1. Search API in
Spotlight and Safari
Mercari Inc.
@kitasuke

2. what to index via Search APIs

3. App results appear in Spotlight
and Safari

4. App results even appear when
app not installed

6. Index Architecture

7. On-Device index

8. Apple's cloud index

9. Cloud index mechanism

10. Popular public results available to other
users
• Multiple users engage with device results
• Results in Search and Safari (if URL included)

11. Applebot finds deep links from
the web

13. Ranking system
• URL Popularity
• Activities
• Engagements
• Descriptive Results
• UI Behavior

14. 3 Search APIs

16. NSUserActivity

17. NSUserActivity and App Search
• Activities can be designated as searchable
• Activities can be designated as public
• Add indexable metadata
• Results in iOS Search and Safari
• Revisit activity on Search selection

18. NSUserActivity API
Enable Capabilities
var eligibleForHandoff: Bool
var eligibleForSearch: Bool
var eligibleForPublicIndexing: Bool

19. NSUserActivity API
Provide Attributes and Keywords
var title: String?
var keywords: Set<String>
var contentAttributeSet: CSSearchableItemAttributeSet?
var expirationDate: NSDate

20. NSUserActivity API
Restoring on the Web
var webpageURL: NSURL?

21. Create Activity
var activity: NSUserActivity = NSUserActivity(activityType: "com.example")
activity.title = "Baked Potato Chips"
activity.userInfo = ["id": "http://www.example.com/recipe/111"]
activity.eligibleForSearch = true
activity.eligibleForPublicIndexing = true
activity.becomeCurrent()

23. Continue Activity
UIApplicationDelegate
func application(UIApplication,
continueUserActivity userActivity: NSUserActivity,
restorationHandler: [AnyObject]? -> Void) -> Bool {
if userActivity.activityType == "com.example" {
// Restore state for userActivity and userInfo
}
return true
}

24. Public vs Private
• Privacy
• User-specific activities

25. Additional Benefits

26. Handoff

27. Siri suggestions

28. CoreSpotlight

29. CoreSpotlight
• For any app content
• Methods to add, update and delete items
• Used by Messages, Mail, Calendar and Notes

30. CoreSpotlight

31. Create Item
// Create attributeSet and populate with metadata
let attributeSet = CSSearchableItemAttributeSet(itemContentType: kUTypeImage as String)
attributeSet.title = "Haleakala Sunrise"
attributeSet.contentDescription = "May 12, 2015 Maui, Hawaii"
// Create item with unique identifier, domainIdentifier used to group items
let item = CSSearchableItem(UniqueIdentifier: "1",
domainIdentifier: "album-1",
attributeSet: attributeSet)
// Index item
CSSearchableIndex.defaultSearchableIndex().indexSearchableItems([item]) { error in
if error != nil {
print(error?.localizedDescription)
} else {
print("Item indexed!")
}
}

33. Restore
// Application delegate called when CoreSpotlight result is tapped
func application(UIApplication,
continueUserActivity userActivity: NSUserActivity,
restorationHandler: [AnyObject]? -> Void) -> Bool {
if userActivity.activityType == CSSearchableItemActionType {
let UniqueIdentifier = userActivity.userInfo?
[CSSearchableItemActivityIdentifier] as? String
// Use 'UniqueIdentifier'
}
}

34. Update
Same method as adding item to index
func indexSearchableItems(items: [CSSearchableItem],
completionHandler: ((NSError?) -> Void)?)

35. Delete
Identifiers
func deleteSearchableItemsWithIdentifiers(identifiers: [String],
completionHandler: ((NSError?) -> Void)?)
identifiers = ["1", "4", "5"]

36. Delete
DomainIdentifier
func deleteSearchableItemsWithDomainIdentifiers(DomainIdentifiers: [String],
completionHandler: ((NSError?) -> Void)?)
domainIdentifiers = ["domain-2"]

37. Delete
All
func deleteAllSearchableItemsWithCompletionHandler(completionHandler: ((NSError?) -> Void)?)

38. Web Markup

39. Indexing Web Content
• The content driving your app may live on the web, not
locally inside the app
• Deep linked pages from your app's website are indexed for
app search

40. Enabling app search
1. Allow Apple to discover and index your app's website
2. Ensure your app's website contains markup for mobile deep
links
3. Enable deep link handling for your app
4. Add markup for structured data (optional, but highly
recommended)

42. Smart App Banners
if app is not installed
<meta name="myApp" content="app-id=123, app-argument=http://example.com/about>

43. Deep Linking
• Universal link
https://developer.apple.com/videos/wwdc/2014/?
include=101#101
• Custom URL scheme
apple://wwdc/2014/?include=101#101

44. Universal links advantages
• Unique
• Secure
• Flexible
• Work seamlessly across app and website

45. Support Universal Link in your server
• Create your "apple-app-site-association" file
• Generate an SSL certification
• Sign your file
• Upload to your server

46. Support Universal Link in your app
func application(application: UIApplication,
continueUserActivity userActivity: NSUserActivity,
restorationHandler: ([AnyObject]!) -> Void) -> Bool
var webpageURL: NSURL?
var activityType: String
let NSUserActivityTypeBrowsingWeb: String
class NSURLComponents: NSObject

47. Configure your associated domains

48. Support Custom URL scheme
func application(application: UIApplication, openURL url: NSURL,
sourceApplication: String?, annotation: AnyObject) -> Bool {
// In this example, the URL is http://example.com/profile/?123
if let components = NSURLComponents(URL: url, resolvingAgainstBaseURL: true),
let path = components.path, let query = components.query {
if path == "/profile" {
// Pass the profile ID from the URL, to the view controller
return profileViewController.loadProfile(query)
}
}
}
return false
}

49. Achieving Best Results

50. Rich Results
• More engaging to users
• Can improve your ranking

51. Supported schemas
• AggregateRating
• Offers
• PriceRange
• InteractionCount
• Organization
• Recipe
• SearchAction

53. Actions
• Dialing a phone number
• Getting directions to an address
• Playing audio or video

55. Relevance

56. Linking 3 APIs
Use same URL

57. Linking 2 APIs
Use same ID

58. Descriptive Results

59. Better satisfaction and engagement
• Thumbnail, well-structured description, ratings and actions
• Relevant and appealing image
• Key information user is looking for

60. Keywords association
• Typical items should have 3 to 5 keywords
• Category keywords, e.g. "ticket" or "recipe"
• Synonyms or abbreviations for item subject

61. UI Behavior on App Launch
• Go straight to content, no interstitials or multi-step builds
• Guidelines apply to both app and web links
• Time from result to content is measured and used in
ranking

63. Known Issues
• Tapping a Mail message, Maps favorites, Note, or Message
in search results does not open the app on some devices
• When submitting an activity to be searchable with
NSUserActivity the metadata (attrituteSet) does not get
added to the index
See iOS9 Release Notes for more detail

64. Summary
• Easy-to-adopt APIs
• Increase engagement
• Better user experience

65. Reference
• Introducing Search APIs
• Seamless Linking to Your App
• iOS Search API Best Practices and FAQs
• iOS9 Release Notes