announcements

December Skip Newsletter

Dec 17, 2024 - 3 min read - 541 words

Skip December Newsletter

Welcome to the December edition of the Skip.tools newsletter! This month we will showcase some of the improvements and advancements we've made to the Skip platform, along with some current events and a peek at our upcoming roadmap.

Skip and Compiled Swift on Android

The big news this month is the release of the Skip's native compiled Swift technology preview! Now you are not limited to just using transpiled packages in Skip apps: you can also embed fully native Swift using our Android toolchain and transparent bridge generation. The SkipFuse framework enables you to move seamlessly between native Swift and your transpiled Jetpack Compose user interface. This unlocks the entire universe of pure-Swift packages for use in your Android app! Read the introductory blog post at https://skip.tools/blog/skip-native-tech-preview/ and then browse the full documentation at https://skip.tools/docs/native/.

Screenshot of native toochain development

New SkipUI Features

SkipUI is the framework that turns your SwiftUI into Jetpack Compose for Android. It enables you to write a single user-interface for both platforms using their platform-native toolkits. SkipUI supports converting nearly all SwiftUI constructs into Compose, but there are sometimes minor deficiencies and quirks that need to be implemented separately for Android. Over the past weeks, we've improved SkipUI with:

Support for custom SVG images in asset catalogs
Enabling .alert() sheets to containTextField and SecureField views
Support for .rotation3DEffect for all views
Implementing .interactiveDismissDisabled to conditionally prevent interactive dismissal of sheets

You can always get the latest Skip features and fixes from right within Xcode, by simply clicking File > Packages > Update to Latest Versions. And if you are building from the command-line, swift package update will do the same thing.

Tip: Customizing with Android-only SwiftUI modifiers

SkipUI supports Android-specific SwiftUI modifiers to customize Material colors, components, and effects. Check out the "Material" section of our SkipUI documentation to see how: https://skip.tools/docs/modules/skip-ui/#material

Skip on Talking Kotlin

We were thrilled to join hosts Sebastian and Márton on the JetBrains Talking Kotlin podcast! The episode was just released, and you can listen to it at https://talkingkotlin.com/going-from-swift-to-kotlin-with-skip/ or watch it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mig81rSWVqM. “Going from Swift to Kotlin with Skip: In a slightly unconventional episode, Sebastian and Márton talk to the founders of Skip, an iOS-to-Android, Swift-to-Kotlin transpiler solution. Marc and Abe have a background working on both Apple platforms and the JVM, and their latest project is a bridge across these two ecosystems.”

Android Police Interview

Another instance of Skip in the press was an interview with the popular Android Police publication, titled: “How the development wall between Android and iOS may soon come down”. You can read the whole thing at: https://www.androidpolice.com/skip-interview

That's all for now

You can follow us on Mastodon at https://mas.to/@skiptools, and join in the Skip discussions at http://community.skip.tools/. The Skip FAQ at https://skip.tools/docs/faq/ is there to answer any questions, and be sure to check out the video tours at https://skip.tools/tour/. And, as always, you can reach out directly to us on our Slack channel at https://skip.tools/slack/.

Happy Skipping!

August Skip Newsletter

Aug 30, 2024 - 3 min read - 470 words

Welcome to the August edition of the Skip.tools newsletter! This month we will showcase some of the improvements and advancements we've made to the Skip platform, along with some current events and a peek at our upcoming roadmap.

Skip 1.0

The big news this month was the launch of Skip 1.0! After over a year in development, Skip is finally ready for general production use. The launch has made a big splash, even being featured on the front page of Hacker News. There has never been a better time to start a new project with Skip and bring your app to the entire mobile marketplace!

New FREE Indie Pricing Tier

As part of the general availability of Skip, we are also delighted to announce the new Skip Indie tier, which enables solo developers to use Skip to build their dual-platform projects for free.

Markdown Support

On a technical front, a long-requested feature for SkipUI has been to support SwiftUI's automatic markdown support for Text elements. Well, now it's here! Styling text with simple markdown elements has never been simpler.

Reminder: Skip Showcase on the Stores

The Skip Showcase app (https://skip.tools/docs/samples/skipapp-showcase/) has long been our go-to for providing a side-by-side comparison of SwiftUI components with the Jetpack Compose equivalents that SkipUI provides. Browsing thought these components simultaneously on an iPhone and Android device gives a good sense Skip's capabilities and power, and is a great way to demonstrate Skip's benefits to project managers and stakeholders before breaking ground on a new project.

