Apple today showed a preview of iOS 14, debuting the biggest update to date on the home screen with new widgets and App Library, a new way to harness the power of the App Store © with App Clip, big changes in Messages and so on.
The completely redesigned widgets present timely information at a glance and can be pinned in different sizes on any home screen page. In addition, they can be intelligently stacked with Smart Stack to display the appropriate one based on the corresponding time, location and activity.
Home screen pages can include custom widgets for work, travel, sports, entertainment, and other interests. At the end there is the App Library, a new space that automatically organizes all the user's apps in a simple and easy to navigate view that intelligently displays the apps that can be useful at all times. Users can choose how many home screen pages they want to show and hide easily for quicker access to the App Library.
Interactions with Siri © and incoming phone calls and FaceTime © feature a new, more discreet design so the user doesn't interrupt what they're doing. With support for picture-in-picture technology, iPhone © users can now watch a video or answer a FaceTime call while using another app.
A new way to discover and use apps with App Clips
App clips represent a specific part of an application and are meant to be discovered when needed. They are associated with a product or company and are loaded in seconds to perform a specific task, such as renting a motorbike, buying a coffee or extending the hours of the parking meter. Discovering and accessing them is very simple: just scan a new App Clips code designed by Apple1, or via NFC tags and QR codes or share them from Messages or Safari, always with the same security and privacy that you expect from apps.
Big news in Messages conversations
The Messages app is great for communicating with friends and family, and it's now easier than ever to stay connected and quickly access important messages. Users can pin conversations to the top of their message list, stay on top of lively threads with direct mentions and replies, and add an even more personal touch to conversations by adding a photo or emoji as a group image. the latest Memoji © options in Messages are more inclusive and diverse, with additional hairstyles, hats, face accessories, and more.
More sustainable movements and new guides in Maps
Maps simplifies navigation and exploration with new cycling directions, electric vehicle routes and curated guides. The indications for cyclists take into account the difference in height, traffic on the roads and the presence of flights of stairs along the route.
Electric vehicle routes add stops along the way based on the vehicle's current charge level and types of chargers. 2
Guides provide a list of places of interest to visit in a city created from a selection of reputable resources. It is an excellent way to discover new restaurants and popular areas, as well as recommendations from great references in the world of leisure, such as AllTrails, Complex, The Infatuation, TimeOut and The Washington, among others.
Advanced privacy features: more transparency and control
From now on, all apps will need to obtain user permission before being tracked. 3 By the end of the year, the App Store product pages will show summaries of their privacy practices submitted by developers in a simple and easy to understand format. Additionally, users will be able to update their accounts to use Apple login, choose whether to share their approximate location instead of their exact location by granting access permissions, and even view camera and microphone usage. an app with greater transparency.
Other features of iOS 14
- Translate is designed to be the best app to translate conversations easily, as it offers fast and natural translation of voice and text in 11 languages. 4 The use mode on the device allows you to try all the offline features for translating text and speech privately.
- Crab knows more than ever, helps answer questions by searching for information on the Internet, and now lets you send audio messages. Keyboard dictation is performed on the device while dictating messages, notes, emails, and more. 5
- The app Home makes home automation even easier with new automation tips and extended controls in the Control Center for faster access to accessories and environments. Adaptive lighting for HomeKit © compatible lights automatically adjusts the color temperature during the day. And thanks to the device's facial recognition, door openers and compatible cameras can identify friends and family. 6 The Home app and HomeKit have been designed to maintain privacy and security, so all information about a user's home automation accessories is fully encrypted.
- Now the AirPods change the audio without problems between Apple devices with automatic sharing. 7 Spatial audio with dynamic head position sensing delivers cinematic quality with AirPods Pro ©. By applying directional audio filters and subtly adjusting the frequencies each ear receives, sound can be directed to almost any point in a space for an immersive experience.
- Le digital car keys they are a safe way to use your iPhone or Apple Watch to open and start a vehicle. They can be easily shared via Messages and disabled in iCloud if the device is lost. Additionally, they will be available this year via NFC. 8 Apple also unveiled the latest generation of digital car keys based on ultra-wideband technology for spatial recognition via the U1 chip, which will allow users to unlock upcoming car models without taking the iPhone out of their pocket or bag. be available next year.
- La search function it will also be compatible with third-party devices and accessories with the new accessories program for the search network. This will allow users to use Find to locate other important items in their life. Privacy remains at the heart of Search Online with an end-to-end encrypted approach. Starting today, a draft specification will be available for accessory and device manufacturers.
- Safari now offers a privacy report to easily see which cross-site tracking activities have been blocked, plus advanced password monitoring to detect saved passwords that may have been affected by a data breach, and built-in translation capabilities for entire web pages . 9
- Health incorporates new experiences to manage sleep, better understand noise levels that can affect the ear and the Health Checklist, a centralized place to manage health and safety services, such as Emergency SOS, Medical Data, ECG, Fall Detection, etc. . 10 In addition, it supports new types of mobility data, medical records, symptoms and ECGs.
- Weather app and widget inform the user about the most important weather events and a new precipitation graph for the next hour shows a minute-by-minute breakdown when rain is forecast. eleven
- The advantages accessibility include headphone accommodation, which amplifies soft sounds and tunes audio for music, movies, calls and podcasts more clearly, and FaceTime group detection of sign language highlighted in the video call to the person communicating by this medium. 12 VoiceOver, the industry-leading screen reader for blind users, now automatically recognizes what's on the screen to make web and app experiences more accessible to more people.
Availability
The developer preview of iOS 14 is now available for Apple Developer Program members at developer.apple.com, and the public beta will be available next month for iOS users at beta.apple.com.
The new software features will be available this fall as a free update for iPhone 6s or later. Learn more at apple.com/ios/ios-14-preview.
Benefits are subject to change. Some features may not be available in all regions or in all languages.
1 Available in a later software update.
2 Electric vehicle route requires iPhone with iOS 14 and compatible vehicle.
3 This includes connection information collected about a user on a company-owned website or application with information collected separately from other companies for personalized ads, for advertising metrics or via data managers.
4 Translate is available for English, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, and Arabic.
5 Keyboard dictation is available on iPhone Xs and later in English (US, UK, India, Canada, Australia), Mandarin (Mainland China, Hong Kong), Japanese (Japan), French (France), German (Germany ) and Spanish (United States, Spain, Mexico). Requires download of dictation templates.
6 Adaptive lighting and facial recognition in the Home app require an Apple TV®, HomePod ™ or iPad® set up as a Home Hub.
7 Works with AirPods Pro, AirPods (2nd generation), Powerbeats®, Powerbeats Pro ™ and Beats Solo Pro®. Requires an iCloud account.
8 Available on iPhone Xr, iPhone Xs and later, iPhone SE (2nd generation) and Apple Watch Series 5 through participating manufacturers.
9 Safari translation will be available in beta version which supports English, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, German, French, Russian and Brazilian Portuguese.
10 Some features, such as ECG and fall detection, require some Apple Watch models and may not be available in all regions. The ECG app is not intended for anyone under the age of 22.
11 Adverse weather information is available for locations in the United States, Europe, Japan, Canada and Australia, and the next hour precipitation table is available in the United States.
12 Headphone Accommodations is available on Apple and Beats® headphones with H1 headphone chip, as well as EarPods®.
