iOS 13: Apple reveals iPhone software update with entire new dark mode look and more

Apple has revealed iOS 13, its new software for the iPhone, including a complete redesign.

The company has finally launched dark mode for the phone, which turns the background black and inverts the phone's colours. But it also involves a new look for many of its apps, including reminders and email.

The keyboard will now also let users swipe across it, rather than hitting each individual key. That feature, which has been enabled in Android for some time, allows users to type much more quickly.

Apple also said it had focused on performance while designing the software.

Unlocking the phone with Face ID is now 30 per cent faster, for instance, and downloads from the App Store are now 50 per cent smaller. That maens that apps can launch up to twice as fast, according to software head Craig Federighi.

But by far the biggest change was the introduction of dark mode, which Apple revealed with a video showing jellyfish floating through the ocean.

Every one of Apple's apps has received a redesign, and flipping the switch to turn on dark mode will allow other apps to turn dark too. (Users will be able to keep their phones light if they wish.)

Apple's individual apps received redesigns too.

That includes the reminders app, which also sports a complete new look. It has become much more smart, being able to track reminders and share them with people.

Apple also said it had revamped the graphics in Apple Maps. That has meant adding vast amounts more data to its maps, using cars and planes, which will be finished in the US by the end of the year and then come to other countries after that.

It also includes its own version of Google's Street View, which allows people to look around places. They will be able to virtually drive along streets, using pictures taken by Apple's mapping cars.

The company stressed that Maps – like the other parts of iOS – had been designed with a focus on privacy.

iOS also includes a whole host of other piracy features including limits on how much apps can see about your location.

And it revealed an entirely new service, called "Sign in with Apple", which is intended to stop other services provided by Google and Facebook. Apple suggested that those rivals abused the personal information that was collected through that service, and that the new feature would stop that happening.

Photos also gets a new design, based around days, weeks and months. It automatically assembles photographs based on time, as well as getting rid of photographs that it detects to be duplicates or pictures of receipts or whiteboards, for instance.

Apple also revealed updates to the versions of iOS that live on other hardware, such as AirPods, the HomePod and CarPlay. New features on the AirPods include the option to listen to messages as soon as they arrive, for instance, or the option to easily share the sound from films or songs with someone else wearing Apple's wireless earphones.

Apple said it did not even have time to give details on a range of features that will come in iOS 13. They included a "low data mode" as well as the option to send unknown callers straight to voicemail.