While Apple Intelligence and the brilliance of Siri, visually and functionally, largely stole the show at Apple's WWDC 2024 keynote, mentions of improvements to Apple services were sprinkled throughout the presentations of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, watchOS 11, macOS Sequoia and tvOS. 18.
Things like the addition of hiking and walking routes in Maps or the fact that you'll be able to put your iPhones together to quickly and digitally send cash were also teased during the debut of tvOS 18. A redesign for Fitness was also revealed Plus and finally we have a little more information about it.
New ways to find classes
Coming to tvOS, as well as iOS and iPadOS, later in 2024, a redesigned Fitness Plus layout aims to help you find the perfect workout from a library full of thousands of options.
The list of exercise types (meditation, strength, HIIT, yoga, core, pilates, dance, kickboxing, cycling, treadmill, rowing and mindful cool down) will be replaced with new categories aimed at helping you find the right type of class, essentially. curating the experience a little more.
For you, Explore, Library, and Search, displayed as a simple magnifying glass icon, will be the new top bar in Fitness Plus. The first section, For You, will feature a few classes front and center, acting as a starting point based on previous workouts you've completed, but below that, you'll see additional options broken down by class type and duration. For example, if you do cycling, yoga, and rowing frequently, you'll likely see them in the mix.
Explore will display any content with a special theme based on the time of year or potentially a new Artist Spotlight series that has been released. You can also find new types of training and new classes. The last new tab, Library, is self-explanatory, but it will be a way to view all available classes and can be organized by workouts, your favorites, and any custom plans you've created. If you want to search for a class by instructor, workout type, or even music genre, you'll need to hit the search icon.
Of course, this new design will be front and center on tvOS or iPadOS, where Fitness Plus has its own app, but on the iPhone, you'll get this new experience within the “Fitness” app. Regardless of how you get this, this update is intended to allow you to find more classes and give you easier access to the instructors and types of classes you like.
In addition to the Fitness Plus improvements on Apple TV, tvOS is also introducing new screensavers that look a bit like an iPhone when in standby mode, a new improved dialogue feature that will reduce background sound and improve clarity of voices, as well as a new InSight mode that is quite similar to Amazon Prime Video's X-Ray functionality.
A Venmo replacement?
'Tap to Cash' on the iPhone could drive people away from Venmo or Zelle to make quick cash payments with the promise of being able to pay someone back or easily split a meal by putting two iPhones together. It looked pretty good when it was demonstrated during the keynote. You can select a cash amount and, like NameDrop for contact sharing, you can send an Apple Cash payment to a friend.
Another improvement is to see the rewards of a credit or debit card, as well as learn about installment plans within the Apple Play window when you check out. This should make it easier to make a payment at an online checkout. It also positions Apple Pay as a more convenient competitor to other point-of-sale systems.
