There was so much Apple had to cram into its WWDC 2024 keynote that some features were left out. Here at the company’s campus, I had the opportunity to speak with various executives as well as dive deeper into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, Apple Intelligence, watchOS 11 and more. In these sessions, I was able to learn more about how specific things work, such as the exact steps you take to customize your iPhone’s home screen and control center. I also saw some other updates that weren’t even briefly mentioned during the keynote, like the new hiking route support in Apple Maps and what training load information looks like on watchOS 11. Of all the features I discovered that weren’t mentioned, here are my favorites.
Maps: Create and share your own routes
I’ve always been a Google Maps girl, partly because the app had better information compared to Apple Maps in its early years. I stick to Google Maps these days because they have all my saved places and history. When I found out that iOS 18 would bring updates to Apple Maps, especially when it comes to hiking and routes, I was intrigued.
In iOS 18, basically, when you go to search in Maps, you’ll see a new option under “Find Nearby” called hikes. It will show you recommended hikes and you can filter by hike type (such as a loop) and specify the length. You’ll find options nearby, and tapping one will bring up a topographical view detailing the elevation, how challenging it should be, as well as an estimated duration. Tap to save each route and save it for offline use later, and you can also add notes. There is a new Library view and you can find it in your profile in Maps.
You’ll also be able to create new routes in Maps by tapping anywhere to start defining a route. You can tap to add points on the route, which will cause the trail to continue connecting them, then press the “Close Loop” button to complete the trail. These routes can be shared, although it’s not yet clear whether you can share them with your friend or driver, for example, to take your preferred route to your destination.
The tours Apple will offer in Maps are created by its own team that works with America’s national parks, so they will only be available for the country’s 63 national parks to begin with. In other words, it’s not carrying information from, say, AllTrails. In a press release, Apple said thousands of trips will be available at launch.
As a city dweller who hikes only occasionally, my excitement isn’t even about hiking, but rather being able to share my own routes to show people how they should walk from the train station to my building or favorite restaurant. It’s a compelling feature and probably why I’d choose Apple Maps over Google.
Calendar integration with reminders
Honestly, the Maps update might be my favorite of all he wasn’t demonstrated by a wide margin during the WWDC 2024 keynote. But some of the new tools coming to Calendar tickle my fancy too. In particular, the new integration with reminders makes it easier not only to schedule tasks directly in the diary, but also to check them off from the Calendar application. Soon, you can long press and drag to move reminders around, so you can put a note to call you at 5pm on Wednesday in a slot instead of sitting in the Reminders app. In addition, Calendar gets new views that better describe your activity level each day of the month, much like the Fitness app quickly displays your daily ring in a monthly view.
Tapback statistics showing who exactly responded to which emoticons
That’s not the one that wasn’t mentioned at all during the keynote, but there they are details about how Tapback works that weren’t covered on last night’s show. If you’re like me, you might not have even remembered that Tapback refers to the reactions you can send in Messages by double-tapping a blue or gray bubble. With iOS 18, you get more options than the limited selection of hearts, thumbs up, thumbs down, “Haha”, exclamation points and question mark. With the update, they will also show up in full color instead of the current (dull) grey.
However, I later discovered that if you double-tap a message that already has reactions attached to it, a new bubble appears at the top of the screen to show who replied to which emoji. This should make it easier to lurk in group chat, but it could also act as an unofficial voting tool by asking your friends to respond with specific emojis and flag different answers. This should make Messages a bit like Slack, and I wish Whatsapp and Telegram would take note.
Other: Math notes on iPhone, journal updates and Safari
iOS 18 brings quite a few features that weren’t very popular at WWDC, such as a new Journal app widget for the home screen that displays prompts for reflection and lets you create new entries. The journal also has a new statistics view that shows traces of your typing and other historical data, plus a new tool that lets you add a state of mind to each entry from the app.
Meanwhile, Safari gets a new “Highlights” button in the search (or URL) bar, and tapping it will display a machine learning-generated summary of the website you’re on. Clicking this will bring up a panel with additional information, such as navigation directions to the restaurant listed on the page or a phone number to call the business. You can also quickly launch reader view from this panel.
I wasn’t too excited about either, mainly because I don’t use the Journal app much and I don’t need Safari to summarize the site for me. But some other buried updates that I really wanted to shout out. For example, Math Notes for iPad and using the Apple Pencil certainly got a lot of time, but it wasn’t until I looked at Apple’s iOS 18 press release that I discovered that the Notes app for iPhone is also getting its own version. According to the screenshot provided by Apple, it looks like you can add up and split expenses among a group of friends by writing down a list of expenses and how much each item costs, then adding the names of each expense to a plus and equal sign formula. , then divide that by the number of people in your group. Not quite Splitwise, but I could see it getting stronger over time.
I was also intrigued by some of the Smart Script features on iPadOS 18, especially when I realized that you can move handwritten words by simply dragging the handwritten words further apart and the rest of your scribbled text moves in tandem. It’s hard to describe and I’ll have to wait until I try it myself to show you an animated example. But it was impressive, even if not extremely useful.
Finally, the Password app and other privacy updates got a shout-out during the keynote, but I learned more about how things like setting up accessories and sharing contacts with apps work. Apple is launching a new accessory setup kit to help device makers adopt a pairing interface similar to how you’d connect AirPods or an Apple Watch to an iPhone. If developers don’t take this approach, the new Bluetooth settings interface will be much clearer about what other Bluetooth devices are on your local network and what you’re actually granting access to when you agree to let the app see other devices on your network. Sew. While it wasn’t completely skipped during the keynote, the Passcode app is something that makes me happy because I absolutely hate digging through settings to find a way to get codes for specific apps that I use my iPhone’s authenticator to unlock. .
There were a lot of features I was excited to hear about and learn more about how they work, including the new dynamic clock style in the Photos face in watchOS 11, pinned collections in the redesigned Photos app, and iPadOS mirroring for easier remote control. technical support. And that new Airplay feature that lets you send money to friends by holding your phones together? Yes! Being able to pause and adjust your watchOS activity rings and that training load overview? Hallelujah!
And while I can see the appeal of locked and hidden apps, I’m not sure I’d find much use for it, and it would probably exacerbate my already prone to suspicious nature.
I’m also a little wary of things like Genmoji and Image Playground, which are Apple Intelligence features that won’t hit all iOS 18 devices. There will be metadata information that indicates when images were generated by Apple’s AI, and there will be guardrails that prevent the creation of offensive and exploitative content.
Obviously, there are a lot of updates coming to Apple phones, tablets, laptops and wearables later this year, and I can’t wait to try them out. The public beta should be ready by the end of summer this year, which is when most people (who are willing to risk an unstable platform) can try them out.
Here you will find all the news from Apple WWDC 2024.
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