Find My

The new Find My app in iOS 13 combines the prior Find My iPhone and Find My Friends apps into one app that makes it easier to locate both your devices and your friends.

Find My works like the previous Find My iPhone and Find My Friends apps, offering up your friends' locations and your device locations, but there's a useful new feature that lets you find a missing device even if it doesn't have a WiFi or cellular connection.

To do this, Apple uses crowd-sourced location information delivered through Bluetooth signals. Basically, your devices give off a Bluetooth signal that can be picked up by other nearby iPhones, iPads, and Macs, relaying that signal back to you so you can find your missing device.

This feature uses end-to-end encryption and for that reason, it requires you to own at least two Apple devices to work. The aforementioned signal is broadcast as a public key, which, when picked up by other people's devices, is encrypted and sent back to you.

Only another one of your devices can decrypt the signal, keeping your device location secure at all times so only you can see where they are located.

If you have Family Sharing enabled, you can see your family's devices under your own devices in the Find My app.

If you want to help a friend or family member find a device, you can tap on the new "Help a Friend" option that's available in the Me tab, which opens up the iCloud.com website.

More on Find My

For a more in-depth look at the Find My feature, make sure to check out our dedicated Find My guide.

Photos

The main Photos tab in the Photos app has a whole new look in iOS 13, putting your best photos front and center so you can relive your memories at a glance. In addition to viewing all your photos, there are now options to view images organized by day, month, and year.

All of these options filter out clutter, such as screenshots, photos of receipts, and duplicate images, so you can see your most significant moments without the cruft. Viewing all photos is still an option if you need to find all your images like you could prior to iOS 13.

In the new Photos tab, muted Live Photos and videos play as you scroll, which has the effect of bringing your photo library to life. The best of your photos are also shown larger, accompanied by smaller shots, making your photo library more dynamic.

The Days view shows the photos you've taken that day, while the Months view presents your photos categorized into events so you can see the best of the month at a glance. The Years view surfaces photos taken around the current date on past years.

Apple highlights titles like location, concert performer, holiday, and more, and under the "All" view, you can zoom in or zoom out to see more or less of your entire photo library at one time.

There's a neat little feature that lets you see photos of a person on their birthday if you have their birthdays assigned to them in the People album, and there's a new album dedicated to screen recordings.

Apple has added soundtracks for Memory movies based on what you like to listen to in the Music app, and there's a new Live Photos feature that extends your video if you have multiple Live Photos taken within 1.5 seconds of one another.

Editing Tools

The editing interface in Photos has been overhauled to put the available editing tools front and center along with new slider wheels that are easier than ever to use.

There's a handy feature that lets you tap each edit you apply to see what the photo looks like before and after, so it's clear what each adjustment is doing. Intensity is also applied on a numerical basis so you can see exactly what your settings are at.

For the first time, you can adjust the intensity of the pre-set filters like Vivid or Noir, for a more subtle but still filtered look. You can also adjust the intensity of the Auto Enhance feature (applied with the magic wand) using a new slider.

There are new editing tools for vibrance, white balance, sharpness, definition, and noise level, plus a new vignette tool for adding shadows to the edges of your image. Auto crop, straighten, and perspective have been enhanced, and there's support for pinch-to-zoom so you can see how an edit impacts a particular area of a photo.

With all of the new editing tools paired with the simpler layout, iOS 13 offers far more options for enhancing your photos so you can get the exact look that you're going for without needing a third-party app.

Video Editing

Apple has long offered photo editing tools, but video editing was limited to cropping. That's no longer the case in iOS 13, with Apple now offering video editing tools to adjust elements like exposure, contrast, saturation, brightness, and more.

There are also filters you can apply along with tools for cropping and rotating video for the first time.

All video edits are nondestructive, so, as with photos, you can remove the edits you made and revert back to the original video at any time.

More on Photos

For more on the photos app, make sure to check out our dedicated Photos guide that goes through all of the new features introduced in iOS 13.

