Apple has announced the new iOS 14 and it offers many new features. The new iOS version has adopted many well-known Android features and this may help to improve Apple’s market share in the smartphone industry.
- Widgets: Widgets of iOS 14 are redesigned and they continue to deliver useful amount of information. It is now possible to move widgets around feely and resize them across home screens. These widgets look inform and match the adjacent interface elements closely. This visual improvement makes them look more natural. Widget stacking is another useful feature that arrange widgets in a type of carousel.
- App Library: With App Library, it is easy to clean up and neatly organize homescreens. App Library sorts apps for you and it will be a huge time saver, even if there are hundreds of apps installed in your iPhone. It is now possible to look for an app by using the search widget. Apps can be sorted in alphabetical list to make it easy to find the one you need.
- Smaller incoming call screen: With previous iOS versions, incoming calls may cause quite an anxiety, because it occupies the whole display when you are doing something. With iOS 14, incoming calls are displayed at the top of the screen as a banner. Even if you flick the banner, you won’t hang up the call. But if you prefer the standard incoming call interface, you can still enable it.
- Picture-in-picture: Apple already introduced PiP feature starting from iOS 9, but it’s only for iPad. But with iOS 14, the feature is finally available for iPhone. It is now possible for iPhone users to check incoming email while watching YouTube. This ensures more seamless user experience and iPhone users will become more productive. Of course, it is arguable whether PiP is actually useful for iPhone users, because they have much smaller display. Even so, it is still quite helpful when users only open a couple of apps simultaneously on their screen.
- Messages: With iOS 14, Messages feel more like a full-fledged app with more polished edges. There are multiple settings that can make Messages more useful. Inline replies are a great feature that makes things more manageable in conversations with many people. Users can show more of their uniqueness and individuality by using custom thumbnail in group chats.
- Siri: The all-helpful voice assistant, Siri, has been improved with iOS 14 as well. The rather dated interface has been improved. It would be a nice change that makes using Siri feel better.
- Minor changes and improvements: For iPhone models that support Tap to Wake feature like iPhone X and 11 series, it is now possible to assign custom shortcut when double-tapping or triple-tapping. Stock iOS keyboard already offers plenty of emojis, but it’s hard to keep track of them. The iOS 14 comes with a brand-new search feature for emojis and users can find the one that matches their personal preference. Alarms can now be separated for different day. The Sound Recognizer feature is now more helpful because it will alert users if there is siren, smoke alarm, fire alarm, baby crying or water left running.
