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iOS 14... Now that's Better.

Apple just announced their latest iOS update, the iOS 14. We have always complained about Apple providing superficial updates in the past, with no real changes to the user experience, and which do not impact the user in a substantial way. This time however, things are different, and Apple has brought some interesting updates, which, although have been around in Android for quite sometime now, it's still good that Apple embraces it. Here is what's new in iOS 14.

Widgets: Finally Apple brings widgets to the home-screen. They provide information from various apps like news, calendar, fitness, etc. right to your home-screen. Although this feature has been around in Android for years now, iOS goes a step ahead and has added a Smart Stack. It intelligently curates the widgets you use the most during a particular time of the day, based on past usage, and displays that during that time. This feature, if executed well, can actually be pretty impressive, and a really meaningful and utilitarian use of widgets.

The App Library: Probably the feature iOS users have been missing the most, is some sort of an app drawer, or in this case, The App Library. Here again it goes a little further from the way Android implements it, and it is something similar to Xiaomi's implementation. The software automatically groups the apps based on their categories. So for example, all games would be bunched into one folder, all social media apps into one, all utility apps into another folder. This makes it easier for a user to look for an app. Over and above this categorization, it again uses the neural processor to automatically predict the most probable app you might need during a particular time of the day, based on usage history, and shows it on the top in suggestions. This again, if executed correctly, and actually works as planned, would be an impressive feat by Apple, and a step in the right direction.

Compact Calls: Something for which iOS has faced a lot of criticism in the past, is that any incoming calls would take up the whole screen, thus disrupting the task at hand. iOS has taken cues from Android here, and introduced Compact Calls, which shows the caller information only in a small region at the top of the screen, thus leaving the screen usable for the task at hand.

Picture in Picture: Another thing which was heavily praised in Android was the Picture in Picture feature introduced with Android 8. This allows you to continue watching a video or a video call in a smaller, floating window on your screen, while you navigate your way through another app. This is exactly what iOS 14 brings, and the users are bound to appreciate this feature.

Other Updates: There are several more smaller changes which iOS 14 brings. Firstly, we have iMessage. With the new update, iMessage is set to improve, and brings several features, similar to Whatsapp into this service. We can now pin up to 9 chats, mention people in chats, reply to specific messages in groups, and much more. Updates have also been made to Maps, with features like biking routes, elevation for cyclists, etc. It has a heavy focus on the privacy of the user. Translate is a new app which Apple has developed, which translates a conversation in real time, and auto detects the input language, and generates audio and text translations of the conversation.

These were some of the major changes which iOS 14 brings. There are many more smaller, changes and also some more features and collaborations, which have been linked at the end.

Thoughts: This is not a comparison between Android and iOS. Although Android has been using these features since some time now, it is good that iOS realizes the need for these, and has managed to even improve to a great extent on this and bring it to their new Software. Phones all the way back to the iPhone 6s will be receiving the iOS 14 update, and this time the updates are actually substantial, and significantly useful to the users. The official release date has not been announced yet, but it should be somewhere near the end of September, based on past trends. Overall it is an impressive update, and we are sure Apple users would enjoy the features it brings.

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The contents of this post are purely opinions of the writer and are in no way targeted to undermine or promote any particular company. These are his thoughts on this topic, and a means to spread information.

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