Last week, during WWDC, Apple announced its new mobile operating system called iOS 11. It's launching this fall, and it'll bring new features to your iPhone and iPad.
iOS 11 is currently going through developer testing and, while we expect Apple to add features closer to the launch of its new iPhones, it has already highlighted some of the big changes you can expect.
Let's take a look at five of them now.
Drag and drop
iOS 11 brings support for dragging and dropping items between applications. On an iPad, you might drag a photo from your photo album right into an email, for example. Currently, you need to tap around inside the email app to add an attachment, so this should make things quicker. Apple hasn't talked much about drag and drop on the iPhone, but developers have reported the option exists in early iOS 11 code, so expect to hear more on that. Multitasking on the iPad will take advantage of drag-and-drop, too, creating a more powerful experience than ever before.
Peer-to-peer payments
Apple announced its Venmo competitor during WWDC, too. It will let you use Apple Pay to send money right to another person through iMessage. It's linked with your debit or credit card, too, so there's no messy configuration required. Likewise, if a buddy owes you for a round of beers and pizza, you can request money through iMessage, too.
A new App Store
Apple is completely redesigning its app store. I'm not sure what I think of it just yet, at least judging from the screenshots. It seems more focused on presenting fewer, high quality apps instead of a list of applications to dig through. There's a new section dedicates to Games, and entire sections curated by humans. It should make finding great apps much easier.
Siri improvements
Apple's going to be beefing up Siri in iOS 11, but it hasn't really provided a ton of details as to what's exactly coming. We do know, however, that it's going to allow you to ask Siri to speak translations, a feature that Google Assistant already offers on Android. Siri will also automatically play music that you like, if you ask her, based on past listening habits. Siri will also use your interests to provide relevant news inside the revamped News application, will make calendar suggestions as you book reservations inside Safari and can suggest places and names of movies as you type in iMessage.
Control Center
Control Center currently allows you to make small tweaks to your phone. You pull it up from the bottom of the screen to put your phone in Airplane mode, turn of Wi-Fi or activate the flashlight, for example. Soon, you'll be able to control more by adding favorite shortcuts to smart lights in your home, your Apple TV remote, a voice recorder, your activity and more.