iOS 13 is the thirteenth major release of the

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

mobile operating system A mobile operating system is an operating system used for smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, smartglasses, or other non-laptop personal mobile computing devices. While computers such as laptops are "mobile", the operating systems used on the ...

developed by

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

for the

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

iPod Touch The iPod Touch (stylized as iPod touch) is a discontinued line of iOS-based mobile devices designed and formerly marketed by Apple Inc. with a touchscreen-controlled user interface. As with other iPod models, the iPod Touch can be used as a po ...

and

HomePod The HomePod is a series of smart speakers developed by Apple Inc., Apple. Designed to work with the Apple Music subscription service, the HomePod incorporates beamforming and eight speakers and is sold in two colors: white and midnight. It is s ...

. The successor to

iOS 12 iOS 12 is the iOS version history, twelfth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., Apple. Aesthetically similar to its predecessor, iOS 11, it focuses more on performance than on new features, quality improvemen ...

, it was announced at the company's

Worldwide Developers Conference The Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is an information technology conference held annually by Apple Inc. The conference is currently held at Apple Park in California. The event is used to showcase new software and technologies in the macO ...

(WWDC) on June 3, 2019, and released on September 19, 2019. It was succeeded by

iOS 14 iOS 14 is the fourteenth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple for the iPhone and iPod touch lines. Announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 22, 2020 as the successor to iOS 13, it was rel ...

, released on September 16, 2020. As of iOS 13, the

iPad The iPad is a brand of tablet computers developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple that run the company's mobile operating systems iOS and later iPadOS. The IPad (1st generation), first-generation iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010. ...

lines run a separate operating system, derived from

, named

iPadOS iPadOS is a mobile operating system developed by Apple for its iPad line of tablet computers. It was given a name distinct from iOS, the operating system used by Apple's iPhones to reflect the diverging features of the two product lines, suc ...

. Both

iPadOS 13 iPadOS 13 is the first major release of the iPadOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. for their iPad line of tablet computers. The successor to iOS 12 on those devices, it was announced at the company's 2019 Worldwide Developers C ...

and iOS 13 drop support for devices with less than 2 GB of

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM most commonly refers to: * A male sheep * Random-access memory, computer memory * Ram Trucks, US, since 2009 ** List of vehicles named Dodge Ram, trucks and vans ** Ram Pickup, produced by Ram Trucks Ram, ram, or RAM may also ref ...

Overview

iOS 13 and

were introduced by Senior Vice President of Software Engineering

Craig Federighi Craig Federighi (born May 27, 1969) is an Apple engineer and business executive who is the senior vice president (SVP) of software engineering at Apple Inc. He oversees the development of Apple's operating systems. His teams are responsible for ...

at the WWDC keynote address on June 3, 2019. The first

beta Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; or ) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Ancient Greek, beta represented the voiced bilabial plosive . In Modern Greek, it represe ...

was made available to registered developers after the keynote. The second beta was released to registered developers on June 18, 2019, and the first public beta was released on June 24, 2019. The initial release of iOS 13 was version 13.0, which was released to the public on September 19, 2019.

System features

Privacy

iOS 13 changes the handling of location data. When an app requests access to location, the user chooses whether to grant access whenever they are using the app, never, or only once. The user will receive similar prompts for background location access, and when an app requests access to Bluetooth or Wi-Fi (which may also be used for non-consensual location tracking). In August 2019, it was reported that beginning in April 2020, the PushKit API for

VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables voice calls to be transmitted as ...

would be restricted to internet telephone usage, closing a "loophole" that had been used by other apps for background data collection.

User interface

A system-wide

dark mode A light-on-dark color scheme, better known as dark mode, dark theme or night mode, is a color scheme that uses light-colored text, icons, and graphical user interface elements on a dark background. It is often discussed in terms of computer ...

allows users to enable a light-on-dark color scheme for the entire

and

user interface, all native applications, and supported third-party apps. It can be manually turned on or set to automatically switch between light and dark modes based on the time of day. The volume indicator was redesigned, replacing the larger, centered overlay with a slimmer bar shown vertically near the volume keys in portrait orientation, or at the top in landscape. The bar can also be manipulated directly. The card UI elements from

Apple Music Apple Music is an audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users can select music to stream to their device on-demand, or listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the sister internet radio stations Apple Musi ...

Apple Podcasts Apple Podcasts (known as simply Podcasts in Apple operating systems) is an audio streaming service and media player application developed by Apple Inc. for playing podcasts. Apple began supporting podcasts with iTunes 4.9 released in June 2005 ...

