The contemporary world is fast-paced and surrounded by new technologies. If you want to match the speed of this continuously evolving era, then you must join hands with the latest technology upgrades and trends. Businesses now understand the utter relevance of customer satisfaction as a critical element to their successful businesses. Customers today are incredibly close to their smartphones. Hence, to get more customer attention, firms must build mobile apps fully compatible on all the running platforms, especially iOS. 

Every iPhone application development company must ensure that its mobile apps reach a wider audience. According to a study by Backlinko, around 1 billion people are iPhone users, with approximately 65% iPhone sales in the US. Thus, to run the apps smoothly on iPhone, iOS app development tools are imperative.

Here, we have listed the top tools for iOS app development that mobile app developers can consider.

1. XCODE IDE & EDITOR

Xcode was initially known as Integrated Development Environment (IDE) as used by the Apple company to build software for iOS, watchOS, macOS, iPad, and tvOS. It is the perfect tool in the industry to get swiftness & consistency in the app development procedure. Xcode incorporates advanced features for testing, UI design, debugging, writing, publishing, and compiling the app.

It also has a source code checker to detect errors and give suitable fixes. Some other advanced functionalities of Xcode are:

-Latest SDKs

-C/C++, Swift, Objective C compilers

-Graphical Debugger

-In-Built Interface Builder

-Instrument Analysis Tools

-Asset Catalog

-Version Editor

2. COCOAPODS

CocoaPods are a dependency manager for the Xcode projects and is distributed as a Ruby library. Over 83000 libraries are running over 3 million mobile applications. It is one of the most powerful and vastly used iOS app development tools comprehensive with Swift Cocoa and Objective-C programming language. 

This mobile app development tool has multiple attributes:

-Various Pod and Swift projects.

-Easily manage and incorporate 3rd-party libraries.

-Automatic generation of .xcfilelist.

-Source-based dispensation of 3rd-party code and deployment into software projects.

-Dynamic screen launch arguments.

-Incremental installation

3. ALAMOFIRE

AlamoFire is the best tool for iPhone app development built on Swift and used as a macOS & iOS HTTP networking framework. This swift-based framework manages web requests and retaliates in macOS & iOS. It also incorporates JSON parameters that reply to network enhancement, serialization, authentication services, and many more. Different libraries have been added by AlamoFire Software Foundation to launch new features such as AlamoFire Network Activity Indicator, AlamoFire Image, etc.

Other features of AlamoFire are enlisted below:

-Network Reachability

-HTTP Response Validation

-Use Resume or Request data to download files.

-Authentication with URL Credential

-Public Key and TLS Certificate pinning

-Response/ Chainable Request Methods

4. SWIFT PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE

Swift programming language is one of the most effective iOS app development tools. Being launched in 2014, it is the latest programming language other than Java, C++, and C with many advanced features. Programmers can use Swift for feature-rich and comprehensive iOS app development. Since Swift makes the code easier to write and read, several tech giant companies like WordPress & Firefox use it for iPhone app development.

Various attributes of Swift are mentioned below:

-Automatic memory management

-Supports inferred types

-Advanced control flow

-Effective error handling

-Type-safe & Memory-safe language

-Functional programming

5. SIMULATOR

Programmers use the Simulator to test and prototype iOS mobile apps during the app development procedure before getting final approval from Apple. The Simulator is an Xcode tool set up on the Mac to operate iPad, Apple TV, iPhone, or Apple Watch apps in a window. The simulation environment comes with its version of files and settings. Files & settings get saved with individual devices being tested to smoothen the whole process.

The primary functionalities of Simulator are as follow:

-Supports debugging and prototyping the apps.

-Streamline interaction between watchOS, iOS, and tvOS apps with keyboard & pointer support.

-It can efficiently optimize Mobile app graphics.

-Thoroughly testing apps before publishing on the Apple App Store.

6. APP CODE

AppCode is an advanced mobile app development tool developed on the IntelliJ IDEA platform and introduced by JetBrains. It is the perfect choice for developers who want to build various apps with different programming languages such as Objective C, C++, Swift, and C. AppCode helps automate routine tasks such as identifying & rectifying errors. The intelligent and simplified code management tasks help in saving developer’s time.

Various other features of AppCode are:

-Intelligent code assistance to write clean codes that reveal your content and project structure.

-In-built integrations & tools to quickly test, run and debug the app.

-Single IDE for different programming languages such as XML, CSS, JavaScript, and HTML.

7. TRANSPORTER

The Transporter is the most impactful iPhone app development tool that can directly upload your app & content to Apple. Hence, sharing music, files, movies, apps, TV shows, books, etc., becomes quite feasible on different iOS platforms. It can channelize iOS app content distribution through Apple Music, iTunes Store, App Store, or Apple Books. The user must have an iTunes Connect account, App Store Connect account, or an encoding house account to enable this process.

Vital features of Transporter are enlisted below:

-It is easy to upload different files simultaneously to optimize the delivery procedure.

-Look out for delivery logs & validation warnings and verify the status of issues fixing.

-Get a track record of previous deliveries with proper time and date.

-Easy to drag and drop content on Transporter.

CONCLUSION

The above elaborative passage on the top iOS app development tools & software can assist every mobile app development company build vibrant & feature-rich iOS apps. Since the IT space is consistently evolving, iOS developers must remain upgraded now and then.