Camera

In the Camera app, there's a new option to adjust the position and intensity of studio lighting. Moving the light closer to your subject digitally enhances the effect to smooth skin, sharpen eyes, and brighten facial features, while moving the light away decreases the intensity for a more subtle adjustment.

These new lighting adjustment tools are limited to Apple's 2018 and 2019 iPhones. iOS 13 also adds a new High-Key Mono Portrait Lighting effect that features a monochromatic subject on a white background.

Maps

Apple in iOS 13 has continued on with Maps improvements started in iOS 12, when the app was rebuilt from the ground up. Apple in January 2020 completed the rollout of the redesigned Maps app across the United States, providing users with improved detailing for roads, beaches, parks, buildings, and more. Apple in 2020 plans to bring the new Maps app to Europe.

New Maps on left, old Maps on right

iOS 13 brings a Junction View, designed to help drivers avoid wrong turns and directional misses by lining them up in the correct lane before a turn or an elevated road, and Siri guidance has been improved with more natural language.

As an example, Apple says that instead of saying "in 1,000 feet turn left," Siri instead says "turn left at the next traffic light." There are also navigation improvements designed to get you closer to your end-point destination at large venues like concerts.

Real-time transit schedules are now available in the Maps app, including arrival times, network stops, and connections for improved route planning. Real-time information like outages and cancellations is also listed in the Maps app.

Apple has added flight status information to maps, with information about flight terminals, gate locations, and departure times.

Look Around

New in iOS 13 is a Look Around feature in Maps, which is Apple's equivalent to Google's Street View. Look Around offers up a street-level view of what's around you or what you search for in the Maps app.

Look Around in the main Apple Maps view can be used wherever a pair of binoculars are shown. Tapping that delves into a close-up street level view of the location in a little card, which you can tap again to use the feature full screen.

Tapping around on the display lets you move through the Look Around area, and tapping on an area far in the distance does a neat zooming maneuver that's fun to watch. Notable points of interest, such as restaurants and businesses, are highlighted with identifying icons.

Look Around is limited to areas where a car can go because it's using data captured from a 360-degree camera on a vehicle. That means you can't zoom into areas like parks or beaches, for example, but you can see what's visible from the street.

Look Around is available in a limited number of areas, but Apple is expanding access regularly. As of now, it's available in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., the Hawaiian island of Oahu, Houston, Las Vegas, and New York.

Collections and Favorites

There's an updated Favorites option in Maps, which lets you search for specific locations and add them to a favorites list. Favorites are Home and Work by default, but any location can be added to the list.

Tapping a favorite location brings up directions to that spot, making the Favorites list a good option for places that you travel to regularly. Siri Suggestions is also able to suggest places that you might want to add to the Favorites List.

Maps also has a Collections feature for aggregating different locations, such as restaurants you want to try or places you might want to visit while on vacation. Your list of Collections can be shared, so you can make up lists of places for friends and family and then share them.

More on Maps

For more detail on all of the new features in the Maps app in iOS 13, make sure to check out our Maps guide.

Reminders

Apple overhauled the Reminders app in iOS 13 to make it more useful and more competitive with third-party to-do apps. The new Reminders app features an updated design organized into four sections: Today, Scheduled, All, and Flagged.

Reminders are organized into different lists, with customizable colors and icons. Under each reminder entry, you can create additional nested reminders, and multiple lists can be grouped together.

When creating a new Reminder, there's a toolbar at the top that lets you schedule specific times for the task, arrange to get a reminder in the car, when arriving home, or at another location, flag a reminder as important so it shows up in the Flagged list, or add a photo or scanned document. Reminders support photos, documents, and web links in iOS 13.

Apple says that when you type longer, more descriptive sentences in the Reminders app, the app automatically understands and provides relevant suggestions to you.

