What App Intent

An App Intent is a way to surface your app's functionality to the system outside of your app, allowing users to interact with your app's features through various system experiences like Spotlight, Siri, widgets, and shortcuts.

Key Points about App Intents:

1. Structure and Summary:

   • An app intent consists of a summary of what it does, which starts with the app followed by a verb, and includes the parameters that people need to fill out before the intent is run. (Design App Intents for system experiences)

2. Types of App Intents:

   • App intents should represent the most habitual tasks in your app that could be useful outside of your app. In iOS 18, the guidance has expanded to include any functionality your app does. (Design App Intents for system experiences)

3. Parameter Types:

   • App intents contain a parameter summary which includes the inputs that your intent uses to run the task. This ensures the summary is always readable as a sentence, regardless of the selected parameters. (Design App Intents for system experiences)

4. Behavior and Flexibility:

   • App intents can be combined with other intents into shortcuts to create powerful new flows. They should be designed to be flexible and readable across many configurations and use cases. (Design App Intents for system experiences)

5. Opening the App:

   • In iOS 18, opening your app as part of an app intent is now common to show people that the intent has made a change in the app. This can be toggled off if the intent is part of a larger shortcut flow. (Design App Intents for system experiences)

6. Core Features:

   • App intents allow you to lift your app's features out of the app and elevate them to other places on the device, such as Spotlight, Siri, widgets, and control center. (Bring your app’s core features to users with App Intents)

Relevant Sessions:

• Design App Intents for system experiences
• Bring your app’s core features to users with App Intents

These sessions provide comprehensive guidance on how to design and implement app intents to enhance user interaction with your app's features across the Apple ecosystem.