Apple has been hard at work over the last couple of years building deep social integration into their iOS and OS X platforms – including Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube integration. But what’s the next social platform in Apple’s crosshair? According to 9to5Mac, the answer is LinkedIn – and they have the iOS 7 code strings to prove it!
From 9to5Mac:
Further bolstering the presence of third-party social networks in iOS, Apple is testing deepLinkedIn integration for the upcoming release of iOS 7, according to code-based references found inside of the first beta of iOS 7. The code points to a single-sign-on system, similar to how iOS integrates Facebook and Twitter, for LinkedIn accounts. The references also indicate that users will be able to easily post content, such as Web links, to LinkedIn via a share-sheet or through iOS applications…
According to Hamza Sood, who discovered and sent us the LinkedIn code and text strings, certain pieces of code are missing for the LinkedIn functionality to become active. Perhaps this is why LinkedIn integration is not present in the user-facing version of the first iOS 7 beta.
The report goes on to note that it’s unclear whether Apple is still planning to build LinkedIn integration into iOS 7, or whether they are simply testing the integration internally, perhaps for a future update. With a few months remaining before iOS 7 is officially released to the public, it could go either way. Notably, Apple has already announced LinkedIn integration for OS X Mavericks (according to their preview page, under Safari) Regardless, it will be interesting to see what happens with future iOS betas – and how they differ from the public release.
For more details, check out the original report over at 9to5Mac.
