Apple WWDC 2018: Apple Announces iOS 12 for iPhone and iPad
Apple iOS 12 focuses more on AR, Siri and many new fun features like Memoji, stickers and improved Face Time.
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The iOS 12 was, without a doubt, the most anticipated announcement at the 2018 Apple World Wide Developers Conference. As Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook took the stage to flag off the developers’ conference, he did us all a favour by bringing up iOS 12 as the first thing at this year’s annual keynote event.
The latest version of the most advanced mobile operating system, according to Apple, is designed to make everyday tasks faster and more responsive. The iOS 12 focuses more on augmented reality (AR) and Siri, and has many new fun features like the Memoji (animated emojis with your own face), fun messages, and improved FaceTime.
The iOS 12 tries to make communication more fun and expressive with Memoji and Group FaceTime. Screen Time helps customers understand and take control of the time they spend interacting with their iOS devices.
iOS 12 introduces Siri shortcuts, enabling Siri to work with any app, delivering a much faster way to get things done.
“We’re very excited about the new communications features we’re bringing to iPhone and iPad with Memoji, a more personal form of Animoji, fun camera effects, and Group FaceTime,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering.
Faster Processing
With the new iOS, the camera launches 70 percent faster, the keyboard appears 50 percent faster, and typing is more responsive. Even when there is a lot going on across the system, apps can launch twice as fast.
The iOS 12 will be available from devices as old as the iPhone 5S introduced in 2013 to the most advanced iPhone ever, iPhone X.
More Animoji’s and Memoji
New features make communicating with friends and family from iPhone X more expressive, with a new set of Animojis and Memojis – your very own personalised emoji that allows you to make your own Animoji that can look like anything you want it to look like. You can use these Memojis within Messages as well. The new Animoji’s are ghost, koala, tiger and T-Rex. All Animojis and Memojis now feature more expressions like wink and tongue.
The new OS also brings Animoji, Filters, Text and Stickers to Messages and FaceTime. Filters like comic book and watercolour add personality to photos and videos, new labels and shapes let users add captions and titles to highlight parts of an image, and stickers can be placed using iMessage sticker packs.
32 People Can Group FaceTime
The new FaceTime now comes with Group FaceTime, it’s easy to chat with multiple people at the same time. Participants can be added at any time, join later if the conversation is still active, and choose to join using video or audio from an iPhone, iPad or Mac. As many as 32 people can video chat at the same time.
Siri Shortcuts
Siri Shortcuts is a new app that delivers a new, much faster way to get things done with the ability for any app to work with Siri. Siri intelligence can suggest an action, based on your daily activities, right at the lock screen and at just the right time — whether it’s to order a coffee in the morning or start an afternoon workout.
Photos
An all-new "For You" tab pulls up favourite moments in one place, combining Memories and iCloud Shared Albums. A new sharing suggestions feature makes it easier to share photos with friends. The friends who receive photos are prompted to in turn share any photos and videos they have from the same trip or event.
Do Not Disturb, Notifications and Screen Time
New tools built in the iOS 12 help customers understand and take control of the time they spend interacting with their devices. New modes in Do Not Disturb automatically end based on a specified time, location or action and Do Not Disturb during Bedtime helps people get a better night's sleep by dimming the display and hiding all notifications on the lock screen until prompted in the morning.
To help reduce interruptions, iOS 12 gives users more options for controlling how notifications are delivered.
iOS 12 will also arrange notifications categorically.
Screen Time provides users with detailed information and tools to help them better understand and control the time they spend with apps and websites. Daily and weekly activity reports show the total time spent in individual apps, usage across categories of apps, how many notifications are received and how often iPhone or iPad are picked up.
Screen Time also gives parents access to their child’s Activity Report right from their own iOS devices using Family Sharing in iCloud, and allows them to schedule times to limit when a child’s iOS device can be used, such as during bedtime.
Additional App Features
- Stocks comes to iPad and illustrates how the market is moving with easy-to-understand quotes and high-quality news.
- CarPlay adds support for third-party navigation apps displayed right on the car’s dash joining music, messaging, calling and automaker apps. Google Maps comes to CarPlay now.
- Voice Memos is now available on iPad and adds iCloud support to sync recordings and edits across devices. A new design makes it easier to capture, share and edit recordings.
- Siri translation expands to more than 40 language pairs and brings more knowledge of sports, celebrities, food and nutrition. Siri can also pull up favourite photos by person, place, event, time and topic.
- Wallet on iPhone and Apple Watch adds support for student ID cards, making it more convenient to access everything on campus.
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