Fans of macOS automation features like Automator and AppleScript feared the worst this week as it transpired that head of the automation technologies division, Sal Soghoian, had left the company and the whole unit inside Apple had been closed down. This fuelled speculation that Apple was abandoning a core power feature of the pro Mac user’s wheelhouse.
Automation encapsulates a lot of Mac features that allow users to make a script, in code using AppleScript or a GUI with Automator, to let the operating system handle repetitive tasks and time-consuming work.
Automator has been bundled with every Mac in the /Applications folder since OS X 10.4 Tiger and remains fully functional to date … although the app has received very few updates in recent years. The concept of Automation doesn’t really exist on iOS although third-party apps like Workflow have replicated much of the functionality.
Craig Federighi’s reply says that Apple will at least continue supporting the automation workflows for the foreseeable future, although it doesn’t necessarily promise the systems will receive any new major features.
We have every intent to continue our support for the great automation technologies in macOS!
Thanks for being an Apple customer!
— craig
Soghoian’s departure may also signal that Automator et all are now in ‘maintenance mode’, where the products continue to be supported but don’t have a new features roadmap for future macOS versions. However, that isn’t really a change from the status quo of the last few years …
