Apple announces that it's bringing iOS apps to the Mac

Apple held its WWDC 2018 keynote today, and among the next major updates to iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS, the company announced a new app platform that will bring iOS apps to the Mac. The news came following various shout-outs to refreshed versions of apps like Stocks, Voice Memos, News, and Home.

As you can see from the image above, Apple had to change how some UI elements behave when bringing touch-centric iOS apps to macOS, which doesn"t support touch at all, at least at the moment. Things like trackpad and mouse input had to be added, and window resizing.

What"s interesting is that this makes both platforms ripe for coming closer together. Many users have asked for touch support on a Mac, and other have asked for mouse support on the iPad Pro. These things seem more likely than ever, especially since Apple announced other macOs features today that allow users to draw on PDF files.

Apple said that the first tester for the new platform is itself, with the refreshed apps that it announced today. Third-party developers will be able to take advantage of the multi-phase project in 2019.