Ryan Delepine, a 19-year-old French developer, presented an emergency app called SOS+ to Apple last June, which he hopes to quickly roll out to the iPhone.
“I learned to code in nine months to be able to participate in the contest, it’s pretty crazy,” says a blunt Ryan Delbin who admits to not knowing other programming languages. At 19, this young man from Rennes is one of the young developers that Apple spotted and invited to take part in last June’s WWDC at Apple Park in Cupertino.
Thanks to its app called SOS+, which he created himself, it is one of the winners of the Swift App Challengea competition organized by the company to crown the best apps under Swift, Apple’s code tool.
“I wanted to create an app that made sense”
Not long ago, he completed his first year at BTS in commerce and designed interfaces as well as website mockups. He presents it to an Apple engineer he knows. “He was the one who introduced me to Swift and told me to enter this competition,” says Ryan. “I quickly realized that it would become a passion for me and that it would give a new dimension to my projects.”
And for the competition, I also needed an application project. Her father works in the police, her brother takes the competition to become a firefighter and the whole family is at the service of others, the idea comes from itself. “I grew up in a family where we wanted to help people. I wanted an app that made sense and could allow users to get real added value, and serve everyone, with a fun and easy-to-use interface,” Britton says.
Thus SOS + was born, an application that provides emergency information for all situations. There are helpful numbers (fire, police, SAMU, etc.), emergency procedures to know in case of cardiac arrest, discomfort, or minor nosebleeds, and all kinds of information.
Emergency numbers just one click away
The application is presented in different parts: emergency numbers with a link to the requested service page; a list of all numbers according to the country you are in with an Apple Maps link to find the nearest emergency center; An emergency questionnaire to assess the situation.
The questionnaire will allow you to know the level of urgency and redirect to the correct service, to also send an SMS if you are not able to connect. It is possible to add contacts to notify them and they can be notified by SMS. Elements that make it an online counterpart to the recently launched satellite backup connection on the latest iPhones. There, it will work on all kinds of Apple smartphones.
I dream of being a developer in Apple Park
Still unfamiliar with English, the young man was nevertheless able to present his application to Susan Prescott, who is in charge of developer relations, but especially to Tim Cook personally during a developer conference. “It was a surprise to be able to offer him an application project, I was very happy to be able to do it,” recalls Ryan, who, if he admired the head of Apple, found him “relaxed and approachable,” attentive and caring.
And his SOS + application did not leave indifferent anyone in Cupertino. It must be said that it has everything to please Apple: a homemade-sounding name, an interface that one would think taken from the name of Apple, human purpose and ease of use that meets the usual criteria. He now hopes to have it published in the US and France by 2024. While he waits for other projects to mature.
From his time at WWDC and his debates there, Ryan Delepine is back with stars in his eyes. “I’m really considering a career in development or design. I’m still hesitating,” he laughs, imagining himself actually working at Apple Park later. “It would be really incredible, one of my biggest dreams,” enthuses the young boy who is currently back in his studies and his second year at BTS.
