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Tech Talks 2021 features live online sessions and office hours through December 17, so you can connect with Apple experts to learn how to create best-in-class apps. We’ve updated the schedule with new content, and will post more every two weeks.
Based on your overwhelming response, we’re increasing capacity for all sessions and repeating our most-attended sessions. Register today if you’re a member of the Apple Developer Program or Apple Developer Enterprise Program.
Welcome to the second Tech Talks Digest. After a fantastic start last week, we’re adding more sessions, more office hours, and — you asked for it! — more capacity.
Check out our latest activities, which run through November 19. These sessions and office hours are designed to help you learn more about our latest technologies, get your questions answered, and offer one-on-one guidance.
Due to popular demand, we’re re-presenting several of our most-attended sessions from last week. We’ve also increased the capacity of our sessions, and we’re offering two chances to sign up: We’re releasing half of the available spots today at 9 a.m., and the remaining half will be released at 11:59 p.m. PT to support developers worldwide.
Did you miss a session, or want a recap of some of the highlights from week one? Read on to learn helpful tips from the SwiftUI team, find out the latest updates to App Clips, and answer the question: just how old is AVFoundation?
We’ll publish a new digest every two weeks highlighting updates to the sessions schedule, new office hours signups, and more — so stay tuned!
You can currently browse and register for all Tech Talks activities taking place through November 19. We release new sessions and appointments for one-to-one office hours every two weeks, so check back on November 15 for the next round of activities.
Note: To register for sessions or request office hour appointments, you must be a current member of the Apple Developer Program or Apple Developer Enterprise Program.
Get notified about new activities and your appointment requests by opting in to push notifications in the Apple Developer app or signing up for email notifications. To enable push notifications, visit the Account tab in the Apple Developer app. To enable email notifications, sign in to your developer account, open the top-right menu, and click Email Settings.
Our SwiftUI engineers enjoyed answering your questions so much that they’re returning for another round! Technology Evangelist Betsy Langowski joins members of the SwiftUI engineering team to showcase some of the latest improvements to SwiftUI, explore the life cycle of a bug report, and answer your questions.
This session will be presented in English live from Cupertino on November 16.
One of the first sessions we hosted was Design Evangelist Doug LeMoine’s “Design delightful App Clips,” which took developers and designers through some of the latest changes to App Clips. Doug covered October’s update to the App Store Connect API, exploring the new automated registration and maintenance process for both default and advanced App Clip experiences and the metadata requirements for creating an App Clip card. He also showed attendees how they could create multiple App Clip experiences using the bulk upload functionality.
Doug also covered one of the most common questions we get around App Clips: What do I need to do to make my App Clip invocable from Maps? There are a few steps to follow, including using the Apple Business Registry to create a place association and releasing your App Clip on the App Store. For more details, check out the “Places on Maps“ page on apple.com.
Missed “Design delightful App Clips“? We’ll present this session again live from Cupertino on November 16. We’ll also host this presentation in Japanese live from Tokyo on November 1, in English live from Tel Aviv on November 2, and in English live from Singapore on November 16.
Our Technology Evangelists and engineers came together on Wednesday with attendees from Bangladesh, Belarus, Canada, Croatia, Germany, Italy, Japan, Ukraine, and the United States to explore the Center Stage, Portrait mode, and Mic mode features available in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15. During the session, Evangelists Eric Hanson and Charlyn Keating explained how to best incorporate these features into your app, build in direct UI controls, and disable options when not appropriate for your experience.
We also learned a fun fact about AVFoundation during the Q&A, when an attendee asked about the venerable framework’s history. Did you know: AVFoundation premiered in 2008 with iOS 2.2 and came to the Mac in 2011 with OS X Lion! Its origins, however, lie in the QuickTime framework, QTKit, which launched as part of OS X Tiger back in 2005.
We’ll present this session again in Japanese and Mandarin live from Tokyo and Shanghai on November 8 and November 15.
Want to improve your app’s notification experience on iOS 15, macOS Monterey, and watchOS 8? We’ll help you learn how to craft meaningful moments through interruption levels and Time Sensitive notifications. And we’ll also introduce you to Focus and Focus status, which allows your app to convey someone’s availability to others.
To get the most out of this session, we recommend having some experience with creating local and remote notifications.
This session will be presented in English live from Cupertino on November 9, and presented in Japanese live from Tokyo on November 15.
Have thoughts about Tech Talks? We’d love to know what’s on your mind.
SharePlay is now available in iOS 15.1, iPadOS 15.1, and tvOS 15.1, giving people the ability to share synchronized experiences right inside their FaceTime calls. You can submit your apps that support SharePlay today.
