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SwiftUI used in Production
How to develop a media streaming app for iOS using SwiftUI in 7 Days
It runs on iPhone, iPad & AppleTV with a backend on AWS.
These days, app development has become the web design of the early years of the millennia. Anyone can do it and the entry barrier is lower than ever, especially with Apple’s 2019 release of SwiftUI. It is the latest framework for declarative development of user interfaces on every platform in the Apple technology ecosystem. With the updates presented at WWDC 2020, it felt like a production ready environment for SwiftUI only app development for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV or even the Mac.
In late 2020, I was working on the web platform for the Alles Neu Land online festival with live video streams in late 2020. I decided to augment the festival offering with a media library app. It would allow asynchronous streaming of recorded festival sessions for registered attendees. With time running out, I had to develop the app within few days to complete the review process of the App Store in due time before the festival launch on October 30, 2020. For all intends and purposes the goal was also to use SwiftUI exclusively for the interface and as many of the latest technologies as possible.
The entire development process took less than a week. I collaborated on the app with Marco Falanga (mrcfal) who also collaborated with me on the heart/work project. I estimate the total development hours at around 40–50 for both of us combined. For the media library app we heavily relied on SwiftUI. We implemented the backend service on AWS. Including the review process, the app went from inception to publication in 21 days. Most of the time however, we spent on the App Store Review process.
Talking Specifics
The app is pretty straight forward. It is a simple tab bar navigation app that serves a library view for the video content. Nested inside are various horizontal scroll views in a table view with different sections and detail views for each video. The detail views provide a video…
