Apple unveils iOS 12 for iPhone and iPad

Zac Hall | Jun 4 2018 - 10:12 am PT

Apple has officially announced iOS 12 for iPhone and iPad at its annual Worldwide Developer Conference in San Jose. We’ll update our story below with details as they’re announced.

Apple says iOS 12 doubles down on performance
iOS 12 will be supported on all iOS 11 devices
Apps launch 40% faster, keyboard can appear 50% faster, and slide to take photo can be up to 70%
iOS 12 can make share sheet and apps launch twice as fast
CPU performance can ramp up instantly when needed, then ramp down to preserve battery life
Apple working with Adobe, Autodesk, others for new 3D object features with AR
iOS 12 includes a new ARKit-powered Apple app called Measure
Feature icons for performance, ARKit 2, Photos, Siri, an unknown icon, Voice Memos, iBooks (Apple Books?), Apple News, Stocks, Do Not Distburb, Notifications, timer (probably parental controls, Messages, and FaceTime shown
Photos now includes Search Suggestions, places search including business and museums, events indexed now, refinements include multiple terms and suggestions for search terms
For You tab now available in Photos, includes Memories, featured photos, effect suggestions, and shared album activity
Sharing suggestions now in Photos, includes suggestion of who to share with, shared in full resolution from iCloud Photo Library, their iPhone searches photos to share back
Siri gaining new Shortcuts feature, lets any app expose quick actions to Siri, for example Tile app can expose an option to add a phrase to Siri like I lost my keys
Can also work with grocery ordering apps, meditation and sports apps, and many more
Siri can now suggest app actions on the lock screen like ordering coffee in an app or starting a workout
Can turn on Do Not Disturb during a movie based on Wallet ticket, recommend calling family on their birthday
Shortcuts app (seems based on Workflow?) lets you create shortcuts with Siri using drag and drop steps in an editor
Mystery icon was app icon for Shortcuts, the Workflow based Siri automation app, can build HomeKit commands, Music commands, Maps, and Messages (for example) into single Siri command
App updates: News, Stocks, Voice Memos, and iBooks
Starting with News… new Browse tab for discovering channels and topics, iPad gains sidebar browser
Next up is Stocks… new design that includes more charts, top stories from Apple News, includes stock ticker above story, Stocks coming to iPad for the fist time
Voice Memos redesigned, also coming to iPad, iCloud syncs memos between devices
iBooks overhauled with new design, iBooks now Apple Books, store redesigned as well
CarPlay gaining support for third party mapping apps including Waze and Google Maps
Do Not Disturb will now hide alerts during bedtime hours, a new good morning lock screen feature will show weather info and dismiss button to enable alerts again
DND now has ending times based on time, location, and calendar events
Notifications now features Instant Tuning option to control alerts from the banner, Siri will recommend turning off alerts for unused apps, alerts can now be grouped by apps/topic/thread with new style
Screen Time is a new feature that gives you a weekly summary of how you’ve used your iPhone or iPad, detailed by category with time, charts, how often iPhone or iPad is picked up, and which apps are sending the most alerts
App limits are new time-based controls with reminders that time is almost up, can ignore alerts but reminders will persist
Apple thinks useful for all users, especially kids, parents can receive activity reports from kid’s device on parent device, parents can create allowances
Downtime will let parents limit app usage by time, by category, and green light specific apps for anytime
Managed remotely, based on Family Sharing
Messages and FaceTime updates… Animoji now features tongue detection, works with all characters, new Animoji include ghost, khoala, tiger, and t-rex
Memoji is a new personalized Animoji based on your appearance (as you set it), includes lots of diverse options for customizing Memoji
Messages now includes turn in-app camera with special effects including filters, shapes, text (sort of like Clips app)
FaceTime gaining group calling, supports up to 32 users, integrated into Messages app, users can exit and join, the UI dynamically changes who is shown largest based on who is speaking
Animoji, filters, and sticker packs now work in FaceTime, works on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, audio answering works on Apple Watch