Today Apple announced that it would be hosting its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) from June 6th to 10th in an online format that all developers can attend for free. Based on the success of virtual events over the last two years, WWDC22 will showcase the latest innovations in iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS, giving developers access to Apple's engineers and technologies to breakthrough apps. And learn how to create an interactive experience.
Susan Prescott, Apple's Vice President of Marketing for Worldwide Developer Relations and Enterprise and Education, said:
"With that in mind, WWDC22 encourages developers from all over the world to come together to find ways to realize the best ideas and push the boundaries of what's possible. I love interacting with them and hope that all participants will feel empowered by their experience. "
More than ever, Apple products are a part of people's daily lives, helping them learn, create, and connect. At WWDC22, Apple's growing global community of over 30 million developers gains insight and access to the technologies and tools to realize their vision. In addition to presentations from keynotes and State of the Union speeches, this year's program will include more briefing sessions, cutting-edge learning labs, digital lounges to interact with attendees, etc. WWDC22, which provides more localized content, is a truly global event. In addition to the online conference, Apple will host a special day for developers and students at Apple Park on June 6th to join the online community and watch videos of keynotes and the State of the Union address. Seats are limited, and details on how to register will be published shortly on the Apple Developer website and app.
Apple will continue to support students who love coding in the Swift Student Challenge. Swift Playgrounds is an innovative app for iPad and Mac that makes learning the Swift programming language interactive and fun. In this year's challenge, students worldwide will be invited to create a Swift Playgrounds app project on a topic of their choice and must submit their work by April 25th. For more information, please visit the Swift Student Challenge website. Apple is proud to support and nurture the next generation of developers through its annual WWDC Student Program. Over the last three decades, thousands of students have honed their skills and connected with other programmers. They fostered a long and successful career in the field of technology, founded venture capital startups, and founded a non-profit organization focused on using technology to build a better future.
So what can we expect this year? A sure guarantee is the first look at iOS 16, which will come to all your iDevices later this year - usually around September. But getting an early look can give us hints about the next iPhone. This year we're not expecting significant changes over iOS 16, and there's not much in the rumor mill about anything substantial. More so, users have compiled their wish lists. One notable feature that we can hopefully expect is more interaction with widgets on the home screen. What exactly does that mean? The current state of widgets is mostly for presenting information from your installed apps without going into the app. We're hoping that Apple will make interactive widgets from the Home screen. For example, the current Music App widget only displays the current song playing with the album artwork. With an interactive widget, you could change your music or hit play/pause from that widget without going back into the music app (check below for a proof of concept).
This only scratches the surface of what we can expect at WWDC22 but stay tuned for future updates on what to expect this year. Thanks for reading 👋
