iOS 14 Features: A Closer Look

Unfortunately, this feature isn't working just yet, but 9to5Mac's Filipe Esposito was able to take a closer look at this feature and basically there will be a new default application option in the settings for choosing your favorite app to use. Now on the surface, emojis search may not seem like a big deal, but have you ever tried to search for an emoji character and you just couldn't find what you were looking for? Like I'm searching for pizza. I can't remember exactly where pizza was, but you can now search just like this. Let me show you. I'm going to just type in or use quick type to put in pizza. Bam, just like that. And I know this isn't a shiny new feature like widgets or the app library even, but this is a huge time saver for those of you who use emoji a lot. What do you guys think? Let me know down below in the comments. And plus one for privacy. There is a new approximate location option in iOS 14 and it is awesome. Again, not a shiny feature, not one that really stands out, but super useful. So under privacy location in the Settings app for your individual apps, you'll see a precise locations switch. Now, if you enable this, it will work like iOS has always worked with your location. It will give that application your precise location based on GPS. And that's obviously something you want to enable if you're using something like a navigation app or Google maps, for instance, but if you're giving you a location to a website or even a weather app, a lot of times a precise location isn't necessary. You can just enable the approximate location, but if the application works better using a precise location, you can easily enable that as well. So it's just nice to have the option not to be tracked directly where you are and just give an approximate location. For instance, I think this is perfect for web sites that just want to know like what city you're in. You don't have to give them your exact street address or whatever. You can just tell them where you are in an approximate sense. And that is super nice for privacy in iOS 14.

Now, I hesitated to place the updated Siri interface on the list, but I thought, yeah, I'll go ahead and do it because I do think it is really cool. Previously in iOS, Siri would basically blackout the entire screen. Here on iOS 14, it sort of blurs out the background, but now you have the option to keep the background displayed along with your Siri requests. So it doesn't take the context away. So for instance, you're looking at Instagram and you wanna ask Siri a question, you could do so. It doesn't whisk you away from Instagram. It just super imposes Siri on top. Now the downside is that you can't interface with your phone without dismissing Siri. So just keep that in mind.

Last but not least tons of Music app updates. So one of my favorite features is the fact that now on the Now Playing view, you get your album artwork and you'll get a color match background, which looks amazing. So you no longer have to open up the live lyrics or the time track lyric to view that background. It looks really good. Now another cool feature is the fact that the Music app will remember where you left off even if you force close the Music app, it'll remember the song you were playing and also the location of the playhead. You also notice subtle haptic feedback when interacting with the transport controls, and there's a new auto play feature, which will continue playing music when it gets to the end of your queue. So you see that's the end of my queue there, but simply tap the infinity icon and similar music will continue playing. So it'll, auto-populate all that music and it'll continue to play. And of course, you can go in and curate this as well. So I can rearrange it or I can outright remove songs that I don't want to appear or play. So that's nice.

Ladies and gentlemen, that is a look at my top iOS 14 features. What do you guys think? Let me know down below in the comments. Also thumbs up this video if you appreciated it. That helps other people find it as well. And also subscribe formore videos like this. This is Jeff with 9to5Mac and extra special thanks to Zugu case for sponsoring 9to5Mac. Zugu makes the Alpha Cases specifically designed for the 2020 11 inch iPad Pro. It has, get this, eight builtin magnetic viewing angles. I just love that. Of course, the Alpha case features Apple Pencil storage and supports Apple Pencil wireless charging. Click the link in the description to get your Zugu Alpha Case today. Special thanks to Zugu for sponsoring 9to5Mac on YouTube.

