Apple and Salesforce Extend Mobile Capabilities

Ahead of its Dreamforce user conference in San Francisco this week, Salesforce.com today joined Apple in announcing a redesigned Salesforce Mobile App and new Trailhead GO learning app, delivering rich customer experiences with features exclusive to iOS and iPadOS. The two companies also announced the next-generation Salesforce Mobile SDK, empowering developers to build and deploy native apps for iPhone and iPad on the Salesforce Platform.

These latest announcements are a follow-up to the strategic partnership Apple and Salesforce announced at last year's Dreamforce event.

"Working together, Apple and Salesforce have helped hundreds of businesses and millions of developers transform the way they work," said Susan Prescott, Apple's vice president of product marketing for apps, markets, and services, in a statement. "With brand new Salesforce Mobile apps exclusive to iOS and iPadOS and an enhanced SDK that supports the latest advancements in Swift, Apple together with Salesforce offers customers strong privacy, powerful multitasking, and the best user experience in business on iPhone and iPad."

"With Salesforce Mobile, Salesforce and Apple are empowering sales, service, and marketing professionals on the go to deliver game-changing customer experiences, powered by [artificial intelligence],"said Bret Taylor, president and chief product officer at Salesforce, in a statement. "And with Trailhead GO, millions more can now skill up for free, anytime and anywhere, to learn in-demand skills and fill the jobs of today and tomorrow."

At Dreamforce 2019, Apple and Salesforce are delivering the following:

• The Salesforce Mobile App: Salesforce completely redesigned its flagship mobile CRM app with a new user experience enabled by Einstein, Salesforce's artificial intelligence engine, and with advanced analytics and features exclusive to iOS, including Apple's Siri shortcuts and Face ID. The app also uses Siri and Einstein Voice Assistant to allow users to add tasks, take notes, and update their CRM records with voice. 
• Trailhead GO, an iOS and iPadOS version of Salesforce's free online learning platform: With Trailhead GO, learners can access more than 700 modules covering in-demand business and tech skills. Built on Swift using Salesforce's Mobile SDK, Trailhead GO supports Handoff in addition to Accessibility features like VoiceOver and Magnifier; iPadOS features include Split View for multi-tasking, and Picture-in-Picture for video courses. Additional features, including support for iOS Dark Mode and Sign in with Apple, are expected later this year.
• Salesforce Mobile SDK optimized for Swift and iOS 13: The next generation of Salesforce's Mobile SDK adds support for the latest advancements in iOS 13, iPadOS, and Swift, including Swift UI and Package Manager, for compiling and distribution of code. The new Salesforce Mobile SDK 8.0 with support for Dark Mode and Swift UI is expected to be available later this year, with additional features optimized for iPadOS expected in a 2020 release.