Google released a new mobile backend product to simplify server-side development for iOS developers.

Mobile backend tools give developers the ability to create connected mobile apps without writing server side code. Their growing importance saw Facebook acquire backend service provide Parse in April. Parse announced in June that 100,000 apps have been built using its platform.

Mobile Backend Starter for iOS, allows developers to store data in the cloud, enable device-to-device push notifications, notify devices of data changes and authenticate users using Google Accounts.

The iOS version supports the same functionality as for Android and as Mobile Backend Starter is supported by Google App Engine, it can support hundreds of users at the same time.

Developers can also customise the backend as the code is available on online project repository Github.

In a post on the Google Cloud Platform Blog, developer Ryan Harter explained how using Mobile Backend Starter has allowed him to grow usage of his Hashnote Android app from 3,000 to 20,000 users.

“Most importantly, the backend isn’t a black box that’s intended to be the be all and end all, keeping me locked in. I was able to extend the backend to include Hashnote specific logic, while learning how Google implemented the initial feature set from the open source code,” said Harter.