WWDC 2021 Apple Event: All You Need To Know

The most awaited Apple Event,  Worldwide Developers Conference 2021 happened yesterday on June 7th, 2021. The online event happened and there were a lot of exciting announcements. Due to the foreseen pandemic guidelines, this year the Apple Event is held virtually & streamed live from Apple Park, California. The event discusses the major upcoming software-related changes for Apple devices. The developer community looks at it as the setting stone in making or foreseeing the changes. As speculated by our team, this year, there has been a lot of talk around the macOS.

WWDC 2021 Apple Event

Let’s check out the highlights on WWDC 2021, and know what all things are announced.

iOS 15 Is Going To Be Awesome –

With the iOS 15 announced, here comes the downpour of the new amazing features.

• FaceTime Audio-

To make the FaceTime calls more natural and to make you feel nearer to your dear friends and family. The Spatial audio is integrated with FaceTime which will make it sound like your friends are sitting with you. Just set out the users on the grid in the group calls and you will know who’s speaking as it will be coordinated with the position. Also, the new feature of Wide Spectrum helps you cancel out the noise. 

• FaceTime Video –

In the Group calls, it often happens that you can focus on everyone. With the Grid view, you can see everyone in the same sized tile and see who’s speaking. Make way for the portrait mode as it makes its way in the video calls. As you turn on the Portrait mode in your FaceTime Call, it will focus on you and blur everything else.

• FaceTime with non-Apple users- 

Some very good news for the Apple users who have friends and family from the non-Apple group. They are now going to be able to use FaceTime with them, isn’t it terrific? Sounds good to me. You can now send a link to FaceTime call to your Windows and Android friends, and they can join you within the video call over a browser.

• SharePlay-

FaceTime just gets a fresh set of features that are going to blow your mind. Not restricting it to the video calls, it will now allow you to share more with your friends. Watching movies, listening to music together on a FaceTime call is something that you all must have wished for. Wonderfully, it also works in the Picture in Picture mode as well. It also works while using SharePlayon multiple devices. Apart from working along with Apple Music and Apple TV, it will be available with Disney, Hulu, HBO Max, ESPN+. TikTok, Twitch and so much more.

Not only this, but SharePlay allows you to share your screen in the call as well. So now, it gets easier to help your grandfather with the phone’s settings by showing him the shared screen.

• Messages –

As we share a whole lot of links and media over the Messages app, iOS 15 makes it organized for you. The stacked photos in the Message can be easily swiped through in the conversation to view them together in the new layout.

The Shared With You feature helps you see all the links shared by your friends on the News app as it picks it up from your Messages app. You can also continue the conversation with the person who sent you the link as it shows the name over it. Go to the Apple Music app to check out the Shared With You feature for the shared playlist. It works with Safari, Apple Podcast, Apple TV, Apple Music, Apple News, and Photos.

The photos shared with you on the Messages app are shown in the Shared With You album. It also shows you the Featured photos collection to add in the memories. Wonderfully it also gets added with your Camera photos at the same time, making it a complete collection.

• Focus mode

Starting with Notifications to help you stay focused, a Notification Summary will appear showing the notifications which require immediate attention. It depends on the device intelligence of the user’s app usage. You can also schedule Notifications Summary to appear at a certain time in a day.

Use Do Not Disturb mode for stepping away from all the notifications for a while. Not just that, it will indicate the Do not disturb mode turned on for your Messages App. It will help others understand why you are not able to reply. But don’t worry if the important messages are notified.

Make profiles for your Focus mode if you such as Personal, Work, Sleep. It will show the notifications from the apps chosen by you. Customization of the home screen is also available to stop you from getting distracted by other applications. Amazingly it automatically is synced with your other Apple devices. Helpful isn’t it?

• Live Text –

An indicator will appear when you look at the text with your iPhone camera. This indicator will let you select the text from the photo and you can copy it and use it. One can also make a phone call using this feature. It works on screenshots, Quicklook, and web photos. Works with English, Chinese, French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Portuguese at present.