, and

Apple Books Apple Books (known as iBooks prior to iOS 12 and macOS 10.14 Mojave) is an e-book reading and store application by Apple Inc. for its iOS, iPadOS and macOS operating systems and devices. It was announced, under the name iBooks, in conjunction ...

has been implemented system-wide, being an option for third-parties to use in their apps.

Siri

Siri Siri ( , backronym: Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface) is a digital assistant purchased, developed, and popularized by Apple Inc., which is included in the iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, macOS, Apple TV, audioOS, and visionOS operating sys ...

uses a software-generated voice called "Neural TTS", intended to sound more natural than previous versions that use clips of human voices. Siri also became more functional and new sound control is available. The Siri Shortcuts app is installed by default. Siri also uses HomePod to learn and recognize voices of different people. It is also possible for Siri to automatically read incoming messages aloud on AirPods.

Keyboard

The QuickType virtual keyboard features QuickPath, allowing the user to swipe their finger across the keyboard to complete words and phrases. This functionality was previously exclusively available via third-party keyboard applications such as

SwiftKey Microsoft SwiftKey is a virtual keyboard app originally developed by TouchType for Android and iOS devices. It was first released for Android in July 2010, followed by an iOS release in September 2014 after Apple's implementation of third-p ...

, Adaptxt,

Gboard Gboard is a virtual keyboard app developed by Google for Android and iOS devices. It was first released on iOS in May 2016, followed by a release on Android in December 2016, debuting as a major update to the already-established Google Keyb ...

, or

Swype Swype was a virtual keyboard for touchscreen smartphones and tablets originally developed by Swype Inc., founded in 2002, where the user enters words by sliding a finger or stylus from the first letter of a word to its last letter, lifting only b ...

. Emoji stickers have been included on the

emoji An emoji ( ; plural emoji or emojis; , ) is a pictogram, logogram, ideogram, or smiley embedded in text and used in electronic messages and web pages. The primary function of modern emoji is to fill in emotional cues otherwise missing from type ...

keyboard and can be used wherever regular emoji can be.

Text editing

iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 add a new system-wide gesture interface for cut, copy, paste, undo, and redo. A three-finger swipe left or up will undo; three fingers right or down will redo. A single three-finger pinch will copy, a second three-finger pinch will cut, and a three-finger spread pastes. A three-finger single tap will bring up a shortcut menu with all five options. The blue text cursor can be moved around text fields by pressing and holding to pick it up and move it. Many new options for text selection have also been added: double-tapping a word will select it, triple-tapping selects a sentence, and quadruple-tapping a paragraph selects it.

Sign in with Apple

A new single sign-on service known as "

Sign in with Apple Sign in with Apple is a single sign-on provider operated by Apple Inc., introduced on June 3, 2019, at Apple's 2019 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in iOS 13. Usage It is designed to allow users to create accounts for third-party serv ...

" is integrated with iOS 13, and allows users to create accounts for third-party services with a minimal amount of personal information. Users may optionally generate a

disposable email address Disposable email addressing, also known as DEA, dark mail or masked email, refers to an approach that involves using a unique email address for each contact or entity, or using it for a limited number of times or uses. The benefit is that if the e ...

for each account, improving privacy and anonymity, and reducing the amount of information that can be associated with a single email address. All iOS applications that support third-party

social login Social login is a form of single sign-on using existing information from a social networking service such as Facebook, Twitter or Google Account, Google, to login to a third party website instead of creating a new login account specifically for tha ...

are required to implement Sign in with Apple, The iOS

human interface guidelines Human interface guidelines (HIG) are software development documents which offer application developers a set of recommendations. Their aim is to improve the experience for the users by making application interfaces more intuitive, learnable, and ...

also state that Sign in with Apple should be given prominence above any other login provider in application interfaces.

Performance

iOS 13 contains several performance improvements.

Face ID Face ID is a Biometrics, biometric authentication facial recognition system, facial-recognition system designed and developed by Apple Inc. for the iPhone and iPad Pro. The system can be used for unlocking a device, making Apple Pay, payments, ac ...

unlocks the

iPhone X The iPhone X (Roman numerals, Roman numeral "X" pronounced "ten") is a smartphone that was developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is part of the List of iPhone models, 11th generation of the iPhone. Available for pre-order from September 26, 2 ...

, XS/ XS Max, and XR up to 30% faster than on iOS12. A new file format makes app downloads as much as 50% smaller, app updates as much as 60% smaller, and app launches up to twice as fast.

Battery lifespan extender

Similar to many laptops,Samsung's ''Battery Life Extender'' software
(2009) iOS 13 has a feature to limit the battery charging percentage to 80%. Keeping the battery percentage more centered instead of complete charges and discharges reduces strain onto the battery. This reduces the battery aging of the

lithium-ion battery A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery that uses the reversible intercalation of Li+ ions into electronically conducting solids to store energy. Li-ion batteries are characterized by higher specific energy, energ ...

and extends its lifespan.

