Day one of WWDC was a big one for Apple, with the keynote revealing the company’s plans to deal with the growing demand for smart features. And as expected, it was all about software, with no new devices revealed at the event.
Here’s everything the company announced.
Apple Intelligence
The star of the show, Apple Intelligence is about making AI personal. It uses generative AI models and combines it with personal context to deliver AI-powered features within apps and services such as Siri. Apple’s voice assistant can find the information you need with a simple request, such as “Find the photo I took last week of my dog” or “Where am I going with my mother this week”. And you can now interact with Siri via text.
Notes: Audio transcriptions are now available in Notes, along with the ability to solve equations automatically.
Writing Tools: An AI-powered proofreader that can compose and rewrite text in Mail, Messages and Notes – in fact almost anywhere you can put a cursor and type text.
Available across iPhones, iPads and Macs, although it will be limited to devices using Apple’s most powerful chips – the A17 Bionic in the iPhone 15 Pro series, and Macs and iPads using Apple’s own M series silicon.
Private Cloud Compute: While some of the Apple Intelligence tasks can be done on device, there are times when it will need backup. Apple has created Private Cloud Compute, which uses specially built servers to process the data, with Apple pledging to send only what is necessary to fulfil your request. Apple describes it as extending your iPhone’s privacy and security to the cloud; your data will never be stored. Apple is also bringing in third-party experts to verify that it is sticking to its word.
The OpenAI deal:
Apple has done a deal with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT to the iPhone to help answer more wide-ranging queries.
It will be an opt-in feature though, and Apple says it won’t require users to create an account with ChatGPT, nor will it save any user data. And it will always seek permission before sending a request to ChatGPT.
Image Playground: Apple will allow you to create images based on your own photo library with Apple Intelligence, but only stylised images that can’t be mistaken for the real thing. You get a choice of Illustration, Sketch or Animation.
Genmoji: New AI-generated emoji that you can create just by typing in a description.
Safari: Highlights will pick out important information on web pages, such as summaries.
IOS18
Customisation: iPhone users will now be able to place their icons anywhere they want on the Home Screen, as long as it is open space. Apple is also allowing users to change the colour of app icons, and utilising dark mode more effectively.
Control Centre: The quick access menu has been expanded to include more apps and features, including supported third-party apps.
Privacy: the new software will bring the ability to lock an app to keep it safe from prying eyes, requiring a passcode or FaceID to open it. You can also hide apps in a folder squirrelled away in the App Library.
Messages: You can now schedule iMessages to send at a certain time, and use satellites to send texts when you are out of coverage. iMessage reactions have been expanded beyond the basic six, and will include emojis. New text effects have also been included, and Messages now supports RCS which allows for iMessage like features when texting with an Android phone.
Photos: The app is getting an overhaul, with new collections and a better search facility making it easier to find your photos. You can also edit unwanted objects from the background with the new Clean Up tool.
Game mode: Apple’s new mode will help minimise the noise for gamers. It will cut down on background activity, while also improving connections for Bluetooth devices such as AirPods and controllers.
Mail: Messages will be categorised and organised more easily in the overhauled app.
MacOS Sequoia
iPhone Mirroring: Mac users will be able to view and fully access their iPhone on their Mac, while the device itself stays locked.
Passwords app: A new password manager in a stand-alone app to manage and share (when necessary) your passwords, verification codes and passkeys. It is available across iPad, iPhone, Vision OS and Mac, and will sync with Windows with the iCloud for Windows app.
Gaming: Personalised spatial audio with AirPods, reduced audio latency with AirPods Pro, smoother frame rates for gaming and advanced power management features to boost performance.
Window Tiling: When you drag a window to the edge of the screen, the software will automatically suggest a tiled position on the desktop. It’s desktop management made simple.
Video Conferencing: A new presenter preview shows you what you are about to share with your video call before it’s too late. Available for FaceTime and Zoom, you can also use virtual backgrounds when needed.
The Calendar app will now show events and tasks from Reminders.
IPadOS 18
iPadOS is getting a lot of the same new features, such as Apple Intelligence and the Photos app improvements. But it is also getting a new interface, with a floating tab bar that will give you more control over your screen area. And when ended, it morphs into the sidebar to give you more control over a particular app’s functionality.
Calculator app: Not only is the iPad finally getting a native calculator app, but it will also come with an Apple Pencil linked feature called MathNotes. Users can write out an equation or math problem and MathNotes will solve it, using the iPad’s version of your own writing.
SmartScript: The new feature will improve your handwritten notes, smoothing out the edges and making it more legible.
WatchOS
Vitals app: a new Vitals app will show important health data at a glance, including heart rate, respiratory rate, wrist temperature, sleep duration and blood oxygen, and highlight any significant changes.
Training load: Watch OS 11 will monitor how your workouts are impacting your body and the strain it is under, helping users to make decisions on training activities. Users can rate their workout effort each time they complete an activity on a scale of 1-10, while automatic estimated efforts will be available for certain popular activities; these automatic ratings can also be adjusted manually.
Activity Rings: In WatchOS 11, you can customise goals by the day of the week, or pause activity for a day or two without impacting your streak, taking account of injury timeouts or rest days. And Apple Watch has more workouts, including the ability to use Custom Workouts for swimming.
Smart Stack: The quick access feature is getting more options and can now suggest adding certain widgets depending on time, location, daily routines or external factors such as weather. New interactive widgets are also coming, so you can work with the app directly from the Smart Stack, and Live Activities will also be included.
Pregnancy tracking: Cycle Tracking on Apple Watch will now show gestational age when a user logs a pregnancy, opening up the ability to keep track of symptoms, and prompting them to review change thresholds for heart rate.
Check in: Safety Feature Check In can be accessed from the Workout app, to get you in touch with a trusted contact after you run, hike or swim, or from Messages on the watch.
Translate: Your language translator is now on your wrist, with up to 20 languages supported.
Audio and Home
AirPods: If you are interacting with Siri, you can now accept or deny requests with a head gesture. And new Voice Isolation will strip out background noise so calls will sound crystal clear,
TvOS: A new Insight feature will offer up information on actors and soundtracks when you are watching Apple Originals. Apple TV will also enhance vocals in audio, and has adjusted subtitle timing to make them show up at the right time. Users of Apple TV will also get support for 21x9 projectors, and new screensavers that include your portrait photos.
Vision Pro
Apple’s new spatial computing headset is coming to eight countries at the end of June, including the UK, Germany and France, but not Ireland yet.
Vision OS: A new version of the VisionOS software, VisionOS 2, brings easier to use gestures to interact with Vision Pro. You can also extend the Mac Virtual Display inside Vision Pro into an ultrawide display, giving you more space to work.
Apple is also making it easier to interact with your photos, creating spatial images from regular photos using AI.
And the new software will also support trains in its Travel Mode, adding to the previously available plane mode.
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