The next version of Apple’s operating system for iPhones and iPads includes support for new 3D touch gestures, the ability to wake your phone simply by raising it, and more.
Apple is also opening up Siri and Apple Maps to third-party developers, allowing you to interact with more apps using Apple’s voice assistant, book a car or make a reservation from Maps, and more.
The update will be available as a free upgrade for all supported devices this fall. A developer preview launches today and a public beta will be available in July.
Apple says Siri can work with fitness tracking apps, mobile payment apps, messaging apps, ride sharing, photo search, and VoIP calling apps, among other things. This also brings support to those features to Apple CarPlay, allowing you to use voice commands with more apps in the car.
Here are a few of the new features in iOS 10:
- Get to widgets or the camera by sliding to the left or right from the lock screen.
- More intelligent QuickType responses and suggestions thanks to Siri integration.
- Photos app includes support for facial recognition to automatically place photos into people albums (Google Photos already does something similar)
- Memories assembles photos and videos into albums automatically (again, seems like a Google Photos feature, but it can add music, choose parts of a video, etc).
- View photos on a map to see photos taken at specific locations.
- Apple Maps improvements, including support for “map extensions” from 3rd-party developers (such as making restaurant reservations using OpenTable without exiting Maps, then getting a ride from Uber).
- The new Apple Music features including a “discovery mix” based on your tastes (much like Spotify’s Discovery Weekly), lyrics, and more. The new features aren’t exclusive to iOS, they’re also coming to all supported platforms, including Android.
- Apple News now supports lock screen notifications and subscriptions, allowing you to read the WSJ, National Geographic, and other periodicals within the app.
- The phone app can make transcriptions of voicemail calls, and third-party services like Tencent will be able to tap into the phone app to alert you to incoming spam calls.
- Messages will show live previews from the camera app, bigger emoji, and more. You can also highlight emoji-fiable words and convert them after they’ve been typed, or use emoji predictions.
- Messages also now supports bubble effects, allowing you to make the message bubble large or small or use “invisible ink” to show an obscured image or line of text that is only revealed when you swipe your finger across.
- You can also make handwritten notes in Messages.
- Apple is opening up Messages to developers with an iMessages Apps platform.