At the Worldwide Developers Conference,
This article contains a roundup of 10 iOS 10 features that Apple highlighted during the Worldwide Developers Conference. If you want to see everything that Apple announced at WWDC, then be sure to check out Miguel Helft's live blog of the event.
1.) Changes In User Experience
On the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, the Touch ID fingerprint sensor is known for being so responsive and fast that it “blows past” the notification screen. That is one of the reasons why Apple added a solution in iOS 10 called “raise to wake.” This feature lets you see what is on your lock screen without touching any buttons. This is done by simply raising your wrist while holding your iOS device, which causes it to “wake up” and show the notifications.
In iOS 10, Apple has made the Lock Screen much more aesthetic and interactive via 3D Touch. Now notifications that appear within the Lock Screen are brighter and can be seen without darkening the wallpaper.
If you push down on a calendar notification, then you will be able to see your schedule and select Accept, Maybe or Decline on meeting invitations without leaving the Lock screen. This feature also works very well with the Messages app:
You are able to respond to messages and see rich messages containing photos and videos within the Lock screen as well. Interactive notifications from third party apps are also supported in iOS 10. For example, you can press on an Uber notification to see options like “Message Driver” and “Cancel Trip.” The interactive Uber notification also shows you an animated live status update of the driver on the map without having to leave the Lock screen.
As usual, sliding down from the top of the screen will show you all of your notifications. But with 3D Touch you can push down on an “X” at the top right of each notification group to clear that batch of notifications.
The Control Center — which appears when you swipe up from the bottom of the screen — has been updated in iOS 10 with a slightly new design and updated controls. Once the Control Center is opened up, you can swipe over to the right to see a new music area that shows the cover art, audio controls and listening device selector.
And now it’s easier to open the camera from the Lock screen. All you have to do is slide over from the right to open the Camera. And sliding over from the left pulls up the widgets such as the weather, calendar and Siri App Store Suggestions.
Another subtle 3D Touch improvement is the ability to quickly glance at rich information by pushing down on an icon. For example: if you push down on the Mail icon, then you will see the faces of your contacts and the number of unread emails from those VIPs:
And pushing down on the Weather app icon lets you quickly glance at detailed weather information:
Without even launching the Activity app, you can push down on the icon to see the progress “rings.” This makes it easier to see how many calories you burned, how many minutes you exercised and the number of hours stood.
The quick glances feature works well with third party apps too. When you push down on the ESPN icon, then you will see the scoreboard of your favorite teams. You will also be able to watch and listen to the games from within the Lock screen:
2.) Changes In Siri
Did you know that Siri services over 2 billion requests per week from iOS users? There are many types of requests that Siri can handle, but iOS 10 will enable the digital assistant to perform many more tasks since it is being opened up to developers.
Now you will be able to tell Siri “Send a WeChat to Tim saying I will be 10 minutes late” and then the digital assistant will be able to pull up the WeChat interface from within the Siri environment to send the message. Siri understands the app domains so you can word the commands in different ways including “WeChat Tim I’ll be ten minutes late.” Siri also supports messaging commands for apps like Slack and WhatsApp as well.
In iOS 10, Siri can comprehend ride booking commands through apps like Uber and Lyft:
Siri in iOS 10 can do photo search commands on third party apps like Shutterfly and Pinterest. Siri can also start/stop/pause workouts with apps like MapMyRun, Runtastic and RunKeeper. Plus it can handle payments with apps like Square Cash, NUMBER26 and AliPay. And Siri can now do VoIP calling through apps like Cisco Spark and Vonage.
3.) Changes In QuickType
iOS 10 is bringing Siri intelligence to the keyboard! Currently, QuickType is used to make intelligent suggestions and predict what users want to type next. In iOS 10, QuickType will be using deep learning — specifically a process called Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) — to predict longer context.
For example, Siri will be able to make contextual responses to incoming messages. If someone asks you “where are you,” then you can respond by providing your current location via Maps within the transcript. And if you are asked for someone’s contact information, then QuickType can pull those details from your Contacts app automatically.
