Apple unveiled the most anticipated iOS 14 in the virtual WWDC 2020. Check inside for more details

by Mohan Ram
June 23, 202014 minutes

Apple held its first online-only WWDC 2020 event last night. Oh Man!!! what an exorbitant event, only Apple can pull off something as incredible as this, that too in an online-only event. Apple capitalized this situation to its fullest and offered a mini-tour of its Apple park, which many of us couldn't experience in real life. Apple, in its WWDC 2020, announced a plethora of changes to its operating systems. iOS 14 was the most anticipated announcement and let us find out more about the latest iOS 14 features in this post.

App library

Apple started off the WWDC 2020 with the announcement of iOS 14. The major update here is, Apple has removed the visual home screen clutter by introducing a new feature called App Library. App Library will automatically sort the installed apps in a folder, and you can keep only your frequently used apps on the home screen. If you want to access your entire list of installed apps, swipe left from the last home screen to enter the app library, where you can find your entire list of downloaded apps. You can also search the apps from the search bar on the top of the app library.

Widgets

iOS 14 will also bring redesigned widgets, and you can choose the size of your widgets, and you can directly add them to your home screen. iOS 14 will also suggest widgets based on the time and your work routine.

Picture in Picture

The all-new iOS 14 now supports, picture in picture (PiP) mode for videos finally. Users can resize the PiP window, or they can even hide the videos and can listen only to the audio.

Translate

Apple has also introduced a new translate app that can seamlessly translate audio and texts between 11 languages in real-time and will support more languages in the future.

Siri

Apple has reduced the size of their Siri Voice assistant, Siri will be now less intrusive without taking up the whole screen, and it can now answer more complex questions.

iMessage

Apple has brought some major changes to the iMessage apps you can pin your favorite conversations, set up a group icon, mention a person in chat, and it will also support new memojis. With the new iMessage notifications option, users will receive a notification, only if someone mentions them in a chat.

Apple Maps

Apple Maps has also received a major update with new features like cycling directions, electric vehicle routing, and curated Guides to get a list of places to visit. Now, your friends can share their route, and you can track their progress and know their ETA's in real-time.

Remote key

Apple has also introduced a new digital car unlocking feature in iOS 14. Using this feature, you can unlock and drive your car without a physical key. This feature is currently available only in BMW Series 5 2021 edition, and we are expecting Apple to extend this support for more cars in the future.

App Clips

Apple introduced a new feature called App Clips in their iOS 14. App clips are basically a small part of the app, which can come handy during the right moment. App clips can be discovered and accessed by scanning an App Clip code, or through NFC tags and QR codes. Users can scan the App Clip code, and they can pay directly to the respective businesses using Apple pay without any hassle.

Incoming call notifications

In iOS 14, incoming call notifications will appear as a floating banner instead of blocking the entire screen so that users can easily multi-task. This feature will support both native apps as well as third-party apps like Skype.

Privacy

Apple usually takes the user's privacy pretty seriously, and they have once again stressed on privacy in iOS 14. Apple has improved the security of the Safari browser, and in iOS 14 app developers must list the entire list of permissions required on the app page in the App store. Users can also provide the proximity of their location in iOS 14 instead of providing exact locations to the third-party apps.

Additional features

In addition to the above major features, Apple also added a few nifty changes in its Home app for better home automation. Now, Find My will add support for finding third-party products and accessories with the new Find My network accessory program. Apple has improved fitness and sleep monitoring in the health app. Apple also included a host of new accessibility features in iOS 14, and the weather app is now even more accurate with a precipitation chart that shows minute-by-minute precipitation when rain is in the forecast.

Rollout

Apple has already started rolling out the developer beta of iOS 14 to the selected users. The public beta will commence from July 2020, and stable rollout will begin from fall 2020 to iPhone 6S and above devices.

Apple has also refreshed the Mac OS (Mac OS Big Sur), iPad OS, and Watch OS. Apple Pencil has a new scribble function, which can convert handwriting to text. Apple also added new features like smart selection, shape detection, and data detectors to recognize important data. In addition to these, Apple Airpods can now easily switch between devices, and Airpods Pro will get the spatial audio feature, similar to 3D surround experience.

Apple also announced that they are moving from Intel to custom ARM-based SOC for their newer Macs. The newer ARM-based iMac and Macbook are expected to arrive late 2020 or early 2021, and they are expected to provide better performance and efficiency when compared to Intel-based systems since Apple has control over both hardware and software.