Haptics

iOS 13 introduced a new Core Haptics framework. Prior to iOS 13, apps could only provide the default haptic patterns. Core Haptics gives developers more fine-grained control over the iPhone's Taptic Engine, including synchronized audio, allowing apps to provide customized haptic and audio feedback. This feature is only available on iPhone 8 or newer. It is also not supported on the iPod Touch due to the lack of a haptic motor in those devices.

External storage

iOS 13 introduced the ability to use external USB drives in Files. Previously external storage was supported in Photos. Although primarily designed for thumb drives and hard drives, a wide variety of USB disk devices will work, thanks to the iOS's support of the SCSI subclass of USB Mass Storage. Native SCSI disk devices will work as well, when used with a SCSI to USB adapter.

Exposure Notification API

On May 20, 2020, Apple released iOS 13.5, which includes the Exposure Notification API that provides access to the (Google/Apple) Exposure Notification System that Apple have developed jointly with Google. This is provided to support

digital contact tracing Digital contact tracing is a method of contact tracing relying on tracking systems, most often based on mobile devices, to determine contact between an infected patient and a user. It came to public prominence in the form of COVID-19 apps durin ...

which came to light during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

ARKit 3

ARKit 3 was released as a part of iOS 13 and brought new features, such as People occlusion, which allowed AR objects to be in front or behind people in a more realistic way. New features were restricted to devices with A12 processors and newer – like

iPhone XS The iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max are smartphones designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. Released as the twelfth-generation flagship models of the iPhone, they succeeded the iPhone X and were unveiled alongside the more affordable iPhone ...

iPhone XR The iPhone XR is a smartphone developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is part of the twelfth generation of the iPhone, alongside the higher-end iPhone XS/XS Max models. Pre-orders began on October 19, 2018, with the official release on Octo ...

, and the 2018

iPad Pro The iPad Pro is a series of tablet computers, positioned as the premium line of Apple Inc., Apple's iPad brand. It runs iPadOS, a tablet-optimized Fork (software development), fork of the iOS operating system. Early models were distinguished f ...

. Other features of ARKit 3 were multiple face tracking and collaborative sessions.

ARKit 3.5

Released with the 2020

, ARKit 3.5 vastly improved positioning in virtual environments due to new anchors and use of data from a LiDAR scanner. It also improved its motion capture and people occlusion.

Other changes

The version of iOS for iPad devices was renamed iPadOS, reflecting the precedence for the OS to include additional features intended primarily for use on tablets. iOS13 adds official support for the

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

DualShock 4 The DualShock (originally Dual Shock, trademarked as DUALSHOCK or DUAL SHOCK, with the PlayStation 5 version as DualSense) is a line of gamepads developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment (formerly Sony Computer Entertainment) for the PlayStati ...

and the

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

Xbox One controller The Xbox Wireless Controller is the primary game controller for the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S home video game consoles, also the official controller for use in Windows-based PCs, and compatible with other operating systems such as macOS, Lin ...

. iOS13 also adds support for wireless audio sharing for

AirPods AirPods are wireless Bluetooth earbuds designed by Apple. They were first announced on September 7, 2016, alongside the iPhone 7. Within two years, they became Apple's most popular accessory. AirPods are Apple's entry-level wireless headpho ...

and certain

Beats headphones Beat, beats, or beating may refer to: Common uses * Assault, inflicting physical harm or unwanted physical contact * Battery (crime), a criminal offense involving unlawful physical contact * Battery (tort), a civil wrong in common law of inte ...

. A new multi-select gesture is available in supported applications such as Files and Mail. Multiple items, such as files or emails, can be quickly selected by dragging two fingers over the desired items.

App features

Music

Apple Music now supports real-time synced song lyrics that animate along with the music as they are being sung, rapped or spoken. The currently playing line is highlighted in white color. The feature also lets the user skip to a part of a song simply by tapping on the lyric.

Messages and Memoji

User profiles can be created and Memoji can be used as an

iMessage iMessage is an instant messaging service developed by Apple Inc. and launched in 2011. iMessage functions exclusively on Apple platforms – including iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and visionOS – as part of Apple ecosystem, Apple's approach t ...

profile picture. All iOS devices with an A9 processor or newer can create custom Memoji. Memoji and Animoji can be used as a sticker in iMessage and other apps; they are also available as regular emoji for use anywhere the emoji keyboard is available. There are a variety of new customization options for Memoji.

