Apple has just acquired Workflow, an app that lets you “drag and drop any combination of actions to create powerful workflows for your iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch”. TechCrunch confirmed the acquisition however, the financial details are not available yet.
Workflow is similar to IFTTT. It is a powerful tool that wants to help you automate the things you do on your mobile devices. It can communicate with several apps including Contacts, Calendar, Music, Photos, Camera, Safari, Twitter, Facebook, Dropbox, Evernote, iCloud Drive, Health and a whole lot more. You can use the app to perform tasks such as:
- Make animated GIFs
- Tweet the currently playing song with album artwork
- Upload your latest photos to Dropbox and copies the link
- Get all the images on a web page
- Send a message including the last screenshot you took
- Get directions to the nearest coffee with a single tap
The app was launched in 2015, and it was so successful that it won an Apple Design Award that year. According to Apple, not only is Workflow useful in helping normal everyday users automate tasks that would otherwise take multiple steps to complete, it also makes outstanding use of iOS accessibility feature.
“The Workflow app was selected for an Apple Design Award in 2015 because if its outstanding use of iOS accessibility feature, in particular an outstanding implementation for VoiceOver with clearly labelled items, thoughtful hints, and drag/drop announcements, making the app useable and quickly accessible for those who are blind or low-vision.” – Apple said in a statement today with regards to its acquisition.
Sounds like a really useful app? Thankfully unlike normal acquisitions whereby the company making the purchase would shut down the service, Apple is keeping Workflow on the App Store. To make things even better, the app, formerly priced at US$2.99, is now available for free.
(Source: TechCrunch, 9to5Mac)
