macOS Catalina beta hints Apple is building Catalyst versions of Messages and Shortcuts

Posted:
in macOS edited June 2019
Code discovered in the latest macOS 10.15 Catalina beta suggests Apple is employing its Project Catalyst framework to develop new versions of Messages and Shortcuts, the latter of which is currently limited to iOS devices.




Apple at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June formally unveiled Project Catalyst, a developer toolset designed to ease the transition of iOS apps to Mac. In particular, Catalyst helps bridge the gap and in some cases translate UIKit-based iOS code to Mac's AppKit.

Work on the first four first-party apps to officially undergo conversion -- News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home -- is largely complete, but new evidence in the first macOS Catalina betas suggest Apple has a surprise or two up its sleeve.

Code discovered by developer Steven Troughton-Smith points to Catalyst versions of Messages and Shortcuts.

"There is a whole lot of evidence in Catalina that they're working on a full, Catalyst version of Messages, much like Shortcuts for Mac. So, just like Shortcuts, I decided to cut to the chase and do it myself by calling the system frameworks. Voil," Troughton-Smith said in a tweet Wednesday.

He goes on to note that a substantial portion of the UIKit Messages app works on macOS, including iMessage effects.

Perhaps more importantly, the Catalyst version of Messages carries a user interface layout more akin to the same app's current iteration on Mac. This could be a hint that Apple is planning a full port of the messaging platform.

"And, just for reference: this isn't a 'marzipanified' version of the Messages app from the iOS Simulator," Troughton-Smith said in a tweet, referencing the rumored codename of what was ultimately unveiled as Catalyst. "This is the 'native' Catalyst UI coming from the macOS 10.15 system frameworks. Just like Shortcuts, it's all there, and mostly works if you know how to talk to it[.]"

Further, Troughton-Smith in a blog post this month said Catalyst in macOS Catalina contains frameworks necessary to support Siri Shortcuts, an iOS app and service that lets users create integrated app shortcuts powered by Siri intelligence. The support is so extensive that almost all of Shortcuts can be invoked in macOS, including a significant part of its UI.

Whether an updated version of Messages and a debut to Shortcuts will debut with macOS Catalina this fall remains unknown, but the unearthed code strongly suggests Apple is working toward that goal.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 26
    polymniapolymnia Posts: 1,080member
    Seems this is moving along faster than most of us guessed. 

    Here is my wishcast: the Photoshop for iPad that Adobe's working on is a Catalyst app, so photoshop for iPad will also be Photoshop for Mac. 

    Corallary: they already have 80% of desktop Lightroom built into the publicly shipping iPad app, perhaps that will get the same treatment?
    AppleExposed
  • Reply 2 of 26
    I’d rather see Apple do their apps in SwiftUI as Catalyst seems to be a mostly transitional stopgap measure with SwiftUI being the promised land.  The best way to get the bugs out of something ASAP is to use the crap out of it, and yes, that applies to Catalyst, too.

