Apple released the first (of hopefully many) iOS 13 betas on Monday, and so far so good. It’s stable at least and that volume indicator is truly perfect. But there’s a lot new inside iOS 13 and I hope to cover all of it, starting with 55 new features! This will be long though, so be prepared!
- DARK MODE
Of course, possibly the biggest thing about this update is the new Dark Mode, which is an updated version of the one brought from macOS. This brings a super nice dark look to the iOS look and feel and I welcome it!
2. SCHEDULED DARK MODE
Alongside the introduction of Dark Mode, Apple are allowing you to schedule it to turn on at certain times, such as when the sun sets and rises.
3. NEW VOLUME INDICATOR
This is definitely the most wanted feature! Gone are the days of that super obtrusive volume indicator. Turning up your volume no longer destroys the super tense moment in that movie you were watching or blocks the whole screen. 100% the best thing in this update!
4. NEW PORTRAIT LIGHTING CONTROL
In iOS 13, you can now control how much of the studio-quality lighting you put onto your pictures. So you can barely show it or you have the lights at the highest intensity.
5. HIGH KEY MONO
With the improvements to the camera in iOS 13, Apple also announced the High-Key Mono Portrait Mode which is just like the Portrait Mode with the black background except this time, it has a white background.
6. DECLUTTER PHOTOS
You can now de-clutter your photo album using Apple’s new machine-learning. So if you have 20 photos of the same thing, photos will now only pick the best of those and show you that one in the new Photos Tab
7. PHOTOS TAB
There is a now a Photos Tab, which allows you to view the best versions of your pictures from every day, month and year.
8. REDESIGNED EDITING
Editing your photos has become super easy, and the UI has completely redesigned. The old UI is gone (yay!) and the new one is super easy to use. You can control all your effects with just one click
9. VIDEO EDITING
You can now crop, enhance, and rotate your videos! Finally, after 13 years, you are FINALLY able to edit videos.
10. AUTO-PLAY LIVE PHOTOS
In the album view of your photos, Live Photos will now automatically play by themselves, which makes the photos app fee super alive!
11. SCREEN RECORDINGS IN ONE FOLDER
All the screen recordings are now place conveniently in one place, where they can be found easily.
12. SIGN IN WITH APPLE
Apple are introducing a new thing called “Sign in With Apple”. This is so that you do not have to sign in with Google and FaceBook and potentially risk your private information. Sign in With Apple is offering a secure way to sign into websites and is making sure your information remains private.
13. CAMERAS ARE NOW END-TO-END ENCRYPTED
Apple have designed a system that allows the cameras in your home to remain as private as they possible can be. Apple designed an end-to-end encrypted system that sends the information from your camera to iCloud, where it can only be viewed by you and the people in your Home.
14. AR 3D MAP IMMERSION
Apple Maps is getting some super cool upgrades this year, and one of those upgrades is an immersive 3D experience that lets you move around 360º and move seamlessly down the street that you are on.
15. NEW APPLE MAPS
Apple have actually rebuilt the Maps application from the ground up with iOS 13 and with that it is featuring super-realistic details for roads, parks, buildings, beaches and much more. Apple intends to have this map finished in the United States by the end of this year, with other countries by the end of next year.
16. FAVORITE LOCATIONS
You can now favourite locations in Apple Maps, and with one tap, you can get there in an instant.
17. SIRI IS GETTING A NEW VOICE
Siri has a new voice using advanced neural text-to-speech technology. It definitely sounds better compared to the iOS 12 Siri.
18. SIRI CAN NOW TUNE INTO RADIO
Siri can now tune into radio stations in both the car and the iPhone and iPad!
19. SIRI SHORTCUTS ARE NOW BUILT IN
Apple released the Siri Shortcuts last year, and it was. pretty huge success for them. Apple are increasing Siri Shortcuts by simply making it pre-installed and built in on every device when installed with iOS 13. Pretty cool.
20. SIRI NOW LEARNS THE VOICES OF THE FAMILY
Siri on HomePod now learns the voices of the family and tailors the responses based on the prison that is talking to them. This is like a version of multi-user support. This includes customising your Apple Music playlists to the person who is talking to Siri.
21. HAND OFF AUDIO FROM YOUR IPHONE TO HOMEPOD
With iOS 13, you will be able to hand off phone calls, music, and more to the HomePod so you can talk to the person on the phone using your HomePod.
22. IMPROVED MESSAGES SEARCH
Searching for messages is getting some improvements, with the search results being more accurate. Before you even type, Siri Knowledge picks out who you would be most likely to search for and promotes that to you first.
23. ANNOUNCE MESSAGES ON AIRPODS
Siri can now read incoming messages aloud. So you don’t have to stop what you’re doing to pick up your phone.
24. AUDIO SHARING WITH AIRPODS
You can now share your audio with other AirPods users just by bringing your iPhones together. I love this feature, and I can’t wait to try it out officially!
25. MEMOJI STICKERS
You can now make stickers of your Memoji, which automatically are made following the creation of your Memoji. This means you can use them in Messages or in an email.
26. NEW MEMOJI CUSTOMISATION
With iOS 13, you will be able to customise your Memoji with new hairstyles, hats, earrings, piercings and of course, the highlight of the show – AIRPODS!
27. NEW ANIMOJI
There are three new characters joining the Animoji family including a mouse, octopus, and cow.
