With the Apple WWDC20 keynote, Apple announced iOS 14 with new ways of customizing your Home Screen, finding and using App Clips, and keep connected in Messages. Apple has the biggest improvement for Home Screen and redesigns the widgets and App Library.
Watch the full keynote here: Apple WWDC 2020: What You Expect
Home Screen and Widgets
The new Home Screen and redesigned widgets can be pinned in three different sizes like small, medium, and large on any Home Screen page. In iOS 14 users can now create a Smart Stack of widgets.
App Library
Home Screen pages can be Stack and display customized widgets like work, travel, sports, entertainment, and end of the home screen you will see App Library organize all of users apps into simple view, easy to navigate. All of your apps will sort by category and most-used apps. It keeps it in one place with a simple tap to access. Users can now choose how many home screen pages want to display, and users can hide the pages and access them to the App Library.
Compact Calls
Are you tired of the iPhone full screen of calls, Apple now makes it easy for you with compact calls. Whenever users receive calls it appears as just like notification.
Picture in Picture
After a long time to wait for this feature for iPhone users, its now available in the iOS 14. It allows users to keep watching movies or videos while you can do your other works. It is very simple, you can resize the window, and all controls you can access.
Messages
Everyone loves the Message app especially when you have an Apple device. With the iOS 14 things go beyond because Apple has introduced a new feature in Message App and everyone likes it. So all of we know Messages keep connected family and friends conversation and Groups.
Apple iOS 14 has to introduce new Pinned conversations with up to nine of your most recent conversations. It will help to access it quickly and simply by tapping the icon.
The new Group photos give your group conversation with a visual identity by adding photos or Memoji, and also you can choose emoji.
The brand new Mentions features in iOS 14 allow users to type a name and send a direct message to someone who has mentioned in the message. The name you mentioned in the message, will be highlighted in blue color. You can also customize the active group so it will easily receive an only notification when you mentioned there.
Inline replies allow you to reply directly to a specific message in a group conversation. And you can view replies in the full conversation or as their own thread for a more focused view.
New Memoji styles and stickers: The new iOS 14 has a new-age option and face-covering masks. There are 20 new hair and headwear styles available and three new Memoji stickers include a hug, fist bump, and blush.
Maps
Maps is the best way to navigate and explore the world by keeping all of your privacy. With the new iOS 14, Apple has built new features in Apple Maps including Cycling directions, Electric vehicle routing, and guides.
Cycling directions
Starting with the Cycling directions, Apple has dedicated cycling options in Apple Maps allows users to ride their bike along bike lanes, paths, and roads. Maps take elevation into account to let you know if you’re in for a challenging uphill workout or a leisurely flat ride. You can also see if your route includes quiet or busy roads. So you can now use maps to get cycling directions using bike lanes, paths, and roads. Apple has adding Cycling mode in several cities including New York City, LA, the San Francisco Bay Area, along with a number of cities in China like Shanghai and Beijing. And Apple also has plans to add many more countries in the coming months.
EV vehicle routing
Now with Electric vehicle routing (EV routing), If you have an electric car, Maps is going to help eliminate range anxiety with iOS 14. Maps will track your current charge and factor in things like elevation and weather to automatically add charging stops along your route. And Maps will know which type of charger works for your car, making sure to only route you to compatible stations. Apple is working with a number of manufacturers to support EV routing in vehicles. In the WWDC20 keynote, Apple has introduced the EV routing feature in BMW and Ford. Apple also planning for adding this feature to many more cars in the future.
CarPlay
CarPlay has transformed the driving experience for iPhone owners by being the smarter, safer way to use the apps you love in your car. CarPlay is everywhere, and it’s incredibly popular. Apple says, in the US every new car has a CarPlay and people also love CarPlay.
In CarPlay, iOS 14 has a new wallpaper option in the CarPlay, and also added a new category of CarPlay apps like parking, EV routing, and quick food ordering.
Now you can forget or leave your car keys in the home, because of the new iOS 14 you can unlock and start the car with your iPhone. The first car to support this will the brand new BMW 5 Series model 540i. It is very simple to use because it uses NFC, all you need to just tap unlock. And you have to place your phone on the charging pad and then push to start.
Now iPhone has your digital keys and they also have security benefits. They live in the Secure Element of your iPhone, and if it goes missing, you can turn off your keys remotely via iCloud. They’re even easier to share than a physical key. Copies don’t involve trips to the dealership. And you can share from wherever you are with iMessage. With each key you have been share, you can set options like restrict driving profile.
Apple has adding this feature in iOS 13, but it requires at least iOS 13.6 update.
