Every year, Apple holds an annual conference that takes place at Apple Park: the Worldwide Developers Conference, known as WWDC.
This year, the conference takes in an online format from the week of June 6 through 10.
During the event, Apple discloses its latest technologies and platforms while giving developers access to Apple engineers, designers, and other experts. They could get support and learn about the latest design principles, best practices, and design patterns.
As Tim Cook said in the opening video: Apple delivers amazing experiences for users across the world while providing developers incredible opportunities, so they can innovate, create, and collaborate, making apps that can change the world.
So, if you are an Apple lover or a developer looking to innovate, check out their latest updates disclosed during the WWDC22!
iOS 16
The iOS16 offers more possibilities for iMessages, improvements on Wallet, Maps, Mail, and more. It also introduces better collaboration settings and a new set of personalization features for the Lock Screen, as you’ll see below.
Lock Screen
The Lock Screen announcement was one of the highlights of the WWDC22. You can now customize your entire lock screen.
For those who have Apple watches, the new features on iPhone Lock Screens are very similar to the watch faces. It allows you to customize widgets, change the time’s font and color, and set richer color filters for your photos. Users also have the option to enable a “Photo Shuffle” wallpaper.
To personalize, you’ll do the same as on apple watches; give it a long press in the center of the Lock Screen, then tap the “Customize” button on an existing wallpaper or choose “Add New” to create new Lock Screens.
But here comes the big news for developers: Apple now provides the Lock Screen widget API so that developers can build their own ones. This way, users won’t be limited to utilizing first-party widgets only.
iOS 16 is currently available as a developer beta. The free public iOS 16 beta is supposed to arrive in July.
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Notifications
Instead of coming through from the top, notifications now roll up from the bottom. In addition, you can choose how to view them: as a list, stack, or just numbers.
Another update is the “Live Notifications,” where developers will be able to adopt this feature with the new Live Notifications API.
iMessage + Visual Look Up + Live Text
The new features on iMessage finally let you edit messages after sending them, “Undo Send” and mark them as unread.
Visual Look Up: it’s a feature that recognizes objects like pets, landmarks, or plants and gives you detailed information about what’s in your images. And, if you touch and hold on to the object, you can lift it away from the background and place it in apps like Messages.
Live Text: the feature released on iOS15 now expands to video. You can pause a video on any frame and interact with the text— which can be great for copying code samples.
For those who don’t know what Live Text is, we explain. Imagine you took a picture of a real estate sign, so you can save the phone number later. With Live Text, you don’t have to manually type it out, double-checking the number in the photo.
It lets you pull any text from pictures on your phone. And once you’ve pulled the text, you can interact with it. Live Text works with typed and handwritten text. With the new camera view, you can also use Live Text while in Translation apps.
An excellent innovation for world travelers is the addition of quick actions to this feature, which will be great for translating currency or foreign languages.
For developers, a new Live Text API allows them to tap into the Live Text features and be able to grab text straight from videos in apps like Vimeo.
Together, Live Text + Visual Look Up gives you more freedom to handle information from photos and videos across iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.
Dictation + SharePlay + Shared With You
On-device Dictation system: the new system allows users to easily switch between typing and dictation mode to compose messages.
SharePlay: in an attempt to turn the Messages app into more of a social network, Apple is extending SharePlay to iMessage (which on iOS15 was only possible through FaceTime).
Shared With You: you will be able to integrate “Shared With You” with iMessages -and developers can adopt a new API. This feature helps people easily find content in apps that someone has shared with them through Messages.
What else? Apple is allowing third-party apps to integrate with Siri with no extra work, with the App Intents API.
Wallet + Apple Pay Later
Users will be able to securely share their birthdays with apps to verify age in states that support Digital IDs for Wallet.
Apple Pay Later: this new financing feature allows users to split Apple Pay purchases into six weekly payments with no interest, this is valid for physical stores and online. The payments will be managed via the Wallet app.
Maps
Multi-stop routing: users can plan up to 15 stops in advance and also use Siri to add additional stops to a route while driving.
New Transit features: Maps will allow you to plan transit routes with specific information on pricing while integrating with Apple Pay.
Apple Maps flyover: the company has expanded this feature and redesigned cartography capabilities to new cities.
