Ionic 5: What’s in Store for Mobile App Developers?

Ionic Framework 5 (Magnesium) has been released!

The introduction of Ionic 5 has happened in the wake of Apple and Google coming up with new UX standards and design patterns for iOS and Android. The focus is on evolving mobile experiences that are conducive to higher adoption rates and engagement.

With the latest Ionic 5, developers will have access to everything that’s required to create native experiences on latest mobile devices.

Design and UX being the crux of user engagement, the updated framework is just perfect to focus less on how to improve performance of apps and more on what new features to create for users.

What’s New in Ionic 5?

The changes apply to the core of the open source framework and will extend to React, Angular, and Vue (beta) integrations. If you haven’t heard yet, they had rolled out Ionic React few months ago.

As listed above, the updates include major design revamps which would help Ionic app developers align their work to meet the latest UX requirements.

iOS Design Update

This is by far the most major update in Ionic 5. The iOS design update is massive and has been implemented across all supported UI components.

It befits the updates brought about by Apple in the recent iOS 13 and its design components. Some of the design changes in Ionic include the following:

Segment

Ionic 5 has changed the way checked and unchecked buttons are differentiated in iOS. The segment design now no longer has borders and filled backgrounds.

Instead, a single indicator differentiates between the two buttons. Also, this update comes with a gesture using which the indicator can just be dragged.

Header

In response to iOS’s introduction of collapsible headers, Ionic 5 brings support for the same. Specific components have been enabled which can be added to the components responsible for headers. The idea is to help in collapsing the headers without glitches

Titles

iOS 13 also introduced the concept of title of varied sizes upon scrolling the content. To support the transitions, Ionic 5 has come up with components that enable the shrinking of large titles to a standard size.

Swipe Down to Close Modal

A typical feature in iOS, the Swipe Down to Close Modal now doesn’t need to cover the whole screen. It also doesn’t need the user to tap buttons to close it.

Instead, developing with Ionic 5 will enable a modal that has a page pushed back behind it. Additionally, there would be a gesture to close the modal by dragging it down.

Menu Overlay Type

No more pushing the main content to reveal a side menu in iOS. Ionic 5 mobile app development will make sure the menu overlays the content instead.

However, people who like the old format can still stick to it.

Ionic Animations

Custom animations coming up in Ionic 5! This is possible with Ionic Animations, the latest open source animations utility cum public API.

Developers will now be able to create highly performant animations irrespective of the framework they use and without major performance hits.

Ionic 5 claims this new utility offers 40% better performance in animations and 98% higher efficiency of CPU on user devices.

Ionicons

Ionicons 5 is the latest. It’s open source and free. Most of all, it comes with a brand new set of icons which work for both dark and light modes.

The icons come in three different variants – the default fill, outline, and sharp. This is a welcome change where icons won’t need to change when the mode changes.

Ionic Colors

This is a default element in Ionic 5. A new set of colors will be waiting for apps that weren’t created using one of Ionic starters or the colors of which haven’t been overridden yet.

For apps created using React or Angular, the update has to be manually done. Additionally, Ionic will also recommend a set of colors to developers for the dark mode.

Redesigned Starters

Ionic has also updated its existing starters and added new ones for menus, tabs, and lists. This has been done to complement the changes made to design of other Ionic components.

Component Customization

With Ionic 5, component customization is easier than ever! Earlier, there were difficulties owing to the shortage of CSS variables and the styles of components overpowering custom styles.

Ionic has now added more CSS variables and transformed scope components such as Back Button, Card, Segment and Split Pane into Shadow DOM.

Further, it is also working to support Shadow Parts. Shadow DOM disables bleeding of styles into other components and enables developers to use CSS variables within specific components. This makes theming way easier.

How to Upgrade to Ionic 5?

This might be a crucial update of the framework. However, the upgrade process isn’t complicated.

The Ionic framework uses web components which enables API changes between its UI components and JavaScript framework. Thus, with very few instances of turning in the wrong direction, upgrading it is super easy from Ionic 4 to Ionic 5.

You should review the full list of breaking changes introduced in Ionic 5 before you update it. Here’s the migration guide that will help you to upgrade an app from Ionic 4 to Ionic 5 with just a few updates and packages.

Considering Ionic 5 for Mobile App Development?

This one is an excellent framework for enterprises and entrepreneurs alike. Ionic enables the creation of not just aesthetically appealing apps, but also ones that are high performance across any device or platform.

No wonder over 5 million developers across 200 countries have adopted it for cross-platform hybrid app development. It is developer-friendly to the utmost and, with Ionic 5, the ease goes a notch higher. Are you ready for it?

Blog Source- https://www.mindinventory.com/blog/whats-new-in-ionic-5/

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