Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference will go ahead online on June 22

Developers won’t be there in person for the annual Worldwide Developers Conference this year but Apple will still host them virtually from June 22 through the Apple Developer App and the Apple Developer website for free.

Usually the event of the year for app developers, WWDC unites thousands of developers from around the world in San Jose for a keynote that kicks off the event before days of sessions and the opportunity to engage with Apple’s engineers.

But the coronavirus had other ideas and Apple was forced to cancel the event in favour of an online gathering.

WWDC is where Apple presents the latest versions and features of its operating systems for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV.

Apple has also used the event in the past to unveil new products.

“WWDC20 will be our biggest yet, bringing together our global developer community of more than 23 million in an unprecedented way for a week in June to learn about the future of Apple platforms,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

“We can’t wait to meet online in June with the global developer community and share with them all of the new tools we’ve been working on to help them create even more incredible apps and services.

“We look forward to sharing more details about WWDC20 with everyone as we get closer to this exciting event.”
Apple has also announced the Swift Student Challenge which will give students the opportunity to show off their coding skills.

From now and until May 17, students can submit the Swift Student Challenge by creating an interactive scene in a Swift Playground.

Winners will receive an exclusive WWDC20 jacket and pin set.

Entrants can find more information here: http://developer.apple.com/wwdc20/swift-student-challenge

“Students are an integral part of the Apple developer community, and last year WWDC saw attendance from more than 350 student developers spanning 37 different countries,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering.

“As we look forward to WWDC20, although our gathering will be virtual this year, we want to recognise and celebrate the creative contributions of our young developers from around the world.

“We can’t wait to see this next generation of innovative thinkers turn their ideas into a reality through the Swift Student Challenge.”

Developers will need to download the Apple Developer App which will be updated in June to include WWDC20 program information including keynote, session and lab schedules.