Would you make a Catalyst App?
Recorded – watch the full episode on YouTube.
We now have multiple options of macOS: AppKit, Catalyst, or SwiftUI. Has Catalyst tempted you?
Kaya Thomas: It did tempt me. When Catalyst came out, I kind of explored it for Calm when the beta came out to see if we can and do it for Calm. And I had a lot of road bumps and a lot of trouble on even trying to get it started. And I think especially for production apps, there were just some confusing things in terms of how it will work with subscriptions and all this. And it wasn't really clear. So if it was a simple app and maybe not like a really big production app or a big company app definitely would think about it.
“I want the Mac users to have that completely Mac experience, not like a half Mac half phone experience.”
But also I think there are some things on iOS that are just so different on Mac. And I think it seems like they've done a good job, pretty much translating that. For example, I use the Jira Mac app, which is a Catalyst app. I'm pretty sure they announced that at WWDC20, so I think it's a Catalyst app. And you can definitely tell some subtle things that are like, “this is not really a computer experience” or like, “it shouldn't really work like this on a computer.”
Paul Hudson: Controversial use of the computer there, Kaya!
Kaya Thomas: Yeah. I don't know if I would really do a Catalyst app because I feel that if I want to build a Mac app, I want the Mac users to have that completely Mac experience, not like a half-Mac half-phone experience.
This transcript was recorded as part of Swiftly Speaking. You can watch the full original episode on YouTube, or subscribe to the audio version on Apple Podcasts.
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