Apple Announces All Awesome IOS 14 Features at WWDC 2020
Congratulations on the day of the Worldwide Developers Conference! In other words, “the day that Apple announces a lot of software products.” Apple talked about improvements to each of its platforms during today’s virtual keynote at WWDC 2020, and in this post we’ll focus on the latest version of iOS, iOS 14.
First, the details you care about the most: The official iOS 14 developer beta is available today. Regular people will be able to subscribe to the public beta next month, and iOS 14 itself will be released this fall. If you’ve followed Apple in the past few years, this should be the least unexpected announcement the company has made.
As for what you’ll find in iOS 14 …
Controlling too many apps you’ve installed on your iPhone
iOS 14 now has a completely new area at the end of the home screen pages that makes it much easier to organize a lot of apps. You’ll get auto-curated categories in this app library that highlight your best apps (but can be expanded to show all), as well as suggestions for apps you think you’ll want to use over others, and a special category for your most recently used applications.
What’s more, you can now also hide app pages so you can finally shrink your iPhone down to the two (or so) app pages you absolutely want to see – and dump everything else to your new App Library page. … Yes, and the App Library also has a search bar that also shows your apps in A-Z order when you click on it.
Say hello to small, medium or large widgets
Ah, widgets. It seems like every major operating system developer has dabbled in good old widgets, and they are now making their triumphant debut on iOS. However, I like the implementation for two reasons. First, you can resize widgets to get more data for what you care about most in your Today view.
More importantly, you can drag and drop widgets from Today right onto the pages of your iPhone. So if you really want to be able to play with your favorite music player, as soon as you unlock your iPhone, it will be there. And if you prefer the scrolling news feed, or the weather, or whatever, they’ll be there too.
Apple also introduced a new “Smart Stack” that looks like a universal widget. He will choose what he thinks is most relevant to you at any given moment, and you can scroll through the various widgets right there if you want to see something else.
Distract yourself with multitasking with Picture-in-Picture
I can never leave you Netflix / Hulu / Quibi / wherever you watch the video. Now, on iOS 14, I don’t need to. You will now be able to keep watching what you were watching by moving the video from your app to the new picture-in-picture box. You can resize the box by holding and dragging it anywhere on the iPhone screen. It will stick to your display while you switch between other apps – perfect if you’re trying to reply to chatty friends while watching your favorite show. You can even swipe your video and keep listening to audio if you temporarily need a full display for another app.
Siri will no longer eat up your whole damn screen
Virtual assistants are great, but I don’t need to see a giant black screen that says “How can I help you?” whenever i try to call Apple. The company seems to agree, as Siri will now only eat up a tiny fraction of the bottom half of your iPhone’s screen when you ask for help. Plus, Siri now handles dictation right on your device – a little more privacy for those concerned that what they’re saying might be live somewhere.
The same “compactness” applies to your telephone conversations! Goodbye giant answer-or-reject screen; hello nifty notification popping up from the corner of the screen.
Siri will also include the all-new Translate app, which supports 11 different languages (for now), works offline, and lets you launch “talk mode” in landscape orientation when you’re trying to talk to someone else.
Track your extensive conversations in Messages
As part of Apple’s Messages update, you can now pin your most important conversations to the Messages app — useful if you have more friends than me. (You do.) In these chats, you can reply to whatever anyone says, and entering a person’s name in the group will allow you to give them a “mention.” This is important because you can also mute overly chatty conversations, except when someone calls you by name.
In other words, messages have basically turned into my default Slack setting. And that’s great.
You’ll be able to assign unique images to conversations – again, for better control – and an icon-based list of all participants in a specified conversation, where each person’s icon size depends on how long they’ve participated (more = chatter) will appear at the top.
Oh, and since this is Apple, you now get even more Memoji: more hair styles and hats, the ever-important COVID-19 face masks, new age options, and new actinos for cuddling, punching, and blushing.
Apple Maps is better for battery-conscious bikers and EV drivers
Among the many tweaks Apple Maps is making, the app will now be packaged in dedicated, auto-updating guides to show you what you can do wherever you are (or want to go). If you, like me, have all sorts of anxiety trying to plan the best trip to a whole new location, this should help you get started with a few must-haves.
If you prefer to cycle where you are going instead of driving, the updated version of Apple Maps will now have a dedicated option for cycling routes. You will be able to see which routes are quieter or busier (and select accordingly), and Apple Maps will alert you when a specified route requires you to carry your bike somewhere or actually drag your butt down a vertical incline. In fact, now that the app is showing you how much altitude you’ve gained in a ride, you can decide, “No, the streets of San Francisco are not for me,” before even putting on your helmet.
Likewise, if you are the proud owner of a trendy electric vehicle, Apple Maps will now take into account your vehicle’s estimated range and suggest recharging stops along the way – with chargers compatible with your vehicle – whenever you plan to travel. Goodbye range worries. Now all you have to face is to think about how many people are going to take the charging station with them and turn your short trip into a full day trip.
Unlock the next car with your phone
Apple talked a little about CarPlay during its keynote, but its minor updates to the app pale in comparison to the feature everyone was expecting: digital car keys. If you have a car that supports this feature – spoiler: you don’t, as the 2021 BMW 5 Series will probably be the first to support this feature – you will be able to unlock and start your car simply by installing an NFC-enabled iPhone within reach.
More importantly, you can assign a car key to anyone, that is, any other iPhone owner. And you can restrict their access to your car in a variety of fun ways that your kids will surely love. Apple plans to support car cd keys in iOS 13 and iOS 14, which is great! All that’s missing is … lots of cars and / or some fancy way to integrate this setup into your aging, seven-year-old gas-guzzler.
Get the essentials from the app with App Clips
Since services , Apple will also debut with App Clips. These are small, fast apps that are less than 10MB in size and pop up whenever you need to use an app that you may not have downloaded on your iPhone. The App Clip can be accessed in any number of ways, including NFC tags, QR codes, web links, links in messages, links from maps, etc. They won’t clutter up your home screen, but you can shop (if you’re using Apple Pay) and quickly sign in (if you’re using Sign In with Apple) to experience the basic elements of the app. … And if you need the full version of the app, you can download it with just a few taps.
Basically, App Clips help you complete the simplest tasks – like renting one of those pesky scooters you see all over the sidewalk – without having to rummage through the App Store, wait for the full app to download over 4G, and try to memorize yours. credentials (or create new ones). And hey, it might even help you reduce the number of installed apps from 8 pages to … six (that is, until you take advantage of the aforementioned home screen organizational settings).
Data Privacy, Food Labeling & App Store
I’m surprised by this given how carefully Apple curates what developers can display on the App Store product page for their apps, but Apple will now require all apps to self-report their data collection practices. And a short list of the data that the developer collects, as well as the data that he shares with other companies, will be displayed directly on the product page of each application (if you scroll down a little to find it). While that won’t necessarily stop app developers from trying to find out everything and everything about each of their users – and many users probably won’t even notice this change – every little bit helps when it comes to data privacy.
Regarding this “nutritional value” label, it’s the metaphor Apple used to announce the new addition. You must know what is in your food; you also need to know what’s in your apps (as much as Apple or the developers are willing to share).