WWDC 2020 is underway, and the keynote just got over. As expected, the Cupertino giant has unveiled the next iteration of its operating system for the iPhone. Contrary to what rumours suggested, Apple has not renamed iOS to iPhoneOS. iOS 14 is now official, and here are all the iOS 14 details you should know.
The latest version of iOS comes packed with a bunch of features and changes. Not all of these are very important, but there are some huge ones here.
The home screen is seeing the most number of changes with iOS 14.
Hide App Pages
Compact Call Screens
This is extremely useful for me. iOS 14 shows up incoming calls as a small banner on the top of the screen instead of taking over the entire display. Anyone who has ever played PUBG on an iPhone only to have a call come in will know that this feature is a godsend.
iOS now also supports picture in picture. This is a feature that Android phones have had for a long time now. However, it’s great to have it on iPhones as well. It’s unclear which apps this will work with, but it definitely works with the TV app.
Remember how Google now has a compact Assistant? Well, Siri is going the same route. iOS 14 has a compact Siri that doesn’t take over your entire screen when you invoke it. It now also has 20x more facts than it did 3 years back. Plus, you can now even send audio messages with Siri if you want. So far, the feature is known to work with iMessage, but it could make its way to WhatsApp and other messaging apps as well.
The Messages app is getting features that were already rumoured for it. Notably, you can now mention people in groups, and give inline replies in group chats. You can also choose to only get notifications for group messages when someone mentions you in them, which sounds useful.
There’s also a new conversation pinning feature in Messages which I’m excited about. It’s basically what apps like WhatsApp and Telegram have had for a long time, but it’s nice to have it on iMessage as well.
While Apple didn’t announce a specific release date for iOS 14, the company has released a developer beta today. A public beta will follow in July, and a stable release should be sometime after the launch of the iPhone 12 this fall.
