Apple’s latest software update will change your home screen, Siri, among other things. One of the most noticeable tweaks from this update is the Apple iOS 14 home screen. It brings a fresh look to your iPhone with an app library, improved Siri, and widgets on your home screen. We have made a list of all the features that have been revealed. We will discuss these features among other things.
Note that the Apple iOS 14 updates are also available on the iPad OS 14 update.
Get Your iOS 14 Download
iOS 14 supported devices are all the iPhones newer than iPhone 6S. For the iPad OS 14 updates, you need to have an iPad Air 2 or a model newer than that. Other iOS 14 supported devices for iPads are iPad Mini 4 or a model newer than that, iPad 5th gen or a model newer than that, and all the iPad Pro models.
Before we begin, we must advise you to back all your data up. You don’t want to regret it later.
Once that is done, simply open your Settings, then go to General, and click on Software Update. Once you tap on the option, your iPhone will automatically find the Apple iOS 14 update and start the process. If you have a strong wifi connection, it should not take more than a couple of minutes. Once the iOS 14 download is done, your iPhone will switch off and restart. This is also why you need to make sure that you are not on an important call or something when you update your iPhone.
Another piece of advice is that you should wait a couple of days before initiating the Apple iOS 14 update. Historically, Apple updates have had bug issues.
What Are The iOS 14 New Features?
App Library
iOS 14 home screen has changed the game for how we organize our apps. This app library will let you categorize apps into different libraries such as the Entertainment library, Productivity library, Social library. This means that you won’t have to waste your time looking for a specific app on an endless list of apps. This iOS 14 new feature is slightly similar to Android’s app drawer. However, because of the library system, it seems to be more efficient.
The libraries will appear in folders, the top two folders will be your Suggested and Recent Apps. Apple iOS 14 uses artificial intelligence to understand how you use your phone and what kinds of apps you are most interested in. Through this creative algorithm, your iPhone will recommend apps that you would like to use next through the Suggested Apps folder. The Recent App folder will show you which apps Emily has recently used and/or installed. In addition to all that, this latest software update also gives you a search bar at the top of your iPhone home screen, which will make your device much more efficient.
Widgets
In this section, we’ll focus on some specific features, arguably the cornerstone features of Apple iOS 14. The brand-new operating system has majorly focused on home screen redesign. You are allowed a lot more customization in terms of widgets than in previous Apple operating system devices.
Currently the section of widgets is limited to what Apple has to provide but potentially in the future, they could open it up for developers to add widgets for their own apps. Nevertheless, let’s dive into what Apple has to offer.
Up till now, Apple’s widgets were only limited to the Today View center available when you swipe left on your home screen. But now, you can pull out widgets on to your Apple iOS14 home screen as well similar to Android devices. Apple has installed widgets for its default apps like Weather, Calendar, and Stocks, Apple News and Screen Time.
How To Access Widgets On Apple iOS 14
All the widgets are stored in the ‘Widgets Gallery’ section. To access the widgets on your device, long press the device’s display and select ‘Edit Home Screen’. Next tap on the ‘+’ sign. You’ll see a widget section pop up from below. You can drag out any preferable widget from that section and place it alongside your app icons on your iOS 14 home screen.
Widget Sizes
You can access the widgets in varying sizes according to your preference. The sizes range from small to large. Each widget has its own information density. For instance, if you set the small version of Apple News, you’ll see only one story at a time but the large version displays three.
Widget Stacks
This feature allows you to make the most of your space. In your new Apple iOS 14 device, you can stack one widget on top of another to save space. Swipe to swap between your widgets to access them.
The Smart Stack Widget
Don’t be confused; this is different. This is the one that was demoed by Apple on stage. Smart Stack uses machine learning to intelligently suggest different widgets to you based on the time of the day. It’s dynamic and it keeps changing. So, if you’ve stacked up the Calendar widget, Apple News and Maps, Smart Stack can show you some headlines in the morning, events in your Calendar during the evening and so on.
Siri Suggestion Widget
With the help of this widget, you can get Siri’s suggestions on a daily basis. The suggestions improve as they learn your habit more and more as it utilizes on-device intelligence to customize and offer suggestions on the basis of what you generally do on your device. So, let’s say you listen to music on a particular time of the day, Siri Suggestions will suggest podcasts during that time of the day.
Picture-In-Picture Mode
Those olden days when you couldn’t switch to another app while watching a film on your iPhone or while on a FaceTime is over. The picture-in-picture mode is also among one of the key Apple iOS 14 new features. With this new feature, you don’t need to hit pause while watching a movie. It’s high time that Apple included this feature as Android users have enjoyed this feature on their devices for a long time.
Now the all-new Apple iOS 14 also allows you to have a floating screen on top of any other app that you choose to use simultaneously. The video you were watching or your FaceTime call will appear at the corner of your device screen while you operate other apps like messaging etc.
