RocketSim
RocketSim1 is a very powerful add-on for the iOS simulator. But it’s available via a paid subscription.
Let’s figure out who needs this tool and who can do without it.
The tool provides a large number of additional options and extensions:
- Lets you take screenshots that are accessible on the host machine, and record video of the simulator’s screen;
- Adds a grid and rulers;
- Lets you compare the current screen against a design reference;
- Zooms in on individual parts of the simulator’s screen;
- Lets you change geolocation, toggle airplane mode, work with deep links, and much more.
Rather than listing every feature of RocketSim, I’ll leave a link to the documentation2 — it covers
everything.
On top of that, it has shortcuts for quick settings — for example, zooming the screen. You’ll ask: who needs all that
zooming? I personally know people who have not only enabled AssistiveTouch but also bumped up the device’s system
font size.
Experienced developers will say that some of these features are available in the simulator itself. That’s partly true. But for some of them you’ll need to dig into settings and dial in the right values. In other words, out of the box we don’t have a quick way to change something and revert it.
Who needs this tool?
If you work with UI, pay close attention to accessibility (a11y), and check and polish how screens look on devices
with different form factors, then the purchase will be a useful investment.
Who can do without it?
If, like me, you’re mostly dealing with infrastructure, API contracts, and CI/CD processes, and don’t work on the UI of your apps, then this purchase will most likely be less relevant for you.