Apple made a number of announcements at its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) this week, including the long-rumoured Vision Pro mixed reality headset and thelarger 15-inch MacBook Air, both of which are huge news in their own right.
I’ve not stopped talking abouthow excited I am about the MacBook Air 15-inchsince it was revealed, andthe Vision Pro headset is incredible in use.
It’s no secret that hardware overshadowed the software at the event, but that’s not to say there weren’t some great software announcements too. There were numerous features revealed for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch, and while many are great, I have a couple of favourites and they aren’t necessarily the obvious ones. Hear me out.
1. Check In
2. Automatic transcribing for voice messages
It’s a shame automatic transcribing for voice messages isn’t also coming toWhatsAppwith iOS 17, but you never know, Meta might pull it out of the bag in the next six months before thefinal build of iOS 17arrives, and it might even beat Messages if it hurries. As you might guess, this feature will see voice messages in the Messages app oniPhone, iPad andMacautomatically transcribe so you may see what the message says without having to wait till you have headphones in, or you’re in a quiet place. You never know what a voice message might say after all, and I don’t know about you, but I definitely don’t trust my friends to keep it clean.
3. Conversation Awareness
Conversation Awareness is my number three for iPhone, though technically I suppose it’sAirPods, and onlyAirPods Pro (2nd Generation)at that. Still, it might not have had as much lime light as theAdaptive Audio feature, but Conversation Awareness is going to make my dog walks a dream. Currently, every time I bypass another dog walker or fellow human, I have to pause my Shagged, Married, Annoyed podcast so I can politely say morning, afternoon, evening, and tell them their dog is cute even if it really isn’t. Conversation Awareness will pick up when I talk though, lowering what I’m listening to automatically till the small talk is over and then increase the volume again. The tap to mute and unmute feature also coming is pretty handy too though I suppose, but that involves input from me still.
4. NameDrop
NameDrop allows you to swap contact details by just holding your iPhone near another iPhone. It currently is rather faffy to add a new number to your contacts and this makes it so much simpler. I suppose the only problem is you can’t give a fake number out to those people you don’t want messaging you - but otherwise this is another one that makes perfect sense and I’m surprised it’s taken this long.
5. Autocorrect improvements
In hindsight, I should maybe have put this one at the top, but I am very much looking forward to the autocorrect improvements. You would not believe how many times ducking appears in my messages. I am thrilled that it will only appear when I am literally ducking out of something and not every ducking time.
Plenty of features are coming to Apple Watch too withwatchOS 10, including a change in the way you use the Digital Crown. It’s the Snoopy watch face that has done it for me though. Sorry Mickey, but Snoopy wins every time, and the fact that him and Woodstock react to weather and my activity, I have even more reasons to close my rings now. Plus, I probably won’t even mind when it rains just to see what Snoopy does.
