The Clips API will allow users to scan a QR code and use part of a third-party app even if it was never installed by the user

For example, let’s say you receive a QR code that links to a Randy Rainbow video on YouTube, but you don’t have the YouTube app installed on your iPhone. Scanning the code will call up a floating card with a native interface instead of a webpage, and allow the iPhone user to stream the video. The floating card will give the user options to install the full app (in this example, YouTube) from the App Store or play the content using the app if it has already been installed.

An API (Application Programming Interface) allows two applications to communicate with each other. A good example of what an API is and what it does can be seen with one of those apps that helps you find the best price for a specific flight you’re looking to book. So let’s say you want the lowest price for a flight between New York City and Kalamazoo, Michigan and you’re using a flight aggregator app called Staying Aloft. The information that you plug into the latter’s app such as the cities you are traveling between, the date and preferred time of travel, and any other variables, are sent to each airline’s server through their API and the response is sent back from each API to the aggregator who shows it to the user.

Apple will introduce iOS 14 during WWDC and could disseminate the new build of its mobile operating system sometime this September. If the Clips API is introduced, it will finally give iOS users a reason to have a QR code reader installed, but more importantly, it will bring information to the fingertips of iPhone users without forcing them to install a particular app.