Note: The content of this text is a compilation of various articles and reports from Filipe Esposito and Jeff Benjamin, which were not provided in full here due to copyright restrictions.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- In this video,I take a look at what I believeare the top iOS 14 features.But before that a briefword from our sponsor.9to5Mac on YouTube issponsored by Zugu Case,maker of Amazon's highest rated iPad case.The new Alpha Case for 11 inchsecond generation iPad Profeatures remarkable durabilitywhile still being thin.Because it comes with a robust bumper,it can protect your iPadfrom five foot drops,even on the concrete.And don't forget the innovativeadjustable magnetic standwith eight, yes, eightbuilt in viewing angles.It features a solid microfiber interiorto protect your iPad,wireless Apple Pencil charging capability,and a built in Apple Pencil pocket.The Alpha comes with afree one year warranty,sleep-wake functionality.It's perfect fortravelers, business people,students and anyone lookingfor a durable, dynamic,and sleek iPad case with luxury car vibes.Click the link in the descriptionto get your Zugu Alpha Case today.Okay, so the compact call interfaceis the first of my favoritefeatures in iOS 14.It is such a nice thingto have after yearsand years of being subjectedto this right here.See that, how it justinterrupts your flow.It just like you have no choice.If you're doing somethingand a call comes in,whether it be FaceTime, VoIP,or just a regular phone call,it's going to completelytake over your screenand interrupt your flow.So iOS 14 finally addresses this issueand it is definitelyone of the top featuresin this new release.So all you need to do, actually,it's enabled by default.I actually disabled itso I could show you guys,but if you go into the settingsfor FaceTime or for Phone,you'll see where it has incoming calls,and you can set that toeither full screen or banner,which is the new default.So you don't even have to go in herebecause it's set up likethis to begin with in iOS 14.So you're browsin' along,you're doin' your thingand an incoming call comes in and look,it doesn't take focus away fromwhat you're currently doing.You can just ignore thephone call if you want to.That, wouldn't be nice, butyou can, if you'd like to.And the nice thing isyou could still obviouslyanswer that call.You can tap on it to openup the full interfaceif you wanna do that.It's just such a nice feature to have.What do you think?Where do you rank the compactcall interface in iOS 14?Let me know down below.Okay, so let's talk aboutmy next favorite featureand that is of course picture in picture.No big surprise there ifyou've been following mesince iOS 14's release.This is the feature that brings iPad,what's up, Marquez.This is the feature that brings iPadOSpicture in picture likefunctionality to the small screen.And it is glorious. It's justsuch a nice feature to have.I know other deviceshave done this before,but we finally get iton the iPhone finally.So there you go.All you do is swipe upwhen in a full screen videothat is of course assuming the applicationsupports picture in picture.So as you can see, you cantap to resize to small,medium, and large.You can swipe to the side tokind of hide it on the edgeand it'll still play the audio.So you could still hear the audio.So if you're doin' somethingyou don't want any sort ofPIP interface on screen,just slide it over and as you can see,you can quickly flick it overto one of the four corners of your iPhone.And the great thing isyou can use applications,you can browse the web,you can do other thingswhile picture in pictureis working hereand that's what makes thisso nice, multitasking.So you can also do this withFaceTime videos as well.So you can carry on a conversationand be reading somethingor doing anything else,talking to your friends via iMessage,subscribing to 9to5Mac on YouTube.All those things that you love to do,you can do them at the sametime while watching your video.Okay, so there is one settingrelated to you picture in picture,we'll find that over in the Settings app.So if you go to General,you'll see picture in picture.Just open that up and you'll see a toggle,one single switch therefor start picture inpicture automatically.So that occurs when you swipe up,like I showed you earlier,otherwise you can enablepicture in picture manually.Now, of course it should be no surprisethat widgets make the cutfor one of the best iOS 14 featuresbecause now when iOS 14,as you've no doubt seen,you can place widgets on the home screen,right beside your applicationsand, as you can see,as you move a widget, the appssort of dance out of the way.I don't know what type of dance this is,but it's a dance accordingto Craig Federighi.Now I joke about this,but this is a huge deal for the iPhone.I mean the iPhone home screenhas been the same more or lesssince its inception back in 2007,but now more than just app iconsreside on the home screen in iOS 14.Big deal.Now you can also swipe overto access your widget center,which is a page dedicatedexclusively for widgetsand that's cool and all,that's actually really handy,but what we're really interested in hereare widgets on the home screen.So if you go into editmode by just tappingand holding on the home screenand then tap the plus buttonin the upper left hand corner,that will show you all the availableiOS 