iOS 13: Everything you need to know
What's new with iOS 13
December 10, 2019: Apple releases iOS 13.3 for iPhone
iOS 13.3 is now available for iPhone. In this release, there are new parental controls for Screen Time, giving parents even more control over who their children can call, FaceTime, or iMessage. Parents can now also manage the contact list that appear on their children's devices. The update also brings in a new layout for Apple News+ stories from The Wall Street Journal and other leading newspapers. Other improvements include creating a new video clip when trimming a video in Photos, support for NFC, USB, and Lighting FIDO2-compliant security keys in Safari. There's a fix for a Mail issue where new messages would not download, and it addresses an issue that could cause incorrect characters to display in Messages and duplication of messages in Exchange accounts. There are a plenty of other bug fixes and other improvements in iOS 13.3.
Dark Mode is finally arriving in iOS 13. The dynamic Dark Mode means dynamic wallpapers that change between light and dark when the sun sets or rises, widgets will also have a dark theme as well. Messages, Photos, Notes, and other native apps will come with built-in support for Dark Mode.
The keyboard will also be dark themed, and there is swipe support, called "Quick Path," for faster typing.
The Notes app has a refined texture and is more of a dark gray color, rather than straight black, in Dark Mode. Photos will look sharper than ever with the black background instead of white.
Dark Mode is also available in Apple Music. As a bonus, when you play music, lyrics will have time-synced lyrics so you can sing along or follow the song easier than ever before.
Reminders reimagined
Reminders also gets a total rework in iOS 13. As you type in reminders, the app will try and guess when to remind you. Siri will which words you want and make them actionable. If there are any names in the reminder, it will remind you about them in Messages.
Apple Maps
Apple has been hard at work with Apple Maps. The entire US will get these new maps by the end of 2019, with other "select" countries next year.
These new maps are much more detailed with building layouts always visible, similar to Flyover but for everywhere. Users can also have a Favorites row on the launch screen, as well as "Collections" for organizing your favorites, sharing lists with friends, and more.
There is also a button that lets you "look around" on the map. It's essentially Google Street View, but built-in natively to Apple Maps. Moving around in this view is also much more smooth than Google Street View. Apple also shared that there will be a junction view in China, as well as ETA sharing for everyone.
With iOS 13.1, the Share ETA feature is now enabled in Maps. The feature is pretty simple and useful; when you start a route in Maps, there will be a Share ETA button at the bottom of your screen. When you tap it you'll be given a list of your recent contacts, plus the options to go through your contact list, and with a couple of taps, send them your ETA through messages.
AirDrop
With iOS 13.1 activates the U1 chip in the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max for AirDrop. This means by pointing from one U1 chip device to another, you should be able to AirDrop files.
Privacy and Security
iOS 13 brings a lot of new privacy and security features. There will be system-wide location tracking protection, or give an app permission to use location "just once." If you give it permission to always use your location, iOS will provide you with detailed reports.
Apple will add "Sign in with Apple." This uses Face ID to start a new account without revealing any personal information. While apps can request information, you can hide things like email, and Apple will create a random email that will forward to your actual email. These random emails can be disabled if need be.
HomeKit
HomeKit Secure Video is Apple's solution to cloud services that analyze video. With this, Apple will analyze video data locally, and then encrypt it and upload it to iCloud. All iCloud accounts will get 10 days of this service for free, and this will not count against your storage limits.
Brands like Logitech will be supporting this new feature, along with others.
HomeKit support is also coming to routers. This means that it will "firewall off" accessories. Brands like Linksys, Eero, and Spectrum.
Messages
Names and photos are shared more easily with iOS 13. So when you text someone, they'll automatically get your name and photo.
Memoji come with more options, including makeup and accessories, such as monocles, hats, and AirPods. All of your Memoji also get a sticker pack that you can use in Messages, but they'll also be built-in to the keyboard as emoji so you can use your new Memoji system-wide in any app.
The Memoji Stickers are now supported in any device with an A9 chip or later, so it's more accessible than ever.
Camera and Photos
Camera and Photos get a lot of new features in iOS 13.
December 9, 2019: The latest version of iOS 13.2.3 adds new video recording controls inside the Camera app. Just tap on the numbers in the top right corner to cycle through available video recording resolutions and frame rates.
There are new Portrait Lighting effects, so you can increase or decrease the intensity of the light (think of moving actual lights closer or further from the subject).
Photos has a new photo editing interface. Just tap and drag for adjustments, and iOS 13 adds new editing tools like noise reduction.
This new photo editing interface also applies to video. And for the first time ever, you can rotate your videos.
There's now a new way to navigate through your photos in iOS 13. The device will also use machine learning to remove duplicates and clutter. This is fantastic if you often have your Camera Roll cluttered with things like screenshots and receipts.
A "Photos" tab now appears in the Photos app, which is the new way to browse through your images. Pinch-to-zoom is still supported, along with a scrubber for years, months, days. Videos play directly in the browse view, as well as Live Photos.
AirPods
Siri will now be able to read incoming messages, and you can respond directly with the AirPods. You no longer need to say "Hey Siri" to reply, and this works with any app that supports SiriKit.
Audio Sharing
The new Audio Sharing feature lets you send your audio to another phone or device so they can hear what you're listening to.
HomePod
HomePod now has Handoff support, so you can pass off your iOS device audio directly to your HomePod. This is also done automatically if your iPhone is near your HomePod.
Siri also supports live radio with iHeartRadio or TuneIn. This means access to over 100,000 stations.
HomePod now has multiple user support. It will recognize each person's voice and respond with the corresponding information for each person.