going to take a while for me to build up a mental model of how visionOS apps work, so this design will evolve over the rest of the year
Just quick demonstration of what multi-windowing in @broadcastsapp might do on visionOS — main UI in one room, mini player in another. It would really be cool if music came from a physical source location, or if I could even have different stations playing in different rooms. In the sim, at least, all audio is piped through the main speakers and seems sourceless 🤔
The miniest player
One neat thing you can do on visionOS is programmatically change the size of the window, so you can make a button that does this:
Here's what it looks like when you place a visionOS window flat on a desk. In this case, the mini player I've built for @broadcastsapp
I don't think I showed how I'm spawning the mini player window in @broadcastsapp, so here’s a quick one. Once you have the window, you can move it anywhere you like
Working on all the auxiliary panels now; new UIKit toolbar is in, and I've given the two editors an initial pass for the new metrics and styles. What I'm finding with visionOS is any layout that doesn't work out of the box suggests more than anything that *I’m* doing it wrong, and I should probably rewrite it for other OSes too. It's good at highlighting focus areas in my apps that need work
Another UI down; @broadcastsapp's search screen has been visionOSified
I haven't officially branched yet, but I think what I'm working on now will become Broadcasts v4.0. So that will be Broadcasts for visionOS, plus the revamp I want to perform on the iPad version's UI, and the payment model changes I've talked about before. Maybe the new watchOS app, if everything else goes well. I'm not sure yet if that will mean a minimum OS version bump, as I am loath to cut off hardware
Not sure if I'll go with this, but I did a little experimenting with 3D layering/z-depth in @broadcastsapp just to see how a real UIKit app might approach this. I think 'sparingly' is the right answer, but unlike many of Apple's platforms, there really are no physical bounds or rules to tell you not to. It’s a lot easier for a SwiftUI app to use 3D transforms and z-depth, so you'll probably see it used/abused much more in indie apps than e.g. Photoshop or Office
Screenshot roundup for @broadcastsapp at the end of the first week of the visionOS SDK. Honestly, I'm ready to start testing on actual hardware, which is a very expensive-sounding prospect 🫥
'You're my friend now’ /cc @jsnell
Also a fun excuse to see how URL handling works in visionOS — and it does!
Realized I never posted a picture of the iPad version of Broadcasts running on visionOS, as I went straight for a native app instead. Here's a side by side, just for fun!
Tempted to leave this alternate toolbar style in @broadcastsapp as an easter egg, to go along with the existing pinstripes setting 👀
Starting some initial work on unifying @broadcastsapp's sidebar design language with @pastelapp and @takeoneapp by using the Reminders-style group cell. I think this calls for me to create a custom class I can use across all of them — I'll have to put some thought into that. Take One has the best variant so far, so I will probably use that as the template
I'm also experimenting with a new bottom-aligned floating toolbar style, but I haven't committed to it yet (I can toggle it while debugging)
I do currently plan to remove Broadcasts’ command menu. It came about in an era where iPadOS did not have dropdown or context menus, or a system menu panel. It served its purpose, but there are better ways to go about this now
If UIMenu allowed for variable image widths, you could do something like this by rendering the shortcut symbols to an image. The 'New Collection' item is sadly how it works today. I am quite tempted to just not show multi-modifier commands in this menu though, since the effect works great otherwise…
The layout and colors might change a bit, but this is the overall look I'll be going with for the next version of Broadcasts on iPad — a friendlier, more-modern sidebar design
Revisiting the Broadcasts watch app in terms of a watchOS 10 baseline so I can actually use some of the new stuff, like toolbar buttons. Using @_Davidsmith’s technique, on earlier versions of the OS it loads up the existing WatchKit code, and on watchOS 10 it's all SwiftUI. I think I'm much happier going this route than trying to build a SwiftUI interface that works across all the different OS designs. I might actually ship it this time round
SharePlay over AirDrop is very cool, especially with the new ‘bump your phones together’ UI. I wired up @broadcastsapp so that it supports handing off playback between people just like that
Though there’s no real system support for it, having lived through a similar situation this year I feel like my custom Assistive Access mode is too important to not ship in some form. So I'm going to do the next best thing: a temporary custom URL scheme that can toggle Broadcasts in and out of this mode, until real APIs are available. In Assistive Access mode, Broadcasts just shows a list of stations that can be played, and turns off all other features and UI. No accidental deletions, no nothing
Having spent the day working with the actual Assistive Access SPI (https://mastodon.social/@stroughtonsmith/111072449541807169), I decided to replicate as much of it as I could in SwiftUI directly. In doing so, I ported my new watchOS app code to iOS and used it as the basis of my faux-Clarity UI. It's not perfect, but it kinda works! And this one I can ship
I didn't have a whole lot prepared for iOS 17, just a amorphous collection of features I'd been working on for @broadcastsapp in some form or other over the summer, while the core of the app was revamped quite a bit for visionOS. Nonetheless, they've kinda taken form over the past few days into something I can call v3.3.
I've got:
• Assistive Access mode
• A refreshed app for Apple Watch
• Interactive widgets & Stand By support
• SharePlay via AirDrop
raytraced
Or (Nathan) Israeli@stroughtonsmith Awesome work!
Jacob 🫡. Ford@broadcastsapp is there a TestFlight you’re looking for fans to join?
