Apple’s big focus during WWDC is their upcoming software. iOS, macOS, watchOS, sometimes tvOS, and occasionally a hardware announcement or two. This year, we got a bit of everything. In the case of iOS, we got something we’ve been waiting a long time for: customizable lock screens. On iPad, you’ll find floating, resizable windows. macOS has some great new iterative improvements and a new view to help you organize your windows. And watchOS has… the time?
I kid, watchOS actually has some impressive health and fitness updates that break Apple’s cycle of boring watchOS updates.
Below I’ve broken down the updates into categories, mostly based on their platform. Apple has been mixing up their updates across platforms lately, making it more difficult to break up into each section. Part of that is because the operating systems are beginning to share more features.
In This Article:
iOS 16
The biggest change you’ll love about iOS 16 is definitely the new lock screen. Apple’s careful when adding customization options, as they can never take a feature like that back once they introduce it. They need a platform that they can iterate on, one third party developers can take advantage of too. The new lock screen seems to be that strong foundation. It will allow users to change the font of the time, position it behind items, save lock screens and swap them out at will or with a focus, and even add widgets. These widgets have a transparent background and work well with a wallpaper. The iPhone 14 may have an always-on lock screen display, and these widgets would work perfectly for that.dddddddddddd,fffffffffgggggvvccxxzz
Notifications will come from the bottom of your lock screen, putting them in reach of your thumb as you use an oversized iPhone, which will soon once again be the only option as the iPhone 13 mini will likely be Apple’s last hand-sized iPhone.
Apple also added a new “Live Activities” widget category. These widgets can display as a notification on your lock screen and update regularly. They’re perfect for getting updates on something in real time. Apple showed off a few ways they’d be useful, like following the score of a game, or seeing how close your Uber is. These are tasks that you’d normally have to unlock your iPhone, open an app, and refresh the page for. Now you can see it update live on your lock screen.
Message Updates
These updates will find their way to other platforms as well. iMessage is getting two great new features, the ability to edit messages you’ve sent, so you can remove typos on the fly, and the ability to unsend a message. You can do both within 15 minutes of sending a message.
iMessage will also fix the reactions you’d see in group chats with Android users. If you’re an iPhone user and have had a single Android user in your group chat, you likely noticed how you’d sometimes receive a message like, “So-and-so liked a message.” With iOS 16, those will just display as normal reactions. Your Android friends will have to rely on the latest version of Android to fix those text reactions, if they can upgrade.
And More!
There’s a lot more here. From a safety check, that helps victims of abuse regain their privacy. Accessibility improvements, like door detection with distance estimations and live captions to turn audio into text. You can find more on Apple’s website, but they rarely tell us everything. We’ll instead find out more as developers play with the betas.
macOS Ventura (13)
Apple’s software updates of late have largely been small. This is certainly true on macOS. However, the improvements in Ventura should make your workflows easier. Mail has the options to undo sending of mail, schedule it, and, thankfully, better search. You’ll also find a new way of managing windows, Stage Manager. This works well for those who find their desktop too cluttered. You can create window groups and automatically arrange what you’re working on.
Apple improved Spotlight, giving it QuickLook and actions. This makes your Spotlight searches feel more like using an app, one that can search the internet and provide more context for results. In fact, that seems to be a running theme here: context. From the automatically grouped windows, to filtering emails based on the currently selected focus, context plays a key role in Apple’s updates. That context comes from your usage patterns, labels, contacts, and AI. All of it on-device, of course. That context is going to make macOS feel more like it has what you’re looking for, without needing you to be very specific.
Continuity Camera
I only just realized I could enable Universal Control on my iPad when I went to write this article. As it turns out, it’s pretty neat. You can just drag your mouse over to your iPad and start using your Mac’s mouse and keyboard on your iPad. Apple has introduced a number of features that make it easy to jump between devices, like Handoff, which allows you to simply open an app on your Mac or iPad if it’s open on your iPhone.
Now Apple has introduced Continuity Camera. This allows you to use your iPhone as a webcam. Thanks, Apple. 2020 called, this would have been really handy over the past two and a half years. For people with a laptop and dual monitor setup, this can mean being able to use your main monitor for calls with your iPhone without needing to buy a new camera. It also enables the usage of the ultrawide camera to show your desktop. Although I’m not sure how this would be useful for most people. Still, I could see people who make videos online for presentations or reviews making use of just one camera instead of two now.
Apple will sell MagSafe accessories to mount your iPhone on your Mac. Depending on how they price them, it may be cheaper to just buy a webcam.
And More
Of course, there’s more. Apple improved gaming on the Mac with Metal 3. Still, without eGPU support, at minimum, it could never be considered a gaming platform. Even Apple’s demo had disappointing graphics for a desktop computer. There’s also SharePlay, for playing games with other people who… play games on the Mac. That’s at least 12 people, right? Apple’s also introducing an app called Freeform later this year, which is basically just a large, collaborative whiteboard. Just when we thought working from home got rid of them. Settings are updated, you can lock your hidden albums, and all the accessibility improvements from iOS also make their way over to macOS. While Apple hasn’t told us everything, you can find more here.
iPadOS 16
The only thing Apple introduced with iPadOS 16 is a native Weather app and a Calculator app. Again, I’m only kidding… they didn’t introduce a calculator.
At least we finally have an iPad weather app!
