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Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) kicked off last June 3 Monday, and as expected, the company unveils its iOS 13. It’s the next major revision for one of the most influential operating systems of all time, with iOS used daily on over a billion iPhones and iPads. Now that's a thing!
Here are all the major new features that iOS 13 will bring to your iPhone and iPad when it releases this fall, along with details about supported devices and how to join the beta test to try it out early.
1. Dark Mode
Painting the rumors dark black! iOS 13 is finally bringing Dark Mode to Apple’s mobile OS. Apple showed new dark themes, Apps, backgrounds, notifications, and widgets. All the Apple apps you rely on, from Messages to Mail to News and more, have new colors and dark backgrounds. Third-party developers are screaming to support this version.
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2. A better, better performance
Apple’s iOS 12 was focused on performance, making it much faster than the last few releases, especially on older devices. Apple has continued that development on iOS 13, taking a top-to-bottom approach to speeding everything up you do on your iPhone and iPad.
One of these speed-up work, Apple says Face ID unlocks 30 percent faster. Apps are going to be packaged differently, making app downloads 50 percent smaller and updates 60 percent smaller. This also helps apps launch up to twice as fast, making all iOS users smile to the ears.
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3. iPadOS
The iPad gets all the changes in iOS 13 for the iPhone, but Apple has been adding so many features specific to the iPad, it has decided to give it its own name: iPadOS. Sounds Spanish, but Apple has invented this word. Bravo!
If you’ve been using your iPad as a laptop replacement, you’ll surely be motivated with the new iPadOS. You can pin widgets to your home screen, browse easily and swipe through multiple slide-over apps.
The split view gets huge improvements, including multiple split-view “desktops” that you can see in a new App Expose view. You can even run multiple screen-windows of the same app—Apple demonstrated multiple Mail windows and two Word windows side-by-side.
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4. A more polished Siri
Siri gets a lot of enhancements for iOs3 and iPadOS. It gets a new voice system called “Neural Text to Speech.” Instead of stitching together pieces of sounds to form words, the new system uses a neural network to entirely generate the voice in software. It smooths out complex words and sounds a lot more natural.
Siri Shortcuts is now built into the OS, instead of downloading it from the App Store. It will use machine learning to create suggested automation for your common series of tasks. We are in love Siri!
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5. CarPlay overhauled
Apple promised that CarPlay is getting its biggest update ever in iOS 13. A new dashboard shows your map on one side and the useful buttons on the other, so you can control music, see messages, and get other useful information without hopping around between apps, making your drive safer.
The new CarPlay dashboard gives lets you see and do more without flipping around between apps screen.
Many apps have their in-car experience redesigned, like Apple Music. And Siri now works by popping up a small indicator at the bottom of the screen instead of taking over the entire display.
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6. Camera and Photo Improvements
The actual Camera app doesn’t get a whole lot of improvements in iOS 13. The biggest new feature is the ability to control the lighting in Portrait Lighting modes, making them more or less intense. There may be more Camera features coming with the new iPhone hardware expected this year.
There’s lots of new stuff in the Photos app coming. Image editing is getting a lot more powerful. There are new adjustment dials for effects like brightness, contrast, exposure, warmth, tint, etc. And you’ll find a lot more effects than before, too.
These editing controls are coming to videos, too. And yes, that means you can finally rotate a video, no more downloading of third party video rotating apps.
Apple Photos has a whole new browsing experience, with a new layout and intelligence about what to show you.
Browsing through your photos should be simpler and more enjoyable with the new Photos tab. It organizes your photos into groups: Years, Months, Days, and All Photos. The Years, Months, and Days views use intelligence to surface your most relevant photos and format them in a pretty collage that showcases live photos and videos, too.
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7. Memoji and stickers
Memoji is getting a big development in iOS 13. Apple’s adding a whole ton of new hairstyles, accessories, makeup and cool customizations. The expressiveness of Memoji is going to explode.
A ton of new styles and accessories are coming to Memoji in iOS 13.
Your Memoji version will also be used to automatically create sticker packs that mimic the expressions of popular emoji. Instead of sending the thumbs-down or mind-blown emoji to someone, you can send a sticker that uses your Memoji.
Animating your Memoji with your face requires a device with the TrueDepth sensor, but the Memoji editor and stickers are coming to every device with an A9 processor or better. That’s practically every device that can run iOS and iPadOS 13.
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8. Maps improvements
Apple began a major revamp of its Maps data last 2018 and has so far brought the new maps to Northern California. With iOS 13, it aims to bring the new map data (created by driving over 4 million miles in cars equipped with cameras and LIDAR, as well as with small planes) to the rest of the U.S. by the end of 2019. The new maps will come to the rest of the world by 2020.
Maps are getting a lot better, and the improvements can’t come fast enough.
The Maps app isn’t just about more detailed map data. It’s got new features onboard. You can mark your favorite places for quick access right when you open the Maps app, and organize lists of places into Collections. That’s useful for organizing by category or for organizing a road trip.
You may also see a pair of binoculars in some map locations, this is for areas with high-res map data. Tap that to get a super high-resolution on-the-ground preview of the area, with smooth scrolling and marked locations.
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9. Swiping keyboard
Apple has updated its keyboard to allow swiping between letters to create words. Apple calls this a QuickPath keyboard, and it has been a feature of other mobile OS and third-party keyboards for years now. The keyboard’s emoji picker has also been updated to show your Memoji stickers.
Apple has finally added a swiping keyboard!
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10. All-new Reminders app
Many apps are getting tweaked in iOS 13, but the Reminders app is completely revamped. A quick toolbar lets you add reminders, and Siri will parse the time, date, and location within what you type to create the right reminder for you.
The Reminders app has gotten a complete overhaul and should be a lot more useful now.
Smart lists will group your reminders based on your schedule, so you can see reminders when you need them.
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And so much more to discuss here. Be the first of millions to experience these features first hand in your iPhone and iPad this coming September 2019!
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