Today is the day. At the special keynote to kick off this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple has unveiled the next major updates to all of its platforms. And, of course, the first betas are now available for developers to start working with.
Now that the keynote has wrapped up, Apple has seeded the first betas of iOS 15, iPadOS 15, watchOS 8, macOS 12, and tvOS 15 to developers. This will be the first time that developers outside of Apple get to use the newest software for Apple’s devices. The company showcased a variety of the new features coming to each platform at its keynote today, but there’s a chance even more will be discovered now that the software is out there in the wild.
If that does turn out to be the case, we will update this post accordingly.
But, even without that, there’s plenty of new to digest. A quick breakdown of what Apple added to each platform is available below. You can also find links to each platform’s initial announcement below as well.
Apple will be seeding the corresponding public beta of eligible software beginning in July.
What’s new from WWDC21
The announcements
- Apple announces iOS 15
- Apple’s first look at iPadOS 15
- Apple unveils macOS 12
- Apple reveals watchOS 8
And the finer details:
iOS 15
- FaceTime sees major improvements, including SharePlay and updates to video and audio.
- Apple updates Notifications to give even more granular control, and updates the UI
- Messages gets even more collaborative with Shared With You
- Safari gets a new Tab experience
- The Photos app now supports Live Text, which can be searched for and directly interacted with
- Spotlight gets improvements, can be used to find Live Text in Photos
- AirPods Pro and AirPods Max get better Find My support
- Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos launch in Apple Music
- Plus a lot more
iPadOS 15
- Split View and a new Shelf make multitasking easier on iPadOS
- There are several new keyboard shortcuts available
- Widgets get a new size option, and the ability to place on the Home Screen
- The App Library is available
- And more
macOS 12
- macOS 12 is officially known as Monterey
- The new software supports updated FaceTime with SharePlay
- Shortcuts make the leap to Mac
- Universal Control makes it possible to use a single mouse and/or keyboard with multiple devices at once
- AirPlay to Mac is finally a thing
- Safari now supports a major redesign (again), and offers Tab Groups and a new tab toolbar for easier access
- Extensions are improved in macOS Monterey
- Plus more
watchOS 8
- watchOS 8 includes an improved Photos app
- Sharing content in Messages is easier than ever before
- There is a new Portrait watch face, which can be interacted with using the Digital Crown
- watchOS 8 supports the App Shelf
- watchOS 8 offers more Health-related features, including better fall detection
- There are even more Workouts
- And more
Which one of Apple’s newest pieces of software are you looking forward to the most?