When you're chatting with someone in Messages, Siri can recognize possible reminders and make suggestions, such as when someone asks if you want to go somewhere or asks you to get something from the store. You can also tag someone in one of your reminders to get a reminder about a specific task when chatting with them the next time.

When upgrading the Reminders app on iOS 13, it's worth noting that it limits functionality on other devices. Reminders on the Mac won't be functional without macOS Catalina, and Reminders on the iPad won't be functional without iPadOS.

iPadOS is available, but there's no specific launch date for macOS Catalina, which is coming on an unspecified October date. Apple's support document has additional information.

For more on the Reminders app and the changes in iOS 13, make sure to check out our Reminders guide.

Messages

Messages lets you add a name and a photo that's shared with another person when you start a conversation or when the other person responds in a message. You can choose to share your profile photo with everyone, your contacts, or not at all. Profile photos can be an image, a monogram, or an Animoji character.

Apple has improved search in Messages with a search screen that offers up recent messages, people, photos, links you've been sent, and locations. When searching, Messages categorizes results and highlights matching terms, with the most recent items surfacing first.

The info pane, accessible when tapping the "i" icon in a conversation, is now better organized. It offers up images, locations, attachments, and links that have been shared during a conversation so you can find what you're looking for more quickly.

New Memoji Customization Options

In iOS 13, there are tons of new customization options for Memoji, including makeup, teeth, piercings, earrings, headwear, and glasses, along with more hair styles and options to further customize colors.

New Animoji

iOS 13 adds new mouse, octopus, and cow options to the Messages and FaceTime apps.

Memoji and Animoji Stickers

Apple in iOS 13 has created Memoji and Animoji stickers that are based on your own personal Memoji and the Animoji you use. You can use the stickers in Messages to express emotion, and the Memoji version is similar to Bitmoji, with a variety of different expressions.

In addition to being available in Messages, Animoji and Memoji stickers can also be used in other places in iOS including the Mail app. Stickers are located next to emoji when you tap the emoji key.

Memoji and Animoji stickers are supported by all devices with an A9 chip or later, so those who don't have access to full Animoji and Memoji can still use the stickers.

Dual-SIM Support

iMessages in iOS 13 adds support for two phone numbers when using the dual-SIM functionality available in the 2018 and 2019 iPhones. There's no longer a need to choose a number to use with iMessage -- both work. Users can select which number to choose when starting a new conversation, and can swap between them when composing a new message.

More on Messages

For a more in-depth look at the new features in the Messages app in iOS 13, make sure to check out our Messages Guide.

The Contacts app supports a huge list of new relationship labels so you can label all of your friends and family, with these relationship labels usable when speaking with Siri.

You can now create Memoji in the Contacts app to use for your own profile and the people in your contacts list.

Notes

iOS 13 adds a gallery view in the Notes app, letting you see all of your Notes thumbnails at a glance. There are new tools for managing your folders and subfolders, and there are new options to share an entire folder with someone. You can also share in a view-only capacity for the first time in iOS 13.

Search is more powerful in the Notes app and can recognize what's in the images inside of your notes to help you find specific text like receipts or bills.

Checklists have been improved with options to reorder checklist items, indents (added with a swipe), and a feature that lets you reuse a checklist with a click to uncheck all of the items. There's also an option for sending checked items in a list to the bottom of the list.

Mail

There are several improvements in the Mail app for managing your mailbox and sending emails. A new Block Sender option lets you block email from a specific person, routing all of the messages from that person into the trash. Block lists are universal with the Messages and Phone block lists across all of your devices.

Noisy email threads can be muted with a new mute option that silences all notifications across all of your Apple devices, and a new Reply menu makes it easier to get notifications for replies, move messages to junk, mark messages as unread, and more.

Apple added a new format bar above the keyboard that's available when you're typing a message. It offers formatting options and attachment options, including a scan tool and a tool for adding photos or videos.

Text formatting tools are also included, so you can change font styles, colors, and sizes, add selections and strikethroughs, change alignment, add numbered and bulleted lists, indent and outdent, and more. System fonts are supported, as are imported fonts, a new feature in iOS 13.