In order to make it even easier to get this handy app on your devices, we've published the Skip Showcase app to both the Apple App Store (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/skip-showcase/id6474885022) as well as the Google Play Store (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.appfair.app.Showcase). This enables you to quickly grab a demo app that highlights Skip's power, and feel for yourself the benefit of using a genuinely native app on both platforms. Download it today and see for yourself what Skip can do!

New Skip Showreel Video

We've published a new 3-minute video summarizing Skip's capabilities. This is a great video to share with your colleagues and management to highlight some of the benefits of using Skip to bring your app to the entire matketplace. Check it out at https://skip.tools/tour/skip-showreel/

That's all for now!

You can follow us on Mastodon at https://mas.to/@skiptools, and join in the Skip discussions at http://community.skip.tools/. The Skip FAQ at https://skip.tools/docs/faq/ is there to answer any questions, and be sure to check out the video tours at https://skip.tools/tour/. And, as always, you can reach out directly to us on our Slack channel at https://skip.tools/slack/.

Happy Skipping!

July Skip Newsletter

Jul 31, 2024 - 4 min read - 669 words

Welcome to the July edition of the Skip.tools newsletter! This month we will showcase some of the improvements and advancements we've made to the Skip platform, along with some current events and a peek at our upcoming roadmap.

Swift 6 and Kotlin 2 Support

The past couple of months saw two important major releases that affect anyone writing modern iOS and Android apps. Kotlin 2 was released at the end of May, and a preview of Swift 6 was added to the Xcode 16 beta in June. Both of these language releases are evolutionary, but they did include some important changes and enhancements.

Skip has kept pace: we now generate Kotlin 2 Android projects by default, and you can use Swift 6 language features like typed throws. Some minor Android build file tweaks may be necessary to modernize pre-existing Skip projects, but overall we are delighted how smooth the transition has been. Skip is designed to enable your apps to keep up with the constant evolution of the primary development languages for both iOS and Android.

From Scrumdinger to Scrumskipper

Honed and updated over the years, Apple’s Scrumdinger tutorial is an hours-long step-by-step guide to building a complete, modern SwiftUI app. It exercises both built-in UI components and custom drawing, and it takes advantage of Swift language features like Codable for persistence. As its rather unique name implies, the Scrumdinger app allows users to create and manage agile programming scrums on their phones.

In our blog post, we show how we took the Scrumdinger app and brought it to Android through the power of Skip. This new "Scrumskipper" app demonstrates how an existing iOS-only app can be incrementally turned into a dual-platform iOS+Android app.

Refreshable lists, GeometryReader, and ScrollViewReader

The pull-to-refresh gesture has been a standard affordance in mobile apps for updating list contents for some time now, and SwiftUI has had built-in support for the operation since last year. We've brought this great feature over to Android by bridging SwiftUI’s .refreshable() modifier to an experimental Compose API for supporting the pull-to-refresh operation, enabling you to add in support for list refreshability with one line of code.

In addition, we've added some more advanced SwiftUI API support, including the ability to exactly identify locations in SwiftUI views using GeometryReader and the ability to jump to individual list elements using ScrollViewReader.

User Contributions: SkipAV and SkipFirebase

All the Skip runtime frameworks are free and open-source software, from the low-level SkipFoundation to the high level SkipUI. In addition, we have a whole constellation of optional frameworks that enable additional functionality, from SQLite database support (SkipSQL) to Lottie animations (SkipMotion).

One of our frameworks – SkipAV – enables bridging a subset of the AVKit framework for audio and video support. The initial release included only very basic support for playing videos, but recently a user who was interested in the project added support for recording from the microphone, along with some audio playback improvements.

Another of our frameworks, SkipFirebase, provides support for Google Firebase, a very popular backend-as-a-service platform used in many mobile applications. And while our original release mostly just supported Firestore – the database layer of Firebase – another interested user recently contributed support for the Auth component, which greatly improves the utility of the framework for all Skip users.

These are just two examples of recent community contributions to the Skip ecosystem. If you would like to learn more about how to help improve Skip's support for various Android features, check out our contribution guide.

That's all for now

You can follow us on Mastodon at https://mas.to/@skiptools, and join in the Skip discussions at http://community.skip.tools/. The Skip FAQ at https://skip.tools/docs/faq/ is there to answer any questions, and be sure to check out the video tours at https://skip.tools/tour/. And, as always, you can reach out directly to us on our Slack channel at https://skip.tools/slack/.

