Microsoft launches Project Rome SDK preview for iOS

By Dan Thorp-Lancaster
last updated

Microsoft has tackled a ton of developer-focused announcements during its Build 2017 day two keynote, but one of the bigger ones was Project Rome for iOS. Previously available for Android, Project Rome for iOS is now available as a preview for developers.

To recap, the Project Rome SDK allows developers to easily connect apps across devices with a set of APIs. This lets you do things like start a task on one device and complete it on another. Project Rome also enables remote controls. From the Project Rome description:

You can also use Project Rome for companion devices, or remote control scenarios. Use the app messaging APIs to create an app channel between two devices to send and receive custom messages. For example, you can write an app for your phone that controls playback on your TV, or a companion app that provides information about the characters on a TV show you are watching on another app.

Developers can get started with checking out the Project Rome SDK for iOS at Github now.

See at Github

Dan Thorp-Lancaster
Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl. 

16 Comments
  • This is why MS is smart and the average format war consumer boy hasn't got a clue. In this current part of technology the existing phones as they are MS is embracing. So as not to turn business and customers away. They own the PC market. And embracing means they keep that. But phones will change. And that people is why consumers haven't got a friggin clue. In 15 years Android touchscreen phones as they are now won't exist. But PCs still will.
  • And I will have my pip-boy with holographic Cortana!
  • Nobody can correctly predict technology that far out.   If you could, I'd suggest you choose a career as a stock broker or start a private fund and make a Billion Dollars.  But yeah, even predicting technology going out *five* years is difficult enough.
  • True, but only a small handful of tech companies have survied by placing all their eggs in one backet.
  • lol my grandma and a HUGH population of baby boomers will still be alive in 15 years and she still owns a fip phone....dont she her ever wearing a mixed reality headset. Sorry but most of the world in 15 years will still be using andriod touch screen phones.
  • Set your calendar for May 11th, 2032 and lets see if we are using android touch screen phones :).
  • hey, i have a good and a bad news for you good: you may survive until 2020 bad:  the world will end in 2025
  • So much to do.  So little time!!!
  • Yes, like always
  • It's possible that Android phones will still exist.  Maybe in third world countries.  Did anyone think Blackberry and Nokia will end up in their current state back in the day?
  • For mobile, that list is a lot longer and goes all the way back to the bag phone.
  • You are dreaming.  If anything disappears in 15 years, it will be Windows PCs.  Touch screen devices in our pockets will be with us for a long time AND they will be running less and less Microsoft software as time goes on.   There is no reason to expect Android (or Apple) to fail at this stage of the game.  "They own the PC market."   Whoopee.  They own a shrinking market that is becoming less relevant every year.   It is being challenged from every direction, as never before.  They have repeatedly failed in the fastest-growing segment of consumer computing devices - mobile. So MS is desperately trying to remain relevant by allowing people to build apps FOR OTHER PLATFORMS on Windows.   Not a great long-term strategy for Windows.   You don't see Apple encouraging people to build Windows or Android software on Macs do you? DEVELOPERS, DEVELOPERS, DEVELOPERS used to mean people developing FOR Windows.  Now MS is fine with people just developing ON Windows.  Which speaks volumes about the state of things today.   
  • Windows is only the top of msft huge iceberg. You are exactly that consumer that hasn't a frigging clue he's referring to. You maybe are writing with an android phone that exists thanks to dozens of msft patents. You see only phones and pcs but the reality is that almost the whole world runs on msft patents, services and technologies.
  • Project "Rome" as in "Rome is burning"??? I wonder who is playing Nero?
  • No one, because no one at Microsoft even smells the smoke yet. 
  • as in "Rome is burning"?
    No, "All roads lead to Rome"...  Makes way more sense in the context of how this API/SDK will be used.