Today at WWDC 2016, Apple officially wraps off the next major iteration of its mobile operating system – iOS 10. The name is pretty obvious but the features it packed eventually made it biggest iOS release ever. The iOS 10 packed ten great new features to enhance the end user experience on a daily basis. There is redesigned lock screen, greatly improved Siri and completely revamped Apple Music and much more. Here are the key highlights you should know about iOS 10.
Redesigned Lock screen User Interface:
Apple has focused on redesigning the lock screen interface of iOS with iOS 10. The notifications are now displayed in a segmented format with bubble interface, and the notifications will not blur your wallpaper anymore. Apple has fixed the well-known problem that users used to miss out the latest notifications on lock screen since the Touch ID is too fast while unlocking the device. The issue has been fixed by introducing the “Rise to wake” functionality. It works based on the data provided by the gyroscope. The similar kind of feature we already see in a lot of Android phones. However, it is good to see on iPhone. Users no need to press any button to do so, just raise the phone and see your notifications. The camera icon has been removed, but you can now access the camera by swiping left from the right edge. Moreover, Apple has worked really hard to make the notifications much more useful. The “Rich Notifications” can show the whole bunch of data right on the lock screen. If you book Uber taxi, you can see the directions of the taxi, and you can send a message to the driver, and you can even call right from your lock screen. All you have to do is just use the 3D Touch to interact fully with notification. The Control Center also got a redesign with bubble interface.
Siri opens to Devs:
Apple finally opens up the Siri to developers. They can now integrate the Siri’s intelligence into their apps. Sirikit helps the developers quickly design their apps to work with Siri for phone calls, messaging, photo search, ride booking, personal payments, workouts and even devs can take advantage of Siri’s intelligence to control CarPlay app.
Redesigned Maps:
Maps is the least satisfactory service from Apple because of the Google’s dominance with its most advanced Maps. Apple has taken it seriously and brought the beautifully redesigned Maps application. The new Maps app offers smarter and proactive assistance. Users will see much more info on the screen that suggests best routes at any given time, and it syncs data from the calendar and shows the route based on next appointment. Furthermore, the support of extensions is a great new add-on, which will help the developers to implement the extended functionality like booking a table using OpenTable, booking a ride with Uber right from Maps.
Greatly improved Photos:
The ‘Memories’ is a new option, which you will see with Photos app in iOS 10. The attempt is to rediscover the favorite and forgotten occasions from your huge photo library. Memories scan all your photos and videos and find the events, trips, and people, and showcase them in a beautiful collection. Apple has also implemented the Memory Movie, which works like HTC’s Zoe videos. It is an automatically edited movie with theme music, titles, and other cinematic transitions. Users can edit the music and make the video short, medium or long when decided to share with friends. All these things can be done by advanced computer vision. It can group the people, places and things inside the images. The photos will be compiled with 11 billion complications to recognize the object in the picture. 2016 is a year to see the magic of the advanced machine learning techniques.
Brand new Apple Music & News:
Apple Music and News got fresh new designs to lend the best experience till date. The new Music app offers a simplified interface with hero album arts, which should make it easy to use and showcases the content in rich format. The “For You” and Browse tabs are completely redesigned to provide much better suggestions based on your taste. There is a Search tab to make finding music easier than ever.
On the other hand, the News app also been redesigned to match with iOS styling. It is simple and intuitive. Apple has been added the support for breaking news notifications and paid subscriptions.
Home App:
iOS 10 comes with deeply integrated Home App, which is slated to provide a simple and secure way to set up, manage and control your home in one place. Users can manage their accessories individually or all at once using a single command. It can also be controlled using Siri. Users can control accessories remotely and can respond to automatic triggers set by time of day, action or location. Apple claimed that 100 home automation products adopted to HomeKit this year and the number was growing further. Currently, various products like thermostats, window shades, lights, door locks, video cameras and other. The popular home builders including Brookfield Residential, KB Home, Lennar Homes and R&F Properties, will begin integrating many of these HomeKit devices into latest homes.
Quick Type:
The Siri Intelligence and Keyboard work together to bring new QuickType features like contextual predictions. It will show the predictions based on location, calendar or contacts. The supports multiple languages without switching keyboards.
Integration of third party VoIP calls:
The phone app brings the integration for third-party VoIP calls, voicemail transcriptions, and potential Spam suggestions.
Apple Pay on The Web:
Apple Pay to the Web brings easiest shopping experience ever. Users can authenticate the payments with Touch ID when they are buying any item from the partnered stores. As soon as you hit ‘Pay with Apple Pay’, a authenticate screen appear instantly on your iPhone, all you need to do is, authenticate with your Touch ID.
Spilt-view extends to Safari:
Apple has come up with a cool new trick for Safari that the Safari Split-view allows users to display the two websites side by side. It should become handy in most of the situations.
Bedtime Alarm:
The Bedtime Alarm in the Clock app allows you to set a regular sleep schedule and receive bedtime reminders.
iOS 10 Availability:
The next major update for Apple’s advanced mobile operating system is available to iOS Developer Program members at developers.apple.com starting today. The public beta program will be available to iOS users in July at beta.apple.com. The free upgrade will hit all iOS users this fall. Find the supported devices below.
iPhone models:
- iPhone 5
- iPhone 5S
- iPhone SE
- iPhone 6
- iPhone 6 Plus
- iPhone 6s
- iPhone 6s Plus
iPad models:
- iPad 4th generation
- iPad Air
- iPad Air 2
- iPad Pro (9.7” and 12.9”)
- iPad mini 2 or later
Other products:
Do let us know in the comment section below what your favorite feature of iOS 10 is?