    That being said, it’ll be interesting to see how many existing iPad apps are ported over to MacOS via Catalyst: could be a real boom in available Mac software on the App Store, as the current selection is rather anemic.
  • Reply 3 of 26
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    The future of macOS is blindingly bright.
    MacProAppleExposed
  • Reply 4 of 26
    michelb76michelb76 Posts: 610member
    Seems this is moving along faster than most of us guessed.
    polymnia said:
    It's also nowhere near ready for primetime. The Home app in Catalina is atrocious and makes me wonder if Apple developers working on it have ever worked on a normal Mac app.
  • Reply 5 of 26
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    michelb76 said:
    Seems this is moving along faster than most of us guessed.
    polymnia said:
    It's also nowhere near ready for primetime. The Home app in Catalina is atrocious and makes me wonder if Apple developers working on it have ever worked on a normal Mac app. 
    What? We're barely on the second beta of new app that was only introduced a couple weeks ago.
  • Reply 6 of 26
    michelb76michelb76 Posts: 610member
    Soli said:
    michelb76 said:
    Seems this is moving along faster than most of us guessed.
    polymnia said:
    It's also nowhere near ready for primetime. The Home app in Catalina is atrocious and makes me wonder if Apple developers working on it have ever worked on a normal Mac app. 
    What? We're barely on the second beta of new app that was only introduced a couple weeks ago.
    That is true, but why would you start with using all the wrong UI paradigms when you are building an app? I just read that Federighi said they are redoing them again for the public beta, so I guess I'll hold my tongue until they show the new versions.
  • Reply 7 of 26
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    michelb76 said:
    Soli said:
    michelb76 said:
    Seems this is moving along faster than most of us guessed.
    polymnia said:
    It's also nowhere near ready for primetime. The Home app in Catalina is atrocious and makes me wonder if Apple developers working on it have ever worked on a normal Mac app. 
    What? We're barely on the second beta of new app that was only introduced a couple weeks ago.
    That is true, but why would you start with using all the wrong UI paradigms when you are building an app? I just read that Federighi said they are redoing them again for the public beta, so I guess I'll hold my tongue until they show the new versions.
    They’re not starting with the wrong paradigms; they’re experimenting to see if new paradigms would work better. 
    If Apple decided a two decades ago that what they were doing was always going to be right then they would’ve folded already. 
  • Reply 8 of 26
    michelb76michelb76 Posts: 610member
    Rayz2016 said:
    michelb76 said:
    Soli said:
    michelb76 said:
    Seems this is moving along faster than most of us guessed.
    polymnia said:
    It's also nowhere near ready for primetime. The Home app in Catalina is atrocious and makes me wonder if Apple developers working on it have ever worked on a normal Mac app. 
    What? We're barely on the second beta of new app that was only introduced a couple weeks ago.
    That is true, but why would you start with using all the wrong UI paradigms when you are building an app? I just read that Federighi said they are redoing them again for the public beta, so I guess I'll hold my tongue until they show the new versions.
    They’re not starting with the wrong paradigms; they’re experimenting to see if new paradigms would work better. 
    If Apple decided a two decades ago that what they were doing was always going to be right then they would’ve folded already. 
    I'm all for experimenting, but they're not new paradigms, they're using the iOS date picker on desktop. That's a WTF right there. There's probably some disagreement between Federighi's team and Ive's team regarding UX. I mean it's rare to read Federighi throwing Apple's designers under the bus and publicly ripping them.
  • Reply 9 of 26
    shompashompa Posts: 343member
    When I heard about Catalyst I joked that Apple would port messages from iOS to macOS since the macOS version does not work. 

    Since macOS 10.14 + messages in the cloud. If you sync on macOS = messages on macOS stops to work. "internal error". This is a server side issue that Apple knows about and they are so incompetent that they have not managed to fix this in 10 months. 

    People like me pay for iCloud space, and syncing messages on the cloud does not work. Tim simply laughs and take our money and does not care to fix the problem. This is incompetence in the level of Ballmer run MSFT.  Apple is the new Microsoft. From working OS/Hardware to everlasting updates = impossible for a stable os. 

    So Tims genius plan to get messages working on macOS is to port the iOS version. 
    How hard is it? Especially when cloud is involved?  Any Mac user with multiple computers/iOS devices have issues with messages. Some messages are not delivered to all computers (usually SMS kind since iOS decides what devices can get SMS). The same user gets many threads / different threads on different computers. Messages are delivered not in sync. Different profile pictures on different computers (and macOS gets this from the Address book. THAT IS SYNCED IN ICLOUD). 

    I'm sorry. I have to say it. Apple-Tim is incompetent. For him it's more important to spew political propaganda than getting his stuff to work. Then they blame 30% decline in iPhones sales on "China nationalism". No.. the stuff cost 3times more than under Jobs. The stuff does not work as it did under Jobs and the values that Tim-Apple have is not shared by most people in the world. (The 190 non-western countries are totally different and they actually have the right to different values. 

    How the FSCK cant Apple get messages to work? Especially when they have "handover?" How do you manage to get different messages on computers that are constantly syncing via handover?  Heck: Even I can solve this in 20 seconds with a Rsync script that sync the messages from a master computer. Its just text files stored locally and Tim can't solve it.  10000+ users that have this problem and Tim just care about his stuff. "I do not have any problem with 1 device connected with 10Gbps to a local server icloud". Tim needs to go to save Apple. Buy Tesla. Put Musk in charge. Tim is worse than Scully. 
  • Reply 10 of 26
    foljsfoljs Posts: 390member
    I’d rather see Apple do their apps in SwiftUI as Catalyst seems to be a mostly transitional stopgap measure with SwiftUI being the promised land. 
    Those are orthogonal. Catalyst is the shared libs and frameworks, and it isn't going anywhere (no "stopgap"). And SwiftUI is just a new UI layer (which can be used along with Catalyst).
    StrangeDays
  • Reply 11 of 26
    foljsfoljs Posts: 390member
    shompa said:
    When I heard about Catalyst I joked that Apple would port messages from iOS to macOS since the macOS version does not work. 

