All aboard the WWDC hype train! 🚂

It’s almost time for “dub dub” DC, Apple’s yearly developer conference! Once again, Tim Apple and his friends will take the stage to show us the future of iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS. What can you expect? What would we love to see? Find out!

First things first, let’s play the…

WWDC Poster Guessing Game!!! 🎰

Every year apple sends out invitations to WWDC to the media using a poster, usually giving some hints about what we can expect. This year we even got a few of them. Here they are:

Hm, what do we see…

• Dark backgrounds with neon art. Easy: system-wide dark mode for iOS. We’re pretty sure we can expect that one. The OS itself and Apple’s apps will get a dark mode for late night usage, and I hope iOS will also automatically set the correct mode (light or dark) for third-party apps. Shameless plug for my colleague Ilke’s article about the uprising of dark mode:

The future is dark.

• They’re using Animoji as the main characters…so, more Animoji? Or after last years tongue detection we are finally getting nostril detection?! 👃🤷‍♂️
• A joystick and a bowling pin. Hopefully some updates on Apple Arcade, like pricing and release date.
• A paintbrush, a camera, a musical note. Are these reference to being creative? Will Apple use this software event to show creative professionals it’s about to win back their trust with the new Mac Pro hardware? 🗑
• I can spot the ARKit icon. Apple’s augmented reality keynote demos are always impressive, but I feel the real world applications are still lacking. Will that change this year?
• iMessage bubbles! Yes, iMessage offers the nicest messaging experience of any messaging client. But will we soon get more useful features its competitors have had for a long time, like a reply function, or even story-like updates? Honestly, I’m just hoping for more “send with effect” options. 💫
• Paper airplanes: an updated Mail app. This is already basically confirmed. More details about this later.

Ok, next, let’s take a look at some more concrete stuff. The good folks at 9to5mac got a bunch of exclusive details on the upcoming iOS and macOS from Apple insiders. Let’s summarize the most important bits.

macOS + iOS = 💗?

Apple’s project internally called Marzipan aims to make it easier for iOS developers to build their apps for macOS. Currently, it’s not that easy to switch platforms, and Apple notices there are a lot of amazing iOS developers that aren’t building Mac apps because of the effort it requires. So they want to make it easier.

If you upgraded your Mac to the latest macOS (Mojave 🏜) you can get a glimpse of these apps by checking out the Voice Memos, News, Home or Stocks app. You may notice you get an iPad-like experience…which is better than nothing I guess, but it doesn’t have any advanced features (or even multi-window support) you’d expect from a native Mac app. Let’s hope the macOS we will see at WWDC will improve on this concept.

The future of iTunes…

iTunes really is an amazing piece of software. You can plug your iPhone or iPod into your Mac and sync your photo’s, music and videos, all from one easy app!

Oh wait, that was 10 years ago. This is a more accurate representation of how people in 2019 feel when they launch iTunes:

If this is you today, maybe you need this.

So. The idea is that Apple will soon split up iTunes into separate apps, like Apple Music, Podcasts, Videos, etc. Good idea, right? Yeah, I guess so. Well, it depends. Are these going to be full-featured Mac apps? Will I be able to edit song metadata and manage smart playlists?

#smartplaylistsmatter

Or will these become the next Stocks/Voice Memos apps with basic iOS functionality? Either way, I do think this is the right direction for bringing macOS and iOS apps together, I just fear there may be some growing pains.

Font management on iOS

Yes, finally, you’ll be able to install new fonts in iOS and use them throughout your apps. You’d also get notified when you open a document that uses fonts you don’t have installed. Neat!

Mail.app refresh

We mentioned this earlier, it seems the good old, trusty (not so trusty) default mail app on iOS will get a nice update this year. Features we already know from Gmail, like automated categories (marketing, purchases, important, etc.) and snoozing.

But seriously, if you prefer using Mail…why?

Or Outlook, or Spark or something??

Advanced multitasking on iPad

iOS on iPad already offers the best multitasking experience a tablet can offer. You can split your screen into two apps, and add another windowed app on top. And if you really want to get crazy, you can even add a picture-in-picture video window. And iOS can make all this happen while still feeling pretty natural and fluid.

But Apple is about to take the next logical step. You’ll soon be able to have multiple windows for one app. For instance, having each draft from your mail app in separate windows. Or, having two notes open at the same time.

I think this is a great evolution of the iPad’s multitasking, but the iPad in general needs more features and customizability to sway power users to ditch their Mac. Let’s hope we’ll get some nice surprises at WWDC! 🤞

Screen Time comes to the Mac

This will work the same way it does on iOS. You’ll be able to monitor and limit time spent in specific apps/websites or categories of apps/websites (social media, productivity, entertainment, etc.) for yourself and your children.

This is another effort Apple is making to empower you to be in control of your digital wellbeing.

Turn up the volume

We’re almost there. That eyesore of a volume HUD will soon finally be history.

Just looking at this hurts.

What we, at Digiti, want to see:

Ilke, UX/UI Designer:

I would love to have the same time-sensitive dynamic wallpapers on my iPhone like on my Mac!

Well..this would actually look pretty cool. 🤔

Wait for it. 🌚🌝

Yannick, UX Designer:

The reality here in Europe is that everyone uses WhatsApp (or Messenger). But I think most people who also use iMessage would agree it offers the nicest experience. I just wish it had that useful, and not to mention satisfying slide-to-reply feature WhatsApp has.. 🤤

She’s actually not that bad in real life.

Bert, Developer:

Apple has a native solution for two-factor authentication when you’re logging into your iCloud account. Can’t they let 3rd party apps like Gmail and Dropbox use this as well so we have a proper 1st party authenticator app that also backs up our codes?

Enough talking, more watching! 📺

Watch the WWDC keynote at the link below on June 3rd at 10 AM PDT! Pre-heat your Apple TV, get some snacks, invite your fellow Apple fanboys/girls…and have fun! 🥳

WWDC19

We’re Digiti, find us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram!