iOS 14 brings a variety of refinements small and big to iPhones, consisting of the ability to pin widgets to your home screen and have picture-in-picture video.
Patrick Holland/CNET
On Monday, Apple introduced iOS 14 at an online keynote for its annual Worldwide Developer Conference. The current iPhone os includes new customizations for the home screen, picture-in-picture video, better widgets, a brand-new Siri interface and App Library, a new method to arrange your apps..
The final version of iOS 14 will be launched in the fall together with the heavily reported iPhone 12. I got my hands on the developer beta of iOS 14 and was able to attempt out numerous of the functions consisting of the Translation app, Back Tap, new group Messaging options and new Memoji personalizations, which include the choice to include a face mask..
This isnt an evaluation of the designer beta software. Rather its a hands-on sneak peek of a few of the significant features in iOS 14 and how they work.
Widgets have a fixed width that lines up with app columns on the home screen. Having widgets that are various sizes integrated among my apps makes the iPhone house screen look modern and compelling.
Widget stacks and the Smart Stack.
Perhaps one of the coolest customizations on the house screen is a widget stack. You develop one simply by dragging one widget on top of another thats the exact same size. To view the widgets in a stack, you swipe up or down, which brings a different one to the top.
Who would have thought widgets could be so exciting in 2020? And before you comment, I understand Android did widgets a very long time back. However its lazy to dismiss iOS 14 widgets merely as a copied feature, especially since Apples put its own spin on widgets with whats called a Smart Stack.
You can discover the Smart Stack in the Widget Gallery and then pin it to your home screen like a widget.
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If you utilize the Maps app routinely after work, thats when that widget will be at the top of your Smart Stack. Im thrilled to see how this will work after Ive invested more time with iOS 14.
Im sure many individuals will never ever touch a widget or Smart Stack in their lives and will never ever be the wiser, which is why Apples implementation is smart. In one sense, nothings altered on your home screen. In another, so much is various.
App Clips are generally small apps for your iPhone.
iOS 14 brings a totally new method for you to engage with an app. Its called App Clips and is aimed at apps that arent on your iPhone. Essentially, an App Clip is a tiny app with minimal functionality as identified by the apps developer. The concept is you dont have to take some time or phone area to download an entire app and instead you can have a quick experience.
During the WWDC keynote, Apple displayed a customer registering for a benefits club at a coffee bar by means of an App Clip. QR codes and NFC can trigger an App Clip. However you can also send them through a friend for ordering food, or discover one for a service in Maps.
It might assist keep your iPhone decluttered and change your relationship with apps if designers extensively adopt App Clips.
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Take: iOS 14 and all its brand-new functions.
The iOS 14 home screen is the same, however also different.
At first look, an iPhone 11 running iOS 14 does not appear to be any different. All of my apps are ideal where they remained in iOS 13. A simple swipe to the ideal exposes a page called the App Library, which organizes all my apps in one location.
It would be simple to compare the App Library to the Android app drawer. Apple has put its own twist on things by organizing apps into classifications. Twitter, Instagram and similar apps are grouped together under the Social classification.
The App Library organizes all your iPhone apps into one area.
Patrick Holland/CNET.
The groups appear like big app folders but theres no requirement to open one as much as get to an app. You merely tap the app and go. Groups with more than four apps, have small app clusters. You can tap them to broaden the cluster and then tap the app you desire.
An alphabetical list of all your apps appears when you open the App Library search bar. So between Siri, search, your web page and the choices on the App Library page theres now a bunch of methods to find and open your apps in iOS 14.
Widgets can be pinned to your home screen.
With the announcement of iOS 14, Apple now has 3 types of apps: There are apps, widgets based on those apps and App Clips. That last one Ill speak about briefly. In iOS 13, widgets showed up in the Today View page to the left of the house screen. Now you can pin widgets straight on your home screen. You just long press on the screen, tap the plus button and the Widget Gallery turns up.
The Widget Gallery is a mix of suggested widgets as well as a list of apps that have a widget you can install. Clearly, since this is the designer variation the only widgets are presently for Apple apps..
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iOS 14 lets you conceal app pages.
If you have apps that you utilize occasionally but dont desire to erase, you can put them all onto a page and hide it. You still have access to the apps through search, Siri or the App Library, however theyre out of view.
In theory you could hide all your apps, fill your home screen with widget stacks and still be able to use your iPhone. I think Im going to have to try that at some point.
Picture-in-picture comes to your iPhone.
After being on the iPad for a number of years, the picture-in-picture video feature has arrived on the iPhone via iOS 14. To be honest, its more like picture-in-home-screen video, or picture-in-different-apps video. This works not only for videos but likewise FaceTime calls.
