Apple’s WWDC 2020 is over and it’s time to take stock of everything we’ve seen in this event. Finally, there were no surprises in hardware, although it was an interesting preview of the new ARM chips for Macs. The company mainly introduced iOS 14, iPadOS 14, macOS Big Sur, watchOS 7 and tvOS 14.
In this post we will give you a summary about iOS 14, its beta, features and release date.
- How to download iOS 14 Beta and public release date
- Find out if your iPhone is compatible with iOS 14
- Everything we know about Apple Glass: Price, specs, features and release date
What’s new: iOS 14 features
Greater customization of the interface was something that users had been crying out for years. This 2020 will be a reality. In iOS 14 we will find a total redesign of the Home screen. First, the rumored arrival of widgets that can occupy several spaces that, traditionally, would occupy an application icon. These may be from native or third-party apps, so an interesting world opens up for developers.
The “Today” tab, designed in iOS 9 for widgets, will continue to maintain them but provide more information adapted to the user’s needs. It should be noted that in the rest of the screens, the widgets will be very customizable, being able to choose the size and make them expand just by touching them. This function is known as Smart Stack.
The Picture-in-Picture function opens in iOS, being able to play videos while we do other tasks and hiding them on one of the sides of the screen. It may also be hidden, but the sound will continue to play. We do not know if it will be available in popular video apps like YouTube.
The folders also undergo a redesign, and some applications may be larger than others because they are more used by the user. That way they can be accessed more easily. The feature called App Library will also be released, which will serve to organize applications more clearly and have them better categorized.
Default apps can now be chosen for certain actions now. This is useful, for example, to be able to have another independent browser from Safari as the default one or to send emails with a different Mail app.
The incoming calls will not fill the entire screen Finally! This will allow us to continue performing any task without the person calling us interrupting us. Something similar occurs with Siri and its less intrusive redesign. The wizard has added greater intelligence and full integration in applications such as Safari. You can even send an audio message with it and translate into more languages than we had available.
There will be a new native app called Translate, whose function is evident. It will be native to Apple and can be used at any time quickly and easily, which will also be integrated with the Safari browser.
The Messages app has also been redesigned with the focus on Apple’s exclusive iMessage service for devices. For example, you can pin conversations to access them more easily, as in other messaging apps. 20 new Memoji styles will also be integrated with new hats, hair types, etc. Group conversations are also greatly improved.
As is also a tradition, Apple Maps has improved by adding new search options for specific sites and the way to reach them. New mappings have been added for some countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada or Ireland. Improvements have also been included for cyclists, being able to choose between bike lanes, roads, highways and warning when there are changes in altitude or the roads are more or less busy.
The long-awaited CarKey features, which serve to unlock a CarPlay compatible car, have also been added. This function will be integrated into a kind of iPhone digital keychain available in Wallet. It should be noted that there will be new vehicles compatible with it.
iOS 14 availability and release date
The developer version of iOS 14 is now available to members of the Apple Developer Program on its website and the public beta will be available next month for iOS users on the open beta website. As usual, the final version of the new system will start arriving this fall as a free update for the iPhone 6s or later.
