Apple iOS 14 released in September
The Widgets have been totally redesigned to give you more information at a glance — and now you can add them to your Home Screen, something Android has been able to do for years.
Although apple has madie it so you can add a Smart Stack of widgets intelligently curated based on the apps you use most, and the right widget will show up automatically at the right time in your day.
Apps are now sorted automatically by category which gives a similar look to creating folders which android has had for years.
FaceTime calls, and third party apps can now display in an all new compact view that doesn’t take up the full screen.
One improvement I think Android could have, is the translate options quite easily operated like in apple ios.
With a new visual status, the Home app prioritizes the items that most need your attention and allows you to easily control them.
CarPlay now has the ability to unlock and start your car with iPhone.
Widgets have been redesigned to be more beautiful and data rich, so they can provide even more utility throughout your day.
Redesigned Apple widgets for Weather, Clock, Calendar, News, Maps, Fitness, Photos, Reminders, Stocks, Music, TV, Tips, Notes, Shortcuts, Battery, Screen Time, Files, Podcasts, and Siri Suggestions.
Place widgets anywhere on the Home Screen for information at a glance. Perfect for tracking your commute, activity, Calendar events, or News stories.
Widgets now come in small, medium, and large sizes so you can pick the amount of information that’s right for you.
The central place for all your widgets from Apple and third parties. The gallery shows the top widgets based on what users are installing and using most.
You can create stacks of up to 10 widgets to make the most of the space on your Home Screen. Drag one widget on top of another and swipe through them.
In the widget gallery, you can select the Smart Stack, a set of widgets you can swipe through that uses on-device intelligence to surface the right widget at the right time based on factors like time, location, and activity. For example, you might see the Apple News widget in the morning, Calendar events during the day, and commute time from Apple Maps in the evening.
The Siri Suggestions widget uses on-device intelligence to show actions you might take based on your usage patterns, such as ordering a coffee or starting a podcast. Tap the suggestion to perform the action without launching the app.
Developers can create their own widgets using a new API that lets them take advantage of the redesigned widgets, including the ability to put them on the Home Screen and show them at the right time.
The App Library is a new space at the end of your Home Screen pages that automatically organizes all of your apps into one simple, easy‑to‑navigate view.
All of the apps on your iPhone are automatically sorted into categories such as Social, Productivity, and Entertainment. Categories intelligently reorder based on app use.
The App Library shows suggested apps you’re likely to be looking for based on usage such as time, location, or activity.
Use the search bar at the top of the App Library to quickly find the app you’re looking for. When you tap Search, apps can be displayed alphabetically, making them easy to scroll through and find.
You can hide pages to streamline your Home Screen, making it easy to get to the App Library. New apps downloaded from the App Store automatically go into the App Library.
App Clips that were recently launched and apps downloaded from the App Store appear in the App Library, making them easy to find.
When you receive a call, it appears as a banner instead of taking over the entire screen, so you won’t lose track of what you’re doing. Swipe up on the banner to dismiss it or swipe down to access extended phone features and tap to answer.
A developer API is available so that apps like Skype can support compact incoming calls.
When you receive a FaceTime call, it appears as a banner instead of taking over the entire screen. Swipe up on the banner to dismiss it or swipe down to access extended FaceTime features.
Siri has an all-new compact design that allows you to refer to information onscreen and seamlessly launch into your next task. As you start a request, Siri pops up at the bottom of the screen. When Siri has a result for you, it appears at the top of the screen like a notification. Results have been updated to give you just the information you need in a new compact layout.
You can now continue watching a video or taking a FaceTime call while you use another app. Perfect for having a video call with a friend while you find a time to meet or catching up on a TV show while checking your email.
You can resize the Picture in Picture window by pinching the video to make it bigger or smaller.
Put the video window in any corner of the screen by simply dragging it.
Minimize the video window by moving it offscreen, giving you full access to an app while continuing to listen to the audio.
The most relevant results, including apps, contacts, knowledge, Maps points of interest, and websites, are shown right at the top, making it easier to find what you need.
Just start typing, and search suggestions appear below the search field.
Just type a few characters and you can quickly launch apps and websites by tapping Go.
Start a search in apps like Mail, Messages, and Files.
Searching the web is now easier than ever. Start typing and see relevant websites and web search suggestions displayed at the top, making it easy to quickly launch Safari for a full web search.
