WWDC 2018 Predictions:

by Kyle

WWDC time! Time for great coffee, fun parties, and a whole lotta nerdiness in San Jose.

I'm super excited to go, and here's a few things I'm hoping will happen.

Wishes/predictions

  • Health updates - speedier, more information, more data types, and expansion upon the Health Records integrations.
  • Activity updates - I have a small feeling about a new ring, but a bigger feeling about more workout types such as strength training, or whichever is the most popular based on Apple's anonymized data.
  • Breathe updates
  • MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, iMac Pro, Pro Pros. And a new Muse Single
  • New Apple Watch faces, and possibly announcements of an SDK of sorts for for faces. If not, at least different options for complications
  • New watchOS 5 APIs to help spur development of new, and better, Apple Watch apps.
  • I'm hoping for a lot and a lot of bug fixes and improvements, and possibly a related announcement about update times/software versions. Especially since it feels like absolutely no one has heard anything about 12.

It'll be interesting if any of the previous Marzipan rumors come true. But I'm not holding out hope for anything related to that.

watchOS

The Watch is turning 3 this year, and I think it'll be due for some interesting new features, as well as improvements to existing apps. Breathe and Activity are two I could see getting majors boosts, as well as the possibility of either enabling more health tracking features, or giving us a new ring to close. I'm pretty sure we'll also see new workouts as I said above.

The watch faces themselves I think will be getting more and more features. Since it was scrapped at the last minute last year, I could see a Connectivity complication coming back, therefore allowing you to see what status you have connection wise on any watch face. I would also like to see new things that make having the cellular watch more beneficial, although I can't name a ton off of my head.

I'm hoping that Apple also rekindles developer excitement for third party apps on the Watch. There are a few apps, like CARROT, workout apps, Starbucks, and more that are really great on the Watch, but you still hear a lot about companies like Lyft and Transit removing their apps. And while some may be coming back with a rewrite based on new SDKs, I'm just hoping that more developers are encouraged to actually bring their apps up to speed, in a beneficial way. Especially with the Series 3 expanded capabilities.

UpNext API

Speaking of this, I expect the Siri face to get some integrations so third party apps can show their info as needed on the Siri watch face, and maybe alongside others.

Homepod

It feels like the HomePod is where the Apple Watch was right after the initial release - it's gained its initial users, the early adopters, and is just waiting for the big thing that'll push it to more homes. That may be more size options, a better Siri SDK for apps to use, and independent/skills type integrations that you can install.

Apple Music

Apple Music is turning 3 this year, and the latest redesign/huge addition of features [besides a focus on music videos] was 2 years ago. I'm hoping it'll get smarter, as it has with the Siri capabilities, and possibly gain more features to intrigue new subscribers

Apple TV

Recently, Apple has been expanding its marketing efforts for more and more TV content. And Apple TV as a "brand" a la Prime video and Netflix, where you can go to watch content. While this may be more suited for a September event, I could see Apple, in iOS 12, expanding and having more focus on the app, its capabilities, and possibly give us hints [either on purpose or in code] about its subscription service coming up. Who knows, maybe we'll have Cue dancing to a bunch of TV shows on stage.

Homekit

Homekit, like Siri, has gotten more capable and prominent with the release of the HomePod. While Apple probably won't be making a bunch of home specific hardware itself, it could be expanding on the types of hardware it could use, while also bringing refinements to the Home app.

macOS

I'm not sure if we'll see any kind of future indication of the platform as a whole this year, but we certainly are slowly building up to it with things like APFS, High Sierra and the subsystem rewrites, and the continued morphing of macOS into a more iOS type system. Who knows, maybe we'll get Fusion Drive APFS support, some new apps, and possibly some interesting hardware tweaks.

iOS

I doubt we'll see as drastic of a change as we did with iOS 11, I'm going the iPad continues to get improvements, alongside the new hardware. As for the OS itself, I can see refinements on things like battery, CPU usage, and more smart features that benefit the end user, and the addition of "personal health" features in relation to device usage. Bedtime is one feature like this, but additional usage time metrics/specific app controls could also assist in helping people use their devices less.

As I write this, I'm definitely not having as many initiations or thoughts as to what may be announced, which gives me a little bit more excitement because there's all kinds of things Apple could surprise us with. I'm looking forward to sitting in a room full of nerds and watching the keynote. See you all next week.