It’s also enabled in macOS 12.1 beta, so you can now build SharePlay experiences across Apple platforms using the GroupActivities entitlement, without the need for the SharePlay Development Profile.
iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 introduced the Record App Activity feature, allowing people to save a summary of sensor, data, and internet access from apps on their device. This activity can be exported in JSON format by tapping Save App Activity. For an overview of recorded app activity, watch the WWDC21 session “Apple’s privacy pillars in focus”.
In iOS 15.2 beta and iPadOS 15.2 beta, this activity will be presented in a new UI called App Privacy Report. This is a great opportunity to review your app’s sensor, data, and internet usage. To view your app’s activity in the report, install the beta releases, then go to Settings > Privacy > App Privacy Report > Turn On App Privacy Report. Activity will show once you use your app.
Built in collaboration with a team of child-development experts, OK Play’s interactive stories do more than entertain, says the app’s chief scientist, Colleen Russo Johnson: They give kids a space to express what they want and need.
To do so, the inventive app makes children the stars. As they discover pirate treasure and encounter planet-size smoothies, they’ll record their own dialogue, color in scenery, and snap selfies to make each story character as unique as they are.
We spoke with Russo Johnson and founder Travis Chen about the importance of emotional learning, why building a responsive development team is key, and how the app has helped families through difficult times.
*OK Play* puts kids in the middle of the action (sometimes with a giant robot).
How is OK Play different from other education apps for children?
Russo Johnson: Starting with social-emotional learning was very intentional for us. As parents, we saw something missing in the apps our kids use. There’s a lot of ABCs and 123s and not a lot of focus on social-emotional learning. The way OK Play uses interactive technology lets kids place themselves in the stories — not just read about what it feels like to be mad or sad or happy, but actually act it out. They can see themselves making those faces.
What learning curve did you have to overcome to launch the app?
Chen: Well, Colleen wasn’t part of the group back when we first had the idea for OK Play. We all had our superpowers across product and play design, the business side and fundraising, but we didn’t have the skill set on the science of how kids build confidence, empathy, kindness. As soon as we met Colleen, there was no question that she was the superhero we were missing: someone who’d devoted their entire life — academically, professionally, and personally — to child development.
What’s been the most rewarding feedback from OK Play’s audience?
Russo Johnson: In our very early days of beta testing, a mother of two brought us to tears sharing what OK Play did for her children. This pandemic has been hard on all of us, and our stories were helping her daughters understand it’s OK to feel emotions in very real ways. She also shared how their faces light up when they see themselves as the stars of our stories, since, as an African American family, they rarely see characters who look like them onscreen.
What’s a technical achievement that you’re particularly proud of?
Chen: We’ve built our team and technical infrastructure to be able to update the app really quickly. In one story, a character falls down a well, and we got feedback from a parent that their kid was very scared when that happened. We updated the story so the character pops back up out of the hole, and we pushed it live within the day. To be able to respond so quickly and make our stories as inclusive as possible is something I’m really proud of.
Any advice for fellow app developers?
Chen: I think you need two very important things. One is to create ways to listen to and interact with your users, specifically to aid the development of your app. You don’t want it to be totally open-ended, because you could get flooded with feedback that can be hard to make sense of. Then second, you need a team and fundamental technical infrastructure that allows you to quickly adapt. These two go hand in hand. Once you get that user feedback, you need to move quick.
Apple Entrepreneur Camp supports underrepresented founders and developers as they build the next generation of cutting-edge apps and helps form a global network that encourages the pipeline and longevity of these entrepreneurs in technology.
Apply now for one of three newly announced online cohorts for Black, Hispanic/Latinx, or female founders starting late January 2022. Attendees receive code-level guidance, mentorship, and inspiration with unprecedented access to Apple engineers and leaders. Applications close on November 28, 2021.
Starting next week, your in-app events can be discovered right on the App Store, giving you a whole new way to showcase your events and expand their reach. You can now create in-app events in App Store Connect and schedule them to appear on the App Store. These timely events, such as game competitions, movie premieres, and livestreamed experiences, can encourage people to try your app, provide existing users with new ways to enjoy your app, and give former users reasons to return. Events will appear on the App Store on iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 starting October 27, 2021.
Welcome to the Tech Talks Digest, where you can find everything you might want to know about our latest developer event. Tech Talks runs from October 25 to December 17, and features live sessions and one-to-one conversations where you can learn more about our latest technologies, ask questions, and get guidance from Apple experts.
We’re excited to kick off Tech Talks with you on October 25. In the meantime, check out an overview of the event, learn how to register for sessions and office hours, and check out a few upcoming sessions that you won’t want to miss. We’ll publish a new digest every two weeks with the latest updates — stay tuned!