There are several customization options available to this feature as well. For example, you can relocate it to your convenient location on the screen so that, if any part of the screen gets covered, you can remove the floating screen and place it somewhere else according to your convenience.
You can also choose to resize it or control the playback video. For example, you can have a floating screen and keep the video playing with audio while you’re working on some other app on your iPhone.
Siri Gets A Revamp
Siri gets a new look with the new iOS 14 download. The new Siri doesn’t take up space on your screen like before. Instead, on iOS 14 devices, Siri appears at the bottom of the screen with a small animated Siri logo. You can ask a question to Siri and you’ll find the answer at the top banner of your screen. So, it doesn’t interfere with your tasks any more. Another thing: Siri is smarter than before! It can send audio messages on Apple’s messaging app and has better research abilities.
Translate App
Apple didn’t have a standalone translate app till iOS 13. It had incorporated the translate feature into Siri in iOS 13 but the translate app is a new feature in the Apple iOS 14. Though the core function remains the same, Siri’s accuracy and abilities have been expanded. iOS 14 supports 11 languages at the present. There are some additional features listed out below.
· Additional Dictionary: there’s an additional dictionary feature in case you need to know the meaning of any translated word.
· On-device Mode: this allows you to keep the text and translations private.
· Conversation Mode: once you turn your phone into the landscape mode, you can avail this. In this, you iPhone listens to both the speaking parties and quickly translates whichever one is being spoken. This is a huge help when in the midst of conversations.
· Attention Mode: For easy reading, you can enlarge the translated text using this feature.
· You can also download other languages for translation purposes without internet connection.
Messages Improvements
In Apple iOS 14 supported devices, the default messaging app comes with new and interesting updates. Starting from the ability to customize groups chats with photos, or emojis to filtering your messages-list, you have a lot of improvements to shuffle through.
Pinned Chats
Now, you can pin your important conversations to the top of the messaging app. Swipe right to pin. This way, important conversations will be easily accessible to you. You can pin up to nine conversations.
Inline Replies
We’re aware of this feature in social media messaging apps. However, Apple iOS 14 brings to you the ability to reply to a particular message directly, especially convenient in group conversations.
Mentions
You can address a particular person by adding @mentionname in a conversation. If your group chat is muted and someone mentions you, you’ll immediately receive a notification.
Memoji
Last but not the least, you also have revamped memoji designs with new stickers with masks and face coverings and so on in your Apple iOS 14.
Maps And CarPlay Updates
Maps are largely the same but there are few specific changes that come with iOS 14 devices. Only last year, Apple had introduced the revamped version of Apple Maps. Now, it’s available in 3 new countries namely Ireland, the UK and Canada.
Apple is currently working on travel guides that it wishes to integrate in iOS 14 compatible devices. Apple is collaborating with trusted brands to design and provide you with a recommended list of places to eat, visit or shop in various cities.
The newer Maps include detailed roads, parks, buildings, airports and so on. It can also provide congestion estimates in busy zones of the cities and find you suitable alternatives. In addition to this, Apple Maps now inform you when you’re nearing a red-light or approaching a speed sensor. You also have cycling navigations in your Apple iOS 14 iPhone now. It’s available only in a few cities as of now but Apple is working to expand it to other cities as well.
Apple has also included EV Routing for electric vehicles that provides you helpful information like charging stations, elevation, temperature and so on.
CarPlay features include the ability to unlock your car with your iPhone with the help of NFC technology. You can even share your car key with others via iMessage and also restrict driver profiles like top speed, acceleration, and so on to prevent misuse. If you lose your iPhone you can turn these off remotely using iCloud.
However, it will take a long time before this feature becomes widely accessible. Till now, the only car that can access this Apple iOS 14 feature, is the upcoming 2021 BMW 5 Series.
App Clips
App Clips are 10 mb or less sized clips of apps that you can use on a one-off basis. This feature doesn’t make you install the entire app for you to use it. As the name suggests, these are clips that pop up from the bottom of your device’s screen according to your usage. These are lightweight app clips that help you do one-off tasks smoothly without taking up your storage space.
iPadOS Gets Scribble
it’s time to be independent of your virtual keyboard. With the Apple iOS 14, you can turn your handwriting into text. For this, all you need is an Apple Pencil. There is a Smart Selection toolbox as well for you to choose your handwriting and a Shape Recognition feature that perfects your handwriting. It’s handy and neat and super helpful when you’re making diagrams and so on.
Other App Updates for Apple iOS 14
The release of the Apple iOS 14 ensured that many of the apps built-in the device also got a few interesting updates.
Camera
1. The speed at which a photo can be clicked has been increased by 90%. The frame per second ratio is 4, with a portrait shot to shot going in at 15% faster, while time to first shot is simply 25% faster.