Other new features include multicolored flags for flagging email messages, an improved photo selector that doesn't cover up the screen when you're adding an image, and an updated auto complete feature that lists email address choices under each sender when adding a recipient to an email.

Apple News

The Apple News+ service is expanding to the UK and Australia in iOS 13, joining the United States and Canada.

Safari

Safari in iOS 13 has an updated start page that features your favorite websites, frequently visited websites, and most recently visited websites. It also displays relevant websites based on browsing history, links sent to you in Messages, and other Siri suggested content.

A new View menu in the Smart Search field offers up access to text size options, Reader view, and per-site settings. With per-site settings, you can adjust camera, microphone, and location access for each site right from Safari. It also controls mobile/desktop view, Reader view, and lets you enable content blockers for each site.

When uploading a photo using Safari, you can now choose small, medium, large, and actual size options before uploading it to reduce image size if desired. There are new page zoom options, your open tabs can be saved as bookmarks, and you can jump to an open tab from the search field.

From the Share Sheet in Safari, you can now email a web page as a link, a PDF, or in reader view, and when it comes to privacy, there are a few new improvements. If you try to use a weak password when signing up for a website account, Safari sends a warning, and your Safari history and iCloud-synced tabs use end-to-end encryption.

Apple is also now allowing iCloud logins in Safari to be authenticated with Face ID or Touch ID in iOS 13.

Download Manager

There's a new download manager in Safari in iOS 13, which gives you a way to check on the status of files you're downloading and access files you've already downloaded. You can drag and drop files from this interface into a file or an email, and download files in the background.

More on Safari

For more on all of the new features in Safari in iOS 13 and iPadOS, make sure to check out our Safari guide.

Files

Major improvements to the Files app bring new capabilities to the iPhone and the iPad. For the first time, you can access files stored on a USB drive, SD card, SSD, hard drive, or SMB file server and there's a downloads folder in Files where you can manage all your web downloads and attachments from Safari and Mail. Apple also added a Column View to the Files app that lets you see details for your files as you browse.

Local storage is now available so you can create folders on the local drive on your iOS device, and zipping and unzipping files is now supported. New keyboard shortcuts let you do more from an attached keyboard and there's a built-in document scanning feature that takes advantage of the camera.

Apple in iOS 13.4 added iCloud Folder Sharing, allowing users to share files and folders from iCloud Drive with others.

Home and HomeKit

Apple is working on a few notable updates to the Home app and the HomeKit protocol in iOS 13, bringing new features to those who use smart home products. The main Home app interface hasn't changed, but Apple has introduced updated control options for HomeKit devices.

Available controls vary by device, but in general, the change makes options you check or use frequently (such as various light colors) easier to access. With HomeKit lights, for example, there's a main display with brightness controls front and center (as it was before), but now, if lights have multiple colors, you'll see a selection of favorites at the bottom rather than having to tap on the color button at the bottom.

Small changes like these have been made for all device types, putting the information that you need at the forefront. There are also several new icons for different HomeKit types such as water sensors, motion sensors, and air quality sensors, making it easier to identify what's what at a glance, and in iOS 13.1, the icons are going to get even more detailed.

Controls for your HomeKit devices are also now shown in a card-style view so you can swipe them away to get back to the main Home app screen, which is an improvement over the full screen view in iOS 12.

AirPlay 2 in HomeKit Scenes

AirPlay 2 speakers are now able to be used within HomeKit Scenes and Automations, allowing your AirPlay 2 devices like the HomePod to be set to do things like play music when you arrive home, or turn off when you leave. You can also have music come on when a HomeKit sensor detects something like motion, or at a specific time of day.

In scenes, HomePod and other AirPlay 2 speakers can be paired with other HomeKit devices, so you can do something like have your HomePod and lights come on all with one button press or Siri command.