    Since macOS 10.14 + messages in the cloud. If you sync on macOS = messages on macOS stops to work. "internal error". This is a server side issue that Apple knows about and they are so incompetent that they have not managed to fix this in 10 months. 

    People like me pay for iCloud space, and syncing messages on the cloud does not work. Tim simply laughs and take our money and does not care to fix the problem. This is incompetence in the level of Ballmer run MSFT.  Apple is the new Microsoft. From working OS/Hardware to everlasting updates = impossible for a stable os. 

    So Tims genius plan to get messages working on macOS is to port the iOS version. 
    How hard is it? Especially when cloud is involved?  Any Mac user with multiple computers/iOS devices have issues with messages. Some messages are not delivered to all computers (usually SMS kind since iOS decides what devices can get SMS). The same user gets many threads / different threads on different computers. Messages are delivered not in sync. Different profile pictures on different computers (and macOS gets this from the Address book. THAT IS SYNCED IN ICLOUD). 
    Not sure what you're going on and on about. Several apple devices (laptop, iPad, iphone, watch, 2nd laptop) and never had those issues...
    Andro010101StrangeDaysAppleExposed
  • Reply 12 of 26
    JWSCJWSC Posts: 1,203member
    Soli said:
    The future of macOS is blindingly bright.
    Use dark mode then.
    AppleExposedJinTech
  • Reply 13 of 26
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    shompa said:
    When I heard about Catalyst I joked that Apple would port messages from iOS to macOS since the macOS version does not work. 

    Since macOS 10.14 + messages in the cloud. If you sync on macOS = messages on macOS stops to work. "internal error". This is a server side issue that Apple knows about and they are so incompetent that they have not managed to fix this in 10 months. 

    People like me pay for iCloud space, and syncing messages on the cloud does not work. Tim simply laughs and take our money and does not care to fix the problem. This is incompetence in the level of Ballmer run MSFT.  Apple is the new Microsoft. From working OS/Hardware to everlasting updates = impossible for a stable os. 

    So Tims genius plan to get messages working on macOS is to port the iOS version. 
    How hard is it? Especially when cloud is involved?  Any Mac user with multiple computers/iOS devices have issues with messages. Some messages are not delivered to all computers (usually SMS kind since iOS decides what devices can get SMS). The same user gets many threads / different threads on different computers. Messages are delivered not in sync. Different profile pictures on different computers (and macOS gets this from the Address book. THAT IS SYNCED IN ICLOUD). 

    I'm sorry. I have to say it. Apple-Tim is incompetent. For him it's more important to spew political propaganda than getting his stuff to work. Then they blame 30% decline in iPhones sales on "China nationalism". No.. the stuff cost 3times more than under Jobs. The stuff does not work as it did under Jobs and the values that Tim-Apple have is not shared by most people in the world. (The 190 non-western countries are totally different and they actually have the right to different values. 

    How the FSCK cant Apple get messages to work? Especially when they have "handover?" How do you manage to get different messages on computers that are constantly syncing via handover?  Heck: Even I can solve this in 20 seconds with a Rsync script that sync the messages from a master computer. Its just text files stored locally and Tim can't solve it.  10000+ users that have this problem and Tim just care about his stuff. "I do not have any problem with 1 device connected with 10Gbps to a local server icloud". Tim needs to go to save Apple. Buy Tesla. Put Musk in charge. Tim is worse than Scully. 
    What a disgusting post. One of the worst troll posts I've ever seen, somehow crammed to the brim with every pathetic anti-Apple meme and trope imaginable. So because of a single issue YOU are having, Apple is "the new Microsoft" (whatever the fuck that means)?

    I've been using messages in the cloud since day 1, and it has worked PERFECTLY for me, every single minute of every single day, as well as everyone else I know. Messages sync in a split second, to all devices, always. Your narrative that it's fundamentally broken is complete horse-shit. And even if they don't. that doesn't warrant your rant. Then again, to be expected, as your foaming at the mouth rant exhibits zero rationality or objectivity. Cook has taken Apple to heights unimagined by SJ, in pretty much every possible metric, and based on the last WWDC, and Apple's future has never looked brighter.  And Tim Cook isn't personally coding Messages, you moron. 

    Musk in charge? Worse than Scully? You're fucking insane, no other way to put it. Maybe try figuring out whats so wrong in your own life that you feel the need to direct all your hatred and anger towards Cook. That would be healthy. 
    edited June 2019 lkruppJWSCStrangeDaysAppleExposedRayz2016
  • Reply 14 of 26
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    slurpy said:
    shompa said:
    When I heard about Catalyst I joked that Apple would port messages from iOS to macOS since the macOS version does not work. 

