What’s new in Apple (WWDC 2021)

Apple has conducted its Worldwide Developer Conference on June 7^th with most of enhancements to its software segment. Enhancements ranges from introducing iOS 15 with major changes in Facetime, iPadOS, new version of MacOS and WatchOS.

Lets look at most helpful enhancements that helps users to utilize them on day-to-day basis

iOS 15

iOS 15 comes with updated notification experience with all-new iMessage including social network like feature and more.

New FaceTime in iOS15

Apple says it has made easier and more spontaneous to make FaceTime calls more comfortable and natural, users can now leverage spatial audio that block out ambient noise and prioritize voices and Portrait mode blurs your background and puts the focus on you.

In group FaceTime calls, users will be able to see every face in a same-sized tiles that make it easy to identify who is speaking while seeing everyone else's reactions. Now users can plan for calls, and send invitation links in messages or emails, or even create a shared calendar event. These links can be shared anywhere and even used by Android and PC users in a browser, that too with end-to-end encryption for privacy.

SharePlay

Synchronize the way of watching videos or listening to music with everyone in a FaceTime call. Users can just press play in Apple Music, Apple TV, or any third-party app that implements this feature.

New iMessage in iOS15

Now iOS 15 will let users quickly find articles, photos, and more that can be shared in chats and group chats. Not only that “shared with you” sections will appear in Apple News, Music, Photos, Safari, and other apps to conveniently surface links or media sent by friends.

Notification & Focus Feature in iOS15

A new Notification Summary can be customized and scheduled to appear at any time you choose, letting you deal with unimportant notifications all in one go. The DND mode can now be used to show an away status in the Messages app.

Each Focus mode can be associated with a dedicated home screen page that shows only relevant widgets and app icons to reduce distraction, like location and time of day can be used to suggest when to trigger a Focus mode, such as one for work.

New Photo Feature in iOS15

On-device Intelligence helps in detecting live text and extract accordingly from the photos. By utilizing Character Recognition, it helps users in extracting text from whiteboards and hand-written notes.

On-device intelligence can also recognize objects and scenes such as the breed of a dog, type of flower, famous works of art, books, pets, landmarks.

iPadOS 15

iPadOS 15 bring changes to the home screen of the tablets to better align with newer hardware and some accessibility features that will be available for iPadOS 15 updates.

Application widgets can be placed among app icons on all home screens, the other new widgets available in iPadOS15 includes Find My and Contacts, a larger Game Center, Apple TV etc. App Library comes with a quick access button in the dock, and let you reorder or hide home screens you don't require.

Multitasking can be achieved with a new control that appears at top of apps to easily trigger a split screen. Work Windows can be minimized to Shelf (a new area) making it easy to see and manage multiple open windows for an app.

Notes will let you tag other people with @ mentions and can view what has changed in shared notes. Hashtags can be used anywhere in notes and can be referenced to help quickly find notes. Quick Notes can be created by swiping in from a corner of the iPad screen.

Build Apps right on an iPad using Swift Playgrounds. You can run them full screen to try them out and submit directly to the App Store.

watchOS 8

The new watchOS has bought changes pertaining to fitness tracking and some new features to enhance user experience with gesture support.

Apple Watch will get Breathe app that has been upgraded to the Mindfulness app which carries enhanced breathe experience with all new animations along with Reflect (new session type) that functions something like Recall a time recently when you felt a sense of calm. Bring that feeling into this moment.

There are not many updates in interface level but a cool feature that allows the users to set multiple portrait shots as a watch face on your Apple Watch along with AI based cropping to highlight the subject on the display.

watchOS 8 brings the Contacts app to the Apple Watch and let users browse, add/edit contacts. Users can also share any of their existing contacts directly through the Contacts app available on their Apple Watch.

Alongside of all the updates from fitness tracker and contacts, watchOS brought an upgraded Wallet to the Apple Watch that supports Ultra-Wideband (UWB) to let Apple Watch users unlock their cars from a distance and start it from the driver's seat.

As showcased last month, watchOS 8 brings AssistiveTouch to the Apple Watch to enable one-arm usage by sensing hand gestures to interact without requiring users to touch the display and includes Focus support, that is there on iOS 15 as well, to better align notification alerts with usage patterns.

macOS Monterey 12

macOS is now called as macOS Monterey 12. Mac users are expected to get macOS 12 this year with minor improvements, unlike last year when we saw macOS Big Sur.

Most interesting feature of macOS 12 is Universal Control, an extension to Apple's existing Continuity that allows users to use a single mouse and keyboard seamlessly between their Mac and iPad devices. Users can also drag and drop the content to-&-from between devices.

macOS 12’s AirPlay support let iPhone and iPad users play content like videos, games and presentations on their Mac devices. macOS Monterey also have Shortcuts to automate tasks. Users can customize shortcuts as per their requirements.

Like iPadOS 15, macOS 12 also provides a Quick Notes. The new macOS also let you set system level filters that filter out notifications using Focus mode. macOS 12 also has updated FaceTime like iOS 15, that brings spatial audio support, a new Grid View and SharePlay integration.

Look forward to get the public beta versions of them enjoy these features.