iOS 13 starts off with a bold new look, a dark mode. Finally. But it doesn’t stop there. There are a couple of redesigns for Apple’s own apps as well. And much better privacy controls. Plus, some small features we weren’t even expecting. Here’s our rundown of the best iOS 13 features for iPhone.
Best iOS 13 Features for iPhone
If you want to see all the new features in iOS 13, big or small, in a continuously updated list, take a look at our What’s New in iOS 13 post.
1. System-Wide Dark Mode
iOS 13 has a beautiful new look with the Dark mode. It extends from dynamic wallpaper, dark lockscreen, dark widgets to the dark stock apps.
The Dark mode can be turned on manually from Control Center or can be scheduled to turn on based on sunset time. Once the dark mode is enabled, it is enabled everywhere, including apps. And if third-party developers update to iOS 13 APIs, third-party apps can automatically switch to the dark theme inside the app as well.
2. Redesigned Photos App
Apple has redesigned the photo viewing and editing experience. Photos app has a beautiful dark mode that puts the focus on the photos first.
In the new Photos tab, you’ll find sub tabs for Days, Months and Years. The photos can be zoomed in using pinch to zoom gesture. The Days tab removes all the clutter from your library and only shows the best photos for the day. It hides screenshots, photos of receipts and anything with text on it.
The Years tab is contextual and shows a photo from the particular day across the past years.
3. Brand new Reminders App
The Reminders app has been redesigned from the ground up and it’s a modern app now. It supports natural language input.
So you can just start typing your reminder and it will figure out the reminder part, the date, time and the place automatically.
Or you can use the new toolbar to quickly add time, date, location, flags, photos and scanned documents to your reminders.
There’s a Smart Lists feature that automatically organizes your reminders and groups them based on Flagged, Scheduled and Today.
4. Sign in With Apple
Sign in With Apple is Apple’s genius way to protect your privacy when logging into a new website or service. If they choose to use the Sign in with Apple button, the app won’t get any of your personal data. No name, email, phone number. You’ll be authenticated using Face ID and that’s it.
Optionally, if an app requires an email, you can also choose to hide your real email address. In that case, Apple will automatically create a random email address that’s unique for the given app and will forward the emails to your real email.
5. Better Privacy Controls for Location Access
Apple is getting much stricter with who has access to your location and when. Now, you can choose to allow location to an app just once.
Apple will also send alerts when an app is using location data in the background. Apple is also blocking apps from accessing metadata for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi devices so it can’t use that to estimate your current location either.
6. New Maps Features
Maps app has a new start page. At the bottom sheet, you’ll see a row of your frequent places. You can customize this to add locations that you go to often.
There’s a Collections feature that lets you create a collection of multiple places and add photos as well. This is very helpful if you’re planning a trip. Then you can share the collection as well. Speaking of sharing, you can now instantly share your ETA from the navigation screen on the Maps app.
Apple also revealed that its new remapping project is going well. They will have covered the whole US by the end of the year.
Apple is also adding a Street View-like feature called Look Around to the Maps app.
7. Siri Improvements
Siri’s voice is new and improved. It now only uses Neural text to speech engine to generate the voice. This means it’s much smoother and easier on the ears. Siri also works better with AirPods. When you get a message, Siri will read it to you automatically and you can choose to reply instantly.
Siri on the HomePod is also getting better. It can now recognize multiple users. Multi-user support is available for music, notes, calendar, reminders and more.
8. Memoji Everywhere
Memoji creation is a lot more diverse now. They now feature new hairstyles, headwear, makeup, piercings, and accessories.
But the best part is that the new Memoji Stickers are available everywhere. If an iOS device is running an A9 chip or higher, it can create a Memoji from the Messages app. Once a Memoji is created, Apple automatically creates a sticker pack for it! That sticker app is available in the Messages app and is integrated directly into the stock keyboard.
So now, you can send Memoji Stickers even in apps like WhatsApp and WeChat.
9. An Upgraded CarPlay Experience
Apple has redesigned the CarPlay experience with iOS 13. There’s a new three-pane dashboard view which has music controls and suggested actions on the right side. Plus, you get a new Calendar app, in dark mode.
Siri on CarPlay now works with third-party apps like Waze and Pandora.
10. iOS 13 Solves Little Annoyances
iOS 13 is a release of little features. Here are just some of the small annoyances that it helps solve.
- Gesture typing: You can now use gestures to easily type on the iPhone using just one hand.
- New Volume HUD: There’s a new volume HUD that shows up on the left side of the screen which is a lot less intrusive.
- Share Audio with two AirPods: One iPhone can play music with two different AirPods, in sync.
Your Favorite iOS 13 Features?
What are some of your favorite features in iOS 13? What are you looking forward to the most in Fall? Share with us in the comments below.
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