I updated my iPhone to iOS13 and here are some quick notes on what I’ve found to be most useful so far:

Silence unknown callers – this is a huge benefit.  If you receive a call from a number not in your contacts, it will send it to voicemail.  With the influx of spam calls, this is a feature you can turn on or off depending on how you handle your contacts.

You now have the option to have your screen in “dark mode” which makes it easier to read. Or transition automatically— light mode during the day and dark mode in the evening and at night.

All of the core Apple programs have been updated: Reminders, Notes, Health, Find My iPhone, Mail, etc. In Mail, you now have more editing options.  In the row above the keyboard, there’s an arrow.  Press that and you get more options, including scanning a document to attach to the email.  Click on the “Text” button, and you get an additional menu of text formatting options. With text editing, you can pinch up with 3 fingers to copy, pinch up with 2 fingers to cut, or pinch down with 3 fingers to paste. Notes – you can now do a checklist, you can view your notes as a gallery, and you can create and share notes folders. Reminders – many more options. You can view them in a gallery format that shows any for today, all that are scheduled, your different lists, etc.

In Safari – Home page changed based on the sites you’ve recently visited, you can increase the text size by web page (left corner). Screenshot – you can capture a whole webpage in a screenshot now (at top it says Screen or Full Page).

Photos/Camera – In Photos now, your view options are expanded. Apple now puts your best photos front and center, but you can also view images organized by day, month, and year. Clutter like screenshots, receipt photos, and duplicate images are filtered out. Photo and video editing tools have also been enhanced. 

Share Menu – many more options. Swipe up to see them all.  Airdrop doesn’t take up as much space like it used to.

You can now sign into 3rd party apps with your Apple credentials—this is much more secure because it won’t track your activities and you can choose to hide your email from the app/site you’re visiting.  It’s also not tied to a social network or marketing company (like your Amazon sign in).

Find my iPhone and Find My Friends have been merged into one app.  To locate your devices, Apple uses crowd-sourced location info via encrypted Bluetooth signals picked up by other nearby iPads, iPhones, & Mac’s relaying it back to you. It is much better at finding your devices, and even telling you the last place they’ve been “seen”.  

The Apple Watch was updated as well.  The main things were the ability to use Voice Memo as a complication, Audio books, and many new watch faces.  I’ve noticed the battery isn’t lasting as long, but that may be tweaked in the next patch update due September 24th. 

These are just a few of my notes after going through the applications I use the most and some of the features I was looking forward to using.