WWDC 2021: Apple’s big reveals include iOS 15, FaceTime on Android, MacOS Monterey and more

Apple: Don’t forget all the hard work we do

[11:46 a.m. PT]

The past year, Apple’s been under a lot of pressure from regulators and lawmakers concerned about its growing financial and industry power. In a lawsuit with Fortnite maker Epic Games, was forced to defend its App Store and the up to 30% commission it charges for many in-app purchases.

We weren’t expecting Apple to directly respond to everything that’s been going on, but the company did take a couple minutes during its WWDC presentation Monday to remind people of all the technology it makes available to developers. That includes the sound isolation, scanning technologies and the Swift programming language.

“We created Swift and all of these other technologies and frameworks for one reason, to help you build the best possible apps, and the best place to discover those apps,” said Susan Prescott, Apple’s head of developer relations.

Apple also talked up new features to its App Store, saying it’ll create a new “in-app events” feature that will be on the App Store homepage. Apple said in-app events will also be built into App Store search, a new App Store widget for iPhones and iPads, and on the product page for an app in the store.

Finally, Apple announced a new feature called Xcode Cloud, designed to help test apps across multiple devices. Apple said once a developer uploads their code to the company’s servers, it’ll automatically tested across multiple devices, and then can be made easily available to beta testers.