Filipe Espósito wrote:

Let’s say you get a QR Code with a link to a video from YouTube but you don’t have the official app installed on your iPhone. With iOS 14 and the Clip API, you’ll be able to scan that code and the video will be reproduced on a floating card that shows a native user interface instead of a web page.

Developers will need to specify which part of the app should be downloaded by iOS as an Over-The-Air package to read that content. The floating card will show options to download the full version of the app from the App Store or to open that content with the app if it’s already installed.

As the article mentions this is very similar to Slices that Google announced in 2018. Again proving that quite often Google have the right idea but seem to lack the control or the motivation to gain enough traction.

I am not sure how many apps adopt things from Android when announced, but the iOS eco-system seems to be ready to go as soon as the public update happens. iOS14 is shaping up to be a big update.