Broadcasts@unitof not currently! We traditionally do TestFlight before major releases, and there's no way to join in the interim
Slade Watkins@stroughtonsmith @broadcastsapp this is super cool! (and man, iOS 17's animations are absolutely beautiful)
Kais Karim@stroughtonsmith did you have to do anything special to support this? We have SharePlay in our app but was acting up when i tried it last week before the public beta. But normal SharePlay was working as expected
@kais you need to add your group activity to the activity items config of the current view controller https://blog.thomasdurand.fr/story/2023-06-14-implement-new-airdrop-share/
Implement iOS 17’s new AirDrop experience
One of the most “off radar” feature from this year WWDC probably is the new Share experience introduced by Apple with iOS 17. From sharing your info with NameDrop, to starting a new SharePlay, we can now just approach the top of our phones together…
@stroughtonsmith awesome. Thank you! Will take a look!
Brian Mueller@stroughtonsmith @_Davidsmith that's what I did, stuck with storyboards for watchOS 9 and earlier, so only watchOS 10 users will see the SwiftUI redesign.
Jason Snell@stroughtonsmith I like it! (I use it when I'm running.)
Ric Santos@stroughtonsmith @_Davidsmith oh that’s a good approach I’ll have to look into it.
Dominic Hopton@stroughtonsmith love the circle buttons on the bottom. 👍
BenRiceM@stroughtonsmith custom SF Symbol?
Greg de J@stroughtonsmith Yeah I think people rather expect to see visual symbols there, at least for the sake of being able to quickly scan the options.
@nckh symbols are available where each of these options appears in the UI; this has always been a master menu designed to teach the keyboard shortcuts
Davide Di Stefano@stroughtonsmith maybe you can try render all at the smallest size
Jon Maddox
Pedro José Pereira Vieito@stroughtonsmith No idea why resizable iPad apps running on visionOS are not resizable (you can only use the rotate button) while on macOS they can be resized. I hope they change this behavior in the future.
Konrad Kołakowski@stroughtonsmith Now I'm thinking that I would like a mode in visionOS, that would run *all* apps in iPad mode to avoid having some of 🙃
Just to avoid situation where some apps won't be built with visionOS SDK
and clash with rest of the system 👀
paulocesar@stroughtonsmith yes, I implemented a simple OAuth flow and it works fine, opens a browser in a window when using SFViewController and goes back into the app after authentication
Jordan Borth@stroughtonsmith this is awesome. Would be fun if it looked like a little physical radio 😊
Conor@conorporter @jsnell @ivory video takes time to propagate, and that's up to individual instances. You can view on original server to get the direct media link
@stroughtonsmith @jsnell @ivory ok, so I’m attempting to view within minutes and later today it would be visible. Thank you 👍
Teeks 🏴Ⓐ@stroughtonsmith @broadcastsapp
First week of visionOS SDK and already eyeing hardware testing? You, my friend, are the Usain Bolt of coding marathons! 💻🚀
I mean, 'expensive' is just another word for 'worth it', right?
nabeards@stroughtonsmith @broadcastsapp huge thank you for sharing your progress!
Andrei Torres@stroughtonsmith @broadcastsapp I'm honestly curious about the legibility of the text and icons on the actual headset. Based on the screenshots, to my eyes, the icons on the visionOS UI (particularly on sidebars) don't have enough contrast.
@andreitorres same, it's hard to gauge from the simulator, and without more of the first-party system apps to draw inspiration from
@andreitorres @stroughtonsmith @broadcastsapp
I see where you're coming from on contrast, but I'd argue it's a subjective matter. The sidebar icons? Sure, they could use a tad more punch. But the overall monochromatic scheme has its appeal, adding a sleek, uncluttered vibe.
Andrea De Pirro@stroughtonsmith the european price (when they'll release it in Europe) will be eye watering 😥
my guess: 4299€
let's say they release it in 12 months, I'll have to save 360€/month, and I don't even have a business reason 😭😭😭
my guess: 4299€
let's say they release it in 12 months, I'll have to save 360€/month, and I don't even have a business reason 😭😭😭
Timo@stroughtonsmith this looks awesome!
Chris Wu 🪐@stroughtonsmith By law I have to like any post that has 80's Super Hits.
Tim Chaten@stroughtonsmith How likely in the future do you think we will be able to have virtual sheets of paper on the table under you and using an Apple Pencil like device to interact with it? Guessing this isn’t possible yet in VisionOS? Know there is no pencil like device supported yet.
@tchaten you can approximate much of this today, but dedicated Pencil support would be great
Tim Holmes@stroughtonsmith @broadcastsapp I like it, but my brain feel like it wants to see the controls lifted from the surface so that they can “depress”for visual feedback upon pressing them. I suppose much like the virtual keyboard.
@stroughtonsmith @broadcastsapp I’m also curious if. You can punch a hole in the pane and set the album image just behind it.
@stroughtonsmith @broadcastsapp Almost feels like the art needs to have depth too, in addition to being lifted from the main surface.
Romolo S.@stroughtonsmith
Unrelated I am in a different instance and I can’t see the video, hey @nicdex, do you think it’s my network or some instance issue?
Unrelated I am in a different instance and I can’t see the video, hey @nicdex, do you think it’s my network or some instance issue?
nicdex 🇨🇦 🇺🇦@rosorrentino @stroughtonsmith I tried to find out what was not working, but I didn't succeed. I tried forcing the download manually and I get an error, might be a bug somewhere in Mastodon.
@nicdex @stroughtonsmith thanks for checking it.
T L Holaday@stroughtonsmith Do you have ideas about how to use the immense #visionOS canvas?