What’s New in Pinner 4
For Pinner, 2015 has so far brought both an Android and Apple Watch app. But we can’t slow down - iOS 9 is here and Pinner 4 is going to be out very soon. The last big release of Pinner for iOS brought a new design and Share Extensions. What’s new this time?
Safari View Controller
For this update my hardest decision was whether to support Safari View Controller. Users get the benefits of sharing Safari sessions, Content Blockers, and a consistent experience, but I would lose my custom reader view and have to redesign the app (Safari View Controller can only be shown modally, not pushed).
In the end I went for it. Using the iOS beta and Twitterrific (who snuck SFVC in early) I came to realise how much nicer it really was. There are a few tradeoffs - no dark mode for the reader, and editing bookmarks is a little clunky (hint: use the share/action menu).
I believe it’s overall a better experience (and frees me from maintaining a whole bunch of code).
Slide Over & Split View
If you have an iPad that supports Slide Over or Split View, you can multitask with your bookmarks by opening Pinner next to another app. This is pretty standard - most apps will support it soon. Being a universal app made this a breeze to add.
One special feature I added is the ability for Pinner to open links directly in Safari while in Split Mode. You can have Safari and Pinner visible, with Pinner basically acting as a bookmark sidebar, opening the links straight in the browser. I though this was pretty cool. Here’s a video.
It’s a setting not a default - you might want Pinner to stay self-contained.
Spotlight Search
With Apple’s opening up of Spotlight, you can now search your bookmarks from right from Springboard. Title, tags and description are all indexed, and selecting a result takes you straight to that bookmark. Neat.
Shared Links
A less well-known feature of Safari, Apple opened this up to app developers too. Basically it allows apps to add links into Safari, into the sidebar along with bookmarks, reading list etc.
I encountered a restriction on the number of links I could add, so only the most recent 200 bookmarks will be shown here; still, it’s a nice, quick way to access your bookmarks without even having to open Pinner.
Backend Rewrite
My syncing code was getting a little long in the tooth, so I’ve rewritten it with the more modern iOS APIs and fixed a bunch of issues along the way. Sync should be faster, smoother, and more reliable.
The new features tell an interesting tale of iOS’ direction. Search and Shared Links along with the existing Share Extensions mean that once you’ve logged in, you never have to open the app again. The level of integration available to 3rd party apps has never been so high, and as a developer, it’s fantastic.
In terms of new features, Pinner 4 is the biggest release yet. It’ll be with you soon, but if you can’t wait you can read more at the home page, or sign up to the beta.
