Apple announces iOS 13, with dark mode, new privacy features, and more

Apple held its WWDC 2019 keynote today, where it announced all of its next major OS updates. Of course, the big one is iOS 13, which comes with plenty of new features.

The most notable one that"s been rumored for some time is dark mode. The company showed off various elements of the UI and its first-party apps using the new theme. The feature was first showed off for macOS last year, so now it"s making its way to the mobile OS.

But that"s not all. Apple said that it"s rebuilding the Reminders app. Now, you"ll be able to type a reminder and it will automatically know when and where to remind you. There are also smart lists to help you keep track of things, which will give you a top-level notification.

There are also some big improvements to Maps. Apple is sending cars around to build better maps, which it expects to finish in the U.S. by the end of the year. You can also set favorite places to find with a single tap, and you can create collections of your favorites.

There"s also a new feature that"s similar to Google Street View. You can now see a 3D image of the area that you"re looking at. Other new features include things like Junction View for China and real-time transit.

Music will show you lyrics now as songs are playing, as we"ve seen from the earlier tvOS 13 announcement.

The Photos app is getting a redesign. It"s now going to use machine learning to separate your photos from things like screenshots and memes, and there"s a new UI for browsing photos. Moreover, there"s a new interface for editing photos. In fact, you can now use all effects for editing photos on videos now.

Apple also announced some new privacy features, a big focus for the company. You"ll now be able to set it so that an app has to ask for your location every time that it wants it, and you"ll get background tracking alerts. The company also said that it"s putting restrictions on apps that try to work around it with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

"Sign in with Apple" is a new single sign-on that"s meant to replace options that let you sign in with social networks, which can be insecure. The new Apple feature will give you an option for whether you want to share your email with the app vendor or not, and if you choose not to, it will make a fake email address for you. Each app gets its own fake email address, so you can easily shut them down if you want.

Messages will now let you share a picture of yourself, which will show up when you message someone. Naturally, you can choose who you want to share it with. It can be an image or a Memoji; moreover, Apple is adding Memoji stickers, which are automatically made from your avatar.

Apple also introduced new features for AirPods, HomePod, and CarPlay. AirPods can now automatically read your messages to you, and you can easily respond with Siri. You"ll also be able to tap your iPhone against your friends for easy audio sharing.

This works with HomePod now as well, so if you"re listening to music on your iPhone and you want to hand it off to your HomePod, just tap your phone against it. HomePod should now be able to tell who in your home is talking as well.

iOS 13 should be available in developer preview later on today, with general availability this fall.