Controls for speakers in Scenes and Automations include Play Audio, Pause Audio, Resume Audio, Don't Change What's Playing, Use Current Volume, and Set Custom Volume.

Siri Shortcuts in HomeKit Automations

You can now add Siri Shortcuts to HomeKit Automations, which lets you trigger Siri Shortcuts you've set up with HomeKit products, set times, and more. Siri Shortcuts are coming in iOS 13.1.

If you have a Siri Shortcut that texts someone when you leave for work, for example, it can now be set to go off when you leave home.

HomeKit Secure Video

Secure Video is a HomeKit API that uses the iPad, Apple TV, or HomePod (Home Hub devices) to analyze video captured by your smart home cameras right in your home. Video feeds are encrypted end-to-end and uploaded to iCloud, which means you alone can see the video footage without the risk of hackers accessing it.

As with existing home security cameras, HomeKit Secure Video provides notifications if activity is detected so you can review the recordings.

Apple offers 10 days of free iCloud storage for video content that does not count against your iCloud data plan limits, but there's a bit of a catch -- you need to have a 200GB iCloud data plan ($2.99/month) for a single camera, or a 2TB iCloud data plan ($9.99/month) for up to five home security cameras.

HomeKit Routers

HomeKit support is available for routers in iOS 13, providing further protection for your smart devices. HomeKit for routers firewalls off each HomeKit device, so if one happens to be compromised, the others remain safe.

Health App

The Health app has an entirely new look in iOS 13 that streamlines the available information. Rather than several different tabs, there are two main health app sections: Summary and Browse.

Summary offers up an overview of your health, aggregating data from a number of sources including linked medical records, movement data from Apple Watch, heart rate data from Apple Watch, sleep information from a linked sleep tracker, exercise minutes, and more.

There are also prompts to do things like register as an organ donor or update your medical ID card, which is built into the Health app.

You can change the Summary view by adding Favorites, aka listings of the type of information that you want to see, such as exercise minutes, active energy, workouts, heart rate, and more.

In the Browse view, there's a listing of all of the variables that are accessible in the Health app, and you can delve into any of them with a tap. You can also use the search feature to find what you're looking for specifically.

All data collected by the Health app can be viewed by hour, day, week, month, or year, and there are also metrics like historical average, daily average, range, alerts, and more.

Tapping on your profile picture at the top of the Health app now opens up a personal profile, new to Health. Medical ID, health records accounts, apps, and devices can be found here.

Cycle Tracking

New in iOS 13 is a Cycle Tracking option for women, which is designed to allow tracking of menstrual cycle data. It has entry options for flow level, symptoms like headaches or cramps, and, for fertility tracking, basal body temperature, and ovulation test results.

There's a period prediction feature and fertile window prediction, along with period notifications for when you might be about to get your next period. A complete cycle history is logged in the app, and there are cycle statistics such as typical period length, typical cycle length, cycle length variation, and more.

Noise Monitoring

There are new Health features for monitoring the Environmental Audio Level and the Headphone Audio Level to protect your hearing health.

Data collected from the new Noise app on the Apple Watch is stored here, letting you know if you've been in environments where sound is above 80 decibels, which can damage hearing over time. Noise Notifications are available to let you know when the ambient sound is too loud or when your headphones are too loud.

Toothbrushing Time

For connected toothbrushes, there's a new Health app feature for tracking toothbrushing time.

Activity Trends

With the new Activity Trends feature in the Activity and Health apps in iOS 13, you can see your long-term progress towards meeting fitness goals. The last 90 days of activity metrics are compared to the last 365 days.

If your efforts start trending downwards, Apple offers personalized coaching to help you get back on track. Trend data is available for active calories, exercise minutes, stand hours, stand minutes, distance, flights climbed, workout walk pace, workout run pace, and cardio fitness level.

More on Health and Activity

For more on the changes in the Health and Activity apps in iOS 13, make sure to check out our dedicated guide.