Following a relatively pedestrian update cycle last year, Apple’s operating system (iOS) is getting major upgrades for its 14th version, coming to iPhones this autumn.
The biggest changes will be immediately visible on the home screen, which can now host widgets, a floating video (picture-in-picture) and show fewer apps, as they can be stowed away in an “App Library” (yes, this is just like Android’s app drawer).
Android fans are likely to brag that these features have been available on their phones for years, but they’re still huge changes for iPhones, which for more than a decade has had a rigid, restricted home screen that can only host apps and nothing else.
As is often the case with Apple, it may be late introducing a useful feature, but it does it with more flair and refinement.
From the demonstrations shown onstage during the online-only Worldwide Developer Conference, the iPhone’s approach to widgets is more dynamic and intelligent than Android’s. For example, there’s an option to place a context-aware widget that will show different information throughout the course of the day: headline news first thing in the morning, daily schedule during work hours and traffic information after work.
Widgets come in various sizes and, when placed on the home screen, apps will automatically move out of the way.
Apple’s “App Library”, too, appears to be smarter than Android’s app drawer. According to onstage demos, the iPhone can automatically batch apps into categories.
As someone who jumps between iPhones and Android, and thus notices how much clunkier my iPhone home screen is compared to my Android phones, Apple finally allowing us to stow apps away could not come soon enough.
Picture-in-picture works exactly as it sounds: users can now continue watching a video even if they’ve exited the video source and opened another app. The floating video window can be moved and resized anywhere on the screen. The obvious benefit is improved multitasking: you can chat on WhatsApp while you’re watching a YouTube or Netflix video.
This same multitasking-friendly approach is at the heart of the redesigned Siri. Previously, triggering Apple’s digital voice assistant would bring up a bland graphic that covers the entire phone screen. Now, Siri only takes up a small portion of the bottom screen, and if her answers include photos, they’ll show in a floating window similar to chat notifications.
One new feature with loads of potential is “App Clips”, a small (each one must be under 10Mb in size) web version of an app that can load on an iPhone almost instantaneously when triggered by an NFC tap or by scanning a QR code.
These clips are meant to allow the execution of a specific action of an app without needing to install the app first. For example, a user could scan a QR code of a specific coffee at a cafe, and the order page will load on the iPhone immediately, with one-button payment via Apple Pay.
China got a couple of direct references during the iOS 14 introduction: Apple Maps now offers cycling route mapping that will take into account bike lanes and elevation, and the cities included so far are almost all American, with the exception of Beijing and Shanghai.
Then there’s the new Apple Translate app, which can work offline and supports 11 languages to start with, including Mandarin Chinese.
All of these features will make their way over to iPadOS 14, which is a close cousin of iOS.
Apple has not revealed the precise availability date for iOS 14, but if history is any indication, it will launch with new iPhones coming this September, and be available to install on older iPhones that same week.
