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IM Apps & iCloud

24th March 2016 by Tim Cole

It's good news: iCloud support is coming for all our iOS apps!

If you like to create things on multiple iOS devices, e.g. iPhone and iPad, and you are familiar with Apple's iCloud and iCloud Drive and associated iCloud Drive app for iOS, you should be pleased to hear that across our apps we are gradually rolling out support for iCloud. See our FAQ on using iCloud which we will keep updated.

The first of our apps to get iCloud support was Liptikl 2 for iOS, released a couple of weeks ago. As of today we have now followed up on that with iCloud support in Wotja 3.2 for iOS. We expect to release the iCloud-supporting Noatikl 3.1 and Mixtikl 7.1 iOS updates soon [Edit: released April 5th].

What about iCloud support in macOS apps?

It turns out that the key thing actually needed is iCloud support in the iOS apps! Once you have installed the relevant iOS app then icloud.com will show the relevant folder and an iCloud-supporting macOS desktop app update can open files from and save to the iCloud Drive folder in macOS.

  • Liptikl 2 for macOS is already iCloud-supporting.
  • Noatikl 3.1 for macOS is iCloud-supporting.
  • Mixtikl 7.1 for macOS is not iCloud-supporting because of the way its UI works but there is a work around:
    • Once a mix file is saved to the ~/Music/Intermorphic folder you can drag it to your Mac's iCloud Drive folder and then (once the file is synched to iCloud) use Mixtikl 7.1 for iOS to edit it. Note: In the iCloud Drive folder on Mac you can double click on a mixtikl file to opent it, but it will not save there.
    • Reworking the Mixtikl for macOS UI to save files instead to an iCloud Drive folder would be a big reworking for us so, if we do add it to that, it may only come in a new major version.

iCloud support is great as it means you can start working on a file in the macOS version and then (for files in the relevant iCloud Drive folder) carry on in the iOS version, and vice versa.

What about recordings, zip and sf2 files?

These still need to be copied to/from your iOS app via iTunes App File Sharing. For further details on how to do that, see here.

What prompted us to do it...

For us it was really all about improving ease of use, productivity and ease of backing up files. Some of the benefits as we see them are:

  • A new Files screen makes it easier to open, rename duplicate files within the iOS app itself.
  • The iCloud Drive iOS app lets you copy or move files to other folders, and do it all on device, meaning you can organise your files better.
  • Having an iCloud Drive folder on your Mac means you can, on your Mac, do file housekeeping operations such as moving, renaming, duplicating etc, even if the macOS version of that app is not yet supporting iCloud Drive.
  • For iCloud Drive supporting apps you can use iCloud as your backup mechanism, meaning you can remove/deinstall an app and not lose its data - you no longer need to resort to iTunes File Transfer, or data synching over a cable (yay!).

Use cases for working in both macOS and iOS?

Where an app's iOS and macOS versions both support iCloud

With iCloud being supported in both Liptikl 2 for iOS and Liptikl 2 for macOS, you can start creating a Liptikl file in one version and carry on editing it in another, and vice versa. This freedom to create as, when or where you want results in greater creative productivity!

Where only the iOS version of an app supports iCloud

When Noatikl 3.1 for iOS is released with iCloud support you will be able to take advantage of iCloud Drive file synching with Noatikl for macOS. Here's an example of how: Say you want to create a Noatikl file for import into Wotja and you find it easier to use Noatikl for macOS to create that file. Using Noatikl for macOS you create the file and then save or copy that file to your Mac's iCloud Drive/Noatikl folder. In Noatikl for iOS you will be able to open that file and then export it to clipboard for importing into Wotja. Easy!

Prior to that you would have had to first create your file in Noatikl for macOS then either manually transfer your Noatikl file to Noatikl for iOS via iTunes File Transfer then open in Noatikl for iOS and export to clipboard; or, from Noatikl for macOS export it to clipboard, then paste it into Notepad for macOS and then in Notepad for iOS copy that URL to clipboard and then import into Wotja - a little bit more complex shall we say!

We hope you enjoy using our new Files screens, iCloud and iCloud Drive!

Tim and Pete