Marcel Schmitz Releases Unofficial WordCamp for iOS App

Marcel Schmitz, founder of hellodev, has released WordCamp for iOS for free on the App Store. The app utilizes the WordPress REST API endpoints from WordCamp Central and hellodev to display sessions, speakers, and news from an event’s official site.

Schmitz used WordCamp Porto to test features within the app. Sessions are displayed in a timeline and if you give the app permission to access your device’s calendar, you can add sessions to it and create reminders.

Session Timeline

When viewing a session in the app, the screen displays the time the session takes place, name of the speaker with a quick link to a bio, session description, and a section at the bottom to write notes.

There’s also an option on the top-right corner to mark sessions as favorites. However, during testing, marking a session as a favorite would crash the app.

Take Notes While Watching a Session

The app displays all of the necessary information concerning the event without the need to browse to the actual site. Schmitz says he plans to add more information about the city, venue, and the ability to call an UBER in future updates.

WordCamp is a trademark of the WordPress Foundation. Although Schmitz clearly states that WordCamp for iOS is not the official app for all WordCamps, he does not mention receiving permission from the Foundation to use WordCamp in the name. Unless his app is adopted to be the official App for iOS devices, it’s likely he will need to change the name.

Searching the App Store for WordCamp only produces two results. Schmitz’s app and a WordCamp EU Paris Guide. There’s an official WordCamp App for Android available on Google Play and GitHub but the project has seen little activity in the last three years.

WordCamp for iOS fills a void and gives users convenient access to a lot of relevant WordCamp information. To check it out for yourself, you can download it for free from the App Store.