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📱 Tim Oliver

iOS Engineer at Instagram. Perth Aussie living in Japan.

Tim Oliver is a software engineer specializing in iOS and macOS development, currently working at Instagram.13 He is an Australian from Perth who is presently living in Tokyo, Japan.1

Professional Background

Tim has a strong background in iOS development and is considered a high-caliber senior iOS developer with a deep sense of design.2 Before joining Instagram, he worked at companies such as Drivemode and Realm.1

Skills and Expertise

  • iOS and macOS Development: Tim's primary focus is on developing applications for Apple platforms.1
  • Open Source Contributions: He enjoys publishing open source software on GitHub.1
  • Design Sense: Tim is noted for having a rare and deep sense of design in addition to his technical skills.2
  • Presentation Skills: He is recognized for having great presentation skills.2

Personal Projects

Tim is currently working on a personal project called iComics, which is a comic reader app for iOS.1

Interests and Hobbies

Outside of his professional work, Tim:

  • Enjoys playing video games, particularly Deep Rock Galactic and Star Citizen1
  • Has a passion for singing and karaoke1

Social Media and Professional Profiles

Tim maintains an active presence on various platforms:

  • GitHub: @timoliver
  • LinkedIn: timoliverau

Tim Oliver's combination of technical expertise, design sensibility, and diverse interests make him a well-rounded professional in the field of iOS development.

Highlights

Apr 2 · linkedin

At the end of March, we held the first try! Swift Tokyo conference in FIVE years. After such a long hiatus, I assumed it would be a quiet one, but it was just as jam-packed as the 2019 one. 🤩

I feel like try! Swift Tokyo is a very significant event for both the Japan iOS engineering community and the global community as a whole. It is the only Apple developer conference in Japan where international speakers visit, and are able to present to a room full of non-English speaking Japanese developers via a very impressive team of real-time interpreters. 🤯

It is a very rare opportunity for developers in Japan and around the world to transcend spoken languages to freely share ideas and experiences, to network and to make some new friends.

My first try! Swift was in 2016 when I took it upon myself to try and deliver an entire presentation in Japanese; still the most terrifying experience of my life. 😅

From 2018 onwards, I’ve had the absolute privilege of supporting try! Swift as the English speaking MC, and I was absolutely humbled and honoured to come back and perform as MC this year as well. 🙏

It was so amazing to catch up with so many old friends and companies. There were familiar faces at both the pixiv Inc. and Mercari, Inc. booths. and it was also fantastic to make some new friends too. 😊

The talks were also all amazing as usual, with some absolute gems like Paul Hudson’s SwiftUI for HTML and Lil Ossa’s insanely creative use of SF Symbols.

I hope everyone had a great time and I hope you weren’t too tired of my voice by the end of all of that (or rather what was left of it. 😆).

Here’s looking forward to try! Swift Tokyo 2025!

Feb 25 · linkedin

How it started vs how it's going.

It was a week or so ago now, but LinkedIn just sent me a reminder and I realised I clean forgot to post it here. 😅

This February, I celebrated my second year at Instagram in Tokyo! 🥳 And what a wild second year it was! My first year in contrast was incredibly quiet, mainly due to the ongoing pandemic restrictions in Tokyo at the time. So by contrast this second year was fully hitting the ground running. The team launched a tonne of awesome stuff, not the very least in both helping to launch Threads itself, but also ongoing features like Voice Threads as well. 😁

And with the restrictions wound down in 2023, I finally got to travel to the SF and New York Instagram offices, meet some amazing new folks, and actually see how big this company actually is. 🤩

My original goal in moving to Japan in 2018 was to learn to be the best iOS engineer I could possibly be. And by the end of 2021, I was starting to wonder if my ceiling was starting to approach. But since joining Instagram, I have learned an absolute tonne, not just in better code and engineering practices, but better product management as a whole. I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunities Instagram and Meta have enabled for me. 😊

Here's to pushing the limits on year 3! 💪

Related Questions

What projects has Tim Oliver worked on at Instagram?
What is the iComics app about?
How did Tim Oliver transition from Australia to Japan?
What are Tim Oliver's notable contributions to open-source software?
What makes Tim Oliver's design sense unique?
📱 Tim Oliver
📱 Tim Oliver, photo 1
📱 Tim Oliver, photo 2
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Location

Minato, Tokyo, Japan