Update June 7, 2022 – Added Apple TV info not announced in main presentation

WWDC is off and started with Apple’s big announcement video. The theme today really seemed to be about refinement and bringing a lot of features that we users had been wanting for a while, bringing parity to its services, and giving developers API’s for many of these new features. Apple was happy to talk about their developer initiatives between 34 million new developers, developer tech talks, and racial and gender equity developer camps, classes, and forums. Here’s all the stuff to talk about from WWDC 2022.

iOS 16

Apple started off with iOS 16. Some of these features are coming to iPad and Mac in their new versions, and I’ll highlight them when they come up.

Lockscreen Revamp: This was the first thing Apple announced really makes the Lock screen a lot more customizable and powerful. By pressing and holding on the lock screen, you’ll be able to add different themes and filters, customize the appearance of the time and date font on the lock screen, with the subject of a lock screen photo able to partially obscure the time for a depth effect. You can also select a pre-made Apple theme such as an Astronomy theme, Pride, and more.

Not just that, but Widgets will now be on the lock screen. Apple showed off ones like Calendar, Fitness rings, and Weather, but developers will also be able to create their own with an API similar to how they do with the home screen widgets. You can add multiple smaller widgets to the lock screen or a few larger ones. The playback controls on the lock screen can now be minimized to a smaller view or maximized to show a bigger artwork view of what you’re listening to, which is odd to me but we’ll see how it plays out.

Notifications on the lock screen are also getting a revamp. It seems when they appear they’ll appear at the bottom for easier access. However, Apple also showed at new Live Activities function that can be implemented later in iOS 16. For apps that may be sending rapid notifications in succession, such as an Uber Eats delivery order or sports scores for a game you want to keep track of, you’ll no longer be blasted by a series of notifications. Instead, the Live Activity can be implemented and appear at the bottom of the screen like an additional smart widget showing you the score of the game, a news feed, or a timeline of where your order is in the process. Apple says Sports Controls and scores will work through the Apple TV, so perhaps that means it will come through even if your team isn’t set up on your phone.

Focus also got some updates both in itself and with the lock screen. For the lock screen portion, since we were just talking about it, Focus modes now apply to lock screens such as work focus, personal focus, etc. with different widgets and styles for whatever mode you’re in. Inside the phone, focus filters let you have controls inside an app such as what Message conversations, email accounts, and Safari tabs show in a given mode. Lastly, another running theme, there will be a 3rd Party API for developers to integrate this into their own apps, with Apple showing off a focus mode in Outlook for different email accounts in said app.

Messages: Apple announced 3 highly requested features for Messages and pretty much left it for that (well, not counting things that overlap with messages like Shared with You and SharePlay). First, you can edit iMessages after you’ve sent them, with a little message showing that they’ve been edited next to the “Delivered” or “Read” banner. Second, there is an undo send (that is also marked in the same area) in case you realize you sent the message to the wrong person or said something really wrong. Lastly, coming in from the email side of things, you will be able mark any thread as unread to come back to later much like you can in email apps.

Shared with You: Not much to say here except that 3rd party apps will now get an API for this that they can access or use in their apps.

SharePlay: Another small bump, but a useful one. Apple has made it easier to discover what apps can use SharePlay from FaceTime calls and App Store. Now you can hit the Share button in a FaceTime call and see what apps you can SharePlay with. You can also start Shareplay from Messages so you can text and watch/listen rather than being in a whole call together.

Dictation: A very nice enhancement for me personally, you’ll now be able to move between voice and touch when typing or sending messages. When you activate dictation from the keyboard, the keyboard will stay on screen while you’re speak so you can edit as you talk. Dictation has gotten another leg up, catching up to Android, in that it will now let you dictate emojis and auto-apply punctuation.

App Intents API. Siri shortcuts can work without being manually setup. So instead of you having to setup a Pandora shortcut to play a certain playlist via the Shortcuts app, Pandora can just integrate it for you without any additional setup from you. More complex shortcuts will still be able to be created and integrated by users.

LiveText: LiveText will now work in videos that you’re watching, with Apple highlighting code in a tutorial for users to easily copy and paste. LiveText will have more quick actions, specifically more translation and currency conversion. LiveText works in translate app, much like Google Translate, so you can scan an item with the camera function and translate the words or text in the frame.

Visual Lookup: Visual Lookup is an existing feature that will let you get more information on a item that your iDevice can recognize in the frame, such as plants, animals, etc. I did a whole article and video about it. If you use this feature, you’ll now be able to press and hole on said subject and drag that image subject into other items like Messages or documents.