28. SHARE YOUR NAME AND PHOTO IN MESSAGES
This means that you automatically share your name and photo when you start a new conversation with someone. You can decide whether you want your profile shared with everyone, with only your contacts, or just once. This could be pretty cool, but I’m not sure if I will ever use it.
29. RELATIONSHIP LABELS
In contacts, you can now place a relationship label which describes your relationship with the person in order to make it easier to find them.
30. ALTERNATE WORD IN PREDICTIVE TEXT
The Predictive Text bar in Messages is bringing in Alternate Word support, which suggests a better word for you to use in your messages or e-mails.
31. QUICKPATH
This is a new way to type in which you simply swipe from one letter to the next without lifting your finger to enter a word. On‑device machine learning recognises the path you draw and converts it into text. I actually think this is a super cool feature, and so far I’ve found it very useful!
32. ALL NEW REMINDERS APP
The reminders app has got a complete redesign! It very fluid so far, and it is much better than the last reminders app that was found in iOS 12.
33. QUICK TOOLBAR IN REMINDERS
The new quick toolbar allows you add times, dates, locations, flags, photos, and scanned documents to your reminders, which is very useful and is something I’ve been wishing Apple would add to reminders for years!
34. SMART LISTS IN REMINDERS
Smart lists is something that automatically organises your reminders and groups them by Scheduled, Flagged, and Today.
35. CARPLAY DASHBOARD REDESIGN
CarPlay Dashboard is getting a full redesign to make it easier to use. I haven’t actually tried this out yet, but it looks very cool!
36. CALENDAR ARRIVING TO CARPLAY
This allows you to check your calendar and your upcoming events in your car while driving and while the maps are running in the background!
37. MUSIC IN CARPLAY
Music now showcases album art in CarPlay, which reminds me a lot of the old CoverFlow that was found on iOS 6! I’ve missed it a lot so I’m glad it’s coming back in a way.
38. FACE ID 20% FASTER
Face ID on the X-Series iPhones is now 20% faster on iOS 13, which is a huge improvement and is noticeably faster!
39. 2X FASTER APP LAUNCH
Apple are saying that with iOS 13, apps will now launch a full 2 times faster than iOS 12. This is due to the new way that the apps are being built on the App Store, which reduces how big the applications are on your phone.
40. APP UPDATES NOW 60% SMALLER
Thanks to the new way that apps are compiled on the App Store, updating apps is now 60% smaller in terms of size.
41. DOWNLOAD APPS OVER CELLULAR
There is no longer a restriction on how much you can download on a cellular connection. Previously, you could not download apps or updates that were over 150MB, which was then upgraded to 200MB. In iOS 13, the limit is removed entirely.
42. VOICE CONTROL
Control your iPhone with just your voice. You can control the device using just your voice. This occurs when you see numbers next to buttons, and iOS 13 does the action based on the number you said.
43. FONT STYLE IN MAIL
You can now change the font in your mail on iOS, which allows you to create special looking emails!
44. CHANGE FONT SIZE IN MAIL
You can now change the font size in Mail, which allows you to create headers and subtext in Mail.
45. COLOR, INDENTING AND OUTDENTING
You can now add colour to your emails. You can also format your emails using indenting and outdenting, which is a super good idea!
46. NUMBERED AND BULLETED LISTS IN MAIL
You can now format your emails with bulleted and numbered lists like you can currently do in Apple Notes! I love this feature, and this feature, combined with the ones previously mentioned, creates desktop-class emails!
47. MENSTRUAL CYCLE MONITORING IN HEALTH
You can now track menstrual cycles in the Health Application on the iPhone, which is a super helpful feature and will help many people out in the world.
48. FERTILE WINDOW PREDICTION
The Cycle Monitoring will also be able to tell you when you are at your most fertile.
49. MORE FINDER-LIKE FILES APP
Files is getting a pretty big overhaul, where it is becoming much more like the Mac Finder App. You can now use external storage and SD Cards!
50. USE CAMERA VIEW IN THIRD-PARTY APPS
You can now connect your Cameras to your iPhone, which allows you to move pictures straight from your camera to apps like Lightroom.
51. USE DUALSHOCK 4 OR XBOX ONE CONTROLLER WITH IPHONE
Sony and Microsoft are adding support to the iPhone for the use of Sony’s PS4 DualShock 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One Controller. This enables you to play games on your iPhone using these controllers and in terms of PS4, you can play Remote Play with these controllers.
52. FONT MANAGER
Apple are getting inspired by the Mac FontBook application. With iOS 13, you will be able to install custom fonts from the App Store for use in applications such as Pages, Photoshop, iMovie and more.
53. ORAL HEALTH
This is a feature in the health app which helps you monitor how healthy your teeth are based ok how often and how long you brush your teeth for.
54. WEAK PASSWORD WARNINGS
If you try to use a weak password when signing up for a new website account, Safari will now warn you warns you.
55. END-TO-END ENCRYPTION IN iCLOUD
Your Safari history and open tabs that have synced with iCloud are now protected with end‑to‑end encryption.
Conclusion
iOS 13 is one of the biggest updates to the OS that runs the iPhone. It brings with some really cool features (dark mode/new volume indicator being my favourites) and I can’t wait see how Apple continue to refine and improve iOS 13 throughout the betas this Summer!