Happy Skipping!

June Skip Newsletter

Jun 30, 2024 - 5 min read - 967 words

Welcome to the June edition of the Skip.tools newsletter! This month we will showcase some of the improvements and advancements we've made to the Skip platform, along with some current events and a peek at our upcoming roadmap.

New Skip Intro Video

We've posted a new Skip "Showreel" video, providing a quick 3-minute overview of Skip and the highlights of using it to build native dual-platform apps. You can find it on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQjaaAqgxp4. This and other videos are also available from our Tour page at: https://skip.tools/tour/. We will be posting new videos in the coming weeks and months, so consider either following us on YouTube, or subscribing to our RSS feed from https://skip.tools/blog/.

Skip Showcase on the Stores

The Skip Showcase app (https://skip.tools/docs/samples/skipapp-showcase/) has long been our go-to for providing a side-by-side comparison of SwiftUI components with the Jetpack Compose equivalents that SkipUI provides. Browsing thought these components simultaneously on an iPhone and Android device gives a good sense Skip's capabilities and power, and is a great way to demonstrate Skip's benefits to project managers and stakeholders before breaking ground on a new project.

In order to make it even easier to get this handy app on your devices, we've published the Skip Showcase app to both the Apple App Store as well as the Google Play Store. This enables you to quickly grab a demo app that highlights Skip's power, and feel for yourself the benefit of using a genuinely native app on both platforms. Download it today and see for yourself what Skip can do!

New Framework: SkipKeychain

Using the Keychain has long been the standard way to store bits of sensitive data, such as passwords and notes, on your iOS device. We're happy to announce a brand-new SkipKeychain module that provides an API to read and write sensitive data both on iOS and Android. As with the rest of Skip's library ecosystem, it is free and open-source and available on GitHub at: https://github.com/skiptools/skip-keychain/. We're only on version 0.0.1 right now, but we expect to be able to iterate quickly to add features and functionality that the community wants to see in this nascent project.

Skip and Kotlin Multiplatform

Skip and Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) are two sides of the same coin. Skip brings your Swift/iOS codebase to Android, and KMP brings your Kotlin/Android codebase to iOS. Many people have assumed that this diametrical opposition means that the two technologies are incompatible. But this is not the case! KMP modules can be embedded in Skip apps, and they work seamlessly, for the most part, with the Swift-to-Kotlin code transpilation that Skip provides. Check out our deep dive into the integration at https://skip.tools/blog/skip-and-kotlin-multiplatform/ and learn how you can take your business-logic KMP modules and integrate them in both the iOS and Android sides of your Skip app.

Skip Slack Group

By popular demand, we are starting to migrate away from our gitter.im Matrix chat system to a new Skiptools Slack group. Going forward, this will be the preferred medium for live discussions and getting technical help. The Skip team will be standing by to answer questions and help with any issues that members of the community may encounter. You can sign up and join the conversation at: https://skip.tools/slack/.

Skip and Fastlane

The last mile of app development can be the most grueling. Taking your tested and polished 1.0 app and getting it into the hands of your users ought to be quick and simple, but it isn't. Running the gauntlet of the app store submission process is hard enough when you only target one platform, but when you target both iOS and Android, you need to contend with a plethora of hurdles for both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.

Fortunately, the popular Fastlane tool ( https://fastlane.tools/ ) has evolved over the years to help alleviate some of the drudgery of submitting new apps, as well as updated releases, to these storefronts. And we're happy to report that new projects created with the `skip init` command will now include Fastlane templates that provide everything you need to automate your app distributions. Read more about it on our blog post: https://skip.tools/blog/skip-and-fastlane/.

WWDC, Google I/O, and Skip

Google I/O 2024 and WWDC 2024, the preeminent conferences for Google and Apple developers alike, went back-to-back in June. These exciting events unveiled a lot of new features to the languages and frameworks that are used daily by mobile app developers. We here on the Skip team are working hard to take advantage of many of the new features that were announced.

Language evolution was announced as well: Kotlin 2.0 (final) was released, and Swift 6.0 (beta) was offered up in preview. As we march towards a Skip 1.0 release, we are going to make sure that all the code we process and generate is compatible with both these next-generation language releases, and takes advantages of as many of the new features as possible, while still remaining compatible with prior source and binary releases. Skip 1.0 is right around the corner, and it will be right up to date with the latest and greatest!

Thanks!

