Written by Federico Zanetello Feli Bernutz

Description: The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off with exciting reveals, inspiration, and new opportunities. Join the worldwide developer community for an in-depth look at the future of Apple platforms, directly from Apple Park.

iOS 16

Lock Screen

Focus on personalization.

• can be now customized similarly to Apple Watch faces
  • can change color theme (which applies effect to both text and photo)
  • can change the font of the clock
  • to customize it, press and hold on the lockscreen
  • can have multiple lockscreens
  • can have special lockscreens like weather, that will take over the whole lockscreen to show the weather status
  • can automatically changed with Focus

• can display app widgets
• The camera and flashlight buttons are still there and cannot be customized
• Notifications are now placed at the bottom of the Lock Screen
• New Live Activities
  • a combination between a widget and notifications to show important events to the user as they happen
  • this replaces sending multiple notifications to the user
  • useful for keeping up with a food delivery state, a car ride, a sports game
  • this is also used by music.app and fitness.app
  • Live Activities API available starting in an update to iOS 16 later this year

Focus

Further extended its functionality.

• used to filter app content
  • in Safari.app, you can filter the displayed tabs (e.g., only work related tabs during "work" focus)
  • similarly, you can filter conversations in Messages, accounts in Mail, and events in Calendar
  • new Focus Filter API for developers

Messages.app

• can now edit sent messages
• can unsend messages
• can mark threads unread

Shared with You

• new API for developers to use (previously this feature was exclusive to the system only)

SharePlay

• Users can discover which apps support it directly from the FaceTime call
• Can start a SharePlay session from messages.app

Dictation

• can switch between voice and touch without having to reactivate dictation over and over
• the keyboard still shows while dictation is active

Shortcuts

• can create new shortcuts without using SiriKit with a new App Intents API

Live Text

• video support
• quick actions: can covert currency and translate foreign languages right from the video/photo
• Translate.app has now a camera view for live translations
• new Live Text API, for extracting text from photos and videos

Apple Pay

• Apple Pay Later
  • split the cost of an Apple Pay purchase into four equal payments spread over six weeks
  • zero interest and no fees of any kind
  • available everywhere Apple Pay is accepted in apps and online
  • upcoming payments are tracked through Wallet.app

• Apple Pay Order Tracking
  • enables merchants to deliver detailed receipt and tracking information directly to Wallet

Apple Maps

• new redesigned map coming to:
  • Belgium
  • France
  • Israel
  • Liechtenstein
  • Luxembourg
  • Monaco
  • Netherlands
  • New Zealand
  • Palestinian Territories
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Switzerland

• new city experience coming to:
  • Atlanta
  • Chicago
  • Las Vegas
  • London
  • Los Angeles
  • Melbourne
  • Miami
  • Montreal
  • New York
  • Philadelphia
  • San Diego
  • San Francisco
  • Seattle
  • Sydney
  • Toronto
  • Vancouver
  • Washington DC

New features:

• multistop routing - up to 15 stops in advance
• transit fares display
• apps can now:
  • display maps with City Experience
  • display Look Around images from Apple Maps

Family Sharing

• iCloud Shared Photo Library
  • help share photos seamlessly and even automatically
  • separate iCloud library that everyone can contribute to and collaborate on
  • shared with up to five other people.
  • You can share either:
    • everything already in your library
    • choose what to include based on a start date or the people in the photos

Privacy

• Safety Check
  • a new section in Settings where you can quickly review and reset the access you've granted to others
  • examples:
    • stops sharing your location
    • resets privacy permissions for all apps
    • protect messages access

Ecosystem

Home.app

• Matter support
• redesigned Home.app

CarPlay

• deeper integration with the car's hardware
• takes over all displays in the car, including the driver's one
• widgets support
• customizable gauges style/colors

WatchOS 9

• Four new Watch Faces:
  • Astronomy
  • Lunar
  • Play Time
  • Metropolitan

• refreshed Siri UI
• new banner notifications
• active apps will be pinned to the top of the Dock for quick access
• new Share Sheet and Photos Picker APIs
• further CallKit support: you can start, end, or mute VoIP calls directly on Apple Watch

Fitness

• new metrics:
  • Running Form metrics:
    • vertical oscillation
    • stride length
    • ground contact time
    • power

• new custom workout that you can use to add structure into your workout (for running and more)

Health

• Sleep stages - display more details on each sleep
• AFib History - track the amount of time your heart shows signs of atrial fibrillation
• Medications.app - track your medications, vitamins, and supplements

MacOS Ventura

• Stage Manager
  • new way to automatically keep everything organized and give you quick access to your windows
  • allows focusing on specific open windows

• Spotlight
  • Quick Look support
  • can take actions like start a timer and run shortcuts
  • Rich results - results can give more info taking over the whole spotlight screen (including in iOS)

• Mail.app
  • undo send
  • schedule send
  • follow up suggestions
  • improved search

• Safari.app
  • Shared Tab Group
  • Passkeys is no longer a technology preview

• Metal 3
  • MetalFX Upscaling - faster render for visually complex scenes
  • Fast resource loading API - more direct path from storage to the unified memory system, so the GPU can more quickly access high-quality textures and buffers without waiting

• Continuity
  • FaceTime handoff support
  • Continuity camera - use your iPhone camera for calls on the mac

iPadOS 16

• Weather.app
• WeatherKit for developers
• Collaboration
  • instead of sharing a copy of a file - we can share the same file that all users can edit
  • can send message and start FaceTime calls directly in the app
  • new API for developers
  • iOS and macOS support

• Freeform.app
  • new way to brainstorm your ideas with others
  • it's a virtual whiteboard where users can sketch, write, add photos/files, and more

• Game Center
  • Activity
    • what your friends are playing
    • friends achievements highlights
    • find out when they beat your high score

• Desktop-class apps
  • more system wide features similarly to macOS
  • more desktop-like features in system apps
  • customizable toolbars
  • new APIs for developers

• Reference Mode
  • Used where accurate colors and consistent image quality are critical

• Display scaling setting
  • allows you to increase the pixel density of the display so you can view more in your apps

• Virtual Memory Swap
  • iPad storage can be used to expand the available memory for all apps
  • can delivers up to 16 GB of memory to a single app

• Stage Manager
  • can overlap windows on iPadOS
  • external display support
  • between iPad and the external display, you can have up to eight apps running onscreen simultaneously

Part of this note was originally published at fbernutz.github.io.