Last year, Apple redesigned its developer forums, where the company invites registered Apple developers to discuss Apple platform frameworks and APIs. Apple engineers have some presence there too. However, the new website was criticized for being hard-to-use and too stripped down to be useful …
For this year, Apple has just rolled out a series of changes aimed at making the developer forums more appealing.
Developers now have the ability to leave targeted comments on posted questions to add additional information. The forums are also expanding beyond just text; it is now possible to upload images and screenshot attachments with a posted question.
Questions can now be assigned tags that correspond to categories like ‘macOS’, ‘iOS’, ‘beta’ or the names of different system frameworks. When searching the forums, users can now filter by tag and trending tags are visible on the home page. From June 7, Apple will add tags relating to all the developer-focused WWDC announcements.
If you are particularly interested in a topic, you can follow along in your RSS reader, as each tag now has its own RSS feed URL.
The changes come ahead of Apple’s annual developer conference. On Monday, Apple confirmed that it will (virtually) host a consumer keynote and a developer-focused Platforms State of the Union presentation on June 7. The rest of the week will be packed with sessions on all the new features in iOS 15, macOS 12, watchOS 8 and tvOS 15. There will also be new virtual ‘Pavilions’ and ‘Digital Lounges’ which organize the available content and give developers more access to Apple engineers and designers.
