At the WWDC keynote, Apple finally revealed the new iOS 13 operating system for the iPhone. It’s choke full of little features and one or two big reveals. First of all, there’s a separate OS for iPad now, called iPadOS. We’ll be talking about that in a separate article. Here, we’ll run through a list of everything that’s new in iOS 13 for iPhone. We’ll be updating the list as we find out about new features.
iOS 13 Features: Everything That’s New
1. Dark Mode
The biggest feature for iOS 13 is the new Dark Mode. This is truly system-wide. It stretches from the Lock screen to the widgets screen to Apple’s own apps. Even the keyboard gets a better version of the dark mode.
Dark mode can be enabled easily from the Control Center.
2. 30% Faster Face ID Unlock
Something that will be noticeable instantly for iPhone X and above is that Face ID unlocked more than 30% faster.
3. Better Performance
Apple is continuing the focus on performance from iOS 12. The apps now launch twice as fast. And app downloads will be 50% smaller while app updates will be over 60% smaller.
4. New Reminders App
Apple rewrote the Reminders app from the ground-up. First of all, it’s much easier to create reminders using Natural Language Processing. Just write the reminder and the app figures out things about time and date.
5. Redesigned Photo Viewing Experience
Apple has updated the Photos app to help you bring out the best photos. If you switch to the Days tab, you’ll now see only the top picks from the given day. It will hide the screenshots and other kinds of photos. The same goes for the month view. The Year view is quite interesting because it shows the photo from the same day in the preview box for the given year. This way you can just scroll and see a photo from the day dating back to when you started using your iPhone.
6. New Photo Editor
Apple has finally redesigned the Photos app editor as well. It’s a much simpler view. You tap on the control at the top and then use the slider below to edit it. It’s similar to the Instagram app. While the photo editor has all the current controls, it also adds new ones for highlights, vibrance, and more.
7. New Video Editor
Using the new video editor in Photos app you can easily crop, rotate or add filters to a video.
8. Redesigned Volume HUD
The new Volume HUD appears in the top-left corner of the screen in an unintrusive manner.
9. Redesigned Health App
The redesigned health app has a new highlights section that shows new insightful data.
10. Menstrual Cycle Tracking in Health App
The Health app now lets women track their menstrual health using the Health app. You can log your period, flow level, symptoms like craps and headaches.
11. New Start Page in Safari
New Start page in safari includes favorites, frequently visited and recently visited websites.
12. Download Manager in Safari
You can check the status of a file you’re downloading, and access all downloaded files.
13. iCloud Drive Folder Sharing in Files App
You can now share a whole iCloud Drive folder with other users using the Files app.
14. Access External Storage and SD Cards in Files App
You can connect a USB drive or an SD Card reader to an iPhone using a converter cable to access all the files right there.
15. Smarter Share Sheet
Share sheet in iOS 13 has one tap suggestions for sharing a photo or document with some who is in the photo. There’s a new actions bar that comes up based on the content.
16. Gesture Typing in Keyboard
The new QuickPath feature brings gesture-based typing to the iOS 13 keyboard.
17. Time Synced Lyrics in Music App
Music app now shows lyrics like in the Musixmatch app. They are time synced and look beautiful.
18. New Gallery View in Notes
There’s a new Gallery view in Notes app that just shows attachments from all notes making it easy to pick out photos and scanned documents.
19. Mail App Gets Text Formatting Support
Mail app gets desktop level text formatting support. You can change the font, font size, color, indentation and more right in the compose box.
20. Single Use Location Sharing
Apple has a new option for location sharing that only lets the app get access to your location once.
21. Background Tracking Alerts
iOS 13 will alert you if an app is tracking your location in the background.
22. Sign in With Apple
Sign in with Apple will let users create an account in an app or a website without giving out any personal information. Apple will authenticate the user with Face ID or Touch ID and that will be it.
Optionally, an app can ask for the email address for the user. Here too Apple can generate a unique email address for every app and then forward you the email from
23. HomeKit Secure Video
HomeKit Secure Video technology will be integrated with upcoming security cameras. With this, the video will be encrypted first on a local Apple device at the home, then it will be sent to Apple servers. Then the user will get the notification about the activity. Apple will store 10 days of video on iCloud and it will not be counted against iCloud storage.
