What to expect at WWDC 2015

June 1, 2015 4 minute read Migrated from Punchkick

Last year, Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference unveiled the reinvention of a platform, with all-new iOS SDK features that fundamentally transformed how iOS apps behave and interact. This year, Apple’s tone is expected to be more subdued—refinements and enhancements that, while minor, promise to have a major impact on the user experience of Apple mobile products.

Apple Watch goes native.

One of the primary expectations for this year’s WWDC is more information around the native Apple Watch SDK, which Apple promised earlier this year. WatchKit is the development option for Watch apps today, and functionally extends iOS app views onto the Apple Watch screen while app code is still executed on the iPhone. The platform is extremely limited today, and Apple’s native apps for Watch OS already take advantage of animations, sensors, and other functionality that third-party developers don’t have access to—yet.

The next-generation Apple Watch SDK is expected to provide third-party developers access to the Watch’s hardware sensors in a significant way, allowing fitness apps, for example, to compute steps and track heart rate based on data recorded by the Watch itself (versus using HealthKit on the iPhone as an intermediary step). Further, when code is able to be executed on the Apple Watch itself, developers can expect increased performance and reduced load times over WatchKit extension apps—but Apple will doubtless be mindful of preserving the wearable’s battery life with their native implementation.

iOS 9 makes its debut.

The next generation of Apple’s flagship mobile operating system is expected to be demoed at this year’s WWDC, which will streamline and refine the iOS experience for millions of users. Whereas iOS 7 and 8 introduced a number of new bugs and were perceived as steps backward for iOS in terms of reliability, iOS 9 is expected to clean up the operating system, address long-problematic bugs, and improve performance system-wide. The changes are expected to help iOS 9 perform better on older devices like the iPhone 4s, a traditional pain point for new versions of Apple’s operating system.

In line with previous performance-related OS updates, like Mac OS X Snow Leopard in 2009, Apple isn’t expected to announce too many additional end-user features for this release. The features that have been rumored seem geared toward firming up outstanding gaps in the iOS user experience, like adding public transit directions to Apple Maps and integrating loyalty programs into Apple Pay. Further, Apple is expected to replace Helvetica Neue with its new typeface San Francisco as iOS’s system font, a move which reflects the font’s new relevance to Apple’s broader brand identity.

iOS gets Proactive.

While most of the iOS 9 announcements won’t earn headlines, one new feature integration might raise some eyebrows. Apple is rumored to be developing a new system code-named Proactive, which offers anticipatory and contextually relevant information in a mode inspired by Google Now. Google Now makes content like flight information and commute times available to users in one card-based interface, and Apple’s Notification Center is expected to evolve to offer similar functionality in the next version.

Apple Music turns it up.

One of the biggest announcements expected at this year’s WWDC is the launch of Apple’s new streaming music platform, suspected to be called Apple Music. The world of Apple media services has become needlessly complex over the years, as the company has sought to evolve iTunes to compete with the beta version of Google Music (with iTunes Match) or Pandora (with iTunes Radio), and made acquisitions to compete with Spotify (with Beats Music).

Next week, Apple might streamline its music offerings under one brand umbrella. Apple is expected to evolve Beats Music into a subscription-based streaming music service to compete with the likes of Rdio and Spotify, but the specifics of how this service will intersect with iTunes remains a mystery. iOS 8.4 includes a beta version of a redesigned Music application, which might shift to support new streaming capabilities that debut on Monday.

There’s no place like HomeKit.

While HomeKit was announced alongside iOS 8 at last year’s WWDC, the first HomeKit-compatible accessories only began shipping last month. To reflect its ambitions in the space, Apple might introduce a dedicated Home application as part of iOS 9 that would help users connect with and control all of the HomeKit devices in their connected home. As massive platform competitors like Google and Samsung begin exploring the space, Apple’s investment in connected home technologies is only going to continue to grow.

Despite widespread and pervasive rumors to the contrary, Apple is not expected to introduce a new generation of their Apple TV streaming media set-top box at this year’s WWDC. (The new Apple TV was rumored to bring a comprehensive SDK for third-party applications, a user-facing App Store, and new media streaming partnerships that could help Apple TV users replace cable—but it seems some of these deals have failed to materialize as yet.) Apple TV might factor into Apple’s fledgling connected home ecosystem as a centralized hub, but users may need to wait a few more months for the $69 device to evolve.