Finally, the Apple WWDC 2020 event has commenced and we have got exciting announcements on several new features and improvements along with iOS 14 release. Here is an overview on the highlights of the first day event.
Home Screen:
We can easily group our Apps by using a new feature called App library. In the App Library, apps are organised by using the App category. A search field in the App library makes the search easy to find the apps. Also, we can hide the unused pages/screens from the Home screen.
On-device intelligence will show suggestions for quick access to the app along with recently accessed apps or app clips.
Home Screen
Widgets:
Widgets on iOS 14 became more informative, data-rich, interactive, and easy of use. Earlier, the widget could be added only on Today’s screen, but now we can add the widget in both Today’s screen and Home screen. On-device intelligence helps to show the right widget at the right time. We can resize the widget in three different sizes based on our needs and can drag the widget to the required place.
We can even group the widgets based on our needs. iOS will show the right widget at the right time which is called a smart stack. We can swipe/scroll the widgets in the stack at any time.
Widget
Picture in Picture:
We can watch the video even when doing other activities like taking notes and chatting with friends by using Picture in Picture. We can drag the picture in picture video to any part of the screen. We can pinch the video to zoom in or zoom out and also swipe and hide the video to access the full screen of the app, at the same time, the audio will still be playing.
Picture in Picture
Some significant updates have been released for the existing features mentioned below,
- Siri
- Messages
- Car Play
- App Store
Siri:
Earlier, Siri would show the results in full-screen mode, and it has improved a lot in iOS 14 for better user experiences. Opening an app, via Siri is smooth and fast. For other kinds of stuff like taking notes, sending messages it displays like a popover view, and it is easy for us to use without blocking the main content we are already working with. Now, Siri supports sending an audio recorded message in the messages app. Also, some additional languages are added in translation.
Siri
Messages:
Now we can pin the conversations for easy access. New memojis with greater looks and age options are added. In the group messages, it’s never been easier to continue the conversations because of some new messages. Now, we have inline replies where we can reply for a specific message as like in Slack.
Messages
Maps:
Many great features were added in the Map for the past few years. Now, the map is rebuilt from the ground-up. The new map gets roll out by this year across the US with new detailed features, navigation, roads, paths, and more. The map is now built with more accurate information on places. Apple partners with brand companies to give some proper guide for the places. We can save this guide for the later use and the guide will be updated whenever pieces of information are updated. The cycling path is also introduced, now we can choose the best path for cycling. Users can also filter the path to avoid stairs. EV routing is introduced where users can choose the EV route when traveling in an electric car.
Maps
Car Play:
New features that are added to CarPlay with iOS 14 release are Parking, EV charger, and Quick food. Instead of a physical car key, a digitalised car key is introduced. Now we can start/unlock our car by using iPhone. The first car supported for this key is the 2020 BMW 5 series. It uses NFC to unlock the car. We can also share our key to our friends with some restrictions like driving speed, etc. This feature is also available on iOS 13.
Expecting this feature to be available in all cars soon 🙂
Car Play
App Store:
Sometimes we might not have an app installed in our device when needed for quick one time access, so we have to download the app for single time purpose and delete after use. To solve this problem, Apple has introduced a feature called App clips. App clips are lightweight and fast to do things quickly. It is mainly designed to speed up the user experience. We can have an option to download the full app from the App clips sheet right after the user is done with their need. We can open the App clips using NFC tags or scanning QR codes. The standard way to inform the user that the App clip is available for the app is using a dedicatedly designed App Clip Code.
App Clip
In the blog, we have just seen an overview of the new features released in iOS 14, and in our upcoming blogs, we can see the technical and development part of each item.