Leaked Screenshots Reveal More Details on iOS 13 Dark Mode, New Reminders App

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is less than a week away, so it won’t be long before we’ll actually see iOS 13 in all of its expected darkened glory, but in the meantime, we’re seeing more leaks slip out about some of the new features that we can expect to see packed into Apple’s next major iOS release.

We’re expecting to see some significant new features and app changes in iOS 13, especially after Apple pushed off a lot of them from iOS 12 last in order to focus on performance and stability instead. While we’re sure Monday will still offer more than a few surprises, some leaked screenshots obtained by 9to5Mac‘s Guilherme Rambo offer another look into the long-rumoured iOS 13 Dark Mode, as well as our first look at Apple’s iOS 13 Reminders app, which is expected to see a significant update for the first time ever.

Dark Mode

Images of iOS 13’s new Dark Mode illustrate how it will look on the home screen and in various apps. Rambo notes that it can be easily toggled with an option in Control Center, or adjusted in the system-wide Settings app.

Rambo adds that the new mode doesn’t show any major changes on the Home Screen, simply darkening the background of the Dock in the lower section, although he speculates that Apple will offer some new wallpapers that work better with Dark Mode. However, in other apps such as Music, Apple appears to be using a “true black” background, which will look especially great on its OLED iPhone models, and could even improve battery life, since on an OLED screen black pixels are simply turned off entirely.

Reminders

The screenshots also include the first look we’ve seen at the significantly updated Reminders app that’s expected to arrive in iOS 13. The Reminders app has been largely ignored by Apple in the eight years since it made its debut in iOS 5, but it looks like that’s finally going to change, with the new version gaining some more sophisticated task management features.

The screenshot shows the Reminders app running on an iPad, where a new large sidebar can clearly be seen, with separate boxes for Today, Scheduled, Flagged, and All, suggesting that Apple will be improving upon the basic flat list design that the app has been using up until now. While there’s still no real insight into how this will actually work, the new categories imply that users will be able to organize reminders into priority action lists without having to resort to adding a scheduled alarm for each one.

While it’s almost certainly not going to come anywhere close to the powerful features of titans like OmniFocus and Things, these enhancements look like they will offer some nice additions to Apple’s built-in Reminders app, which we already think is a great option for those who just need a simple to-do list without burdensome complexity. If you’re the sort of user who has been having trouble finding the balance between complex apps like Things and the overly-simple built-in Reminders app, we’re cautiously optimistic that the iOS 13 update may come a lot closer to hitting that sweet spot.

Find My

We’ve already heard that Find My Friends and Find My iPhone will be joining forces in iOS 13, and it looks like the new app will simply be called Find My. The app appears to show a big map that will fill the entire screen of the device, with a small window in the corner that shows the user’s family and friends and devices, using different tabs. There have also been reports that Apple is working on Tile-like Bluetooth trackers that will integrate with the new app as well, but we’ve heard little else about that so far, and it’s unclear whether these will be announced on stage next week or may be part of a longer-term project.

[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]