You can collapse videos into a small gamer window and view it while having access to whatever on your iPhone.
Patrick Holland/CNET.
I love being able to turn my FaceTime chat into a small window so I can access something else on my iPhone. It allows me to keep the conversation going without that blank screen revealing up to people on the other end of the call. And you can basically move the mini FaceTime window anywhere you want.
Videos work similarly: If Im watching a video in fullscreen through an app like Safari, I can swipe as much as enter the app switcher view and after that tap the home screen to lessen it. You can resize the video window and move it around accordingly. If you press it off to the side, the audio will keep playing without the picture.
Set a third-party internet browser or mail app as default.
It wasnt discussed in the keynote, but at the bottom of the iOS 14 preview page on the Apple website is a little announcement for a feature much of us have desired: You can now pick system default apps from third parties..
iOS 14 will let you set a third-party app as your default internet browser or mail app. The catch here is that developers require to flag their app as a browser or mail app for it to work. In theory, this implies you might use Chrome or Firefox as your default mobile browser or Gmail as your default e-mail app. Im delighted to see this in action as soon as developers have actually enabled their apps.
iOS 14 includes the Translate app to your iPhone.
The brand-new Translate app has a number of modes. In the vertical position you can have it translate expressions and words along with revealing the definition of those words. When you rotate it into landscape, it goes into discussion mode, permitting each speaker to have half the screen with their translation showing. You can even have the app show the translation in full screen or speak it for you.
The equate app works in between 11 different languages.
Patrick Holland/CNET.
Apple Maps gets cycling directions.
Google Maps has actually had directions for bike routes for a while. However with iOS 14, Maps is including cycling directions of its own. And there are some well-thought out options: You get elevations and cautions about streets or where youll need to walk your bike. You can likewise toggle options to prevent like stairs, hills and busy roadways. Bike routes in Maps reveal places such as bike repair work shops and coffee stores along the way. At launch, cycling directions will only be readily available in a handful of cities.
Maps now supports directions for cycling.
Patrick Holland/CNET.
Green light means your electronic camera is on.
If an app is utilizing your electronic camera or mic in the background, an useful function in iOS 14 is an indication light that lets you understand. When your phones mic is on, an orange dot appears on the leading ideal side of the screen. The dot reveals up green when an app is using your camera, leaving zero doubt about whats going on.
Trigger a shortcut by tapping on the back of your iPhone.
There are a lots of brand-new ease of access functions, however one that stands out to me is Back Tap. In the Touch section of the Accessibility settings you can allow Back Tap, which lets you set off an action or shortcut by double-tapping or triple-tapping the back of your iPhone. I can double tap to bring up the Control Panel. And if I double tap once again, the Control Panel goes away.
You can select from over two dozen actions and faster ways to be triggered with Back Tap like taking screenshots, or raising the magnifier.
Sound Recognition can notify you to animals and alarms.
Another engaging Accessibility feature is called Sound Recognition. It can inform you if your iPhone discovers specific sounds, such as a fire or smoke alarm, or an animal. You pick which sound you wish to be informed about and when your iPhone discovers one of those noises, it will notify you with an on-screen alert.
Sound Recognition helps people with impaired hearing understand whats going on around them.
Patrick Holland/CNET.
Messages get Memoji face masks and new group thread discusses.
If youre huge on group threads, iOS 14 makes them much more workable. You can point out a specific individual in a thread and only alert that individual. You can also pin discussions to the top of the app.
In a sign of the times, you can now include a face mask to your Memoji.
Patrick Holland/CNET.
There are a bunch of modifications, including new hair and headwear styles for Memoji, as well as the capability to add a face mask.
Telephone call and Siri get small.
Instead of an incoming call taking up your entire screen prior to you address it, it will now show up as a banner alert throughout the top. You tap to address or swipe it away.
Siri, which had a comparable bad habit of taking control of your entire screen, now appears as an animated orb at the bottom.
Another iOS 14 beta is on the way.
A public beta version of iOS 14 will launch in July. iOS 14 will run on the exact same iPhones that are supported in iOS 13– particularly, the iPhone 6S and more recent.
A basic swipe to the best exposes a page called the App Library, which arranges all my apps in one place.
With the statement of iOS 14, Apple now has three types of apps: There are apps, widgets based on those apps and App Clips. Its called App Clips and is aimed at apps that arent on your iPhone. Essentially, an App Clip is a small app with limited functionality as figured out by the apps designer. Videos work similarly: If Im seeing a video in fullscreen via an app like Safari, I can swipe up to go into the app switcher view and then tap the home screen to reduce it.
