Apple is expected to unveil iOS 13, the next major version of the
iPhone and iPad operating system, at its annual Worldwide Developers
Conference, which kicks off on June 3rd.
Now, people familiar with the development of the operating system have
shared exclusive details with 9to5Mac. Read on for new details about
what to expect.
Dark Mode and Multitasking
First, the long-awaited Dark Mode is finally coming to the iPhone and iPad with iOS 13. There will be a system-wide Dark Mode
that can be enabled in Settings, including a high contrast version,
similar to what’s already available on macOS. Speaking of macOS, iPad
apps that run on the Mac using Marzipan will finally take advantage of the Dark Mode support on both systems.
There are many changes coming to iPad with iOS 13, including the
ability for apps to have multiple windows. Each window will also be able
to contain sheets that are initially attached to a portion of the
screen, but can be detached with a drag gesture, becoming a card that
can be moved around freely, similar to what an open-source project
called “PanelKit” could do.
These cards can also be stacked on top of each other, and use a depth
effect to indicate which cards are on top and which are on the bottom.
Cards can be flung away to dismiss them.
Undo gesture, Safari improvements, and font management
Another thing many iOS users complain about is the lack of a standard
undo system, which on the iPhone and iPad currently requires physically
shaking the device.
With iOS 13, Apple is introducing a new standard undo gesture for
text input on the iPad. The gesture starts as a three-finger tap on the
keyboard area, sliding left and right allows the user to undo and redo
actions interactively.
There will be a tutorial the first time the keyboard is opened to
teach users how to use the new feature. It’s possible that developers
will be able to adopt this interaction in custom controls through a
public API.
Safari on iOS 13 for the iPad will automatically ask for a desktop
version of websites when necessary, preventing a common issue where
websites will render their iPhone version even when running on an iPad
with a big screen. YouTube is notorious for this behavior, forcing users
to rely on a ‘Request Desktop Site’ button.
Font management is getting a major upgrade on iOS 13. It will not be
necessary to install a profile to get new fonts into the system anymore.
Instead there will be a new font management panel in Settings. A new
standard font picker component will be available for developers and the
system will notify the user when they open a document that has missing
fonts.
Smarter Mail, improved multiple item selection, more
The Mail app is getting smarter for the first time in a while: the
upgraded app will be able to organize messages into categories such as
marketing, purchases, travel, “not important” and more, with the
categories being searchable. Users will also be able to add messages to a
“read later” queue similar to third-party email apps.
Engineers are also working on bringing easy collaboration to
third-party document-based apps, similar to what’s already available in
Apple’s own productivity apps including Pages, Numbers and Keynote.
The focus on productivity on iOS continues with the inclusion of new
gestures to allow for the selection of multiple items in table views and
collection views, which make up for most of the user interfaces found
in apps that list large amounts of data. Users will be able to drag with
multiple fingers on a list or collection of items to draw a selection,
similar to clicking and dragging in Finder on the Mac.
There will also be the ability for developers to use a different
status bar style (light or dark) for each side of an in-app splitview,
which should prevent issues that currently happen in some apps where the
status bar will lack contrast with the background in one side of the
splitview. Split Views on Marzipan apps based on iPad designs that run
on the Mac will get the ability to be resized by dragging the divider
and have their position reset when double-clicking the divider, like
existing Split View apps on the Mac.
New Volume HUD and other changes
Other features to come with iOS 13 include a redesigned Reminders
app, which is also coming to the Mac, a new volume HUD (the current
obtrusive one has been a UI joke
for a while now), better “Hey Siri” rejection for common mistaken
noises such as laughter and crying babies, better multilingual support
for keyboards and dictation, and expanded in-app printing controls.
Thanks to Steve Troughton-Smith for his help with this report.