Pin your favorite conversations to the top of your conversation list so you can always get to them. Recent messages, Tapbacks, and typing indicators animate in above the pin. And if a group conversation is pinned, you’ll see three recent participants circle around the pin when they send a message.
You can have up to nine pinned conversations that sync across Messages in iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.
Direct a message to an individual in a group conversation by typing the person’s name. You can customize a particularly active group so you receive notifications only when you are mentioned.
You can reply directly to a specific message in a group conversation. See all related messages in their own view to easily keep track of a thread.
Set an image for your group conversation using a photo, Memoji, or emoji that is shared with all members of the group.
Customize your Memoji with 11 new hairstyles, including man bun, top knot, and simple side part.
Show off your hobby or profession with 19 new headwear styles, including cyclist helmet, nurse cap, and swim cap.
Three new Memoji stickers let you send a hug, a fist bump, or even a blush to your friends.
Six new age options let you customize your look whether you’re baby-faced, in your golden years, or somewhere in between.
Revamped facial and muscle structure makes Memoji and Memoji stickers even more expressive.
Thirteen hairstyles now include fades, where hair gradually tapers on the side of the face, letting you reflect your style.
Customize your Memoji with a new face covering, including the color, to match your look.
Maps now routes cyclists along bike lanes, bike paths, and bike-friendly roads. Preview the elevation for your ride, check how busy a street is, and set routes to avoid steep inclines or stairs. Maps also offers custom cycling voice guidance and a rich experience on Apple Watch that makes it easy to navigate with a glance.1
Get recommendations for the best places to visit in a city with Guides created by a selection of trusted brands. Guides help you discover great places to eat, shop, meet friends, or explore in cities around the world. You can save Guides so you can easily get back to them later, and they automatically update when new places are added so you always have the latest recommendations.2
Easily plan trips with your electric vehicle. Maps automatically adds charging stops along your route and even accounts for charging time when calculating the ETA. Once you securely add your electric vehicle on your iPhone, Maps can keep track of things like the current charge and charger type to give you the best route for your vehicle.3
Major cities like London and Paris have congestion zones to help reduce traffic in dense areas. Maps lets you see congestion zone tolls on the map and can route you around them if you like.4
Our new map is coming to more countries later this year, including Canada, Ireland, and the UK. The new map offers richer detail for roads, buildings, parks, marinas, beaches, airports, and more, giving you a more realistic view of the world.
Quickly get a highly accurate location and orientation when you’re in urban areas with poor GPS signals.
Maps lets you know when you’re approaching speed cameras and red-light cameras along your route. You can also see where individual cameras are located on the map.
For cities in China that limit driving through dense urban areas, you can see if you have access based on your vehicle’s eligibility.5 Enter your license plate number in Maps to determine if you have permission to go through the area or if you need to go around it. License plate information is stored securely in Maps and never leaves your device.
Conversations are easy by design with Translate. Turn the phone to landscape to split the screen and show text from both sides of the conversation. Just tap the microphone button to say something, and automatic language detection transcribes the original and translated text on the correct sides of the screen, followed by the translated audio. Conversation mode works for downloaded languages even when you don’t have an internet connection.
Advanced on-device intelligence lets you translate your voice from one language to another. Downloaded languages can be translated using voice even without an internet connection.
All languages have their keyboards included for translating text, so you don’t have to download keyboards separately or manually switch between them.
Save translations in the Favorites tab for easy access later. You can also view your recent history and save phrases you just translated.
Enlarge translated text in landscape, making it easier to read and more effective for getting someone’s attention.
Enable a fully offline experience for Translate. Use all the app features for downloaded languages and keep your translations private without needing to turn off your phone’s internet connection.
Tap a word in a completed translation to see the definition in the built‑in dictionary.
Translate currently supports translation between any combination of 11 languages: English (US & UK), Spanish (Spain), Chinese (Mandarin, Simplified), Japanese, Korean, Russian, German (Germany), French (France), Italian (Italy), Portuguese (Brazil), and Arabic.
Siri has an all-new compact design that allows you to refer to information onscreen and seamlessly launch into your next task. As you start a request, Siri pops up at the bottom of the screen. The result appears at the top of the screen like a notification. Results have been updated to give you just the information you need in a new compact layout.
