Can I write native iPhone apps using Python? [closed]

Answer 1

Yes, nowadays you can develop apps for iOS in Python.

There are two frameworks that you may want to checkout: Kivy and PyMob.

Please consider the answers to this question too, as they are more up-to-date than this one.

Answer 2

Not currently, currently the only languages available to access the iPhone SDK are C/C++, Objective C and Swift.

There is no technical reason why this could not change in the future but I wouldn't hold your breath for this happening in the short term.

That said, Objective-C and Swift really are not too scary...

2016 edit

Javascript with NativeScript framework is available to use now.

Answer 3

BeeWare is an open source framework for authoring native iOS & Android apps.

Answer 4

Technically, as long as the interpreted code ISN'T downloaded (excluding JavaScript), the app may be approved. Rhomobiles "Rhodes" framework does just that, bundling mobile Ruby, a lightweight version of Rails, and your app for distribution via the app-store. Because both the interpreter and the interpreted code are packaged into the final application - Apple doesn't find it objectionable.

http://rhomobile.com/products/rhodes/

Even after the latest apple press release - rhodes apps (mobile ruby) are still viable on the app-store. I'd find it hard to believe that tinyPy or pyObjC wouldn't find a place if there is a willing developer community.

Answer 5

2019 Update:

While Python-iOS development is relatively immature and likely will prevent (afaik) your app from having native UI and functionality that could be achieved in an Apple-supported development language, Apple now seems to allow embedding Python interpreters in Native Swift/Obj-C apps.

This supports importing Python libraries and running Python scripts (even with supplied command-line arguments) directly from your Native Swift/Obj-C code.

My company is actually wrapping our infrastructure (originally written in Python) in a native iOS application! It works very well and communication between the parts can be easily achieved via a client-server model.

Here is a nice library by Beeware with a cookiecutter template if you want to try and run Python scripts in your iOS app: https://github.com/beeware/Python-Apple-support/tree/3.6.

Answer 6

You can do this with PyObjC, with a jailbroken phone of course. But if you want to get it into the App Store, they will not allow it because it "interprets code." However, you may be able to use Shed Skin, although I'm not aware of anyone doing this. I can't think of any good reason to do this though, as you lose dynamic typing, and might as well use ObjC.