Stop Calling Yourself an iOS Developer

This applies only to ‘iOS Developers’

15 years ago Apple introduced the iOS SDK, a critical moment that transformed the software development landscape. We started with novelty fart apps, and not long afterwards started to manage our entire lives from the palm of our hand. While the iPhone’s ubiquity remains unchallenged — the centre of gravity has widened to include many other platforms.

In the early days an iOS developer might only expect to build their app for an iPhone — and at a push the iPad. Today our capabilities extend far beyond, allowing us to build things for Watch, TV, Mac, Siri and Vision Pro with the same shared set of tools and SDKs.

Even if your current project is exclusive to the iPhone, it’s time to consider the landscape beyond a single device with a job title that positions yourself for the future. Here are some ideas:

• Swift Developer
  • Covers everything, but often people like to see a clear demarcation between frontend and backend — and theoretically you could have a Swift backend.
• SwiftUI Developer
  • This covers all the platforms, but UIKit is still very popular and will be for a long time to come and I’m not sure it’s wise to cull it from your life just yet.
• UIKit Developer
  • As with SwiftUI, but in reverse. Despite its early teething problems SwiftUI is clearly the future of native frontend development on Apple’s platforms. If you aren’t looking forwards then what is the purpose of this exercise.
• Apple Platform Developer
  • Probably the most technically accurate of these suggestions, but I don’t like how it might sound like you suggest you work for Apple — though people have no problems calling themselves Drupal/Sitecore developers…
• Native Front-end Developer
  • You run the risk that people might believe you want to interact with Android. If you do have that particular streak of masochism then go ahead.

All of these options have different tradeoffs, but I believe those tradeoffs are smaller than mentally restraining yourself to a single device. The future of computing is pervasive and we should be positioning ourselves accordingly.