14 compatible widgets.So you have some nice previews at the top,but then you have yourlist of every widget.So SmartStack, Batteries, Calendar,Clock, Files, et cetera, et cetera.Quite a few differentwidget options in hereand they vary as far as sizeand type inside those various sections.So at the top you havesome suggested widgetsand you can drag and drop those directlyor tap on them to expandand view all the associatedwidgets for that type.So here you have asmall, you have a medium,and you have a large widgetfor Recently Played Music.So if I want to getthese to the home screen,I have a couple of options.I can either tap and drag like thisand, as you can see, the appicons dance out of the way,or I can just tap Add Widgetand add it directly to the home screen.So here is the News app.You can see you have two different types,you have small, medium, large topicand small, medium and large today.So you can choose the News widgetthat interests you the most.So I'll just drag that oneand drop it just like that.So I have three widgetson that one screen,and of course I can simply drag the widgetover to the other pageso I can have widgets on multiplepages if I wanna do that.It's super simple, super easy.Now I will say that widgetsaren't that advanced.I mean, all you basically can dois tap on them to launch whatever action.You can't like interact with buttonsand things like that within these widgets.They are pretty simple in execution.They are mainly informationaland of course you can tapthat to expand into the applicationto get more informationif you wish to do so.Now the app library isdefinitely a top feature.In fact, it's basicallyfive features in one.So if you swipe all theway over to the right,you'll see the main quoteunquote app library,and this contains all of theapplications on your iPhonesorted categorically by iOS.So in other words, you can't go in hereand rearrange the app librarybased on your preferences.No, it's automatically arranged by iOS.So you can see the variouscategories, Entertainment,Health, and Fitness, and as youcan see launch apps directlyfrom the app library.Now, if you tap on one of thelittle smaller icon groupsthat will open up that entire folderand you can launch apps from there,but if you wanna launchone of the big apps,you just simply tap on the app icon,and that will launch that directly.So as you can see,all the various differenttypes of categories thereand it's all auto-arranged.Now the second part of theapp library is probablyto me the most important partand that is the abilityto remove applicationsfrom your home screen withoutactually deleting the app.So if you long press on an app iconto bring up the context menu,you can remove the app,but notice you have acouple of options here.You have the option to dolike you've pretty muchalways been able to do on iOSand that is deleteand that will actuallyuninstall the application,but there's a new option,Remove from Home Screen.So when you do that, the appgoes away from the home screen,but guess what?It actually still exists on your iPhone.If you swipe over to the app library,let's see what category will Slack be in.Probably like Productivity orperhaps, yeah, Productivity.Let's try that. There we go.So you can see Slack isstill installed on my iPhoneeven though it isn'tdisplayed on the home screen.So that's really cool.Now the third part of the app libraryis the ability to hide orshow home screen pages.So again, going back to thewhole thing about customizingthe look of your home screen.So you go into edit modeand then you see thosepage dots down below,you simply tap on thosepage dots like thisand that brings up theability to edit pages.And what this allows you to do is to showor hide a home screen page.So if I just tap that, itwill hide that third page,tap done, exit jiggle modeand notice I only havetwo home screen pagesrepresented by the two page dots.And we'll talk about thatmessage here in just a second.So you could see, I only havetwo home screen pages nowand the apps that were on that third pagecan still be found, butonly in the app library.Right?So now I'll go back in,reenable that third pageand then I'll tap done, exit jiggle mode,and show you that thirdpage is back just like that.So such a cool new feature in iOS 14.Now here's something to keep in mind.If you go to Settings,you'll find a new home screen section,and this allows you to decide what happenswhen you download apps from the App Store.So right now, if you download an app,it will add that app to the home screen,or you can choose to have that appadded to the app library onlyand skip the home screen altogether.So depending on yourpreference, you can set that up.That's really cool.All right, so the fourthpillar, if you will,of the app library is theability to just simply go inand search for your favoriteapplications, just like that.And the fifth item is theability to view a listof all the installed applicationsin alphabetical orderno less on your iPhone.And you can even use a longpress on these applicationsto invoke quick action shortcuts.You can even tap anddrag to the home screenif you wish to do that.Let me show you how that works.But the point is in iOS 14,the app library really changes the gameand it is definitely worthyof being included on this listas one of the bestfeatures to come to iOS 14.What do you guys thinkabout the app library?Let me know down below in