Locally on your device Siri saves information about what you have been doing so if someone asks you if you want to grab Thai food at 12PM on Sunday, Siri can intelligently schedule that event for you. Plus Siri will cross-reference your calendar availability to make sure you are free. Siri will also allow you to paste a recent address based on your browsing history in Maps and look up terms like restaurants and movies. And the QuickType keyboard in iOS 10 supports multilingual typing so you can switch between languages while typing text messages.
4.) Changes In Photos
Apple has made some major changes to Photos in iOS 10. With iCloud Photo Library you can see all of your photos on all of your devices, but now you can see all of the Places you took your photos on a map.
But the biggest change in Photos has to do with advanced computer vision. To make this feature work, Apple applied advanced deep learning techniques for facial recognition on iOS — all done locally within the device. This means the Photos app in iOS 10 will show you people that appear the most on your Photos under the “People” section of the app. And when you tap on that person's face, then you will see all of the photos in your library that includes him or her.
Apple also applied the same kind of deep learning to object and scene recognition. About 11 billion computations are done per photo to detect things in photos like water, mountains, dogs, horses, etc. And with that information, you can do some powerful searching within the app.
Memories In Photos
Apple applied advanced artificial intelligence to analyze your photo library in order to cluster the people and locations involved in certain memories. From there, memories are surfaced such as trips or moments in time like the July 4th weekend or the trip to Minneapolis. And memories can surface moments featuring topics like “on the water” or “on the mountain.” The memories could also involve certain people if you have taken multiple trips with them.
When you open a highlight of each memory, the Photos app will show you a grid of some of the best photos. And when you look at the bottom of the Memories album, you will see related People with thumbnails of their faces and a map of related Places.
At the top of the Memories is an automatically created movie featuring some of the best moments from that cluster. You can adjust the length of each movie to short, medium and long. And you can change the "mood" of the movie, which essentially adjusts the tone of the music. The Memories features will be added to the Photos app on macOS as well.
5.) Changes In Maps
Last year, Apple introduced the Nearby and Transit features to Maps. And in iOS 10, Maps has received a redesign.
Now Maps is going to be more proactive by predicting your usual activities and making suggestions. For example: if you tend to leave for work at 8AM every day, then Maps will show you how long it will take to get there based on current traffic conditions when you slide up the menu from the bottom of the app. The contextual menu in the Maps app will also show you the calendar events of the day and the locations of your meetings.
The Search feature in Maps has also been improved in terms of determining the places that you may want to go. And there is a sleek Dynamic view that will be applied to Maps so that the navigation information is more clear and it automatically zooms in as you turn and then zooms out again as you get to a longer and straighter road:
The new Maps app will also have “Quick controls” to search along the route for food and gas stations. And Maps will tell you how much longer it will take if you go to those places:
Maps will also provide you with alternate routes if there is heavy traffic ahead and it will tell you how much time will be saved by switching to it.
All of these features will be included in CarPlay as well. And a CarPlay-specific feature being added via Maps in iOS 10 is the ability to see turn-by-turn within the instrument cluster of the dashboard:
Maps Being Opened Up To Developers
Developers will be able to use Maps extensions to integrate navigation capabilities within their own apps. For example: OpenTable will offer the ability to make a reservation using its app right without actually leaving the Maps app.
Apple is also adding a feature in iOS 10 that allows you to book a ride such as Uber, pay for it with Apple Pay and monitor the status of the driver -- all without leaving the Maps app.
6.) Changes In Apple Music
Apple Music recently hit the 15 million paid subscriber milestone, thus making it the fastest growing music service in its first year. In iOS 10, Apple Music has been completely redesigned from the ground up. “We want to give greater clarity and simplicity to every aspect of Apple Music,” said Apple SVP of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue during the WWDC event.
When you open up Apple Music in iOS 10, the first tab will be the Library. From there, you can quickly select Playlists, Artists, Albums, Songs and Downloaded Music. The Recently Added section towards the bottom of the Library shows the recently added songs, albums and playlists that were added.