You can follow us on Mastodon at https://mas.to/@skiptools, and join in the Skip discussions at http://community.skip.tools/. The Skip FAQ at https://skip.tools/docs/faq/ is there to answer any questions, and be sure to check out the video tours at https://skip.tools/tour/. And, as always, you can reach out directly to us on our Slack channel at https://skip.tools/slack/.

Happy Skipping!

May Skip Newsletter

May 23, 2024 - 5 min read - 816 words

Welcome to the May edition of the Skip.tools newsletter! This month we will showcase some of the notable improvements to the Skip transpiler and the ecosystem of free and open-source frameworks that power the dual-platform apps that Skip enables.

Early Adopter Pricing Ending Soon

Skip 1.0 is on the horizon, which means that we will be winding down our Early Adopter Program at the end of the month. So now is the time to take advantage of the massive early adopter discount from https://skip.tools/pricing , as Skip will be switching to full pricing next month.

New Sample App: Travel Bookings

We've released a whole new sample application that shows off how Skip can make gorgeous apps for both iOS and Android. The Travel Bookings app demonstrates navigation, tabs, images, persistence, maps, weather, networking, and a whole lot more. Check it out at /docs/samples/skipapp-bookings .

Symbols and Images in Asset Catalogs

Images and icons are an essential part of any modern application. Skip has had good support for SwiftUI's AsyncImage for a while now, but we recently also added support for asset catalogs, enabling you to bundle static images and exported symbols directly in your app. And we support many of the common variants for assets, such as light and dark variants for images, as well as different weights for symbols. Read more about the new asset catalog support at /docs/modules/skip-ui/#images .

Major Performance Enhancements

We are delighted to report that we’ve reduced the number of re-compositions SkipUI performs on Android, resulting in a huge performance boost to some common operations like navigation. If your tabs or navigation bar was feeling a bit sluggish, run File / Packages / Update to Latest Package Versions on your project to grab skip-ui 0.9.1 and enjoy the speed boost!

Tip: Embedding Kotlin Calls Directly in Swift

Unlike other cross-platform app development frameworks, custom native integration in Skip is a breeze. Rather than requiring cumbersome bridging infrastructure or platform channels, with Skip you merely add your Kotlin calls in an `#if SKIP` block, and it will be executed directly on the transpiled side. And since Skip does not intrude into the iOS side of your app, you'll continue to be able to integrate with any of the Darwin platform APIs directly, including UIKit and other Objective-C frameworks (as well as C and C++). Read more about the platform customization options at /docs/platformcustomization .

Accessibility Improvements

May 16th was Global Accessibility Awareness Day. Skip celebrated by adding support for many additional SwiftUI accessibility modifiers. Being a truly universal app means not just reaching all the devices that people have, but also making those apps usable by everyone. Skip is proud to enable you to build uncompromisingly excellent apps that can reach the entire world: every device, every language, and every ability.

Take Our Survey!

Our Skip Developer Survey is a great way to provide feedback and help us define Skip's direction in the coming weeks and months. It only takes a few minutes, and will help define Skip's focus and features: https://skip.tools/survey .

Edge-to-edge Mode

In the "Improve the Experience of your Android App" session at Google I/O, the Android team promoted the use of the new edge-to-edge support APIs in Jetpack Compose, saying that “users significantly prefer edge-to-edge screens to non-edge-to-edge screens, and users feel these screens are more satisfying and premium.”

We agree, and so Skip now enables Android edge-to-edge mode by default in all new projects. Use the SwiftUI safe area APIs to control how your content renders under system bars. And you can enable edge-to-edge in existing projects with only a couple lines of code: /docs/modules/skip-ui/#enabling-or-disabling-edge-to-edge .

Skip Webinar Series

Sign up for our Skip webinar to see a hands-on tour of how Skip can help you build apps that reach the entire mobile marketplace. We take questions and answers throughout, so this is a great opportunity to get some direct interaction with the Skip engineers. Sign up at https://skip.tools/webinar/ or watch a past webinar at /tour/ .

Get Your Project Featured

We are assembling a list of Skip projects to feature on our web site. If you have built – or are currently building – an interesting app using Skip, send us an email at support@skip.tools and we may promote it on our customers page! And, as always, we are seeking testimonials from happy Skip users that we can share with the rest of the community.

That's All Folks!

You can follow us on Mastodon at https://mas.to/@skiptools , and join in the Skip discussions at http://community.skip.tools/ . The Skip FAQ at /docs/faq/ is there to answer any questions, and be sure to check out the video tours at /tour/ .

Happy Skipping!