Apple announces iOS 14 with features like home widgets and more
Home Screen Adjustments
iOS 14 introduces a new way to explore the home screen for the first time since its launch in 2007. Alongside the traditional grid view for apps, users can now choose a list view for applications, making it easy to find your favourite apps, with alphabetical ordering and grouping.
This new view has been named the ‘App Library’, aggregating apps into a cohesive and ordered way. You can also zoom out and see all your app pages on the screen at the same time. Using AI, Siri can also offer you app suggestions within the app library.
Alongside this new view for the home-screen, iOS 14 introduces widgets. They are app-specific and also dynamic, showing new information at a glance on the home screen. You can also change the size of them, choosing to have them full width or only half width. The widgets can be dragged onto the home screen by dragging and dropping the widget and dropping it onto the home screen.
Picture in Picture mode for iPhone
Videos on iPad have been able to continue playing as you browse other apps on the screen. However, iOS 14 has moved this functionality to iOS on the iPhone.
Siri
Siri has been completely redesigned, with a brand new compact design that doesn’t use the full page. When you summon Siri in iOS 14, a new bubble will pop onto the screen at the bottom, and no longer obscures the app that you are using. Siri has also been expanded to translate all new languages from around the world.
Along with this, iOS 14 has a new app called Translate, that uses the Neural Engine and Siri technology to translate in real time, using dictation.
Messages
iOS 14 has introduced new conversations in Messages, being able to pin contacts and also pin messages that you want to go back to later. Memoji has been enhanced, with new-age options for the first time, and a more expanded custom options.
In group messages, there is a new in-line reply UI, and for the first time iMessage has mentions, so you can notify only one or some of the group that you are in, by mentioning them. Lastly, you can customise groups with new group images or group emojis.
Maps
Apple has announced that they are bringing their new map first introduced last year, to the UK, and to five other countries later this year. It is a completely rebuilt map from the ground up, showing much richer and detailed information.
The new maps will also include guides to landmarks and businesses on the map, so if a location has a guide, you can read an in-depth description and review of the location.
Cycling has been added to the maps app, so you can explore dedicated cycle routes, with features such as stainless routes and more. It is starting the US first and will be rolling out wider in the near future. If you an electric car, maps will show you charging stations and dedicated routes that cater to electric vehicles.
Congestion and Green zones imposed by cities around the world will be added to maps, including the congestion zone in London, Paris, and more.
CarPlay
CarPlay has new wallpaper options, bringing to an end the black only background of the home screen. Apple has also shown off a new ‘digital car key’. The key will be within the phone, secured in the secure element of the iPhone. You can also share keys to people you know, and also choose how much access they have to your car. They showed the first car to adopt this being the 2021 BMW. This feature will also be available on iOS 13 too.
App Store
iOS 14 shows a brand new way of discovering apps with App Clip. It is a short preview of an app, even if the app is not on your phone. If you are somewhere or on a website that supports App Clip, a card pops up offering the shortcut options that the App Clip offers. They support Apple Pay and more and can be found in the suggested section of the App Library. NFC points and QR codes are used in the wild, to access App Clips, but Apple has shown off their own ‘App Clip Codes’ that make it faster to find App Clips around you.