And then when you open a song, lyrics will appear towards the bottom of the screen so you can sing along as you listen to the tracks.
At the top of the “For You” section is a “Discovery Mix,” which is a section personalized for users based on their favorite bands and songs. And there are daily curated playlists based on the day of the week. Towards the bottom of the "Browse" tab is navigation to find New Music, Curated Playlists, Top Charts and Genres.
Under the Radio tab are the links to the customized radio stations and Beats 1. You can tap on “Explore Beats 1” to see what’s live, upcoming shows and featured shows.
7.) Changes In News
Last year, Apple released the personalized news app called “News.” With over 60 million monthly active users, the News app is now being supported by more than 2,000 publications. And the News app will be redesigned in iOS 10:
All of the stories in “For You” will be broken down into clear sections such as “Top Stories,” “Trending Stories,” topics you follow such as Sports and Technology. And the News app will create new topics for you to follow based on your other interests. Apple’s editors will also curate interesting news articles and place them under the “Featured Stories” section.
The News app in iOS 10 is gaining a new feature called Subscriptions. The subscriptions feature will allow users to read every article from magazines like National Geographic and newspapers like The Wall Street Journal from within the News app. To stay up-to-date on current events, there will be breaking news notifications sent from the News app to the Lock screen.
8.) Changes In HomeKit (New Home App)
Apple released HomeKit two years ago in response to the lack of an organized home accessory controller. HomeKit solved the problem of having "Internet of Things" users download separate incompatible apps. “We’re making sure that your home automation products work together easily and securely,” said Apple SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi at the WWDC event.
HomeKit supports a wide range of categories including garage doors, thermostats and fans. With the iOS 10 update, HomeKit will gain several new categories like cameras and door locks.
Every major maker of home accessories have already announced their support for HomeKit. And some of the biggest home builders like KB Home, Brookfield and Lennar have HomeKit built right into their new homes ready when people move in.
In iOS 10, Apple is building on the HomeKit framework through a new app called “Home.” When you open the Home app, you will see your personalized wallpaper and controls for all of your home accessories.
The Home app lets you control your home accessories by simply tapping on them. For example, you will be able to turn on a light by tapping on that respective control icon. And if you want to adjust the light dimmer, just move the slider up or down:
If you want to trigger changes to all of your accessories in one go, then you can select a "Scene" within the Home app. For example: you can get ready to go to bed by tapping on "Good Night," which could close the shades, lock the door and adjust the thermostat all in one step. And Siri acknowledges commands involving Scenes in the Home app by responding to commands like "Good morning Siri" or "Good night Siri."
The Home app can also be controlled from the Control Center when you swipe up from the bottom of the screen and then swipe over to the right:
HomeKit also utilizes the interactive notifications built into iOS 10. If someone rings the doorbell, then you will be able to see a live feed and take action such as talking through the intercom or unlocking the door all from the Lock screen of your iOS device.
Since the Apple TV is always plugged in and always connected to your Wi-Fi, it can work as a secure point for remote access and automation within your home. This means you can still access all of your home accessories when you are not at home securely with end-to-end encryption. And you can set up automated geofences so when you arrive at home, the garage door will open and the lights will turn on automatically. Plus the Apple Watch supports the Home app so you can control your home accessories from your wrist without having to pick up your iOS device.
9.) Changes In Phone App
When you miss a call in iOS 10, you will be able to get voicemail transcriptions of that incoming calls so you can see what it is all about without having to actually listen to the voicemail. This can come in handy if you are stuck in a meeting and want to make sure that your missed call is not an emergency.
Apple is now supporting an extension API where third parties can provide information automatically about whether an incoming phone call from an unknown number is “possible spam.” This feature will come in handy for me because I get many so many spam calls on my iPhone. And blocking those spam numbers does not do enough to curb the spam calls I receive regularly.
