Overcoming iOS Development Challenges: Common iOS Issues and App Development Problems

Good memory management is one of the most important things regarding iOS development. Though Automatic Reference Counting (ARC) solved many problems for iOS applications, memory-related issues sometimes appear, making an application behave poorly or crash.

The Challenge

Developers face common challenges such as memory leaks and retaining cycles. The first usually arises from objects that aren't deallocated when they're no longer needed and, therefore, use memory for no reason at all. Poor utilization of system resources leads to jerkier performances in the apps. This is especially true for older devices.

Our Approach

At Duplex Technologies, we focus on a proactive approach to memory management:

1. Use Weak References: We use weak references for delegate patterns and closures in order to prevent retaining cycles.

2. Ensure Proper Deinitialization: The developers ensure the deinit methods are implemented correctly so the resources will be released when the objects are no longer in use.

3. Use Instruments: We have to very frequently resort to using Xcode's Instruments, more particularly Memory Graph Debugger and Leaks, to detect and solve memory-related issues.

4. Optimize resource usage: We have lazy loading of views and data, which is not immediately necessary, which reduces the memory footprint and gives a cutting up app launch time.

5. Profile and Optimize: Profiles will regularly identify performance bottlenecks that we can optimize by refactoring code or improving algorithms.

By following these best practices, we ensure that our iOS applications running are smooth and efficient on a wide range of devices.

In order to overcome these issues, we need to employ the following techniques:

1. Adaptive Layout: We use Auto Layout and size classes in developing flexible UI design reaching through numerous screen sizes and orientations.

2. Feature Availability Checks: Our code contains availability checks to ensure access to newer iOS features only on supporting devices and OS versions.

3. We balance the adoption of new technologies with backward compatibility, typically supporting the last 2-3 major versions of iOS.

4. Extensive Testing: We take wide device testing and simulators beyond many others to ensure consistency throughout the entire iOS ecosystem.

5. Modular Architecture: We are designed to make modular architectures for our applications so we can easily adapt to different device capabilities and OS versions.

This approach allows us to craft apps that not only look and feel great on the latest devices but also give a solid experience on older hardware.

To make the App Store review process as simple as it could be, we:

1. Stay Updated: We constantly keep ourselves updated with the most recent App Store Review Guidelines, and change our development practice accordingly.

2. Robust Pre-submission Testing: We review our application in-depth internally before submission to identify potential issues that would lead to rejection.

3. Complete Documentation: We ensure to prepare the most comprehensive app descriptions, privacy policies, and supporting materials to clearly provide the information required by the review team.

4. Proactive Communication: We communicate proactively with the App Store review team before we roll out new features or are using specific APIs to address issues that may arise at the time of review.

5. Contingency Planning: We create some buffer time in our project timelines for review delays or even rejections.

This helped us a great deal on the success path in the App Store review process, which otherwise ensured timely releases to our clients.

The sensitivity of the data being protected and need for its security in today's world calls for strengthening security measures in iOS applications.

The Challenge

Data of users, protection of network communications, and securing applications from reverse engineering and tampering are some complex responsibilities that require great vigilance.

Our Approach

We have security at all stages of development at Duplex Technologies.

1. Data Encryption: We have strong algorithms to secure the data both in transit and at rest.

2. Security in Networking: We implement SSL pinning, along with certificate validation, to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks.

3. Security in Authentication: We provide very strong authentication mechanisms that include support for biometric authentication in general.

4. Code Obfuscation: To deter reverse engineering, we apply a part of the code obfuscation that makes our application logic harder to understand for malicious actors.

5. Regular Security Audits: We take regular security audits and penetration tests to ensure all our identified or potential areas of vulnerabilities are dealt with.

6. Privacy by Design: We operate on a principle of privacy by design for user data that considers collection and processing.

We develop apps for iOS and take security measures at every step of development so that our users can trust their personal data with us.

Of course, third-party libraries and frameworks may hasten the development of making an application greatly, but then, again it introduces its own problems as well.

The Challenge

External dependency may, at its worst, lead to bloated app sizes and security vulnerabilities by requiring new libraries or iOS SDK updates for certain compatibility purposes.

Our Approach

For efficient management of third-party dependencies, we:

1. Scrupulous Assessment: We assess every third-party library on code quality, the maintenance status of its code, and the whole community support before incorporating it.

2. Dependency Management Tools: In house, to manage dependencies efficiently and in a timely manner, we make use of CocoaPods or Swift Package Manager.

3. Audits: We periodically audit our dependencies to find unused or outdated libraries that might be included within them and remove the same.

4. Modular Integration: To the extent possible, we modularly integrate third-party code so that if we should desire to replace or remove it, at least that becomes easier.

5. We often develop in-house solutions, especially if we have to have some critical functionality, thereby minimizing our dependency on external libraries and enjoying more control over our codebase.

This then helps us take advantage of the benefits of third-party libraries while minimizing the risks associated with them

The iOS ecosystem throws up innovation at an incredibly fast pace-new technologies, frameworks, and best practices-find their way into the market.

The Challenge

Keeping up with the latest iOS technologies and applying them well within existing projects proves daunting, considering the deliverable deadlines and unyielding client demands.

Our Approach

To keep ahead of it, we:

1. Continuous Learning: We encourage the development team to do continuous learning through workshops, online courses, and developer conferences.

2. Internal Knowledge Sharing: Many team meetings as well as a show-and-tell among the members ensure that insights and new learnings get disseminated across the team.

3. Experimental Projects: We leave time for experimental projects to try out new technologies without the stress of deadlines in view of clients.

4. Phased Adoption: We adopt new technologies gradually in our projects by initially adopting those features which we considered non-critical to minimize the risk.

5. Balanced Adoption: When we focus on harnessing state-of-the-art technologies, we balance it off with the need for stability and maintainability of our projects.

6. Continuous Improvement and Measured Adoption of New Technologies

By inculcating a culture of continuous improvement and measured adoption of new technologies, our iOS development practices are always at the industry's cutting edge.