WWDC 2020 is just hours away, and some of Apple's biggest potential announcements have leaked early. According to a last-minute tip, Apple may be working on a long overdue set of quality of life upgrades to Safari on iOS 14.
When asked about a potentially huge change coming to Safari, in particular on iOS, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman replied with a list of features he believes Apple is currently developing. The most interesting include improved tabs interface and voice search.
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Of course, Gurman quickly grounded his statement by acknowledging he's unaware of when Apple plans to introduce these features. They could arrive at WWDC, or they could be for later. That being said, this is the time of the year for feature updates at this level of iOS.
Built-in translation tools are also long overdue, and one category where Chrome has long lapped Apple.
There’s the new iCloud Keychain stuff, translation integration, voice search, improved tabs, guest mode etc. in development — but who knows if that’s coming this week.June 21, 2020
A "guest mode" for Safari seems interesting, as it shows signs of Apple starting to acknowledge that some users share devices. Multi-user profile options are only currently available on the iPad for education and business markets.
If Apple does plan for a huge Safari update to roll out with iOS 14, it would fit another rumor we've heard: iOS 14 may also let you change the default apps on your iPhone to third party apps. If Safari were to survive in a world where you can set Chrome or Firefox as your default web browser, it will need to be more competitive.
For example, voice search has long been a strong Chrome browser capability, and Apple catching up on this would be a necessary upgrade.
iOS 14 is supposed to bring a lot of design changes overall, with widgets taking prominence and changes to the home screen. We've also heard about "app clips" miniature versions of applications that can be used without downloading whole apps. Plus, there's rumor of a new Fitness app as well.
We should know exactly what's coming to iOS 14 in just a few hours when WWDC kicks off at 1 p.m. ET, so be sure to check back to Tom's Guide for live coverage.