Wallet: Wallet is continuing to, as Apple put it, try to replace your real-world wallet. Select TSA spots will now support ID’s in the Wallet app along with your boarding pass, 11 more states are working with Apple to try to implement digital drivers’ licenses. You’ll also be able to present virtual ID’s to apps that need it, with Apple showing off Uber Eats requesting this for an alcohol purchase. As privacy measure, you can choose to share your actual birthday or just that you’re of legal age for the request. Apple is extending digital room and home key support: you’ll be able to send Wallet based Room-key through Messages, email, and WhatsApp. Lest you think this is an Apple only thing, the company is working with the IETF to make a digital-key industry standard.

Apple also talked about their expanding Tap to Pay on iPhone so you can use your iPhone as an NFC, tap to pay, Terminal for transactions and said its support is growing and will include Stripe, Shopify, and more.

Lastly, items purchased through Apple pay that need to be shipped can have their tracking info automatically added to the Wallet app for tracking and managing.

Apple Pay Later: This one feels a bit icky to me, but could be beneficial for some. Apple Pay Later is a new feature that will be automatically integrate into Apple Pay, with sites and apps wanting to use it not needing to do anything additional to integrate. This will work like other pay-later services like Affirm where instead of paying for a large item all at once, users can space the payments over 4 smaller, interest and fee free payments.

I feel icky about this since these services can be fine if used properly, but can be a really easy way to lure people into shopping for more than they need, spend more money, and put them in a more difficult spot. Again, if you are able to use them responsibly, more power to you, but I wonder what it will look like if you miss a payment.

Maps: Apple is bringing its revamped map experience to France, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, and several more countries. They are also (finally, another long requested feature) – multi-stop routing on Mac and iOS, meaning you can setup not just a simple A-B route, but a list of places to stop on a route. You can ask Siri to add a stop to a route mid-drive such as in CarPlay. For those using transit, the Maps app can now show fairs in app, notify you of load transit card balances, and even give you the option to reload supported transit cards automatically.

Developers can integrate detailed views into their apps with Apple Maps to show off other overlays, such as Bird scooters did by showing scooter locations nearby in their app. Zillow was shown using the integrated look around feature in its app for neighborhood viewing. And developers will be getting new server side API’s for these and many other Map related functions

Sports: This was sort of an oddball addition, at least how it was presented. You will soon be able to follow sports teams in the News app including scores, highlights, and more from Apple and other sports news vendors. Premium sports coverage from local newspapers will be available to News+ subscribers as well.

Family Sharing: If you use Parental controls, there are improvements for you. You can use a slider to more exactly specify ages for one and have adjusting controls change automatically once the child ages up. Apple also introduced a way to easily port Family Controls to new devices. Now when you get a new device for your kid and are in the process of setting it up, you can tap the child’s existing device to the new one and it will transfer all of the existing parental control settings along with the child’s apps, data, and settings. Lastly, if a child is requesting more Screen Time for a particular app, they can now send an iMessage to their parent or guardian, and can approve or deny it from that app.

Photos: The newest Photo Feature is the iCloud Shared Photo Library. This is an iCloud library, separate from your primary one, that is shared among those in your iCloud Family Sharing (up to 5 people max). Photos can not only be manually synced with other family members in this album, but also based off who is in the photo, only photos taken after a certain date, or if those members are in proximity of you when you’re taking the photo. This setting can also be manually enabled or disabled from the camera app before you take the picture. You can also set all photos to sync or only specific photos.

Privacy: While Apple announced a few general privacy features, there’s only one I really want to highlight, and that is the new Safety Check. This is a feature developed in conjunction with the National Network to End Domestic Violence, the Women’s Services Network, and the National Center for Victims of Crime, and (if the organizations listed didn’t give it away) is meant to help those escaping from domestic violence. When a person run safety check, it does several things. First, it resets the location permissions as well as other privacy settings of all apps on your phone. Second, it locks down and restricts access to your messages so they’re only stored on device and not in the cloud. Third, it revokes all shared iCloud access to others from your accounts. Fourth, it limits your Touch ID and Face ID locks to only a small subset. Lastly, it lets you review your emergency contacts to ensure the abuser is not accidentally reached out to by a well-intending safety person in the event of an emergency.

While I don’t know that this is going to alleviate all the concerns around things like AirTags, this is absolutely a welcome feature. While Apple has been better about this than Android, any features that help limit stalking and abuse from former family or domestic partners is to be praised. And doing it in system is far more powerful than any third party app could do on its own.