    Since macOS 10.14 + messages in the cloud. If you sync on macOS = messages on macOS stops to work. "internal error". This is a server side issue that Apple knows about and they are so incompetent that they have not managed to fix this in 10 months. 

    People like me pay for iCloud space, and syncing messages on the cloud does not work. Tim simply laughs and take our money and does not care to fix the problem. This is incompetence in the level of Ballmer run MSFT.  Apple is the new Microsoft. From working OS/Hardware to everlasting updates = impossible for a stable os. 

    So Tims genius plan to get messages working on macOS is to port the iOS version. 
    How hard is it? Especially when cloud is involved?  Any Mac user with multiple computers/iOS devices have issues with messages. Some messages are not delivered to all computers (usually SMS kind since iOS decides what devices can get SMS). The same user gets many threads / different threads on different computers. Messages are delivered not in sync. Different profile pictures on different computers (and macOS gets this from the Address book. THAT IS SYNCED IN ICLOUD). 

    I'm sorry. I have to say it. Apple-Tim is incompetent. For him it's more important to spew political propaganda than getting his stuff to work. Then they blame 30% decline in iPhones sales on "China nationalism". No.. the stuff cost 3times more than under Jobs. The stuff does not work as it did under Jobs and the values that Tim-Apple have is not shared by most people in the world. (The 190 non-western countries are totally different and they actually have the right to different values. 

    How the FSCK cant Apple get messages to work? Especially when they have "handover?" How do you manage to get different messages on computers that are constantly syncing via handover?  Heck: Even I can solve this in 20 seconds with a Rsync script that sync the messages from a master computer. Its just text files stored locally and Tim can't solve it.  10000+ users that have this problem and Tim just care about his stuff. "I do not have any problem with 1 device connected with 10Gbps to a local server icloud". Tim needs to go to save Apple. Buy Tesla. Put Musk in charge. Tim is worse than Scully. 
    What a disgusting post. One of the worst troll posts I've ever seen, somehow crammed to the brim with every pathetic anti-Apple meme and trope imaginable. So because of a single issue YOU are having, Apple is "the new Microsoft" (whatever the fuck that means)?

    I've been using messages in the cloud since day 1, and it has worked PERFECTLY for me, every single minute of every single day, as well as everyone else I know. Messages sync in a split second, to all devices, always. Your narrative that it's fundamentally broken is complete horse-shit. And even if they don't. that doesn't warrant your rant. Then again, to be expected, as your foaming at the mouth rant exhibits zero rationality or objectivity. Cook has taken Apple to heights unimagined by SJ, in pretty much every possible metric, and based on the last WWDC, and Apple's future has never looked brighter.  And Tim Cook isn't personally coding Messages, you moron. 

    Musk in charge? Worse than Scully? You're fucking insane, no other way to put it. Maybe try figuring out whats so wrong in your own life that you feel the need to direct all your hatred and anger towards Cook. That would be healthy. 
    Oh my, an ad hominem attack that actually makes perfect sense. Right on the money for this troll.
    AppleExposed
  • Reply 15 of 26
    chadbagchadbag Posts: 1,999member
    Putting Musk in charge?  That is all we need to know about that “troll”.   

    Some funny stuff being posted here.   Nothing against Tesla cars, but Tesla the company is pretty messed up right now, almost 100% because of Musk. 
    edited June 2019 AppleExposed
  • Reply 16 of 26
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,834member
    michelb76 said:
    Soli said:
    michelb76 said:
    Seems this is moving along faster than most of us guessed.
    polymnia said:
    It's also nowhere near ready for primetime. The Home app in Catalina is atrocious and makes me wonder if Apple developers working on it have ever worked on a normal Mac app. 
    What? We're barely on the second beta of new app that was only introduced a couple weeks ago.
    That is true, but why would you start with using all the wrong UI paradigms when you are building an app? I just read that Federighi said they are redoing them again for the public beta, so I guess I'll hold my tongue until they show the new versions.
    So how is it you feel qualified to say the new Catalina version is atrocious if you haven’t even used it?
    Rayz2016
  • Reply 17 of 26
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,834member

