iOS 11 was the least surprising announcement of WWDC. Apple has announced new versions of its mobile operating system at its developer conference for years. While the final version of iOS 11 won't be available until September, here's what Apple has in store for you with iOS 11.
Apple CEO Tim Cook started by saying that iOS 10 is installed on 86 percent of iOS devices. Apple SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi then introduced us to iOS 11's new features. "There's a big focus on technologies with iOS 11, but also new features," Federighi said.
With iOS 11, stickers and iMessage apps are now more accessible with a shortcut drawer - there's no need to tap multiple times to send a sticker. Now, conversations are automatically synchronized with iCloud and stay in sync. If you delete a message, it goes away everywhere. So say goodbye to the good old avalanche of outdated messages on your Mac when you come back from vacation.
When it comes to Apple Pay, you can now send money to other Apple Pay users - think Venmo or Square Cash. It's built into iMessage when you want to send money. And if you receive money, you get an Apple Pay Cash card with a balance. You can spend this money using Apple Pay, send this money again or withdraw it to your bank account.
Siri is one of the big new updates in iOS 11. Siri is used by 375 million devices every month. With iOS 11, the voice sounds more natural with better inflections. You can now ask for translations using Siri - Chinese, French, German, Italian and English get translation first.
And Siri is getting better at understanding the context, your interests and more. Apple calls this "Siri intelligence" and it affects the entire operating system. When somebody asks you "how far are you?", iOS will look at your calendar to see where you're supposed to go and suggest the answer in Messages. If you've been looking at Iceland travel tips, it'll add Reykjavik to your autocorrect dictionary, suggest news stories about Iceland in the News app and more.
The camera app now also supports HEVC (also known as h.265). It should let you shoot better quality video with a smaller file size. And it looks like the image processing layer is getting an update as well as you should get better photos with the same old phone. You can edit live photos to choose a different main still photo. And just like Instagram's Boomerang, you can make live photos go back and forth or loop. Apple added the Memories tab to the Photos app last year. With iOS 11, the company is adding new smart albums, including a #TBT album.
Control Center is receiving a major update. It looks completely new and features a ton of buttons. Apple doesn't want you to swap between multiple tabs. For instance, you can adjust the brightness and pause the music on the same page. And if you want more details, you can 3D touch on a widget to get more features.
Apple updated the driving direction in Apple Maps with iOS 10. Now, with iOS 11 you get detailed maps for malls in American cities and airports - Americans are going to love this.
When you're driving, iOS recognizes that you're connected to the audio system with Bluetooth or uses the iPhone's motion sensors to activate a new 'do not disturb' mode. With this mode, you don't get any notification and you can configure an auto-reply if somebody texts you.
AirPlay is receiving a major update. With AirPlay 2, you can connect multiple speakers using WiFi and control multiple speakers using your iOS device. Libratone, Devialet, Bose, B&O and more are all going to support AirPlay 2. But that's not all. AirPlay 2 gets a developer API. Developers can finally play with AirPlay.
Developers will also be able to work with Apple Music thanks to a new MusicKit API. For instance, Shazam will be able to auto-add songs to an Apple Music playlist (finally).
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