Siri has greatly expanded knowledge, with 20x more facts than just three years ago.
Siri can now help you find answers to a broader set of questions using information from across the internet, so you can get answers without having to browse the web.6
You can now send audio messages with Siri on iOS and CarPlay. This is great when you want to be more expressive in your messages. Third-party messaging apps are supported through SiriKit.
You can now ask Siri for cycling directions.
While navigating with Apple Maps, you can ask Siri to share your ETA with a contact.
Siri can translate between many more languages, with support for over 65 language pairs:
The new Siri voice uses advanced neural text‑to‑speech technology to sound incredibly natural. Previously available in U.S. English, the new voice is available in several additional regions:
When you add a new accessory, the Home app will suggest useful ways for it to run automatically. You can do things like enable your porch lights to turn on each evening, open the garage door as you arrive home, and more.
A new visual status at the top of the Home app gives you a summary of accessories that require your attention, have important status changes to share, or can be quickly controlled.
Home controls in Control Center now dynamically suggest the most relevant accessories and scenes you’ll likely want to control based on the time of day and how often you normally use them. For example, you may see controls for bedroom lights and a good morning scene in the morning, or controls for the door lock and outdoor lights when you arrive home in the evening. You can tap the Home icon to see other accessories and scenes as well.
Light bulbs that change color can be automatically adjusted throughout the day to maximize comfort and productivity. You can ease into morning with warmer colors, stay focused and alert midday with cooler colors, and wind down at night by removing blue light.7
In addition to person, animal, and vehicle detection, security cameras can identify people you’ve tagged in the Photos app for richer activity notifications. Easily tag people, and choose to be notified based on the person.7
With HomeKit Secure Video, you can define Activity Zones within a camera’s view to capture video or receive notifications only when motion is detected in those areas.7
Easily translate entire web pages in Safari. When you encounter a compatible web page, Safari displays a translate icon in the address field. Just tap to translate into English, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, French, German, Russian, or Brazilian Portuguese.8
Tap the Privacy Report button for access to a Privacy Report showing you all the cross-site trackers that are being blocked by Intelligent Tracking Prevention in Safari.
Safari securely monitors your saved passwords, automatically keeping an eye out for passwords that may have been involved in a data breach. To do this, Safari uses strong cryptographic techniques to regularly check derivations of your passwords against a list of breached passwords in a secure and private way that doesn’t reveal your password information — even to Apple. If Safari discovers a breach, it can help you upgrade to Sign in with Apple when available, or automatically generate a new secure password.
With a blazing-fast JavaScript engine, Safari delivers up to 2x faster JavaScript performance than Chrome on Android.9
Simply tap your door handle to unlock your car with NFC.
You can start your vehicle by placing your iPhone on a reader or wireless charger inside the car.
Adding car keys to Wallet enables capabilities beyond those of physical keys. Sharing keys with friends or family is easy with Messages.
You can set keys to Unlock and Drive to have full access to your car. Or you can choose Restricted Driving, enabling them to unlock and start the car, but with limits that can affect acceleration, top speed, traction control, and even stereo volume — perfect for your teen driver.
As easily as you share keys, you can take them back, giving you the flexibility to let a friend borrow your car for the weekend, for example.
Even when your iPhone battery runs low, you’ll be able to access and start your vehicle for up to five hours. You can leave your physical keys at home, knowing that you can depend on iPhone even after a long day of hiking or a night on the town.
CarPlay supports third-party parking, EV charging, and quick food-ordering apps. App developers have access to a variety of tools and templates that enable them to provide a smarter, safer way to use iPhone in the car.
The addition of wallpaper to your CarPlay Dashboard and Home Screen provides a fresh new look and the ability to customize your CarPlay experience.
Cars with portrait screens can have the status bar on the bottom of the CarPlay screen, allowing for wider app views and a more natural layout.
CarPlay supports Chinese and Japanese keyboards, giving users an additional intuitive option to search for points of interest.
Simply ask Siri to share your ETA with friends or loved ones, and they’ll be kept up to date with your status.
You can create an audio message or reply to an audio message with your own in CarPlay.
App developers who have updated their audio, messaging, or VoIP apps to work in CarPlay have even more tools to customize their experiences. Messaging and VoIP apps can show lists of past conversations or contacts, and audio apps can show album art within lists for easy access to content.