Maps

The

Maps A map is a symbolic depiction of interrelationships, commonly spatial, between things within a space. A map may be annotated with text and graphics. Like any graphic, a map may be fixed to paper or other durable media, or may be displayed on ...

app features a redesigned maps UI, featuring more detailed maps, and Look Around, a street level imagery implementation similar to

Google Street View Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth that provides interactive panoramas from positions along many streets in the world. It was launched in 2007 in several cities in the United States, and has since expa ...

Reminders

Redesigned and rebuilt from the ground up with new features such as the ability to suggest when a reminder should be delivered to the user, and the ability to tag contacts so that references to reminders can be surfaced elsewhere, such as in Messages.

Photos

The Photos app includes a redesigned UI and uses machine learning to auto-hide "clutter" images such as screenshots and documents. Photos has a redesigned interface showing users photos they took in the past year, month, week and day. This brings all photos to one page and shows users photos based on what their device suggests for them.

Problems

There were a number of issues following the release of iOS 13, some relating to battery drain, call-dropping, and ringtones not functioning properly, resulting in frequent software updates and patches. Despite the frequency of bug fix releases, the updates have introduced new issues. Other issues included incorrect artwork for user's playlists. Users reported the artwork is repeated for some playlists or uses a different picture.

Supported devices

iOS13 requires 2 GB of RAM. It drops support for all iPhones and iPod Touches using an

Apple A7 The Apple A7 is a 64-bit system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc., part of the Apple silicon series. It first appeared in the iPhone 5S, which was announced on September 10, 2013, and the iPad Air and iPad Mini 2, which were both announce ...

or A8

SoC SOC, SoC, Soc, may refer to: Science and technology * Information security operations center, in an organization, a centralized unit that deals with computer security issues * Selectable output control * Separation of concerns, a program design pr ...

and devices that shipped with 1 GB of RAM. iOS 13 is the first version of iOS to drop support for iPhones with

Touch ID Touch ID is an electronic fingerprint recognition feature designed and released by Apple Inc. History In 2012, Apple acquired AuthenTec, a company focused on fingerprint-reading and identification management software, for $356 million. The acq ...

. To further differentiate features between iPhones and iPads, Apple

rebranded Rebranding is a marketing strategy in which a new name, term, symbol, design, concept or combination thereof is created for an established brand with the intention of developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of consumers, investors ...

the tablet-oriented platform with its own operating system, iPadOS.

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

* iPhone 6s & 6s Plus *

iPhone SE (1st generation) The first-generation iPhone SE (also known as iPhone SE 1 or iPhone SE 2016; ''SE'' is an initialism of ''Special Edition'') is a smartphone that was developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is part of the 9th generation of the iPhone alongs ...

* iPhone 7 & 7 Plus * iPhone 8 & 8 Plus *

* iPhone XS & XS Max *

iPhone 11 The iPhone 11 is a smartphone developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple. It is the thirteenth generation of iPhone, succeeding the iPhone XR, and was unveiled on September 10, 2019, alongside the higher-end iPhone 11 Pro at the Steve Jobs Th ...

* iPhone 11 Pro & 11 Pro Max *

iPhone SE (2nd generation) The second-generation iPhone SE (also known as the iPhone SE 2 or the iPhone SE 2020) is a smartphone developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is part of the 13th generation of the iPhone, alongside the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro/Pro Max models. A ...

iPod Touch The iPod Touch (stylized as iPod touch) is a discontinued line of iOS-based mobile devices designed and formerly marketed by Apple Inc. with a touchscreen-controlled user interface. As with other iPod models, the iPod Touch can be used as a po ...

iPod Touch (7th generation) The seventh generation iPod Touch (marketed as the iPod touch and colloquially known as the iPod touch (2019) or iPod touch 7) is a discontinued mobile device designed and marketed by Apple Inc. with a touchscreen-based user interface. It is ...

Release history

''See Apple's main page fo
iOS 13 release notes
as well as thei
2019
an
2020
security update contents.''

References

External links

Official website
{{Apple *13 2019 software Products introduced in 2019 Mobile operating systems Proprietary operating systems

Overview

System features

Privacy

User interface

Siri

Keyboard

Text editing

Sign in with Apple

Performance

Battery lifespan extender

Haptics

External storage

Exposure Notification API

ARKit 3

ARKit 3.5

Other changes

App features

Music

Messages and Memoji

Maps

Reminders

Photos

Problems

Supported devices

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

iPod Touch The iPod Touch (stylized as iPod touch) is a discontinued line of iOS-based mobile devices designed and formerly marketed by Apple Inc. with a touchscreen-controlled user interface. As with other iPod models, the iPod Touch can be used as a po ...

Release history

See also

References

External links