You can currently browse and register for all Tech Talks activities taking place October 25 to November 5. We release new sessions and appointments for one-to-one office hours every two weeks, so check back on November 1 for the next round of activities.
Note: To register for sessions or request office hour appointments, you must be a current member of the Apple Developer Program or Apple Developer Enterprise Program.
Get notified about new activities and your appointment requests by opting in to push notifications in the Apple Developer app or signing up for email notifications. To enable push notifications, visit the Account tab in the Apple Developer app. To enable email notifications, sign in to your developer account, open the top-right menu, and click Email Settings.
Whether you want to know more about a technology released at WWDC or chat with the teams responsible for your favorite features, our live sessions can help you connect with Apple experts worldwide to get your questions answered. All Tech Talks sessions feature a live presentation to help you integrate the latest technologies into your apps followed by a Q&A or a roundtable. Note that sessions have limited capacity to make sure we can provide a great experience for live attendees and answer as many questions as possible.
In addition to offering activities in English broadcast live from Cupertino, we’re also offering certain sessions in English, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Brazilian Portuguese, and Spanish in local time zones.
With office hours, we’re opening our virtual doors to connect with you for a one-on-one conversation. You can request appointments by topic, depending on your needs. Connect with our Design Evangelism team for UI reviews and design considerations, talk with a member of our Technology Evangelism about APIs and implementation, discuss your app with our App Review team, troubleshoot with Developer Technical Support, get help with app distribution from the App Store Connect team, or simply connect with us to provide feedback.
Hang out with some of the minds behind SwiftUI and learn how your bug reports can help improve Apple frameworks and APIs. Technology evangelist Betsy Langowski joins members of the SwiftUI engineering team to showcase some of the latest improvements to SwiftUI, explore the life cycle of a bug report, and answer your questions.
This session will be presented in English live from Cupertino on October 25 at 1 p.m. PDT.
You’ll soon be able to publish your in-app events on the App Store: Learn more about this feature and how to make the most of it in a session delivered by members of the App Store team. Discover recommendations, tips, and best practices for helping people discover content or events within your app.
This session will be presented in English live from Cupertino multiple times starting November 2 at 9 a.m. PDT.
Have thoughts about Tech Talks? We’d love to know what’s on your mind.
October 20, 2021
Join us for over 100 live online sessions and connect with Apple experts at office hours to help you create your best apps yet. Tech Talks kicks off on October 25 and runs through December 17. Registration is now open to current members of the Apple Developer Program and Apple Developer Enterprise Program.
According to Caribu cofounder Maxeme Tuchman, her app was inspired by one powerful image: a photo of a soldier reading to his child online while awkwardly holding up a picture book to the camera.
So she set out to make it easy for children to read — and learn — with parents, grandparents, and friends from afar. With Caribu, a 2020 App Store Trend of the Year winner, kids can turn the pages of a Thomas the Tank Engine book, invite aunts and uncles to help with a math worksheet, or play a word game with cousins — all while interacting face-to-face over video.
We caught up with Tuchman to talk about how Caribu has thrived without venture capital investment and why every founder should build a diverse team from day one.
*Caribu* keeps a video chat window in view as kids and family members connect over puzzles, games, and stories.
How did your background lead to creating a learning app like Caribu?
I’m the daughter of Cuban immigrants and the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. It has been ingrained in me that the only thing you can take with you in the middle of the night when you’re fleeing your home is what’s in your head. To me, education is the biggest lever for change.
What was the biggest challenge you faced when launching Caribu?
Fundraising. Fewer than 2 percent of all VC dollars go to women and people of color. That’s an industry problem. We had a lot of people say, “If you don’t move to Silicon Valley, we’re not going to fund you.” But we’ve run through walls — we’ve figured it out through grants, angels, and corporate investment.
What’s been essential to your success?
The ability to see a problem and believe I could solve it. Throughout my career, I’ve constantly been pushed to go into new environments, learn new languages — the government uses a different language than MBAs, for example. That’s been the greatest gift. I’m excited to wake up every morning and think, “I don’t know what is going to happen.”
What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs?
Build a diverse team from the beginning. It’s the best business decision you will make. Don’t have a bunch of dudes making an app that may be used by 94 percent women. Don’t build a team that’s 95 percent men or white people and then think, “Oh, we should diversify.” Have your team reflect the people you serve. We have customers in 200-plus countries and territories. You have to have that empathy.
How did you arrive at the name Caribu? Alvaro noticed many kids’ apps had animal-based names, so he looked at migratory animals and learned about the caribou — the Canadian reindeer. We spell it in Spanish because he’s from Spain and I’m Cuban. Also, it was easier to get the Twitter handle!
