WWDC 2020 brought new ideas for the future of the Apple doesn't always need new hardware to get people talking.
This year's WWDC, as is usually the case, focused on software and Apple as a company, rather than introducing new devices. However, despite the event going by without any mention of the heavily rumored iPhone 12, there was still new information about Apple's phones to dig into, due to the reveal of iOS 14. A new operating system upgrade wasn't exactly a shock, but this one is bolder than most, affecting the phone's home screen aesthetic in some major ways, and bringing features most people would never have expected to see on an Apple device.
The standout features are most likely the adjustments to the home screen, digital car keys, App Clips, and the option to set third-party apps as default. Yes, some of these are concepts Android s have seen for years and Apple does have a tendency to trot out these kinds of upgrades and speak of them as innovations. The thing is, they still represent significant ideological shifts for Apple, and that's a big deal for a company that can sell millions of units just by dropping a bigger number on the end of the word "iPhone". It's important that it continues to try new approaches.
Exciting Changes Coming with iOS 14
The home screen is easily the biggest deal with this Fall's iOS 14 update. The changes to the functions of widgets should fundamentally alter how iPhone s interact with their devices. Widgets have been around on Apple and Android devices for some time, but their implementation on iPhones was half-baked. They were plain, lacked a lot of meaningful functionality, and Twitter s trying the iOS 14 beta right now, the excitement about widgets, and the aesthetic upgrades they've added has definitely been the most discussed change.
App Clips are an in-between change in of being exciting. The concept of a very small version of an app that allows s to make a purchase without logging into a new or installing a full app has existed on Android for a while, but that platform's Instant Apps feature is hardly ubiquitous. Apple showed App Clips alongside a promise to add new types of QR code-like scanning locations at various real-world commerce areas. If ideas like that spread, App Clips have an amazing potential to speed up checkouts everywhere in the world, and that could be even more important as the coronavirus pandemic continues. This is the one case where a feature really could be better just because it's on an iPhone.
The change to third-party apps probably won't matter much to the iPhone faithful out there. Most iOS daily s prefer the software's native apps like Messages anyway. But, for those who don't, it feels less like Apple is discouraging third-party apps now. Gmail s, for example, could benefit from this change immensely. The real impact of this adjustment, though, is it represents Apple lowering the wall around its garden just a bit. The company is budging on certain ideas that have historically limited its devices. It's a step in the right direction.
Digital car keys are just cool. Their implementation will probably be extremely limited for now, since the system will only function in select, newer vehicles. There's potential for this to be the baseline of a future version of this system for self-driving cars, but that reality is pretty far off. This is only really exciting because it's such a snazzy feature, and it's the kind of thing that wows people at a conference.