by Jason Snell
Apple acquires Workflow
Matthew Panzarino at TechCrunch:
Apple has finalized a deal to acquire Workflow today — a tool that lets you hook together apps and functions within apps in strings of commands to automate tasks. We’ve been tracking this one for a while but were able to confirm just now that the ink on the deal is drying as we speak.
What. WHAT. WHAT?!
Okay, so Workflow is the definitive tool for automation and power-user stuff on iOS. It is spectacularly good. Look at the MacStories Workflow archive for a million examples of how.
So what does this mean for Apple? I’m going to be positive and say that this is Apple acknowledging that this sort of functionality should be core to iOS, and that Workflow (or a successor) could be vastly more powerful if it’s given more power and control than any third-party app ever could. You could, in fact, argue that Workflow is the iOS app that Apple should’ve built itself, but didn’t.
(The pessimist view would be that Apple could acquire the talent of Workflow, let the app wither and disappear, and never really address the need for better automation on iOS.)
I am going to choose to be the optimist here and take this as a sign that Apple’s getting serious about iOS power features.
Federico Viticci shares his thoughts about the acquisition here.