Okay, they also introduced some new features from iOS 16 and macOS Ventura. There’s the Mac’s improved search alongside the new iOS features as well. Apple also introduced Stage Manager but, interestingly, has restricted it to M-series iPads. So if you have an A-series powered iPad, including the iPad Air 4 or an iPad Pro from before the current generations of each, there’s no Stage Manager. It’s odd because this is a feature jailbroken iPads have had for a very long time. Obviously the power of Apple’s desktop processors just isn’t driving as many users to upgrade their iPads as Apple expected. Stage Manager doesn’t seem very useful on macOS, but could be on the iPad. Unfortunately, most iPad users won’t know that for some time.
There is a new feature to straighten out your handwriting in the Notes app. But if you seriously take notes on the iPad, you’re definitely not using the Notes app. Admittedly, the iPadOS update this year felt more like a standard iOS update, with a few Mac features for Apple’s latest iPads. It might be the more boring update of WWDC, but that doesn’t mean the updates are unwelcome.
watchOS 9
Apple’s new “Metropolitan” watch face will allow you to edit the font sizes on the dial. That’s… actually something! A little bit of customization! It’s simple and watch faces doesn’t quite look right with a digital display yet, but it’s nice to have a little customization. It’s a nice looking face. There’s also a new “Playtime” watch face with little cartoon numbers, and an updated Astronomy watch face, for better views of the planet and solar system you call home. Apple’s modular watch faces also have customizable backgrounds now, so you don’t have to have the plain black background if you want a watch face that maximizes the fact that it’s a smartwatch.
Health
While the watch side of watchOS 9 is a relatively small upgrade, and doesn’t feature the completely customizable watch faces of our dreams, the health side of things is far more complex. New workout-aware programs can track the legs of a triathlon automatically. Runners can target a particular pace and heart rate, staying in a zone to improve cardiovascular health and endurance. You can customize your workouts with warmups, stages, recovery time, and even loop them. The Apple Watch, using location data and movement, can track your pace, the length of your stride, and average running power. The details and enhancements in Apple’s health app show that Apple has found their niche. The Apple Watch is a high-end fitness device first, notification machine second, and watch third.
Outside of exercise, your devices, including the Apple Watch, can now track your medications. This can allow you to mark your medications as taken, see potential negative interactions between medications, and remind you to take them at a particular time. All of that might put you at peace of mind, which is really going to help with your sleep. Now the Apple Watch will also track the stages of sleep. These are helpful for seeing how restful a night was. Combined with information, like bedtime, food before bed, a nap during the day, exercise, and other notes, you can figure out the best ways to get a good night’s rest.
Although, as someone who has been tracking her sleep very accurately for years now, I’ve got to say, it might not change your habits as much as it should.
Services
Apple introduced a number of services updates and changes. These are items that cross platforms, working on iOS as well as macOS. For example, FaceTime Handoff will let you continue a call on your Mac that started on your iPhone. Passkey will allow you to use biometric keys stored on your devices to unlock accounts, rather than remembering or storing passwords. iMessage allows you to delete and edit messages. All of the health data your watch can now collect is also displayed elsewhere. Many of the features Apple introduced will work cross-platform, as the platforms tend to merge. macOS and iPadOS got the same new Stage Manager features. Mail saw the same filtering and scheduling across the board. We’re nearing a time when Apple’s ecosystem is basically just one cohesive interface on different types of screens.
Hardware
Apple did introduce new hardware at WWDC this year. The M2 chip. The M2 chip is a more efficient, slightly more powerful M1 chip. It is not, however, more powerful than the M1 Pro or M1 Max. The numbers don’t matter as much as the names… for now. Eventually there will be an M2 Pro/Max, but for now, the M1 Max is still Apple’s most powerful chip. Instead, the M2 replaces the consumer level of Apple’s lineup. It also doesn’t completely replace anything, since you can still buy all M1 Macs with an M1.
You following along? Good.
Apple did introduce a new computer to take advantage of the M2. The MacBook Air has a new, sleek and slim shape. Gone is the wedge. It also has two thunderbolt ports and charges via MagSafe. The MacBook Air starts at $999 with the M1 chip, and $1,199 with the M2. It comes in four colors, including a new (fingerprint magnet) Midnight blue, along with “starlight” (gold), space gray, and silver. You can get up to an 8-Core CPU, with 4 performance and 4 efficiency cores, up to 24GB of shared CPU/GPU memory, and support for a single 6K external monitor. Still no eGPU support, which means that’s what you’re stuck with. But, hey, there’s 10 cores in that GPU, though that’s just a little less than the 40 in my Radeon card. There’s 24GB of shared memory, but my non-shared memory is currently, as of this writing, hitting 20GB. That would leave 4 GBfor the GPU. Respectable, but my budget-friendly 5700XT has 8.
I really wish Apple would just enable eGPU support on their new Macs, if you couldn’t tell.
Apple will also offer the M2 in their more consumer-friendly version of the MacBook Pro, the 13-inch model. No, I’m not confused, there still is a 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro, but now there will also be an M2-powered MacBook Pro. The 13-inch does have two thunderbolt ports and the TouchBar from older MacBook Pro models. It has about 2 hours of additional battery life over the MacBook Air, it’s biggest difference between the two. The 13-inch MacBook Pro starts at $1,299. The stats are practically the same, but the MacBook Pro is a little larger and heavier. Interestingly, it features an older camera, coming in with Apple’s 720p camera instead of the 1080p camera on the MacBook Air. You can find more subtle differences here.
WWDC 2022
And there you have it! Those are the biggest announcements of WWDC 2022. In the fall, Apple will reveal new hardware. We’ll likely see new iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and Macs this fall. These will push the operating systems a bit further, perhaps revealing features we haven’t gotten a chance to see yet. These advancements will be out later this year, and many are in developer betas now.