There are a few other features Apple highlight briefly, such as quicknote coming to iPhone, Spatial Audio being able to use the True Depth camera on your phone to help improve its awareness, and new Memoji. Apple also noted, in a segment on Spotlight later on, that Spotlight will be getting improvements and be a dedicated button between the iPhone dock and your home screen apps.

Home:

Apple demoed a brand new, revamped Home app, rebuilt from the ground up to be more efficient, reliable, and useful. Rooms and favorites are now integrated into the main screen with different sections at the top for things like climate, camera, lights, etc. Each of these section headers will have information easily visible such as whether lights are on, the temperature inside your house, and more. And you’ll be able to see more in each view, such as seeing up to 4 camera views at the same time in the camera section.

Apple also re-commited itself to the Matter standard, an industry standard between makers like Samsung, Google, Apple, Amazon, and more to allow easy interoperability between devices so we don’t have to worry about this device only working with Alexa while another does Google Home. Apple said they are contributing HomeKit as the foundation for connecting accessories in order to ensure user privacy even when devices aren’t natively made for HomeKit.

CarPlay:

CarPlay got its own special section in Apple’s announcement. Apple wanted to highlight how important CarPlay seems to be, noting that 98% of new cars either have CarPlay inside or as an option, and claiming 79% or customers wouldn’t consider buying if it didn’t have CarPlay (and yours truly does fall into that camp).

What Apple showed then will likely not affect most people now, but may in the long run. Apple showed that CarPlay will now be able to not only handle bigger screens, but can integrate itself into the real-time systems of the car to allow it to access and display things like the speedometer, tachometer, fuel gauges, radio tuning, AC, and other settings and data. They showed a variety of views like classic gauges, to more modern lines, and different customizable schemes, colors, and layouts that we can set for ourselves. Even if your car won’t be able to show these settings, you will have some more control over the default widget home screen it seems, with other layouts being optional.

Apple Watch:

Much of the Apple Watch section was dedicated towards Health, so much so that it gets it own section next. Outside of Health, the Watch got a relatively modern feature update.

There will be 4 new Watch Faces

1. Revamped Astronomy Watch Face – which will change with the time of day and show updated cloud cover data.
2. A Lunar calendar watch face with settings for Chinese, Hebrew, and Islamic calendar settings on the Watch Face.
3. Bouncing Numbers – cute little numbers that bounce and are active when the watch is raise then go to sleep when the watch is down and inactive.
4. The Metropolitan face – a more classic style watch face with resizable numbers under the hands.

Siri will get a new UI with a similar orb overlaying the interface to not block everything you’re seeing. There will now be notification banners (at least for Messages) at the top of the Watch rather than full screen ones. Child users will also be getting a revamped native Podcasts app with age-appropriate podcasts. Lastly, the share sheet will be available to transfer items to other messaging apps and improved VOIP support on the Watch.

Oh, and there are 6 new keyboard languages for users and more developer watch-TV interactivity.

Health

This was the bulk of the Apple Watch segment, but also parts of the iPhone segment as well. One privacy note that I think is worth mentioning up front is that the app will now notify you occasionally, much like it does with location, about what apps have access to your health data for you to review and adjust. Likewise, the Fitness app will now be available to all users of iOS 16, not just those using an Apple Watch.

First, the Workouts app will be getting some serious updates for runners (and HIIT, Hiking, and strength training users) using the Exercise app on the Apple Watch. Runners will now have new metrics to view in health and while exercising such as vertical oscillations, ground contact time, and more. If you do a regular route when running or going outside, the Watch can not that and track whether you beat your previous times or not. This also applies to strength and HIIT trainers who do the same routine repeatedly when exercising.

Not to be outdone, triathletes now have a have a triathalon exercise mode that will automatically switch between running, swimming, and biking for you. And all users can set custom exercise routines so they don’t have to switch between them.

Lastly, there is a new cardio zones option in the Apple Watch. This can be used passively to track what zone you’re currently in or were during your exercises, or it can be used actively so you can have the Watch notify you when to cooldown because you entered a zone higher than you intended or to pick up the pace when you dropped down a zone before you’re done.

Watch OS’ Sleep app will now show you Sleep Stages. As you sleep you go through stages of being awake, in REM, Core, and Deep sleep. If you wear the Watch while you sleep, the Watch can now show you what stages you were in and for how long as you cycle through them. If you choose, you can also contribute these to studies in the Research app.

