On Monday Apple hosted their Annual WWDC Keynote where they revealed the latest update to the worlds best mobile operating system with iOS 14. Since the announcement I’ve been doing some research on the latest for it as well as exploring the OS on my iPhone so here’s my thoughts.
Redesigned Home screen
One of the most noticeable new changes is the ability to add widgets to you home screen. Obviously this is a feature Android has had for years and some might say its an overdue feature but personally I think Apple is right waiting to get the design right.
It’s nice being able to easily see my Activity (Sorry Fitness) Rings as well as being able to see the current temperature. I think it would be nice if I could make a little smaller so that it would show just the current temperature like Apple Watch Complications. The one which you see on my bottom right displaying music is actually a “Smart Stack” which you can flick through and see your important information quickly. It can also do “Smart Rotate” which will go to what your iPhone is most relevant to you at the time.
Swiping right on your last home screen now brings up a new “App Library” screen. The App Library will automatically put all your apps in to folders based on w
hat they do. Recently added Apps will be displayed on the top right and you can easily scroll through all the apps by pressing the search button at the top. Looking at my social folder you can see Three big icons and 4 smaller ones. The three big ones will launch straight away and are what I use the most out of these apps. Press the 4 smaller ones opens up the folder.
Being able to see all this information on my home screen is neat new feature and has been requested by many over the years.
Siri
Siri UI has been completely redesigned, no longer taking up the whole screen. A small Siri icon will appear on the bottom of the screen when Siri is summoned and then all the information you require will show up like a notification on the top of the screen. On their website Apple have let us know that Siri has 20x more facts than just three years ago. I imagine this is to show all the Siri Haters that it isn’t useless.
Siri can now also Translate some select languages and there’s even a new Translate app with some cool features like holding conversation favourites, a conversation mode which can make conversations easier and a way of enlarging text full screen and bright to get somebody’s attention. As always with Apple, Privacy is taken into full account here and I’m sure this new translate app will take some people away from Google Translate.
Looking at the smaller things not announced but are cool
Health (Health Checklist)
Now you can make sure that all your information is up to date as well as being able to check that all the correct settings are on easily with this new Health Checklist in the health app. The health app will remind you to check your settings every so often.
Apple Music (Listen Now)
Apple Music got a surprising amount of cool updates that just weren’t mentioned in the keynote, including a new “Listen now” screen which which shows things like New music for you, your For you playlists and things on your heavy rotation. Some smaller changes were made to the service too including things like an auto play feature where Apple Music will start playing some music it thinks your like when an album or playlist has finished. (And if you don’t like that sort of thing its as easy to turn off as turning shuffle off.)
App Store (Game Center)
Yes the Game Center is back… well sort. It still doesn’t have its own app back but is now in the App Store and like before you can view all your game achievements. Add friends and more.
The Really Small Things
FaceTime – Remember last year they announced eye tracking so that it looked your eyes were looking at the camera and not the screen but then it was removed. Well it’s back.
Settings – Passwords now show as a main setting in the app making it easy to get to all your stored passwords.
Activity – It’s now called Fitness and I don’t like it.
Privacy Icon – A smaller icon is shown when your microphone or camera is in use and when it’s just been used your see what app used it displayed in the control centre.
New Mobility in Health – Using the Apple Watch now it can work out all sorts of new metrics like your step length.
There’s so many more really cool features on this Jam packed iOS 14 that you could be reading all day. I 100% don’t recommend updating yet if you manage to do it as it is the first Beta so there is potential for major bugs but when the update comes out in September you should absolutely update.
I’ll be covering more WWDC news this week, Follow me on twitter here for more news and if you have questions.
Thanks for reading
Kyle Wilkinson
WWDC 2020, Read more*1
WWDC 2020 - A Summary
iOS 14, First looks.
WatchOS 7, First Looks.
[1] All links are shortened using "Short URL" which you can access their main site here https://www.shorturl.at
[2] Screenshots are taken on an iPhone X running iOS 14 Developer Beta 1, Some features may change on the public release of iOS 14.
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