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Another year, another version of iOS. At WWDC 2018, at Apple’s annual developer conference, the company announced iOS 12 – the latest version of the operating system behind the iPhone and iPad.

The main feature in iOS 12 is device speed, with every model back to the 5S set to get a performance boost if you upgrade to the new mobile OS. Apple also announced a raft of new tools to help combat iPhone addiction.


When is iOS 12 coming out and how can you download the beta?

Apple has made iOS 12 available for all devices that can currently run iOS 11. So if you’re one of the 81 per cent of Apple users currently using the latest version of its OS, you’re in luck. The oldest phone it’ll work on is the iPhone 5S, and the oldest iPad is the Air 2.

The first public beta of iOS 12 will be available later this month, while the full version will be released later this autumn, most probably in September. You can sign-up to download the public beta here, although if you’re a developer you can already download the developer preview here.

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Addiction-busting

Responding to criticisms that people are spending too much time with their devices, Apple has added a handful of new tools to limit distractions and help people understand how they’re using their device. The Screen Time app will give users a weekly activity summary that shows how much they’ve used their device, including time spent in specific apps and how many notifications each app sent.

For people who want to take more control over their app usage, App Limits will let them set limits on the amount of time they spend in certain apps. App Limits will send users a warning when they’ve nearly exceeded their self-alloted time in the app, and block it altogether when they’ve passed that time. If they want a little extra time, they can hit ignore – a bit like pressing snooze on the alarm app.


Tweaks to the do-not-disturb function also clean up notifications, and allow do not disturb to automatically end in response to a specific time or location. Apple has also grouped together notifications by topic and app, to make apps a little less annoying.

Performance in iOS 12

Apple put a big focus on speed with iOS 12, making it faster to load apps and take photos. An iPhone 6S running iOS 12 will launch apps 40 per cent faster, bring up the keyboard 50 per cent faster and take a photo from the lock screen 70 per cent faster compared to the same phone running iOS 11.

Tweaks to the CPU software should mean that these speed upgrades don’t come at too high a cost to battery life. The CPU ramps up when it detects that more power is needed (if you start scrolling, for example), and ramps down again to conserve battery life afterwards. In times of high load, these CPU tweaks should mean that apps last twice as fast.

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David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images


Animoji and Memoji

A huge hit last year, Apple decided to add a few more emoji upgrades for the latest version of its iOS. New animoji include the ghost, koala, tiger and t-rex, and you’ll be glad to hear they all include tongue-detection so you can wag your tongue to have your ghostly digital replica do the same. With Memoji, Apple has also given users the ability to create tiny digital avatars of themselves.

Siri

A new shortcut function allows Siri to take you directly to a certain part of an app whenever you say a key phrase. So rather than asking Siri to open up the Tile app, for example, you can just say, “Siri, I lost my keys” and the digital assistant will automatically ring your Tile. Users can also create their own shortcuts, or sets of shortcuts, and specific a key phrase. So you might say, “Siri, I’m heading home” and the digital assistant will open your radio app, turn on your home thermostat and check the traffic on your route home.

Augmented reality

Apple announced the second version of its augmented reality develop kit – ARKit 2. This includes improved face track, better 3D object detection and adds the ability for multiple people to experience the same virtual environment simultaneously. The Measure app will also allow people to measure objects in augmented reality, by dragging their viewfinder across an object in the real world.

App upgrades

FaceTime will now support conversations with up to 32 participants – a massive upgrade over the current one-to-one calling. Group FaceTime will also be integrated directly into the Messages app.


A handful of other apps apps are getting an upgrade with iOS 12 – but none of them are much to get excited about. Voice memos are coming to the iPad, iBooks has been redesigned and renamed as Apple Books and Apple News has also had a minor redesign, adding a favourites tab. Stocks has also had a minor overhaul, bringing news stories within the app and squiggly line charts that show how a stock has performed during a day.

Photos

The Photos app will look almost the same, but a number of changes under the hood should make searching within the app much more powerful. The app will suggest search options before you ever start typing, offering to sort images by people, places or categories. Users will also be able to search by business or place names, or even events such as a concert. A new For You section will highlight photos that the app thinks you’ll particularly enjoy – such as a photo taken on this day one year ago.

The app’s photo-sharing capabilities have also received an upgrade. For You will suggest who you might want to share a photo with, based on who appears in that photo. And if you send a photo to a phone, their own app will search through their photos for ones that they might want to send back.