When WWDC finishes this week, the nine-year-old app developer will celebrate her achievements with a trip to Disneyland with her family.
Australian-made zova app is a fit with Apple
Apple's App Store is full of apps promising to get you fit but few have the accolades of Australian-made Zova that received the highest possible recognition.
Apple handed out two of its coveted 10 Apple Design Awards to two Australian apps, Zova and the habit-forming Streaks, using its WWDC developers' conference in San Francisco to heap praise on the small Australian companies.
Apple has previously recognised Zova as a standout in the two million apps in its store, using the app to highlight features in Apple TV at its launch last year.
James Tonkin and Niall McCarthy began working on the app in May 2007 in Brisbane before moving to Sydney to set up a head office for the app that now boasts an international reach.
The Zova app is designed to motivate people with exercise videos which can be followed at home without any special equipment, with integration on the Apple Watch recording the person's heart rate during the routine.
Mr McCarthy said the key was getting the videos right.
"The content has to inspire you enough but not feel impossible," he said.
Mr McCarthy said the success of the app, popular in major markets around the world including the US App Store, was a tribute to all the entire team.
"It gives you the motivation to go again and continue to innovate," he said. "People contact us and tell us how much it has change their lives and that's pretty impactful as well."
The Zova team is working a new version of the app that will take advantage of new iOS 10 features, the new operating system for the iPhone and iPad announced at WWDC yesterday.
Streaks wins apple design award
It's been a big week for Quentin Zervaas.
On Saturday he was getting married in Adelaide and yesterday he was in San Francisco being recognised by Apple for creating one of the best apps of the year.
Zervaas and partner Isaac Forman created Streaks, one of two Australian-made apps honoured with an Apple Design Award yesterday at Apple's WWDC event in San Francisco.
Streaks is a simple creation. Users list six items they should do regularly, and try to do it regularly, creating a streak. It could be anything from exercising more to practising the cello.
Zervaas, who raced to the airport four hours after his wedding ceremony on Saturday, said one of app's inspirations was that he needed extra prompting when trying to write a book and figured a lot of people needed similar reminders.
"One we got it running, it was this hideous app that had a bit of text and you could click on it," Forman said. "And that was all it did. But it was still compelling. And you would use it every day."
Apple described Streak as one of the best apps made for the Apple Watch, particularly for its ability to predict what time you should be doing an action based on your history.
The app makers, who have previously created an app game called Hexiled, say their app has been translated into 23 languages for users around the world, and is particularly popular in Japan and China.
They attribute the app's success to challenging each other at every stage in its development.
If you regularly achieve your streak, Streaks suggests you set your challenge higher. And if you fail to do something as often as you should, the app offers a more realistic goal.
Rod Chester travelled to San Francisco as a guest of Apple.