the comments.And here is one that is unsurprisinglyvery high on my list 4K YouTube supportfinally comes to the iPhone.So if you venture into theexperimental Safari settings,you'll find a toggleto enable VP9 decoding.And that's importantbecause 4K YouTube videosare encoded with the VP9 codec.So you'll find that even now,when you open up the YouTube app,you can select 2160P for the resolution.Now, I know the iPhonedisplay is not a 4K display.However, it is a higherresolution than 1080P.So that bump in resolutionis going to make a differenceon your iPhone, on your iPad,et cetera, but not just that,it's also the bit rate,so you get a higherbit rate with 4K videosand that's gonna make thevideos look better as well.So needless to say,4K video on YouTube is a welcome addition.Another huge feature for iOS 14is the ability to change the default emailand browser applications.So you could use for instance,Gmail in Chrome insteadof the Mail app in Safari.Now, unfortunately thisisn't working just yet,but 9to5Mac's Filipe Espositowas able to take a closerlook at this featureand basically there will be anew default application optionin the settings for choosingyour favorite app to use.Now on the surface,emojis search may notseem like a big deal,but have you ever tried tosearch for an emoji characterand you just couldn't findwhat you were looking for?Like I'm searching for pizza.I can't remember exactly where pizza was,but you can now search just like this.Let me show you.I'm going to just type in oruse quick type to put in pizza.Bam, just like that.And I know this isn't a shinynew feature like widgetsor the app library even,but this is a huge time saverfor those of you who use emoji a lot.What do you guys think?Let me know down below in the comments.And plus one for privacy.There is a new approximatelocation option in iOS 14and it is awesome.Again, not a shiny feature,not one that really stands out,but super useful.So under privacy locationin the Settings appfor your individual apps,you'll see a precise locations switch.Now, if you enable this,it will work like iOS has alwaysworked with your location.It will give that applicationyour precise location based on GPS.And that's obviouslysomething you want to enableif you're using somethinglike a navigation appor Google maps, for instance,but if you're giving youa location to a websiteor even a weather app,a lotta times a preciselocation isn't necessary.You can just enable theapproximate location,but if the application works betterusing a precise location,you can easily enable that as well.So it's just nice to have the optionnot to be tracked directly where you areand just give an approximate location.For instance, I think thisis perfect for websitesthat just want to knowlike what city you're in.You don't have to give themyour exact street address or whatever.You can just tell them where you arein an approximate sense.And that is super nicefor privacy in iOS 14.Now, I hesitated to placethe updated Siri interfaceon the list, but I thought,yeah, I'll go aheadand do it because I dothink it is really cool.Previously in iOS,Siri would basicallyblackout the entire screen.Here on iOS 14, it sort ofblurs out the background,but now you have the option tokeep the background displayedalong with your Siri requests.So it doesn't take the context away.So for instance, you'relooking at Instagramand you wanna ask Siri aquestion, you could do so.It doesn't whisk you away from Instagram.It just super imposes Siri on top.Now the downside isthat you can't interfacewith your phone without dismissing Siri.So just keep that in mind.And then last but not leasttons of Music app updates.So one of my favorite features is the factthat now on the Now Playing view,you get your album artworkand you'll get a color match background,which looks amazing.So you no longer have toopen up the live lyricsor the time track lyricsto view that background.It looks really good.Now another cool feature is the factthat the Music app willremember where you left offeven if you force close the Music app,it'll remember the song you were playingand also the location of the playhead.You also notice subtle haptic feedbackwhen interacting withthe transport controlsand there's a new auto play feature,which will continue playing musicwhen it gets to the end of your queue.So you see that's theend of my queue there,but simply tap the infinity iconand similar music will continue playing.So it'll, auto-populate all that musicand it'll continue to play.And of course you can goin and curate this as well.So I can rearrange it or Ican outright remove songsthat I don't want to appear or play.So that's nice.So ladies and gentlemen,that is a look at my top iOS 14 features.What do you guys think?Let me know down belowin the comment section.Also thumbs up this videoif you appreciated it.That helps other people find it as well.And also subscribe formore videos like this.This is Jeff with 9to5Macand extra special thanksto Zugu case for sponsoring 9to5Mac.Zugu makes the Alpha Casespecifically designed forthe 2020 11 inch iPad Pro.It has, get this, eight builtin magnetic viewing angles.I just love that.Of course, the Alpha casefeatures Apple Pencil storageand supports ApplePencil wireless charging.Click the link in the descriptionto get your Zugu Alpha Case today.Special thanks to Zugu forsponsoring 9to5Mac on YouTube.(gentle music)\n"