Similar to the Google Lens, it can also be used to check out a species of a flower or the breed of a dog by just pointing the camera to it.

• Spotlight-

Spotlight can search in your photos by people, scenes, text which makes it a handy feature. It can also be used to search your contact by searching their names. It will give you all the information on your phone about them.

• Photos Memories –

Just like the Google Photos feature, the Photos Memories will create beautiful memories just too irresistible to watch. It can also add Apple Music to animations, this feature can also be customized. Adding the photos, videos into a montage will surely make you happy. Find out more suggested Apple music from the Library to make the experience personalized.

• Wallet – 

To make the most of the Wallet App, it has some great features. Making payment safer and transit cards to keep it convenient. Adding keys to the Wallet will make it unlock and drive the experience to another level. The fastest way to unlock your house, hotel, or workplace with the Apple key. It also syncs with the Apple Watch. To complete the digital wallet is the scan for your ID.

• Weather –

With the new design and layout for different weather situations, there are thousands of variations. With iOS 15, it shows the Weather Maps with a full-screen view with animations for precipitation, airflow, etc.

•  Maps – 

New maps have been rolled out for Spain and Portugal after the successful release in the UK, US, Canada, and Ireland. Italy and Australia are next in the line to get the new maps with more accurate results. New custom-designed landmarks, road colors, elevations. Also, the new nighttime mode with a moonlight glow.

More details to the Maps to help you while driving with the bus stands, bike lanes will help you navigate safely. Three-dimensional spaces will help you in the driving experience in a good way. Transit riders also get help by finding nearby stations and pinning their favorite lines. Apple Watch works along with the maps to track it so don’t have to worry about looking at the phone.

Augmented Reality will make its entry in some cities around the world by the end of this year.

• Control Centre- 

Managing the Control Centre gets easier within the panel. No need to navigate to the Settings>Control Centre on your iPhone to make changes. The all-new iOS15 promises the future to be easy as you can just add, remove, change or sort the control from the Control Centre itself.

• Safari-

A new avatar for Safari shows up in the event and it’s here to make some changes. The Voice search in Safari, more clothing options for the Memoji

AirPods –

• Conversation Boost-

With the new addition in iOS 15, the AirPods Pro are set to help the hearing impaired. With boosting the audio and canceled ambient noise, it helps converse in the phone calls using the AirPods will be very easy.

• Find My AirPods-

Finding your misplaced AirPods Pro and AirPods Max is going to become easier with the new features rolled in the FindMy app.

It will also get a feature to read the important notification as set by the parameters. It will also work with the new focus and DND modes.

iPadOS 15-

• Home Screen –

To make multi-tasking easy on the iPad, widgets will be introduced. They are going to be similar to as seen on iOS. Photos widget with favorite photos on the home screen.

Multitask control will help you use two apps at the same time. Switching apps will be super easy now. Switch quickly in the Safari tabs or drag apps to open and close seamlessly.

New Keyboard shortcuts and App library will be added to the iPadOS soon. Access the App Library from the dock and make it easy to hide pages.

• Notes app – 

Adding mentions will create a notification for them to link them. Add tags to the notes and then search them quickly with the tag search. Quick Note will appear with a swipe on top off another app such as Safari and use it to copy-paste the links and text from web pages to your Note.

They can be created over macOS and iPadOS and access on iOS.

•  Translate –

It’s a great way to practice a new language with writing. Bringing the Auto Translate to iPad to help you translate the text anywhere. It also works on photos and live text.

• Build Apps on iPadOS-

With all-new code suggestions, it works with Xcode on the iPadOS to help you build apps. Run it on full screen to try it out then submit it on the App Store.

Privacy –

App Privacy Report is the latest addition to help you show how often the apps access your location, Contacts, Photos, and more. This summary will help you understand how often they are using your information in the last 7 days.

