iOS 10
On June 13, 2016, at the annual developers conference (WWDC), Apple introduced new features that will come with iOS 10, Apple's newest version of their mobile operating system that will be available for the public in the fall. According to Craig Federighi, iOS 10 is the biggest release so far, including 10 big new features.
User Experience
Apple redesigned the lock screen, introducing expanded 3D touch, rich notifications, and quick interaction with apps. For example, iOS 10 will include a feature called "Raise to Wake." When the user raises the iPhone, notifications will automatically appear. Users can then interact with notifications using 3D touch to bring up detailed information about calendar events, messages, and third party apps like Uber. Control Center can also be accessed from the lock screen by swiping up from the bottom, including the ability to swipe left to access Apple Music controls. From the lock screen, users can access the camera by swiping to the right, and swiping left to access widgets with weather updates and top stories.
Siri
Siri has developed into an integrated personal assistant, and for the first time, it will be open up to developers. This will enable Siri to issue commands to 3rd party messaging applications like We Chat, responding to a variety a word combinations associated with a given request. Siri enhancements will also include photo search in apps like Shutterfly and Pinterest, workout app integration, payments, VolP calling, and Carplay.
Quicktype
A big feature that was introduced in iOS 9, QuickType, will now include enhancements using LSTM's or Long Short Term Memory, intelligent suggestions that provide contextual predictions. Siri can automatically provide your location, recommend friends, and calendar events that reflect your specific intentions. Other enhancements include improved memory to bring up recent addresses and contacts used on your phone, as well as multilingual typing.
Photos
Photos for iOS 10 will include a feature called Places which allows you to see your photos on a map, and the latest development, Advanced Computer Vision (ACV). ACV will include facial, object and scene recognition with over a billion computations within a single photo. The most exciting new feature for Photos is Memories. Photos will now use special intelligence to arrange photos by people, date, scene, location, and topic - all redesigned into an intuitive user interface. In Memories, photos are displayed in a grid view to show all relevant images for a specific memory or an irregular grid to highlight select photos. And Photos now comes with the ability to automatically create video slideshows of your memories, including soundtracks. The slideshows can be reconfigured to vary the length and mood of your videos, changing the animations and music to coincide with themes like Epic, Uplifting, and Chill, to name a few.
Maps
Eddie Cue introduced an all new design for maps for easy access to controls, and the ability to slide up from the bottom to view suggestions. Suggestions can be explored using a further drill-down of options that can be explored by theme along the bottom as a scroll-through menu. The graphic interface for navigation provides more clarity and offers varying viewpoints, including the ability to pan and zoom to get a wider view of your route. The Map view now includes visual signposts to indicate what restaurants, gas stations, and rest stops are nearby. And finally, Maps will continually enhance your navigation experiences because now it's open to developers. By using app extensions, users will have the potential to find a restaurant, make a reservation, or book a ride without leaving the Maps app.
Music
Following Apple's ambitious debut of Apple Music last year, the company has introduced a new design language to add more clarity to the design. Bozoma St. John provided a demo to highlight new design features like the Library tab, which provides a clear view of Playlists, artists, albums, songs, downloaded music, and recently added. in her demo, Bozoma also highlighted a brand new feature that offers lyrics with a wide selection of available songs. Apple continues with the For You section, which has been redesigned to be simpler, including daily playlists, and Connect (formerly a separate tab) at the bottom. Browse is a new category that encompasses a broader range of topics, including New Music (formerly a separate tab), Curated Playlists, Top Charts, and Genres. Apple sticks with the Radio tab to highlights Beats 1, including scheduled and featured stations. Search is now featured on the main menu along the bottom, replacing the spy glass at the top right corner. The most noticeable improvement is the simplicity of design. Each section provides limited information and larger thumbnails for focused browsing, supplemented by textual menus, and swiping/scrolling navigation for a better browsing experience.
News
Apple News also comes with a new design that is simplified with bold and colorful typography for headers and a grid-like design for easy navigation. For You is now structured by headings to reflect your interests, including Top Stories, Trending Stories, Topics you follow, Suggested Topics, and Featured Stories. Not surprisingly, Apple News is now integrating aspects of Newsstand to encompass "subscriptions."
Homekit
Home automation is still in its infancy stages, so Apple took another step to improve HomeKit by introducing a new app called "Home." The new home app provides easy access to a thumbnail menu highlighting all the features of your home automation environment. Home also comes with convenient features like "Scenes" which allow you to control multiple items at once. The accessibility of Home is enhanced by integrating it into Control Center, while HomeKit notifications can deliver prompts without having to open the app. The Home app is available for the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch.
Phone
Apple is introducing a brand new feature for the phone that will offer transcriptions for voicemail messages. The phone will also come with new features that enables you to detect spam messages, and the integration VoIP messaging (Voice Over the Internet) to give callers an additional option for communication.
Messages
The biggest update for iOS is Messages. As the most frequently used app on the iPhone, Apple greatly expanded Messages to enhance the overall functionality by adding rich links that show artwork and videos inside messages, providing direct access to the photo library, increasing the size of emoji, and offering emoji predictions. Once the emoji library is opened, Messages will "emojify" your words by providing recommended emoji as substitutes. Building on the emotive nuances of the Apple Watch, Messages will also include "Bubble Effects" to vary the emphasis of your messages, and a great new feature called "Invisible Ink" a secret message that is deciphered by swiping your finger across it. Also, Messages lets you add "tap-backs" (e.g. a thumbs-up symbol) on top of existing messages, the ability to send animated, handwritten messages, digital touch drawings (which can be added on top of videos and photos), and fullscreen animations for a more personal touch. And finally, Messages is now open to developers, which can provide additional third-party integration, including a built-in app store for all of your messaging needs.
Overall, Apple introduced a huge update for iOS 10. Federighi closed out his presentation by quickly referencing other features like collaborations inside Notes, improvement to Live Photos, including editing, communication threads inside Mail, and Split View in Safari.