Apple iOS 13 Features 

iOS 13 Features: The 13th major release of the iOS operating system was announced by Apple at Worldwide Developers Conference on June 3, 2019. iOS 13 was officially released on September 19, 2019, however, a public beta version has been available since June itself. The official version is released only for the iPhone and iPod Touch and is now available for all iPhones since the iPhone 6s.  With this update, Apple aims to make your phone faster, more secure and much smarter than before.

With the update finally running in our phones, we did a roundup of some of our favourite features that you can enjoy with the new iOS 13.

iOS 13 Photos Features

With probably the highest number of updates, photos have been completely revamped to make your life easier.

    • All new photos tab- An all-new photos tab will make browsing easier. It will also curate your photos and videos making them easy to find, relive and share.
    • Auto-playing Live Photos and videos- Live photos and videos will now play, muted, as you scroll through your library. Making your library look more lively.
    • Smart photo previews- Now using intelligence, photos will find the best part of your photo in photo previews and show you a larger and uncropped version of your photos in Days, Months and Years.
    • Contextual transitions- It will now be easier to switch between Days and All Photos without losing your place in the Photos tab.
    • Removes similar shots and clutter- Better intelligence, will hide duplicate photos, screenshots, documents etc, enabling you to focus on your best photos.
    • Significant events- Categorization basis events in months, to focus on the events that matter the most to you.
    • Event Titles- It will not just categorize your events, but will also add names basis concert performances, significant days, holiday etc.
    • On This Day- Focusing on memories, it will show you photos taken in or around a particular date in the past years.
    • Birthday Mode- Assign birthdays to people in your People album, and iOS13 will highlight your photos of them on their birthday
    • Zoom in and Zoom out- You will have the ability to decide if you want to zoom into your library for a closer look or zoom out and look at multiple photos at once.
    • Screen recordings smart album- A new album for keeping all your screen recordings in one place
    • Search enhancements- Easier to combine multiple search terms, to search for photos
    • Music for Memories- Memory movies will have a soundtrack based on your Apple Music library
    • Extended Live Photos playback- If you have taken multiple live photos within 1.5 seconds each other, photos will automatically extend the video when you hold and play a live photo
    • Preview Intensity- While editing, you will now be able to see at a glance the intensity at which effects have been increased or decreased.
    • Individually review each effect- Just tap to see the before and after of an effect on any photo
    • Filter Control- The power to control the intensity of any filter is now in your hands
    • Enhance Control- You can now control the intensity of even automatic adjustments and edits. If you increase or decrease Enhance, other adjustments will automatically adjust to it.
    • Video Editing Support- You can crop, rotate and/or apply filters to your videos with better video editing support. Video edits are also non-destructive now.
    • Vibrance- You can now boost muted colors, without having an effect on saturated colors.
    • White Balance- Easy to balance the warmth of an image now, but adjusting temperature and tint
    • Sharper- You can make images sharper but making the edges more defined
    • Definition- Much easier now to increase image clarity but just adjusting the definition slider
    • Noise Reduction- Remove unwanted noise from your photos such as graininess
    • Vignette- Use Strength, Radius and Falloff to highlight a moment in your photo
    • Updates to auto adjustments- You can now straighten, crop and the adjust your photos automatically
    • Pinch-to-zoom support- Apple now allows you to pinch to zoom to a specific area while editing to see changes
    • Image Capture API- This allows you to import photos directly into an app when a camera is connected to your iOS device.

iOS 13 Dark Mode Features

One of the most awaited updates, iOS 13 finally brings Dark Mode to iPhone. It changes the white screen backgrounds to blacks and greys, making the phone easier to read at night. It is easier on your eyes and is less disturbing to people around you.

      • Scheduled- You can schedule when you want your dark mode to turn on or off, completely depending on what suits you best
      • Turn on manually- There will be a button on the new control centre to simply turn on or turn off the dark mode, buy a single tap
      • Wallpapers- There will be new range wallpapers customised to suit the dark mode that will change automatically when you switch from dark mode to light
      • System Integration- It is integrated throughout the operating system; built-in apps, settings etc
      • Works with your favourite apps- Apple has enabled an API that will let third-party developers implement dark mode in their apps

iOS 13 Camera Features

Since most of the updates today are incomplete without improvements in the camera, Apple has got 3 major changes to mostly its portrait mode.

        • Adjust portrait lighting intensity- Your camera now allows you to adjust the position and intensity of light in studio lighting. You can choose to increase or decrease lighting as per your liking
        • High-Key Mono- A new portrait effect, called High-Key Mono will create a look with the monochromatic subject on a white background
        • Updates to Portrait Segmentation API- A new API will enable developers to create new effects for Portrait Mode photos.

iOS 13 Privacy and Security Features

Giving you better control of your own security and privacy and enhancing features to protect your data, iOS 13 has the following updates-

    • App Location Permissions- An already present feature, it now enables you to control your location data to apps with better-fine-tuned controls
    • App location transparency- You will not get a notification whenever an app is using your location in the background.
    • Wi-Fi and Bluetooth location privacy enhancements- New controls and better API will now prevent apps from accessing your location without your permission while using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth
    • Location Controls for shared photos- It is now up to you if you want to share your location when you share a photo

iOS 13 Keyboard Features

One of the most exciting updates in iOS 13, keyboard will now have swipe feature.