Heart: Watch OS 9 will track Afib history in conjunction with your exercise, sleep, and weight history. You can share this history with your doctor in this form of a PDF. FDA clearance has not be received yet, but Apple said they anticipate it soon. Hopefully this will allow those with Afib problems to be able to get a more complete view of it.

Medications App: This is a new new app that will let you add supplements, vitamins, and medicines and will give you notifications for medicine you need to take. These notifications can be explicit or more subtle depending on the medication and your choice. You can search for the name of the medication, and the app will suggest names as you type, though you can also scan the name of the bottle for it to try to recognize automatically. This app is in iOS 16 and works independent of the Watch. The app also can notify you of drug-drug interactions (such as don’t take with alcohol) organized as critical, serious, or modest. Lastly, these can be shared with other iPhone users such as family members and caretakers.

Mac OS 13

Rather than talking about the new OS upfront, Apple actually started with hardware. They announced their new M2 chip. The M2 is slightly bigger physically than the M1, but is continuing to focus on power-efficient performance. It is still 5-nm processor now with 20 billion transistors. It is capable of 100GB/s memory bandwidth, overall being more powerful with same energy consumption as the M1. The max you it can handle now 24 GB unified memory (up from 16 GB), you get an 8 core CPU (4 efficiency, 4 HP still), 10 core GPU cores (2 more than last time), and max 2TB SSD. They actually showed a 12 core HP Envy could be more powerful on 60 watts of power vs M2 at 15 Watts, but not by as much, and the M2 still smoked other 8 and 10 core laptops. There is an updated neural engine and secure enclave, as well as more powerful video decoders capable of several streams of 8k H.264 capable. Lastly this M2 has support for up to 6K monitor (though still a max of 2 screens total, including the laptop screen). Speaking of laptops

MacBook Air: The 2022 MacBook Air is the first machine getting the M2. It sports a flat shape similar to the 14 and 16 inch MacBook Pros of last year. It comes in 4 colors – silver, space gray, dark blue, and starlight (similar to iPhone 12 colors). It continues to have a headphone/mic jack but now with high-impedance support, 2 Thunderbolt/USB-C ports, but now has the MagSafe 3 port for dedicated charging. This charger is now also capble of fast charging, which Apple claims will get it to 50% battery in 30 minutes. This battery also will get “full day” life, or 18 hours of continuous video playback.

The new Air also has a smaller bezel, increasing the screen size a bit 13.6 inch display but with notch, and is capable 500 NITS of brightness, 1-billion colors, and is a Liquid HDR display. That notch sports a new1080p webcam with image signal processor for better, clearer video. Full size function key row. They showed off much improved video and photo editing performance with apps like InDesign, PowerPoint, and Final Cut Pro. It also continues to have no fan. It now starts at $1199 for 256 GB of storage, the 8 core CPU and GPU (1 more GPU core than last year’s base model) and 8 GB of unified memory. However, you can still buy the old M1 at $999. The new machine will be available July 2022.

They also showed off a separate charger you could buy to charge 2 USB-C devices, including your MacBooks, at a time.

13-inch MacBook Pro: The 13 inch MacBook Pro also get the new chip and price bump. Its Starts at $1299 for 8 GB of memory, 256 GB of storage, abut the 8 core CPU and 10 core GPU. The base model also has 4 USB-C ports, and the 2 ports on the left side also acting as Thunderbolt ports. It also now has a fan, so passive cooling only got them so far in this one. It will also be available in July 2022. Now onto Software

Mac OS Ventura – Version 13 – Cue the Ace Ventura meme baby! Apple said this version was focused on the core feeling and continuity. Gave me similar vibes to Snow Leopard and High Sierra personally – some new features, including those shared with iPad and iOS, but mostly focused on refinements.

Stage Manager – is a new window management tool that can be activated from Control Center. It focuses on one window of one main app with said app in the center of the screen. All other app windows ared pushed to the left organized under each app icon. You can cycle between apps by clicking on the one you want in the same sidebar or through multiple windows of the same app. If you need to work with multiple windows, drag one from the sidebar into the main app or into group as well and OS will remember when you switch around. Click on the desktop to go back to Desktop, where you can drag files over from that into an app in Stage Manager sidebar. This feature is shared with iPad OS 16, and I really see it being more useful on Macs with large monitors and iPad OS than the laptop or smaller screens. Still, I’m all for window management and am willing to try it out.