24. Memoji Sticker for Everyone
Memoji creation has been democratized. Memoji can be created on any iOS device with an A9 chip or higher. Once a Memoji is created, Apple will automatically create a sticker pack for it.
Not only is the sticker pack available in the iMessage app, but it’s also integrated into the default keyboard. So you can send stickers to third-party apps like WhatsApp as well.
25. Memoji Creation Gets Very Diverse
Memoji now features new hairstyles, headwear, makeup, piercings, and accessories.
26. Portrait Lighting Improvements
Portrait Lighting adjustments can be made right in the camera app to move the light closer or farther from the subject.
27. New High-Key Mono Portrait Lighting Effect
This effect creates a beautiful, monochromatic look for Portrait mode photos.
28. Siri Reads and Replies to Incoming Messages on AirPods
When you get incoming messages Siri will automatically read the message to you and will ask if you want to reply to it. Speak your reply and it will be sent.
29. Audio Sharing on AirPods
If two users have AirPods and iPhones, one iPhone can share the audio to the second pair of AirPods easily and securely.
30. HandOff for HomePod
If you bring your iPhone close to the HomePod while you’re listening to podcasts, music or on a call, it can be quickly handed off to the HomePod. When leaving, you can take the playback back to the iPhone.
31. Live Radio Stations for HomePod
You can now ask HomePod to play one of 100,000 live radio stations from around the world.
32. Multi-User Support for HomePod
Multi-user support finally comes to the HomePod. And it works for music suggestions, Messages, Notes, Calendar, Phone and more.
33. Redesigned 3 Pane Dashboard for CarPlay
CarPlay’s dashboard has been redesigned. On the left is the sidebar with the most recent apps. Then there’s the maps view in the middle and in the left is a list of suggested actions.
34. New Calendar App for CarPlay
There’s a new Calendar view in CarPlay, in dark mode so you can see your appointments at a glance.
35. Siri Works with Third Party apps on CarPlay
Siri in CarPlay can now work with third-party apps like Waze and Pandora.
36. Shortcuts App Built into iOS 13
Apple is so committed to the Shortcuts app that it comes built into in iOS 13.
37. New Automatic Suggestions for Creating Shortcuts
Siri Shortcuts app’s Gallery has a new section for automatically suggesting shortcuts based on your behavior.
38. New, Better Siri Voice
The new Siri voice is created completely from text-to-speech and isn’t based on snippets of recording. This means it’s a lot more pleasing to the ears.
39. iMessage Gets Separate Display Picture Management
Similar to WhatsApp, users will now be able to set a separate photo and a display name for iMessage. The can also decide who can see the details and who can’t.
40. Set Frequent Locations in Maps App
You’ll now be able to set frequent locations in Apple Maps app (like home and work) to make it easier to navigate there.
41. Create Groups of Frequent Places
To make it easier to start Apple Maps navigation for places that are not your home or work, Maps app will now let you create special groups of frequent locations, where you can even add photos to make them easier to recognize.
42. Maps App Gets Its Own Street View
The new Look Around feature in Maps is similar to Street View. When the data is available you can see what the place looks like and even quickly zoom around from one place to another in the Look Around view.
43. Share ETA Using Maps App
Maps app lets you share your ETA from the navigation screen to any available app.
44. Voice Control
Voice Control is a new accessibility feature that allows the user to control the whole device using just the voice. In this mode, the user can ask the iPhone to open apps, take actions like pressing a button or enter text and more. The audio is constantly working in the background and is processed on the device.
45. New Find My App
The weirdly named app is the amalgamation of the Find my iPhone And Find my Friends app. And it works with finding even devices that are offline.
It uses Bluetooth beacons that send encrypted traffic from one device to another in the network.
46. Font Management
iOS 13 will let you download and manage fonts from popular databases right on your iPhone. These fonts will show up in compatible apps like the Mail app and more.
Your Favorite iOS 13 Features?
What are your favorite features from iOS 13?
What have we missed out in this list? Share with us in the comments below.
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