6 New Features and Changes We Need to See in iOS 13
Credit: Maximilian GüthWe have about six months until Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2019, where the company’s expected to unveil its next iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS updates, among other things.
For its part, iOS 12 — unveiled back at WWDC 2018 and released alongside the iPhone XS, Max and XR in September — is in many ways like iOS 11 before it. Rather than delivering many noteworthy new features or software innovations, iOS 12 was intentionally designed to enhance the operating system’s overall speed and performance — especially on older devices like the iPhone 5s and 6.
While there’s little information currently available, it’s been rumored that Apple will focus more on features and feature enhancements (especially for its iPad) in the upcoming iOS 13 software build.
And while we also have little indication of what will be among those features, we do have a wishlist of feature requests [hopes and dreams] we’d love to see fulfilled this year. Continue reading to learn about 6 New Features We Need to See in iOS 13.
An Actual Dark Mode
At times, iOS has been criticized for its lack of a system-wide ‘Dark Mode’ — a seemingly basic feature, which has been available for a long time now to both Android and Windows Phone users, alike.
While Apple introduced a dedicated Dark Mode theme for Mac as a cornerstone feature of its latest macOS Mojave software update — and although we even discovered an “unofficial Dark Mode” that [sort of] works on iOS — there’s unfortunately been no indication (yet) that we’ll get a legitimate version of iPhone this year, either.
Still, there are plenty of stunning ‘Dark Mode concepts’ currently circulating the web today, offering us hints of hope [until further notice] that we'll get one sooner or later.
Redesigned Home Screen, Layout
Save for some minor coloring and aesthetic details, Apple hasn’t updated its iOS Home Screen since its last major revision as part of 2013's iOS 7 software update. And, even then, the iOS 7 Home Screen wasn’t all that different or any more complex than iOS Home Screens before it.
But now, iPhone [and iPad] displays are bigger, taller, and more technologically-advanced than ever before; there’s barely any bezels surrounding them, and the company’s iconic, clickable Home buttons have gone away for good as of 2018 — though plenty of options remain for those eager to live-out the nostalgia.
All things considered, it would be nice to see Apple pump some fresh blood into its iOS Home Screen this year. We don’t expect the current design of rows and columns of icons to change in any significant way — but, the company and its brilliant engineering team could [fairly easily] find ways to take advantage of all those extra pixels and inches — possibly even allowing users more freedom to customize their canvas.
Better iOS/macOS Integration
Back in 2016, Apple was first reported to be working on a new initiative dubbed Project Marzipan, which was reportedly spearheaded for the purpose of establishing a more universal, seamless and functional integration of the iOS mobile and macOS desktop operating systems.
As per our previous reporting on Project Marzipan — which was initially to debut along with iOS 12, before Apple pushed it back to focus more on performance and stability — these game-changing new features are now expected to debut in iOS 13 this year.
And with new iPhones and iPads increasing so significantly in power and performance over their predecessors, it’s now looking more likely than ever that [at least some of] the company's 2019 offerings will sport silicon [the A13 SoC] powerful enough to propel them.
Revamped File Management App: Files 2.0
If Apple is staging iOS 13 to be an iPad-centric update, then it’s imperative, in my opinion, that the company pour some of its vast resources into redesigning the iOS Files app — or perhaps even reconstructing it, especially for iPad, with a more streamlined interface reminiscent of Finder on Mac.
Of course, Apple’s current iOS file management system is sufficient for the needs of most— but Pro users, specifically hoping to maximize their ~$800-1K tablet’s suitability as a laptop replacement, will certainly benefit from a desktop-quality system offering more advanced search, organization
Speed, RAM Optimizations
Apple’s objective with iOS 12 wasn’t just to make the operating system run faster — but to bring these impressive speed enhancements to the widest range of devices possible, including older models like the iPad mini 2 and iPhone 5s which notably boast just 1 gigabyte (GB) of RAM.
Hypothetically speaking, if Apple were to invest its resources ensuring that iOS 13 is faster than iOS 12 (even half-as-much as iOS 12 is faster than iOS 11) — and if the company further channeled those resources on newer iPhones and iPads equipped with higher amounts of RAM — we can presume the update will bring just-as-remarkable speed and performance boosts to devices with more RAM, like the iPhone 6s Plus (2 GB), iPhone X (3 GB), and especially the iPhone XS/XS Max (4 GB).
A Smarter Siri
Apple’s voice-driven personal assistant, Siri, is arguably among the
Sure, Apple made some commendable improvements in iOS 12, introducing its all-new Siri Shortcuts app — the first-fruits of its 2017 WorkFlow acquisition — to help seamlessly create and manage tasks.
But, the fact still remains: Siri’s performance is rather sub-stellar, so much so that the iPhone-maker recently hired a veteran AI expert with years of experience as an engineering executive at Google to help breathe fresh life into Siri.. And so we certainly hope to see some of those new developments, too, when iOS 13 is unveiled this summer.