Spotlight: Spotlight got some revamps, many of which it shares with the iPhone and iPad. Hittin Spacebar in Spotlight over a results will let peek at an item. Search also now works through LiveText so you can search the contents of images. Spotlight will now show more info about famous people, business, sports, and other media in more organized sections. Lastly, it is getting some quick action such as the ability to an start timer among others.

Mail: Apple Mail is getting some major revamps, some of which will come to iOS and iPad OS. There will now be features like Undo Send (presumable for iCloud mail and mail systems that support it like Gmail), Scheduled Send (THANK YOU!), Followup suggestions for emails you haven’t responded to, and “remind me” for mail, where you can mark an email for follow up. Search is getting a major overhaul. Now Searching in the Mail app will show recently shared items, suggestions as you type, and will be able search across typos and synonyms of what you’re typing.

Safari: Safari users will now be able share Tab Groups with multiple people and communicate with them that way such as through Messages and FaceTime (really Apple dedicated). More on this in a bit. They also demoed Passkeys, a new password-less was to create and unlcok your passwords on the web. An identity is created and stored with your Apple Keychain connected to that site, and authenticated with Touch ID and Face ID on your Apple device and authenticated with Apple device. While this is synced across Apple devices, the ID can’t be phished since it is only connected with a specific site, and the host can’t lose control of your login if they get hacked because the site doesn’t store the data (personal data they have about you can still be taken however, that depends on their security still). This will not just be an Apple standard, as Apple says this works with FIDO and will work across platforms including Google and Microsoft devices, so you can still log into sites from non-Apple devices (provided you have access to your iPhone for example).

Gaming: This was a segment Apple touched on in both the Mac and iPad segment. Metal 3, Apple’s own DirectX equivalent, is released including some competitive features. For one, they announced MetalFX Upscaling in line with Nvidia’s Suer Sampling and AMD’s FidelityFX Super resolution. This will let games render small frames that are less intensive on the system, then upscale the visuals to deliver better and more efficent performance with higher frame rates. To demo this, they showed “No Man Sky” running on Metal 3, and announced it was coming to Mac OS later this year. Not done just yet, the also announced a Fast Resource Loading API to load data faster from storage to GPU memory. To show this, they showed a newer game in “Resident Evil VIII: Village”, also coming to Mac this year. In it, the developers said it would run fluidly on a MacBook Air at 1080p and 4K on a Mac Studio. Exciting to see if this improves gaming on Apple at all, or if this will be another uptick before returning to the norm of being an afterthought for developers, gamers, and Apple itself.

Continuity: Finally in the Mac section we have Handoff coming to FaceTime, meaning you start a call on one device, then bring it close to anohter Apple device on the same account to be prompted to switch to another iPhone, iPad, to Mac, and vice versa. With this will be the Continuity Camera providing a native way to use an iPhone as Mac webcam. They showed this off by putting the iPhone on a Belkin stand (available later this year) that mounted to the top of the MacBook screen and held the iPhone on that. This feature can use the iPhone’s Portrait mode to blue the background, Enable Studio light, and follow users around with Center Stage. Apple also showed off Desk View in this mode, where you can use the ultrawide camera on your iPhone to show off something on your desk while keeping your face on the call. This feature will work with other apps like FaceTime, Zoom, Teams, and WedEx with more coming soon. There are no wires needed for this, so I like that, but I think I might stick with my regular tripod when using this feature rather than the Belkin stand.

iPadOS

Lastly we get to the iPad. Many features are coming from the iPhone and Mac to iPad. Small but important notes up front: iPad OS 16 now includes a real Weather app with tapable modules for radar, forecast, and the like. Weatherkit will also be coming to developers to integrate weather data from the weather app into their apps. And if you are a speaker (or writer in this case) of the Thai language, you’ll be happy to know Scribble will now work for you.

Collaboration – This was a big starting feature for iPad, kind of like a full-system Google Docs. Users can initiate active collaboration on a doc or Safari Tab group by sharing links through Messages. Users will be invited to collab through the app and make edits, and you’ll be able to see them pop in and out, what section or tab they’re on, and what changes they’re making. You and your team can communicate from within that app, Messages, and FaceTime. Right now it only works in Safari, iWork, Notes, Reminders, and Files, but an API is coming for developers. This whole system will work across iOS, iPadOS, and Mac OS.

With this new collab feature, Apple gave a sneak peek at Freeform app. From a FaceTime, you and your team can create a free-form board to add text, scribbles, pictures, drawings, stickies, links, docs, video, and audio. This virtual whiteboard can zoom in and out on seemingly infinite (similar to Infinite Paper app in the app store). This feature will be coming to iOS and Mac OS, but won’t be available at launch.