Spatial audio with dynamic head tracking brings the movie theater experience right to your AirPods Pro.11 By applying directional audio filters and subtly adjusting the frequencies each ear receives, spatial audio can place sounds virtually anywhere in space, creating an immersive surround sound experience. Using the gyroscope and accelerometer in your AirPods Pro and your iPhone, spatial audio tracks the motion of your head as well as your device, compares the motion data, and then remaps the sound field so that it stays anchored to your device even as your head moves.
This new accessibility feature is designed to amplify soft sounds and adjust certain frequencies for an individual’s hearing, to help music, movies, phone calls, and podcasts sound more crisp and clear.12 Headphone Accommodations also supports Transparency mode on AirPods Pro, making quiet voices more audible and tuning the sounds of your environment to your hearing needs.
AirPods automatically switch between your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac, paired to the same iCloud account, making it even easier to use your AirPods with your Apple devices.13
Battery notifications let you know if you need to charge your AirPods.
The Motion API provides developers with access to orientation, user acceleration, and rotational rates for AirPods Pro — ideal for fitness apps, games, and more.
An App Clip is a small part of an app that’s discoverable at the moment you need it and is focused on a specific task.
App Clips are small by design so they’re usable in just a few seconds. They’re not installed like apps, so when you’re done using them, they just go away.
Find App Clips through tapping NFC tags or scanning QR codes, from Messages, Maps, and Safari, and through Apple-designed App Clip codes that are uniquely paired to each App Clip.
Tapping an NFC tag with your iPhone can launch a related App Clip.14
QR codes can launch a related App Clip when you scan them with the QR code reader or the Camera app.
Links posted on the web can launch a related App Clip from Safari.
For locations that support App Clips, the place card in Maps includes a button to launch them.
App Clips are easy to share and can open in Messages. When you receive one, you can launch it right there.
App Clip codes are Apple-designed identifiers that are uniquely paired to specific App Clips and provide an easy way to find and launch an app experience at the exact place and moment you need it. You can scan an App Clip code with your camera or by tapping one using NFC.14 We will be adding support for them in an iOS 14 software update later this year.
Recently used App Clips can be launched from the Recently Added category in the App Library.
After using an App Clip, you can download the full version of the app with just a tap.
App Clips can use Apple Pay to make purchases without your having to enter credit card information.
A new section on each product page on the App Store helps you see a summary of the privacy practices of the app before you download it.15 Developers self-report their privacy practices, including data collected by the developer and used to track you across companies, in a simple, easy-to-read format.
Developers will be required to get your permission before tracking you. See which apps you have given permission to track in Settings so you can change your preferences.
A new setting lets you choose to share your approximate location, rather than your precise location, with an app.
You can choose to share only selected items with a developer who asks for access to your photos, or you can give access to your entire library.
iOS displays an indicator whenever an app is using the mic or camera, both in the app and in Control Center.
Developers can offer the option to upgrade existing app accounts to Sign in with Apple so users can enjoy improved privacy, security, and ease of use without setting up a new account.
On-device intelligence recognizes key elements displayed on your screen to add VoiceOver support for app and web experiences that don’t have accessibility support built in.
VoiceOver reads complete-sentence descriptions of images and photos within apps and on the web.
VoiceOver speaks the text it identifies within images and photos.
VoiceOver automatically detects interface controls to aid in navigating your apps, making them more accessible.
This new accessibility feature is designed to amplify soft sounds and adjust certain frequencies for an individual’s hearing, to help music, movies, phone calls, and podcasts sound more crisp and clear.12 Headphone Accommodations also supports Transparency mode on AirPods Pro, making quiet voices more audible and tuning the sounds of your environment to your hearing needs.
Sound Recognition uses on-device intelligence to notify users who might otherwise miss audible environmental alerts around them. On iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, users receive a notification when a particular type of sound or alert, such as a fire alarm or doorbell, is detected.
Built to create a simple and easy way to trigger convenient tasks for those with accessibility needs. A quick double or triple tap on the back of your iPhone can be configured to trigger a number of actions, such as opening the Magnifier, or starting VoiceOver when your iPhone is in your pocket. It can even map to common system features such as Control Center, or accessibility-specific activities such as Switch Control actions.17
FaceTime can now detect when a participant is using sign language and make the person prominent in a Group FaceTime ca
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