Today at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) in California, the technology giant unveiled two new versions of iOS – iOS 13 and iPadOS.

iOS has received its annual update in the form of iOS 13, with a wealth of new features. Many of Apple’s core apps have been modified to improve their look and user experience, including Safari and Mail. The Music app now has a live lyrics feature, and the updated Maps app allows you to share your ETA with contacts. Apple claim that they have rebuilt the Maps app from the ground up, and added a new feature that works in the same manner as Google Street View, rolling out internationally in 2020. Much of Apple’s focus with iOS 13, as with last year’s iOS 12, was on speed and performance. Apple promises that apps will launch twice as fast in iOS 13, and Face ID will unlock 30% faster. Perhaps the biggest visual change to iOS in some years came with the announcement of Dark Mode, a much-anticipated feature. While many apps already have a built-in dark mode feature, this is the first system-wide version, supported by all of Apple’s first-party apps. Apple’s default keyboard has been given a new feature: swiping. Apple’s calling it the Quick Path keyboard, and it’ll be familiar to users of Gboard or SwiftKey. Reminders have been given a huge overhaul in iOS 13, with “Today”, “Scheduled”, “Flagged” and “All” filtering options for sorting all of your tasks.

Messages is getting a WhatsApp-style overhaul, complete with profile pictures and display names. This means you won’t have to manually add profile photos to your contacts, and will be able to see clearly who’s messaged you. You’ll be able to use your Memoji as your profile photo too, and Apple is adding new Memoji customisation options. Apple are updating the editing interface for photos, and you can now edit videos, too. The Photos app itself is getting a new user interface, removing screenshots for easier browsing. Because Siri – Apple’s built-in AI assistant – has been lagging behind its competitors for some time, there are multiple updates here, too. In particular, Neural Text to Speech (TTS) will now use a software-based approach, making Siri sound more like a real person. There’s further integration between Siri and the AirPods, too; the wireless earphones now interact better with Siri, allowing you to hear incoming messages aloud.

Since its release over nine years ago, the iPad has run a slightly modified version of the conventional iOS software, the same as iPhones. Now, in an attempt to position the iPad a genuine laptop replacement, Apple have unveiled iPadOS, giving the iPad its own dedicated operating system. iPadOS will include a new Home Screen layout and improved multitasking features, as well as the new updates introduced in iOS 13, like Dark Mode.