How To Openios Apps On Mac Simulator

iOS Simulator is an integral part of any iOS development process. We just can’t ignore it. New Simulator from Xcode 9 brings a lot of useful tricks, which could make you even more productive. Finally, Apple recalled they have Simulator out there! Comparing to previous modest updates, this one seems like a big deal.

So let’s break this down and list all features I found in new iOS simulator (some tricks you can use in the old Simulators as well).

1. Use Simulator in Full-screen mode with Xcode

The emulator’s desktop looks like a mix of iOS and Windows. To add more iOS apps, you should download them from the official App Store. IPadian will let you install and use the apps as if you were on a standard iPad. To go back to Windows, click the Windows icon in the bottom-right corner of the screen. You may connect a real device to your Mac using a cable, or for iOS or tvOS apps, connect it over WiFi after you pair it with Xcode. For macOS apps, choose a scheme, then click the Run button in the toolbar. You can also run SwiftUI apps in the simulator or on a device using the controls in the preview. $ open /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/Applications/iPhone Simulator.app (Xcode 6+): $ open /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Applications/iOS Simulator.app You could create a symbolic-link from your Desktop to make this easier.

When you have 13″ screen the full-screen mode for Xcode is a just life saver. Unfortunately, you couldn’t use Simulator with Xcode in the full-screen mode previously. Well now you can 😎

This feature is enabled by default starting from Xcode 9b3. So you don’t even need to do anything to make it work.

Update: It turned out this feature is disabled by default for some people, but don’t worry, you can always enable it via Apple Internal menu as I described further. If you want to explore more secret features in new Simulator, you should enable Apple hidden Internals menu.

To do so you need to create an empty folder with name “AppleInternal” in the root directory. Just run this command below and restart Simulator:

The new menu item should show up. ☝️

Note: I’ve tested this approach on Simulator from Xcode 9b3. If you don’t have it, please download latest Xcode here.

2. Open Multiple Simulators at Once

Do you remember the frustration of testing your app on different simulators? Previously you were forced to open only one Simulator instance at the time. There were many “hacks” how to open multiple instances of iOS simulator in an older version of Xcode. But finally, with Xcode 9 this feature is available out of the box.

3. Resize Simulator just like a regular window

Before Xcode 9, we had “Scale options” only to adjust simulator’s window size. Now Apple finally made resizing of the Simulator’s window available. It’s useful little detail which can help you organize workspace efficiently if you have multiple simulators opened.

4. Record Video of Simulator

In the official “What’s new” document for Xcode 9, Apple claims that now you can record a video of simulator’s screen. It’s not completely true. You can do it even in the older versions with simctl. I didn’t find any evidence you can enable video recording from the interface though (except for built-in screen recording in iOS 11).

For getting your video file, execute the following command:

xcrun simctl launch--console booted<BUNDLE ID><YOUR ARGUMENTS>

You can get these command line arguments from CommandLine.arguments (here is the link to documentation).

9. Get Full Application Info with Bundle ID

Sometimes it’s useful to find out where your app file or temporary data located on the file system. If you need more comprehensive information than simctl get_app_container can give. simctl also has this nice little tool called appinfo which will show you some information in the following format: