Apple has just announced iOS 13 at WWDC 2019. It’s a huge release that is packed with a lot of new capabilities and performance improvements. Everything is faster, from unlocking with Face ID (30 percent faster) and app downloads will be 50 percent smaller, and updates 60 percent smaller. Apps will launch twice as fast in iOS 13, and much more.
With iOS 13, there are a lot of speed improvements overall. Unlocking with Face ID will be 30 percent faster. App downloads will be 50 percent smaller, with updates being 60 percent smaller as well. Apps will launch twice as fast.
Dark Mode
Dark Mode is finally arriving in iOS 13. The dynamic Dark Mode means dynamic wallpapers that change between light and dark when the sun sets or rises, widgets will also have a dark theme as well. Messages, Photos, Notes, and other native apps will come with built-in support for Dark Mode.
The keyboard will also be dark themed, and there is swipe support, called “Quick Path,” for faster typing.
The Notes app has a refined texture and is more of a dark gray color, rather than straight black, in Dark Mode. Photos will look sharper than ever with the black background instead of white.
Dark Mode is also available in Apple Music. As a bonus, when you play music, lyrics will have time-synced lyrics so you can sing along or follow the song easier than ever before.
How to use Dark Mode on iPhone and iPad
Reminders reimagined
Reminders also gets a total rework in iOS 13. As you type in reminders, the app will try and guess when to remind you. Siri will which words you want and make them actionable. If there are any names in the reminder, it will remind you about them in Messages.
How to add attachments and tags to reminders on iPhone and iPad
Apple Maps
Apple has been hard at work with Apple Maps. The entire US will get these new maps by the end of 2019, with other “select” countries next year.
These new maps are much more detailed with building layouts always visible, similar to Flyover but for everywhere. Users can also have a Favorites row on the launch screen, as well as “Collections” for organizing your favorites, sharing lists with friends, and more.
There is also a button that lets you “look around” on the map. It’s essentially Google Street View, but built-in natively to Apple Maps. Moving around in this view is also much more smooth than Google Street View. Apple also shared that there will be a junction view in China, as well as ETA sharing for everyone.
How to create Favorites and Collections in Maps on iPhone and iPad
Privacy and Security
iOS 13 brings a lot of new privacy and security features. There will be system-wide location tracking protection, or give an app permission to use location “just once.” If you give it permission to always use your location, iOS will provide you with detailed reports.
Apple will add “Sign in with Apple.” This uses Face ID to start a new account without revealing any personal information. While apps can request information, you can hide things like email, and Apple will create a random email that will forward to your actual email. These random emails can be disabled if need be.
This “Sign in with Apple” will also work on the web.
HomeKit
HomeKit Secure Video is Apple’s solution to cloud services that analyze video. With this, Apple will analyze video data locally, and then encrypt it and upload it to iCloud. All iCloud accounts will get 10 days of this service for free, and this will not count against your storage limits.
Brands like Logitech will be supporting this new feature, along with others.
HomeKit support is also coming to routers. This means that it will “firewall off” accessories. Brands like Linksys, Eero, and Spectrum.
These companies will support HomeKit Secure Video
Messages
Names and photos are shared more easily with iOS 13. So when you text someone, they’ll automatically get your name and photo.
Memoji come with more options, including makeup and accessories, such as monocles, hats, and AirPods. All of your Memoji also get a sticker pack that you can use in Messages, but they’ll also be built-in to the keyboard as emoji so you can use your new Memoji system-wide in any app.
The Memoji Stickers are now supported in any device with an A9 chip or later, so it’s more accessible than ever.
Camera and Photos
Camera and Photos get a lot of new features in iOS 13.
There are new Portrait Lighting effects, so you can increase or decrease the intensity of the light (think of moving actual lights closer or further from the subject).
Photos has a new photo editing interface. Just tap and drag for adjustments, and iOS 13 adds new editing tools like noise reduction.
This new photo editing interface also applies to video. And for the first time ever, you can rotate your videos.
There’s now a new way to navigate through your photos in iOS 13. The device will also use machine learning to remove duplicates and clutter. This is fantastic if you often have your Camera Roll cluttered with things like screenshots and receipts.
A “Photos” tab now appears in the Photos app, which is the new way to browse through your images. Pinch-to-zoom is still supported, along with a scrubber for years, months, days. Videos play directly in the browse view, as well as Live Photos.
In Months, everything is organized by event and month, with large thumbnails that can also play video. Years will have even bigger thumbnails.
AirPods
Siri will now be able to read incoming messages, and you can respond directly with the AirPods. You no longer need to say “Hey Siri” to reply, and this works with any app that supports SiriKit.
How to manage message announcements on iPhone and iPad
Audio Sharing
The new Audio Sharing feature lets you send your audio to another phone or device so they can hear what you’re listening to.
HomePod
HomePod now has Handoff support, so you can pass off your iOS device audio directly to your HomePod. This is also done automatically if your iPhone is near your HomePod.
Siri also supports live radio with iHeartRadio or TuneIn. This means access to over 100,000 stations.
HomePod now has multiple user support. It will recognize each person’s voice and respond with the corresponding information for each person.
Shortcuts
Rather than having you download the Shortcuts app separately, Shortcuts now comes built-in to every device with iOS 13.
CarPlay
The new CarPlay dashboard will show you much more information in a single glance. The music app has been redesigned from the ground up, and Siri does not cover the entire screen anymore. Siri will also now work with Pandora and Waze.
Siri
Speaking of Siri, it now uses Neural text to speech that is entirely generated by software. It sounds much more natural, and puts the emphasis on correct words in a longer sentence.
Accessibility
iOS 13 and macOS Catalina will both introduce Voice Control. This leverages Siri voice recognition technology so you can control your devices completely with your voice and dictation.
With Voice Control, you get rich dictation and editing, comprehensive navigation, iOS attention awareness, and on-device processing. This means that everything you say is not kept by Apple, and it’s just locally on your iOS or Mac.
Find My app
The new Find My app combines Find My Friends and Find My iPhone into a single app. This app will also be able to find offline devices. This is able to be done because each Apple device creates a secure Bluetooth beacon. Apple then creates an end-to-end encrypted mesh network of Apple devices to locate your offline device.
RealityKit
ARKit 3 is called RealityKit. With RealityKit, you will be able to do photorealistic rendering, environment and camera effects, and even motion capture.
With Reaity Composer, you can do real-time people occlusion (objects go behind them), and real-time motion capture with your iOS camera.
Minecraft will support the new ARKit 3, allowing players to fully interact with the Minecraft world.
Other miscellaneous bits
iOS 13 also has a low-data mode that you can activate to use less data, making it perfect for those with limited data plans. There is also Wi-Fi selection in the Control Center. iMessage supports Dual SIM. There is also Dolby Atmos playback.
What devices are compatible with iOS 13?
iOS 13 is iPhone and iPod touch only. iPads will now be getting iPadOS instead, which is a more powerful version of iOS that is specially designed for the larger screens.
Here are the iOS 13 compatible devices:
- iPhone XS Max
- iPhone XS
- iPhone XR
- iPhone X
- iPhone 8 Plus
- iPhone 8
- iPhone 7 Plus
- iPhone 7
- iPhone 6s Plus
- iPhone 6s
- iPhone SE
- iPod Touch (7th Generation)
What devices are compatible with iOS 13
When will iOS 13 be available?
Right now, the developer and public betas of iOS 13 are available. The final release of iOS 13 is expected sometime in September 2019.