    • QuickPath- The QuickType keyboard now includes QuickPath, which will enable you to form words and sentence purely by swiping on the keyboard from one letter to another.
    • Language support- Added Support for English, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, German, French, Italian and Portuguese is now included.
    • Alternate word options- The predictive bar will show you alternate word options and not just predictive text
    • Automatic language selection in Dictation- You can now select up to 4 languages and dictation will automatically detect what language you are speaking

iOS 13 Reminders Features

Now featuring a brand-new app redesigned to make it more powerful and intelligent, so you can keep better track of your reminders

    • New quick toolbar- The new design will feature a quick toolbar right above the keyboard to add time, date, location etc to your reminders
    • Enhanced Siri Intelligence- Reminders will predict your longer sentences and provide relevant suggestions. Siri will also recognise possible reminder situations if you’re chatting with someone and then make suggestions to create a reminder for the same
    • Attachments- You can add documents, links, photos etc to your reminders
    • Subtasks and grouped lists- Apple now allows you to simply drag and drop multiple subtasks under a single reminder. You can also make grouped lists
    • Smart Lists- Smart lists will organise your reminders in a way that you see only the reminders important for that particular day, or those flagged important
    • Messages integration- You can tag someone in a reminder, and the same will pop up whenever you are messaging with them next
    • Customise list appearance- You can customise your lists, and pick from a range of 12 colors and 60 expressive symbols

iOS 13 Siri Features

The new Siri voice will sound more natural and will also feature a new Indian English Voice.

    • Siri Intelligence- Siri will now give you personalised suggestions Podcasts, Maps and Safari
    • Sirikit for Audio- Siri can now play music, audio, podcasts etc with third-party apps

iOS 13 India Features

With much excitement, Apple has launched updates specific to India in iOS 13.

    • Indian English Siri voices- As discussed above, there will now be more natural, male and female Indian English Siri Voices
    • Support for more Indian Languages- Apple now supports 22 official Indian languages and 15 new languages were added to the keyboard
    • Typing prediction for Hindi- As the prediction works for an English keyboard, the predictive text will now suggest words if typing in Hindi also
    • New fonts- There are new language documents fonts and system fonts for various Indian languages

iOS 13 Maps Features

With probably some of the most updates, second only to Photos, Maps will see a number of changes including a new map that has been made from scratch with fresh features and more realistic details of roads, parks etc.

    • Collections- You can now build collections of your favourite places and easily share them with your friends and family
    • Look around- Maps will now allow you to explore a place before going there with an immersive 3D experience that allows you to have a seamless ride later
    • Favourites- You can create a list of places you visit often; home, school, gym, café etc and get navigations with one tap
    • Share ETA- You will be able to share your estimated time of arrival with your friends, family etc and the same will be updated in case of delay
    • Customer feedback- Easier to submit incorrect information, business locations, operating hours etc with the new and improved customer feedback
    • Real-time transit- You can view real-time departure times of buses, trains etc and the current location of your bus/train as well
    • Flight status- Updated information about your flight status, gate locations, departure times etc
    • Place cards- Updated place cards will hold more dynamically updated information for your entertainment needs like movie shows, restaurants timings etc
    • Improved CarPlay experience- Favourites and Collections are now also available in CarPlay, and provides easier route planning, search and Junction View in Chine
    • MapKit- The updates include point-of-interest filtering, camera zoom and support for Dark Mode

iOS 13 Sign in with Apple Features

Excitingly, you can now sign in to any app and websites using your Apple ID and do away with the pain of creating new accounts or filling forms. It can easily be done by just tapping on your ID, or Touch ID or Face ID.

    • Respect for your privacy- Despite easy signing in, Apple won’t track your profile when you sign in with Apple. The only access you’ll need to give is your name and email address
    • Built-in security- Being able to sign in with your Apple ID will require two-factor authentication, providing full protection to your accounts
    • Hide your email- Interestingly, you can now choose to have Apple create a unique email address for you if you don’t want to share your real email address with a particular app
    • Works Everywhere- Sign in with Apple works across platforms, web, apps, Android and/or Windows.

iOS 13 Memoji and Messages Features

A number of exciting updates have come to messages and Memoji including new Memoji stickers that allow you to automatically generate stickers based on your Memoji and Animoji characters.