Gaming: Like mentioned before, Apple talked a bit about gaming here including mentioning that Metal 3 is coming to iPad. They also talked about a new Background Download API for games to do work in the background. On a lighter note, they showed off a new Activity section coming to the Game Center app to track achievements and scores of friends. They also showed off more of the upcoming ability to launch SharePlay session with your friends. Hopefully this will come later this year to iOS and Mac according to them.

Desktop Class Apps – Now we get to the point where many people really started to perk up in the iPad section. When Apple said Desktop Class Apps, they only teased a few of the things they had in store, with many more listed but not mention or only briefly mentioned. These included an availability view in calendar, the ability to change file extensions in the Files app, ability to view folder size, a system wide undo-redo, Document menus in the toolbar apps like Files to access quick functions that were previously only available by context menu, and support customizable toolbars in apps (such as iWork) (among others). There are many more features that they didn’t touch on (and some that might not even come in this), and there will be API’s for these coming.

Reference color is a feature for photographers and videographers out there using iPad and Mac OS. iPads can now go into a Reference Mode to help keep color scheming with other Pro devices and help creators ensure there colors are exactly as intended across devices and in line with there chose schema.

iPads with the M1 chips (meaning the Pros and the latest iPad Air) will now be able to support display scaling setting to increase or decrease font and item scaling (though it will be coming a bit later). iPadOS 16 will also add support for Virtual memory swap up to 16 gigs of memory for apps that really need it, really opening the way for intense power apps, especially the existing 5 GB memory limit of current apps.

And, and mentioned before, this scaling opens up for Stage Manager coming to iPad OS. You’ll be able to drag an app up and resize from the bottom right corner (and hopefully others since that’s also the quick note option. Stage Manager Mode works just like it does in Ventura with the ability to have multiple overlapping windows open on the iPad (up to 4 windows max) and will let you resize windows in that mode. But the biggest surprise (at least for me) was full external display support! Now your iPad is currently able to connect to an external display via a cable, but only mirroring its screen. With this, a monitor connected to Your iPad Pro will be able to act as a second, separate display showing your background, dock, and separate apps on it in Stage Manager. Apple said the limited will be up to 8 apps running on screen at a time, but that really makes the iPad more like it’s own computing device. And yes, you can drag and drop content and apps across displays with your iPad’s cursor.

Apple TV:

While it wasn’t mentioned in the main presentation, there is a tvOS version 16 that has been released. As documented by MacRumors it come some cool new features including…

Nintendo Switch controller support (and others): This will also be coming to iOS 16 and iPad OS 16, and is (kind of) in OS 12 Monterey already. This will you to use either an individual or dual JoyCons to work with your Apple devices in games with controller support. Switch Pro controllers are supported as well as 8BitDo controllers and several others. I’ve got a new set of videos to make it seems.

HDR10+ support in the Apple TV app

Multi-user Support: While Apple has had multiple user accounts from earlier version, this is bringing some improvements for integrating these profiles in Apple TV apps. Namely, Apple says any credentials stored in a shared keychain will allow users to launch an app on the TV and start using it without needing to sign in and select their profile (at least when that app adds the functionality).

Matter Support: Like in the Home segment, Apple TV will be able to serve as a hub for Matter devices, as will a HomePod, in order to control and manage any smart devices in your home using that framework.

Apple also mentioned in their Watch segment, that there will be new opportunities for developers to integrate seamless and more personal experiences between Apple Watch, iPhone, and iPad apps with their Apple TV counterparts. These could be anything from more info on your phone while watching a sports game, a perhaps Wii-U like experience between your iDevice and TV, or even more exercise and fitness integration. We’ll have to wait and see what this means and what developers do with it.

Final Thoughts

Apple said for all these OS’ Developer betas will be available today, Public betas in July, and will be available in stable form in the Fall.

Like I said at the top, a lot of these features are things we users have been asking for for a while. I can’t tell you how many people were excited when I told them about undo-send and editing in iMessage or multi-stop support in Apple Maps or the iPad’s multi-monitor support and slew of changes. While there are some things that we still need more details on, this really feels like a maintenance release, refining a lot of things that users and developers have been wanting. I’m excited to see what comes of it once we have our hands on the tools themselves.

What were your favorite portions of WWDC? Did it blow you out of the water, or were you disappointed in something getting overlooked. Let me know in the comments below.