After this workweek ’s newsworthiness that Apple had grow iOS mightiness exploiter app Workflow , you ’d be excused for being a bit disordered about the future of automation on Apple ’s platform . After all , it was just last November that Sal Soghoian , Apple ’s ware manager of mechanisation technologies , leave the company when his stance was eliminated .
And yet , Apple snapped upWorkflow , an app that many had compared to Apple ’s ownAutomator , which was introduced right smart back in 2005 ’s Mac OS X Tiger . So what gives ? Is there still some life in mechanization and script features on Apple ’s platforms , or is this only a case of Apple acquiring utile talent ?
Scripting ’s been part of the Mac since the earliest days . AppleScript , which grew out of HyperCard ’s HyperTalk scripting language , was built into organisation 7 back in 1993 . It was a way to automatise complex tasks across multiple practical app , and it had a lot of power thanks not only to its inscrutable integration into the OS , but also to third - party developers who made their apps addressable by the scripting language .
But for all its power , AppleScript has always been a chip esoteric . While it was intended to be approachable and used a sort of natural English sentence structure , it was often still too complex for the average user . On the other end , those used to more traditional computer programming languages ascertain its idiosyncrasies equally bewilder .
When AppleScript found its way into OS X — if anecdotic accounts are to be believe , almost entirely thanks to the self-command of Soghoian — it laid the groundwork for Automator , a graphical and more user - well-disposed attempt to handle the variety of tasks AppleScript had . But Automator never quite care to live up to its potential . In many cases , one had to fall back on AppleScript or UNIX scale script to attain some functions , and its graphical interface still was n’t enough make it friendly to most mainstream users .
But as estimator became more mature and sinewy , there was n’t always the same need for mechanisation and script as there had been back in the early day when many user need to also be part programmer to get affair done . Many tasks that had once been automated could now be handled by program created by Apple or third parties . Though both AppleScript and Automation stuck around in subsequent releases of OS X , neither got any tangible attention from Apple .
Workflow on iOS
A few age after Automation ’s origination , the iPhone showed up with no automation capability whatsoever . Though many parts of OS X made the startle to the platform , AppleScript and Automator were exit behind . Almost 10 long time after , that situation has n’t changed . It was just in 2014 that apps even gotthe ability to communicate with one another .
participate Workflow , an app that is , on the Earth’s surface , very similar to Automator , providing a graphical user interface with which to automatise complex tasks across apps and overhaul . But the kicker is that it pulled all this functionality off without Apple ’s help .
While some have embraced Workflow ’s big businessman , it ’s suffered from the same challenges that Automator has encountered on the Mac . Most users either do n’t have or have n’t identified a penury for automation , and for the fraction that have , only another fraction go through the trouble of discover and memorise to use a creature like Workflow .
Will the future be automated?
All of which wee-wee Apple ’s learning of Workflow even more confusing . The easy answer , of course , is that Apple was impressed with the resourcefulness of the development squad and desire to hire them . In the long term , that will probably mean shut down Workflow .
I ’m not confident , though , in part because Workflow provides utilitarian features that are n’t available anywhere else . ( And Apple ’s first move was to make the app gratis , which could be a sign they design to keep it around . ) That could be a compelling enough disputation for Apple to make use of the app ’s capabilities itself . Why reinvent the bicycle if the companionship is interested in bringing mechanisation to iOS ?
And , candidly , it should be . Even with the improver of app extensions in iOS 8 , inter - app communicating has remained a light point . Why not contribute Workflow to the Mac ? Well maybe because at its more fledged long time , it is n’t cry out for mechanisation in the same way . AppleScript and Automator are still there , after all , and while they might not getmoreuseful as time break down by , neither has their functionality been kidnap away .
But allow ’s look it : iOS and the iPhone are the most prominent part of Apple ’s indistinguishability these days , and what happens there go under the whole tone for the company . It ’s a no - brainer that the company wants its products to getmorepowerful and useful , and Workflow ’s capabilities might be one way to do that .
