You will soon be able to order pizza with App Clips
- 11 May, 2021 15:50
In case you are looking for another good reason to order pizza, Pizza Hut Australia is creating App Clips of its Pizza Hut Australia app, making it even faster to get pizza from its ovens to your mouth.
Introduced by Apple in 2020 as part of iOS 14, App Clips are kind of like Apple’s answer to QR codes. They are small parts of whole apps that are discoverable in pages where you would most likely need to launch an app for something, like after seeing a particularly good deal for pizza on a pizza vendor’s homepage.
Apple developed App Clips in the same Xcode project as its suite of full apps using the iOS Software Development Kit and they work much the same way as full apps. Each App Clip encodes a URL and can also incorporate an NFC tag, which allows it to be scanned with an iPhone camera or tapped on to be opened. But App Clips are very lightweight, mostly less than 10MB, so they open much quicker than normal apps.
For example, if you want to order a pizza, you could tap on an App Clip at the bottom of your iPhone screen and put in your order for a delicious, cheesy margherita. In this hypothetical case, since your pizza App Clip is just a snippet of the full pizza app that focuses on just one thing, ordering your margherita, the App Clip opens in seconds making it quicker and easier to place your precious order.
App Clips also work with Apple Pay; once opened, you have the option to accept terms and conditions to continue your purchase, so you don’t need to go through the full rigmarole of signing up for payment systems within an app you haven’t downloaded.
App Clips also offer some really convenient functionality on top of their quick access: they can be shared via the iMessage app - in case you need to immediately let a friend know where you got that mouth-watering pizza, and can also be registered to appear on place cards in maps. They also aren’t as conspicuous as normal apps, appearing in the Recents category of the App Library, instead of on the iPhone’s Home Screen.
Pizza Hut Australia will add App Clips functionality to a list of other software applications it has engaged to boost its customer service experience, having already provided access to payment apps such as zip, Apple Pay and PayPal. The Pizza Hut Australia app will join the likes of apps like Etsy, ChibiStudio and Drop Recipes that already have their own App Clips.
Commenting about the inclusion of App Clips, Pizza Hut Australia chief marketing officer Chet Patel, said on LinkedIn today, “The App Clip code will begin appearing on our advertising everywhere making it easier for more Australians to scan and share good times.”