    michelb76 said:
    Rayz2016 said:
    michelb76 said:
    Soli said:
    michelb76 said:
    Seems this is moving along faster than most of us guessed.
    polymnia said:
    It's also nowhere near ready for primetime. The Home app in Catalina is atrocious and makes me wonder if Apple developers working on it have ever worked on a normal Mac app. 
    What? We're barely on the second beta of new app that was only introduced a couple weeks ago.
    That is true, but why would you start with using all the wrong UI paradigms when you are building an app? I just read that Federighi said they are redoing them again for the public beta, so I guess I'll hold my tongue until they show the new versions.
    They’re not starting with the wrong paradigms; they’re experimenting to see if new paradigms would work better. 
    If Apple decided a two decades ago that what they were doing was always going to be right then they would’ve folded already. 
    I'm all for experimenting, but they're not new paradigms, they're using the iOS date picker on desktop. That's a WTF right there. There's probably some disagreement between Federighi's team and Ive's team regarding UX. I mean it's rare to read Federighi throwing Apple's designers under the bus and publicly ripping them.
    A dramatic reading of Craig’s interview with Gruber. He merely said they were design decisions on the Talk Show. 
  • Reply 18 of 26
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,834member

    shompa said:
    When I heard about Catalyst I joked that Apple would port messages from iOS to macOS since the macOS version does not work. 

    Since macOS 10.14 + messages in the cloud. If you sync on macOS = messages on macOS stops to work. "internal error". This is a server side issue that Apple knows about and they are so incompetent that they have not managed to fix this in 10 months. 

    People like me pay for iCloud space, and syncing messages on the cloud does not work. Tim simply laughs and take our money and does not care to fix the problem. This is incompetence in the level of Ballmer run MSFT.  Apple is the new Microsoft. From working OS/Hardware to everlasting updates = impossible for a stable os. 

    So Tims genius plan to get messages working on macOS is to port the iOS version. 
    How hard is it? Especially when cloud is involved?  Any Mac user with multiple computers/iOS devices have issues with messages. Some messages are not delivered to all computers (usually SMS kind since iOS decides what devices can get SMS). The same user gets many threads / different threads on different computers. Messages are delivered not in sync. Different profile pictures on different computers (and macOS gets this from the Address book. THAT IS SYNCED IN ICLOUD). 

    I'm sorry. I have to say it. Apple-Tim is incompetent. For him it's more important to spew political propaganda than getting his stuff to work. Then they blame 30% decline in iPhones sales on "China nationalism". No.. the stuff cost 3times more than under Jobs. The stuff does not work as it did under Jobs and the values that Tim-Apple have is not shared by most people in the world. (The 190 non-western countries are totally different and they actually have the right to different values. 

    How the FSCK cant Apple get messages to work? Especially when they have "handover?" How do you manage to get different messages on computers that are constantly syncing via handover?  Heck: Even I can solve this in 20 seconds with a Rsync script that sync the messages from a master computer. Its just text files stored locally and Tim can't solve it.  10000+ users that have this problem and Tim just care about his stuff. "I do not have any problem with 1 device connected with 10Gbps to a local server icloud". Tim needs to go to save Apple. Buy Tesla. Put Musk in charge. Tim is worse than Scully. 
    Oh my god, what drugs are you on. Too much crazy. 

    Messages is working fine on my machines, with iCloud. 
    AppleExposed
  • Reply 19 of 26
    dysamoriadysamoria Posts: 3,430member
    So it’s going to drop Mac iMessage application features like the iWork back-ports did? I anticipate the loss of all messaging protocols other than Apple’s.
  • Reply 20 of 26
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    michelb76 said:
    Rayz2016 said:
    michelb76 said:
    Soli said:
    michelb76 said:
    Seems this is moving along faster than most of us guessed.
    polymnia said:
    It's also nowhere near ready for primetime. The Home app in Catalina is atrocious and makes me wonder if Apple developers working on it have ever worked on a normal Mac app. 
    What? We're barely on the second beta of new app that was only introduced a couple weeks ago.
    That is true, but why would you start with using all the wrong UI paradigms when you are building an app? I just read that Federighi said they are redoing them again for the public beta, so I guess I'll hold my tongue until they show the new versions.
    They’re not starting with the wrong paradigms; they’re experimenting to see if new paradigms would work better. 
    If Apple decided a two decades ago that what they were doing was always going to be right then they would’ve folded already. 
    I'm all for experimenting, but they're not new paradigms, they're using the iOS date picker on desktop. That's a WTF right there. There's probably some disagreement between Federighi's team and Ive's team regarding UX. I mean it's rare to read Federighi throwing Apple's designers under the bus and publicly ripping them.
    Point still stands: they’re experimenting. Some stuff will stay, some stuff will go. I imagine that someone thought the date picker would work well on the desktop. I haven’t seen it, but date pickers are the world’s most subjective UI element. 
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