Apple’s WWDC 2022 Roundup: New Features Unveiled for iOS 16, watchOS 9, and More

Published on June 20, 2022
Reading time 5 min read
Views 3.78k

Apple’s WWDC 2022 Roundup: New Features Unveiled for iOS 16, watchOS 9, and More

Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) 2022 was held this year from June 6 to 10. Each year, Apple kicks off WWDC with back-to-back announcements, generally covering things from iOS to watchOS to new hardware, and this year was no exception. Apple showcased iOS16 with exciting enhancements, watchOS 9 with new activity features, improvements to workout, macOS Ventura, and ipadOS 16, with improved multitasking features and a host of other exciting updates.
Didn’t have time to tune in? We’ve got you covered. Check out the WWDC22 Keynote here:

Here are the highlights from WWDC 2022 that we feel will be of most interest to our customers:

iOS 16 Push Notifications

Lock screens have been redesigned completely and are now customizable with widgets that look just like Apple Watch complications.
Notifications, including your notification summary, will now roll up from the bottom, making them easy to glance at as they come in. It’s also a less cluttered experience that ensures users have a clear view of their personalized lock screen, plus it can be hidden at the bottom of the lock screen.
iOS 16 will now show notifications with bold text and images to make notifications pop visually. Also, users will be able to view notifications on the lock screen in an expanded list view, stacked view, or count view, and they can pinch to change the layout in context.

Web Push in Safari

Notifications can now be sent to your website users or web app in Safari 16, even when Safari isn’t running. It’s fairly simple to use, so if you’ve already coded web push, it will automatically work on Safari. Marketers can send time-sensitive and relevant information to their website users, notifying them of important events via push notifications in Safari 16 with great ease, thereby leading to enhanced app engagement, increased reachability, and a better customer experience. Web push notifications via Safari will be available with macOS Ventura later this year and with iOS16 next year.
More information here.

Live Activities

Apple unveiled an all new Live Activities feature, that provides newer ways to communicate with users in iOS 16. The aim is to tame the barrage of notifications — i.e., when your order is collected, out for delivery, or right outside. Developers can now create neat and glanceable experiences. Live Activities will help users stay on top of things happening in real time, such as sports games, workouts, a ride share, or a food delivery order, right from the Lock Screen. You can create Live Activities with WidgetKit to help users stay updated on what’s happening in your app in real time. Also with SwiftUI, Live Activities can be animated from one state to the next.
Live Activities API will be available soon, starting as an update to iOS 16 later this year.

New Banner Notifications on watchOS 9

watchOS 9 introduced enhanced ways to stay connected and fit with features like banner notifications that have been redesigned to be less intrusive yet impactful, with new slimline banners for when Apple Watch is being actively used. Alongside this, a host of other exciting features for the health conscious were unveiled, such as customizable watch faces, an enhanced Workout app, sleep stages, a first-of-its-kind (FDA approved) atrial fibrillation history feature, and an all-new Medications app.
More information here.

WidgetKit

Apple brings WidgetKit to build complications for Apple Watch and for the all new Lock Screen on iPhone 16, embracing SwiftUI and extending the glanceable experience. The widgets can be placed anywhere on the iOS Home Screen and gives access to important details and the latest information, such as upcoming calendar invites, the weather, battery levels, alarms, and time zones at a glance. Write your code once for iOS 16 and watchOS 9, and share infrastructure with your existing Home Screen widgets.
Learn more about widgets here.

App Intents

One of the most exciting updates at WWDC 2022 is the App Intents API — a new Swift-only framework that helps users quickly accomplish tasks related to the app by voice or tap. This allows shortcuts to work seamlessly across apps without the need to set them up manually. With no user setup required, App Shortcuts are available as soon as your app is installed in iOS, iPadOS, or watchOS, and can be run from the Shortcuts app, Spotlight, and Siri. This in turn helps to make your app more discoverable.
More information here.

Preparing Our SDKs for the Future

We’re very excited to see these user friendly features and enhancements being unveiled. And we’re gearing up to release new CleverTap SDKs for customers that will be compatible with the upcoming iOS 16 and Safari Web push changes. Subscribe to this blog so you get the latest news and updates.