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Sports
Together with Live Activities, the Apple TV app will provide sports fans with the scores and play-by-play actions right on their Lock Screen.
Also, users in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia will be able to find sports information in Apple News, including through widgets and push notifications.
Photo Library Sharing
New Family Sharing features for more granular control over what content a child can access.
The new iCloud shared photo library it’s a separate library that can be shared with up to five people and everyone can contribute and collaborate.
After you set up the Shared library, with a simple switch right on the Camera, you can send pictures straight to the Shared Library. Of course, you can turn it off if there’s something you don’t want to share and the sharing switch can be automatically enabled.
The photos you want to share with the family group can be selected based on criteria like who’s in the photo by facial recognition. Be aware that any edits will be synced and updated on all shared devices.
Home
iOS16 is also bringing new features to the Home app, with a specific focus on the upcoming Matter standard. The Matter standard “provides the underlying technology” for new smart home accessories, and Apple is implementing support for HomeKit.
You can now see all of your rooms on a single page, new category options, and better support for multiple cameras The classic Home app tiles have been redesigned so less important tiles are smaller.
Personal Safety
During the WWDC22 Apple also announced a new Personal Safety feature that allows users to quickly disable sharing with another user, particularly in instances of an abusive relationship.
The feature also makes it easier to manage who you’re sharing specific information with, including location, account data, messages, and more.
Ventura
The latest version of the most advanced desktop operating system comes with a great addition: Stage Manager.
Stage Manager automatically organizes open apps and windows, so you can concentrate on what you’re working on and easily move through tasks.
So now, when you open a new app on Ventura, those already open will seamlessly move to the left while the app you are currently working on stays in the front and center.
Another extra feature is that Continuity Camera lets you use your iPhone as a webcam. And with Handoff coming to FaceTime, you can start a FaceTime call on your iPhone and easily pass it over to your Mac.
“New tools like Stage Manager make focusing on tasks and moving between apps and windows easier and faster than ever, and Continuity Camera brings new videoconferencing features to any Mac, including Desk View, Studio Light, and more.” Craig Federighi
MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro with M2
Apple announced the redesigned MacBook Air powdered by the new M2 chip. Taking the capabilities and performance of M1 even further.
MacBook Air features a larger 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display, a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, a four-speaker sound system, up to 18 hours of battery life, and MagSafe charging. The new sound system produces a great stereo separation and vocal clarity.
The Magic Keyboard features a full-height function row with Touch ID and a spacious, industry-leading Force Touch trackpad.
watchOS 9
watchOS 9 comes with new watch faces and introduces enhanced complications on some classic ones along with background color editing for additional personalization.
The new Portraits face showcases the depth effect on more photos—which makes your photos more vivid—including cats, dogs, and landscapes.
Focus: it now allows users to select an Apple Watch face to automatically appear when they start a specific Focus on iPhone, helping you to concentrate on your objectives.
Workout: the app has been updated to provide more details for measuring performance, and new training experiences to help users reach fitness goals.
Sleep: it provides even more insights with the introduction of sleep stages. Using signals from the accelerometer and heart rate sensor, Apple Watch can detect when you are in REM, Core, or Deep sleep.
Medications: the new experience help you manage and track the medications and supplements you take. You can create a medications list, and set up schedules and reminders.
CarPlay
The new CarPlay expands from controlling just Apple apps to controlling the entire vehicle. By deeply integrating with the vehicle, the next generation of CarPlay will be able to provide a unified and consistent experience.
It will let you control the radio or change the climate directly through CarPlay.
CarPlay will use the vehicle data to seamlessly render the speed, fuel level, temperature, and more on the instrument cluster. Users will be able to personalize their driving experience by choosing different gauge cluster designs.
iPadOS 16
iPad is now able to handle the same level of multitasking as a traditional desktop. Thanks to the Stage Manager, users can create overlapping windows, drag and drop windows, and even use external displays just like it was a MacBook Pro.
Ultimately, it introduces new ways to collaborate with others through Messages, making it easy to start collaborating and managing shared content across Files, Keynote, Numbers, Pages, Notes, Reminders, and Safari, as well as third-party apps.
A public beta for iPadOS 16 opens up next month.
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