Mail app will hide your IP address from the trackers. Safari also makes it works strongly in keeping your privacy foremost by hiding your location from the online trackers. In the Safari Privacy Report, you can check out the websites that are profiling you.

• Siri –

Siri Voice Search options are going to be more diverse and work for keeping your information private. Now it will be sure of not leaving your voice outside of your device.

• iCloud-

Recovery contact is a new feature that will help you get back to your device with a trusted contact in case you are locked out of your device. Other important features such as Legacy contact for allowing access to someone you trust to share your iCloud data after you are gone.

• iCloud+

It will give you more options to secure your identity on your device. Private relay to help you conceal your searches even from Apple. Hide My Email is another new service to add random email addresses to keep your personal information safe. Connect more cameras on your HomeKit Secure Video.

Health –

The iPhone gets new updates to analyze more about your walking to find out your fall risk with the Walking steadiness. Also, send you notifications if the steadiness is low.

Lab Results will now give you more details on your lab results to help you understand them in detail.

Trends Summary will highlight the patterns of your Step counts, Heart Rate, and more. Health Sharing gives more options to let you share your data with your friends and family.

WatchOS 8-

• Track more with your Apple watch with the tracking of your respiratory rate with the Breath. Gentle affirmations with the mindful moments help you in reducing your stress and improve sleep. Notifications will appear with the Respiratory rate reports.
• Be more fit with your Apple Watch with new workouts like Chi and Pilates. You also get a new playlist for the new workouts.
• Portrait Photos from your iPhone are now available as your new Watch Face. Photos app is also redesigned as you can now see the Memories highlights, Featured Photos along Favorites.
• Dictate, scribble or add emojis in the text while you compose your message with the Crown moves the cursor

Home Tech-

• tvOS is named HomeOS and that’s not all, it gets more privacy features. Apple TV will help you watch your favorite shows on your TV with your friends with the FaceTime SharePlay.
• AppleTV now highlights all the shows and movies your friends are sending you in the Shared With You section.
• HomePod Mini can be used to deliver the best sound for your AppleTV.
• Voice Recognition will get a personalized experience with the HomePod Mini.
• More devices to get Siri to make it easy to interact with more devices.
• Home app can be used to control HomeKit matter accessories with all Apple devices. Apple Watch gets the best updates such as to see who is at the door.
• Turn on the outdoor lights while viewing your camera on the Apple TV.

macOS Monterey-

macOS Monterey is here to help you with all its new feature updates-

• • FaceTime, SharePlay, Shared With You, Focus mode, Quick Note features work on the macOS.

• Universal Control

It is something that Apple users wished for. It allows you to move the work along with the iPad and Mac. Keeping them close will help you use your trackpad and keyboard on iPad. The most amazing part is that you can use this feature on multiple devices at the same time.

• AirPlay To Mac-

Using it makes your presentation even better, as you can play music on your Mac using your iPhone. Working across the different Apple devices will be much easier.

• Shortcuts-

Shortcuts are making their way to Mac, aren’t you glad to hear that. Well, we see the usefulness of Shortcut on the iPhone and now that it has been announced to be added on Mac, we are really happy. Shortcuts are what you need for the automation system on your Mac. Therefore, Shortcut is now available on Mac, so you can easily automate your work. You can even ask Siri to make the Shortcut work on your Mac.

• Safari – 

A newly designed Safari will have you move between the tabs easily. Manage your tabs, tab groups with this new layout. The Tab groups are also synced on your connected Apple device. This is very similar to the Google chrome announcement of the Tabs grouping. Adding the search bar in the active tab and the important elements in the toolbar to make it compact. Web extensions are now available on iPad and iPhone.

Wrapping Up-

So get ready to watch movies with your friends on FaceTime and the universal control cross-device is just what we needed. Most of the beta release is expected to be released somewhere in July. What did you find most exciting in this year’s WWDC, let us know in the comments section below.