Apple $AAPL’s keynote at its Worldwide Developer Conference didn’t have any hardware news, but it was jam-packed with new features for its four operating systems: watchOS, tvOS, macOS (yes, that’s a new name), and iOS. Free upgrades will be available to the public this fall.
Here’s a rundown of everything announced in the two-hour address:
watchOS
The operating system that powers the Apple Watch will be faster, more organized, better prepared for emergencies, and more.
- Apple is speeding up its watch apps so they load almost instantly—or to be precise, seven times faster, according to vice president of technology Kevin Lynch.
- A dock is coming to the Apple Watch, which people can access from the side button to access their favorite apps.
- People will be able to scribble responses to text messages on the Apple Watch. The feature supports multiple languages, including Chinese.
- A new SOS mode will call emergency services and also send the user’s emergency contacts a map of his or her location.
- In addition to new activity watch faces, Apple is adding sharing features so Apple Watch wearers can compete against and message (read: talk smack with) friends and family.
- The Apple Watch will be able to track the physical activity of wheelchair users. Instead of showing them a “time to stand” notification, they’ll see “time to roll.”
- Apple is releasing a new health app called Breathe, which reminds people to perform breathing exercises.
tvOS
The operating system that powers the Apple TV now has 6,000 apps. Today, Apple announced a few more, plus a killer feature that takes away one of the major pains of internet TV boxes.
- By far, the biggest update to tvOS is single sign-on, which theoretically removes the headaches that come from authenticating access to streaming apps. The company didn’t spend much time discussing how it works, but promises that users will only need to sign in once to their Apple TV and automatically gain access to apps offered by their TV subscriptions.
- A new iPhone remote app will use Siri to control the Apple TV.
- Siri for Apple TV will be able to search YouTube.
- HomeKit is coming to tvOS, paving the way for Apple TV to become a hub for the connected home.
macOS
The operating system powering Macintosh has a new name. Following the naming convention of iOS, tvOS, and watchOS, Apple has renamed its desktop operating system macOS (from Mac OS X $TWTR). The first version sporting this new moniker will be macOS Sierra, which will have the following capabilities:
- Siri is coming to the Mac.
- Mac users who wear an Apple Watch will be able to unlock their computers without typing in a password.
- Apple will optimize storage on the Mac by keeping older files on the cloud, leaving room for new files.
- Apple Pay will be available on the web. Users who buy using Apple Pay on their computers will verify their purchases using the iPhone’s fingerprint sensor, TouchID.
- Tabs will no longer be just for browsers. People will have the option to add tabs for other applications.
- Picture-in-picture mode will let people watch videos in a small overlay on their computers while multitasking on other apps.
- Universal Clipboard will let people edit and copy from an iPad or iPhone and paste the changes on a Mac.
iOS 10
Apple dedicated most of the keynote to iOS 10, and it has a laundry list of new features:
Apple’s clearly trying to appeal to the Snapchat generation with a number of fun changes to Messages.
