EXPECT better user experience and more on-device intelligence in the upcoming iOS 15. That's what Apple promised its iPhone users at its Worldwide Developers Conference 21 (WWDC21) event this morning.
This is the second time Apple hosted the event online due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Apple's chief executive officer Tim Cook made a brief appearance at the beginning and the end of the in front of an audience full of Memojis representing developers from all over the world.
Enhancing user experience
Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi, said the new iOS 15 will bring new powerful features that will enhance the iPhone experience.
These include enhancements to FaceTime, Apple Maps, Weather, Wallet, Safari and Siri.
"For many people, iPhone has become indispensable, and this year we've created even more ways it can enhance our daily lives," said Federighi.
"iOS 15 helps users stay connected while sharing experiences in real time, gives them new tools to help reduce distraction and find focus, uses intelligence to enhance the photos experience, and, with huge upgrades to Maps, brings new ways to explore the world," he said at the event streamed from Apple headquarters in Cupertino, US.
For better conversations
The first enhancement iOS 15 brings to the iPhone is a better FaceTime experience.
With the new iOS update, conversations with friends and family feel even more natural.
Apple has added spatial audio, voices in a FaceTime call sound as if they are coming from where the person is positioned on the screen, and new microphone modes separate the user's voice from background noise.
Besides that, Portrait mode is now available for FaceTime and designed specifically for video calls. This will give users the ability to blur their background and put themselves in focus. While using Group FaceTime, a new grid view enables participants to see more faces at the same time.
Apple also introduced SharePlay on FaceTime, which allows users to listen to songs together with Apple Music, watch a TV show or movie in sync, or share their screen to view apps together.
This new feature works across iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and with shared playback controls, anyone in a SharePlay session can play, pause, or jump ahead.
Apple said SharePlay even extends to Apple TV, so users can watch shows or movies on a big screen while connecting over FaceTime, and SharePlay will keep everyone's playback in sync. Disney+, ESPN+, HBO Max, Hulu, MasterClass, Paramount+, Pluto TV, TikTok, Twitch, and many others are integrating SharePlay into their apps — creating entirely new ways to connect.
FaceTime calls also extend beyond Apple devices with the ability to create a link from iPhone, iPad, or Mac, and share it through Messages, Calendar, Mail, or third-party apps, so anyone can join a FaceTime call from their web browser on Android and Windows devices.
Apple assures that FaceTime calls on the web remain end-to-end encrypted, so privacy is not compromised.
Giving users a better focus
The iOS 15 will help users focus and reduce distraction.
Focus is a new feature that filters notifications and apps based on what a user wants to focus on. Users can set their device to help them be in the moment by creating a custom Focus or selecting a suggested Focus, which uses on-device intelligence to suggest which people and apps are allowed to notify them.
According to Apple, Focus suggestions are based on users' context, like during their work hours or while they're winding down for bed, and when Focus is set on one Apple device, it automatically applies to their other Apple devices.
For example, users can create Home Screen pages with apps and widgets that apply to moments of focus to only display relevant apps and reduce temptation. When a user's Focus is blocking incoming notifications, their status is automatically displayed to others in Messages, reflecting that a user is not currently reachable.
New notifications experience
Apple has also redesigned Notifications with iOS 15, by adding contact photos for people and larger icons for apps that make them even easier to identify. To help reduce distraction, a new notification summary collects non-time-critical notifications for delivery at a more opportune time, such as in the morning and evening. Using on-device intelligence, notifications are arranged by priority, with the most relevant notifications rising to the top, and based on a user's interactions with apps. Urgent messages will be delivered immediately, so important communications will not end up in the summary, and it's easy to temporarily mute any app or messaging thread for the next hour or for the day.
On-device intelligence
One of the new features on iOS 15 that will become handy to many users is the Live Text, which uses on-device intelligence to recognise text in a photo and allow users to take action.
For example, users can search for and locate the picture of a handwritten family recipe, or capture a phone number from a storefront with the option to place a call. With the power of the Apple Neural Engine, the Camera app can also quickly recognise and copy text in the moment, such as the Wi-Fi password displayed at a local coffee shop. With Visual Look Up, users can learn more about popular art and landmarks around the world, plants and flowers found in nature, breeds of pets, and even find books.
Next is Spotlight, which now uses intelligence to search photos by location, people, scenes, or objects, and using Live Text, Spotlight can find text and handwriting in photos. Spotlight now offers web image search and all-new rich results for actors, musicians, TV shows, and movies. Enhanced results for contacts show recent conversations, shared photos, and even their location if shared through Find My.
Photos includes the biggest update ever to Memories, with a fresh new look, an interactive interface, and integration with Apple Music, which uses on-device intelligence to personalise song suggestions that bring memories to life.
Redesigned browsing experience
Safari gets a new design that makes controls easier to reach with one hand and puts content front and centre. The new tab bar is compact and lightweight, and floats at the bottom of the screen, so users can easily swipe between tabs. Tab Groups allow users to save tabs and easily access them at any time across iPhone, iPad, or Mac. New features, such as the customisable start page and web extensions on iOS, make Safari even more personal and powerful.
Apple Maps gets better
The iOS 15 takes Maps even further with brand new ways to navigate and explore. Users will experience significantly enhanced details in cities for neighbourhoods, commercial districts, elevation, and buildings, new road colours and labels, custom-designed landmarks, and a new night-time mode with a moonlit glow. This is a whole new way of looking at the world through Maps.
For example, when navigating using iPhone or CarPlay, Maps features a three-dimensional city-driving experience with new road details that help users better see and understand important details like turn lanes, medians, bike lanes, and pedestrian crosswalks. Transit riders can find nearby stations more easily and pin favourite lines.
Maps automatically follows along with a selected transit route, notifying users when it's nearly time to disembark, and riders can even keep track on Apple Watch. With iOS 15, users can simply hold up iPhone, and Maps generates a highly accurate position to deliver detailed walking directions in augmented reality.
Apple Wallet
Apple Wallet adds support for additional types of keys, making it possible to access everyday places with just a tap. Last summer, Apple introduced digital car keys, and BMW was the first car company to add its keys, allowing users to tap to unlock. This year, digital car keys get even better with support for Ultra Wideband technology, so users can securely unlock and start their supported vehicle without removing their iPhone from a pocket or bag.
The iPhone can also be used to unlock a user's home, office, or even a hotel room — all through keys stored in Wallet.
New Privacy features
With on-device speech recognition, audio of Siri requests is now processed entirely on iPhone by default, and performance improves significantly.
Apple introduced Mail Privacy Protection that stops senders from learning whether an email has been opened, and hides IP addresses so senders can't learn a user's location or use it to build a profile on them.
Apple said the App Privacy Report offers an overview of how apps use the access that has been granted to location, photos, camera, microphone, and contacts in the last seven days, and which other domains are contacted.
Redesigned Weather and Notes apps
On iOS 15, Weather includes more graphical displays of weather data, full-screen maps, and dynamic layouts that change based on conditions. Beautifully redesigned animated backgrounds more accurately reflect the sun's position and precipitation, and notifications highlight when rain or snow starts and stops.
Notes, meanwhile, adds user-created tags that make it easy to quickly categorise notes, and mentions allow members of shared notes to notify one another of important updates. An all-new Activity view shows the recent history of a shared note.
Availability
The developer preview of iOS 15 is available to Apple Developer Program members at developer.apple.com starting today, and a public beta will be available to iOS users next month at beta.apple.com. New software features will be available this fall as a free software update for iPhone 6s and later.
Go to apple.com/ios/ios-15-preview.