2. The Apple iOS 14 also brought out a toggle called ‘Prioritize faster shooting’ which can be accessed from the Settings App. This update allows the image quality to adept as the shutter is pressed repeatedly.
3. iPhone XS, XR, and XS Max will feature QuickTake which can be used to shoot fast and short videos.
4. The video mode, when utilized from the Camera App will allow the user to toggle the video resolution as well as the frame rate.
5. Apple iOS 14 has also made it available for users to check out a new guidance indicator when using Night Mode. This will help the user hold the camera with steady hands.
6. If one were to use Preserve settings, the value for exposure compensation could be locked for the entire session the camera would be used. This would help prevent the settings to get rest after every shot.
7. If you want to take burst photos, all you need to do is press the Volume Up button.
8. But, if you pressed the Volume Down button, you would be able to take a QuickTake video.
9. The new Apple iOS 14 has made the camera much more capable of scanning QR codes, regardless of whether they are legible or not.
10. The setting also allows for a ‘Mirror Front Camera’ that will help you take mirrored selfies – ones that reflex the images as is seen through the front camera.
Facetime
1. The Apple iOS 13 had briefly brought out the Attention Correction update, and the Apple iOS 14 has brought out a much more developed version of that. The name has been changed to ‘Eye Contact’. This feature makes Facetime seem almost natural by letting two people create eye contact while talking.
2. The Apple iOS 14 allows for much better video quality for Facetime. It is being expected that most devices would actually support 1080p Facetime calls- if they are iOS 14 supported devices.
3. The newest update of Apple iOS 14 would allow the picture in picture mode. This means that you could be doing something else whilst chatting with the person simultaneously.
4. Apple iOS 14 would also enable sign language users in a big way. If there was a group chat taking place, the person communicating through sign language would have their tile highlighted.
Shortcuts
1. The updates from Apple iOS 14 help shortcuts suggest automation that would be based directly on how you use your iPhone. This will make it quite simple for you to actually find shortcuts that work.
2. The update for shortcuts app would now support folders, which would also allow for a much better shortcut organization.
3. In the event you are utilizing a shortcut from the app directly, you would find the shortcut in a much more compact design- which usually takes less space on the screen.
4. There are newer triggers for several functions- receiving emails, activating sleep mode, checking up on the battery level, or closing an app.
5. Some triggers like Time of Day would be running without the confirmation from the user.
6. You can also customize shortcut automation. All you need to do is make sure that they are toggled on and off by the opening or closing of an app.
7. The new Apple iOS 14 would also help you with your sleep- the Wind Down shortcut tracking your REM sleep to ensure you are getting your daily quota.
Files
Apple iOS 14 has files that would be supporting external devices, even if they are using APFS encryption. All you need to do is put in the password that would help you access the contents of the drive- after it is connected to your device.
Music
1. A few things have changed under the Apple iOS 14- the icon being the foremost. Also, there have been certain colors along with design changes which the user would probably find interesting.
2. What was once the ‘For You’ tab, has now been renamed the Listen Now. It is your one-stop location to search for newer music, playlists, artists, and mixes.
3. The search option has been considerably improved upon- with search coming up with music divided by mood, genre, activity, all the while providing suggestions.
4. Apple iOS 14 has updated Apple Music so as to play similar songs once the song you have listened to gets over.
5. The Library has been filtered properly- making it easier for users to locate albums, and artists specifically.
6. There is also a highly intricate artwork that is animated- which comes in the Listen Now section. This feature can be disabled at will.
Photos
1. Apple iOS 14’s update has ensured that iOS photos support the editing and viewing of captions. This will help one get a context to the photos that they are viewing.
2. Any photo can be filtered by using the parameters such as photos, edited, favorites, and others.
3. You can now sort any album by simply selection either the newest or the oldest first.
4. You can also remove the album that stays ‘hidden’ from the list of Albums by checking out the Settings App.
5. Live Photos will be rendered with improved stabilization when taken with iOS 14 and iPadOS.
6. The zoom has undergone a massive update- allowing you to zoom in further to check out photos on the new Apple iOS 14.
Podcasts
1. There is a new feature called Up Next which would help you resume your podcast from where you left it last time.
2. This would also help you discover newer and recommended podcasts.
Reminders
1. You can now share your reminders with people who would then share lists- reducing the workload, under the Apple iOS 14.
2. You can create any reminder from the Lists screen- completely needless to tap any specific list.
3. Apple iOS 14 would now be using past reminders to create newer reminders- recommending dates, locations, and times.
The newest updates from the Apple iOS 14 will really make it quite simple for users to scroll through their phones. The bugs have been fixed, and several updates have been installed in the built-in apps which goes perfectly with Apple’s motto of consumer satisfaction.