Many people enjoy making phone calls from a wide variety of apps including WhatsApp, Slack, Facebook Messenger, Skype and Google Hangouts. Whenever you receive a phone call from one of those apps, a simple push notification pops up on the Lock screen. But now iOS 10 has a VoIP API that allows your incoming calls to look like this:
Surprisingly, Apple is allowing these VoIP apps to be integrated in the Lock screen, Recents and Favorites. Plus the Contacts card will remember how you like to call each person whether it is through the iPhone, WhatsApp, etc. I'm surprised by this decision because all of these apps compete against Apple's FaceTime service. Apple also worked with Cisco on integrating its VoIP API with the Spark app so users can receive work calls in addition to personal calls on their iPhones.
10.) Changes In Messages
The Messages app is the most frequently used on iOS so it received a ton of new features in iOS 10. One of the subtle changes added to Messages are rich links. Now when you share a website in Messages, you will most likely see an image as well:
Videos can be played from right within the transcript. And when you want to send a photo or video in iMessage, you will be able to see the contents of your Camera Roll without having to leave the transcript.
Emoji
Emoji in the Messages app for iOS 10 has been made three times bigger in the transcript. And there will be emoji predictions as you type.
If you already typed a whole message and realized that you did not add any emoji, then iMessage can suggest words that can be replaced with emoji through the new "tap to replace" feature. This feature is activated by tapping on the emoji icon after writing out the message.
Bubble Effects
The chat bubbles in the transcript has not changed much in past versions of iOS. That problem will be fixed in iOS 10. In iOS 10, there will be bubble effects you can add. The bubble effect options include: slam, loud, gentle and invisible ink (explanation of invisible ink is below).
Invisible Ink
When you want to get a message across that is personal, there is a feature called “invisible ink.” The "invisible ink" feature keeps the message hidden and the recipient will not be able to see what is until they slide their finger across the particles covering the chat bubble.
Affirmations
There may be times where you want to send quick affirmation "tapbacks" in Messages. In iOS 10, there are several ways you can react to messages such as a heart icon, a thumbs up, a thumbs down, a “haha”, exclamation marks or a question mark. Tapping on one of those icons places the affirmation at the top right corner of the chat bubble.
Handwritten Messages / Digital Touch
If you want to add a personal touch to your iMessage, then you can handwrite messages and send them to your family and friends. Plus there is support for Digital Touch so you can send sketches, videos, photos and your heart beat. It is fairly common that users tap into this feature to send a photo with a handwritten note scribbled on it.
Full-Screen Effects
The Messages app in iOS 10 also supports full-screen effects to make your conversations even livelier. Some of the full-screen effects include fireworks, confetti, balloons and disco lights.
External App Support
iMessage also has support for external apps in iOS 10. For example, Apple Music links can be played from iMessage without having to leave the conversation.
iMessage Opens Up For Developers
There is a lot more that can be done when it comes to expressing yourself on iMessage so Apple is opening up the messaging service to developers. iMessage Apps appear within the iMessage App drawer.
And when you click on the "+," you will see other iMessage apps. As you download the apps from the iMessage app store, it gets added to your iMessage app drawer.
Some of the iMessage apps that will be available at launch include JibJab, Square Cash and DoorDash. The Square Cash app allows you to pay and payments can be redeemed within the Messages thread. And the DoorDash app for iMessage allows you to place a restaurant order through the app as part of a group shopping cart.
The JibJab app for iMessage is interactive in a way that lets you add the faces of your friends to digital animations before sending it out.
And Disney also has an app that lets you send animated digital stickers of its characters. The digital stickers can be peeled from the bottom of the iMessages app and placed on top of a chat bubble.
The new Messages app features will fully work on iPhones and iPads. And Macs and Apple Watches will be able to receive the interactive messages.
The developer preview of iOS 10 is available now and the public beta version will be available in July. iOS 10 will be available to the public in the fall, most likely in September when the new iPhone is announced. The list of devices that will support the iOS 10 upgrade include: iPad (4th generation), iPad Air, iPad Air 2, iPad Pro, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3, iPad mini 4, iPod touch (6th generation), iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone SE, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.
What are your thoughts about the new iOS 10 features? Do you think the changes are exciting or mediocre? Please leave a comment with your thoughts!