App Clips
App Clips is a smart part of the app and it is simple and fast to experience designed to the discovered moment whenever it needed. App Clips has less than 10 MB in size. App Clips work with both visually and NFC.
Translate
Translate is easy to use for conversation and it will work completely offline, and Apple says it keeps your conversations private. Translate uses Machine Learning and Neural Engine for advanced integration. You can translate text or voice with 11 different languages. Just tap on the microphone icon and it will translate voice. It will support landscape mode, so you can view side-by-side easily. You can save the translation in the Favorites tab so you can access it later, and also view your recent history. The new Attention mode allows us to enlarge the translated text in landscape mode and make it easy to read.
Siri
Now comes to Siri, it has several new feature update for Siri. Whenever you use Siri it will use the full screen of your iPhone. So with the iOS 14, Siri has redesign with a new compact design. For example, if you say, “Open Safari,” Siri pops up at the bottom of the screen and instantly launches the app. Or if you ask for information, like the weather, results appear at the top of the screen just like a notification.
This year, you can now ask Siri to send an audio message, and Siri will start recording. This is great when you really want to have the emotion of your voice come through. Another popular way to send messages with your voice is by using dictation. Keyboard Dictation uses the same speech recognition as Siri. When communicating with someone in another language, Siri can help with translations.
Home
In iOS 14, after you add an accessory, the Home app will suggest useful automation so you can immediately put your new device to work for you. Automations are rules that set your home to autopilot, like automatically turning on your porch lights when motion is detected or having the garage door open as you arrive home. And now when you open the Home app, you’ll see a new visual status right up top that prioritizes the accessories which most need your attention. You can easily see if you’ve left a door unlocked or the lights on and quickly control them.
In iOS 14, in HomeKit, the new Adaptive lighting automatically adjusts the color temperature of your lights throughout the day. Turn it on to ease into the morning with warm colors, stay focused and alert midday with cooler ones, and wind down at night by reducing blue light. Adaptive lighting ensures you get the right color at the right time.
In the HomeKit, there is a another smart home category for cameras. HomeKit will secure video of your cameras and it will be completely private. You’ll be able to define Activity Zones that focus on the most important areas. This is great if you face a busy sidewalk and only want to be alerted when people actually walk up to your front door.
Another powerful feature we’re bringing to cameras is face recognition. HomeKit cameras and video doorbells will now provide even richer notifications, telling you who’s there by leveraging the friends and family you’ve already tagged in your Photos app.
Safari
Web browsing is supposed to feel quick, powerful, and private. So Safari is more responsive and capable than ever with iOS 14 while giving you new ways to protect your privacy. Safari can now translate websites in seven different languages. When you come to a website that Safari can translate, an icon appears. Just tap and read.
And this year Apple wants to give more visibility to users to how each site they visit tries to track them and the ways that Safari protects them. Users can click on the Privacy Report button in the toolbar when they visit a site to better understand how that site is treating their privacy. In addition to monitoring unwanted tracking, Safari now also securely monitors your saved passwords to ensure that they haven’t been compromised in a data breach.
AirPods
There are some amazing updates for AirPods too. starting with Automatic Switching. AirPods will now seamlessly move between your devices without you having to manually switch them. “Eg. you just finished listening to a podcast and you pick up your iPad to watch a show. AirPods will magically switch over. And later you start a video conference on your Mac. AirPods will automatically switch again. And if a phone call comes in, the audio in your AirPods will route right back to your phone.”
And here are the biggest update for AirPods Pro is “Spatial Audio”. It is like a movie theater surround sound system one where the sound not only comes from in front of you, but also from the left, the right, behind, and even from above you. So the new advanced spatial audio algorithms for AirPods Pro that replicate the movie theater experience. By applying directional audio filters and subtly adjusting the frequencies each ear receives, it can place sounds virtually anywhere in space, creating an immersive surround sound experience.
“First, people move their heads. For an authentic surround sound experience, you need the sound field to stay fixed so the voice feels like it’s coming from the actor and not some random point in space. So we use the accelerometer and gyroscopes in AirPods Pro to track the motion of your head, remapping the sound field so it stays anchored to your device, even as your head moves. And it’s not only your head that can move, but you might move your iPad or iPhone as well. That’s why we constantly compare the motion data from your head and your screen to understand how they are moving in relation to each other. So if your bus turns the corner or your plane banks, the sound stays in sync. The result is a surround sound experience that keeps you in the middle of the action, no matter where you go.”
Spatial audio for AirPods Pro will work with content encoded in 5.1, 7.1, and even Dolby Atmos.