    • Share your name and photo- You can now choose to automatically share your name and photo when you initiate a conversation. You can control if you want to share it with everyone, just your contacts or nobody at all.
    • Improved Search- Easier and improved search in messages; you can look at recent messages, people, photos, links etc. When you search for something in particular, Messages categorises them and highlights matching terms.
    • Improved Memoji customisation- Newer makeup tools to customise blush, eyeshadow etc. Along with being able to add braces, piercings etc. Also, 30 new hairstyles and 15 new headwear
    • Animoji hardware support- All devices with an A9 chip or later support Memoji and Animoji sticker packs
    • Improved details pane- The details pane in every conversation organises links, documents, locations etc making them easy to find
    • New Animoji- Added three new Animoji characters- Mouse, Octopus and Cow

iOS 13 App Store Features

With only three, but exciting updates, here is how your App Store will change-

    • Apple Arcade- Probably one of the most awaited features of this update, Apple Arcade is a subscription service for over 100 new games with no ads or purchases required. The subscription fees give you access to download and play any game from the Apple Arcade. These games are also available multi-platform- iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV etc.
    • Option to download large apps over cellular- What’s been a problem earlier, Apple will now enable you to download large apps over the cellular connection
    • Support for Arabic and Hebrew- Arabic and Hebrew will now be supported in the App store

iOS 13 Mail Features

A number of updates to Mail, it now will be more organised and in your control

    • Multicoloured flags- There will be a variety of coloured flags to choose from when you flag an email. These flags will also sync via iCloud to Mail on all your Apple devices.
    • Extended Reply menu- Adding onto the reply, reply all and forward menus, you will now also have access to the options to notify, mark as unread, move to junk etc.
    • New Format Bar- A new format bar is now placed above your keyboard, enabling you to simply tap for attachment options, scan, insert a photo or video etc.
    • Updated photo selector- Unlike the current version where while uploading a photo it occupies a large portion of your screen, the new version will have a small photo preview
    • Block sender- Easily block a sender, across your Apple devices and the mails and messages automatically move to trash
    • Mute thread- You can easily mute an email thread across your Apple devices
    • Desktop-class text formatting- A new menu for formatting text to make sure your email looks professional. New formatting includes color, style, size, fonts, alignment etc.

iOS 13 AirPods Features

Apple announced two AirPods updates, however, they will be available later in the year and for 2nd generation AirPods only.

    • Audio Sharing- You can now pair two set of AirPods to one iPhone at the same time and listen to the same audio with a friend
    • Announce messages with Siri- Siri will be able to read notifications from your messaging apps to your AirPods if you can’t reach for your phone

iOS 13 Performance Features

Probably a very important update, iOS 13 will have significant improvements in performance.

    • Faster app launch- In the new iOS 13 apps will launch up to two times faster as compared to the older versions
    • Faster Face ID unlock- All devices with a face ID unlock system, will now unlock 30 per cent faster
    • Smaller app downloads- All apps in the app store will now be stored in a way that makes them up to 50 per cent smaller
    • Smaller app updates- All app updates will now be up to 60 per cent smaller on an average

iOS 13 Accessibility Features

Apple announced a large number of updates to accessibility, including but not limited to a new way of controlling your Apple devices completely via Voice Control.

    • Accurate Dictation- Using Siri speech recognition engine, Voice control will give you the latest in machine learning for speech-to-text transcripts
    • Add custom words- It is now in your control to add any custom words that you may use often to ensure Voice Control recognizes those words
    • On-device processing- By making sure all audio processing happens only on your device, Apple is ensuring that your personal data stays safe and private
    • Rich text editing- It is now much easier to edit or replace phrases in case of mistakes. For example- “Replace I’m almost there with I just arrived”. In fact, with fine-grained editing, it is easier to select text also. Simply say “Select entire paragraph”, “Move down two lines” etc.
    • Word and emoji suggestions- You can now easily just ask for replacements and suggestions of any particular words etc.
    • Seamless transitions from dictation to commands- Excitingly, Voice Control can now easily distinguish between text and commands hereby understanding contextual cues. For instance, say, “What time will you reach? Tap send.” in Messages, and Voice Control sends “What time will you reach?” .You can also say, “Delete that”, and Voice Control knows to delete what you just typed.
    • Comprehensive navigation- You can now navigate an app entirely based on your voice commands.
    • Navigation commands- By navigating commands, you can quickly open apps, search the Internet, press the home button etc.
    • Numbers- A feature we are really looking forward to try; if you say “show numbers”, numbers will appear next to all clickable items on your screen. So when stuck on a complicated app, numbers will appear in all possible menus and you can then just say the number to click it.
    • Grids- If you say “show grid”, a grid will appear on your screen making it easier to tap, zoom drag etc.
    • Gesture with your voice- Just use your voice to perform any gestures, you can tap, pinch, zoom, press the Home Button etc.
    • Recorded commands- You can pre-record multistep gestures for your apps on your device. For instance, if you want to send a message with hearts, you can pre-record this to make sure it quickly goes with hearts
    • Attention awareness- With a newly added feature called “Attention Awareness”, Voice Control will go to sleep if and when you turn your head away from the TrueDepth camera. Meaning, you can talk to your friend without worrying about a bunch of commands going to your phone

At least a hundred more features and updates await you in the iOS 13 update. We are excited to see how it changes and enhances our phones and devices to better, in the longer run. Find out more about how our expert architects at TechAhead, a mobile app development company can help you build a successful iOS app.