With iOS 15 shortly approaching, I wished to take a while to revisit my favourite iOS 14 features and study how they’ve held up over time. Are there apparent areas for enchancment? Watch our iOS 14 rewind review, as we take one other look at the software program that drives the iPhone, and make sure to subscribe to 9to5Mac on YouTube for extra protection.
Compact telephone interface
The compact telephone interface is one thing that I immediately fell in love with upon first attempting it, and it stays one in all my favourite iOS 14 features to this present day. Incoming telephone calls now not steal focus from the present app or web site that I’m viewing, which is a enormous enchancment over how iOS dealt with incoming telephone calls previous to iOS 14.
With the compact telephone interface, incoming calls are offered as a banner notification at the top of the display screen. This design permits you to proceed a present job, uninterrupted, whereas deciding how you can deal with the incoming name.
Long-term verdict: The compact telephone interface is a extremely helpful characteristic, and I can’t imagine went over a dozen iOS releases with out it. That acknowledged, I typically really feel like the compact telephone interface and the iPhone’s proximity sensor aren’t on the similar web page, inflicting occasional points with unintentional contact enter. Have you had a related expertise with the compact telephone interface? Let me know in the feedback.
Video: iOS 14 rewind review
Sponsor: Special due to TenorShare, creators of Reiboot – Download Tenorshare Reiboot now.
Subscribe to 9to5mac on YouTube for more videos
Choose default browser and default mail app
The potential to decide on a default browser is nice for these of you who like to make use of different browsers like Firefox, Microsoft Edge, DuckDuckGo, Brave, Opera, and so forth.
In addition to selecting a default browser, iOS 14 additionally permits customers to set their most popular mail app. Like third-social gathering browsers, there isn’t any scarcity of third-social gathering mail purchasers for iOS. Some of the common mail purchasers embody Outlook, Gmail, Spark, Airmail, and Newton Mail.
Long-term verdict: Default app performance was a little gradual out of the gate, and there have been points with the chosen apps reverting back to the stock Mail and Safari app after reboots. There was additionally a problem with “mailto” hyperlinks not working correctly for customers that had their default browser set to Safari. Both of those points finally acquired mounted through an iOS replace.
In future updates, I’d wish to see default app performance straight selectable through the Mail and Safari preferences, as a substitute of getting to go to the preferences of the app that you just’d wish to set as default. I’d additionally wish to see Apple take away the affirmation dialogue at any time when tapping mailto: hyperlinks that take you to a third-social gathering default mail app.
Those points apart, the potential to set each default mail and browser apps is a characteristic that iOS customers have been clamoring to have for years, and it’s lastly potential in iOS 14.
App Clips
App Clips are light-weight, smaller parts of an app which are immediately accessible while you want them. Weighing in at 10MB or much less, App Clips might be downloaded shortly to entry elements of an app while you don’t have already got the major app downloaded. An App Clip might let you demo the first degree of a recreation, or shortly entry the menu and ordering interface whereas at your favourite restaurant.
-
Phoenix 2 Prologue – an App Clip demo recreation
You can entry App Clips straight from a Safari app banner, through QR-model App Clip codes that may additionally incorporate an NFC tag, through hyperlinks in the Messages app, and in Place Cards inside the Maps app. App Clips additionally work with Apple Pay, Sign in with Apple, and have a handy hyperlink to obtain the full utility.
Long-term verdict: App Clips are perfect for utilizing whereas out an about, however the COVID-19 pandemic restricted the characteristic’s visibility. Once issues absolutely open back up, App Clips have the potential to extend in reputation.
Related video: iOS 14 top features
Picture in Picture
The addition of Picture in Picture is one thing that I’ve been wanting for years on iOS. Picture in Picture, which was beforehand solely accessible on iPhone through a common jailbreak tweak, was one in all the foremost the explanation why I all the time appeared ahead to jailbreaking my iPhone. Now accessible by default in iOS 14, Picture in Picture permits you to watch video content material whereas concurrently looking the net, ship textual content messages, and so forth.
Long-term verdict: In actual world utilization, Picture in Picture has been a little bit of a disappointment for me, however the blame lies at the toes of the builders **cough** Google **cough** that refuse to assist it. For instance, YouTube TV, my go-to streaming tv app, outright lacks assist for Picture in Picture. Even worse, customary YouTube, whereas capable of using Picture in Picture by means of workarounds, doesn’t actually play good with the characteristic, both. Obviously this isn’t Apple’s fault, however Google has made the determination to restrict or outright refuse to assist Picture in Picture. At least corporations like Netflix do it proper.
Privacy enhancements
There are many privateness-centric enhancements featured in iOS 14, however the following three stand out to me the most:
Approximate location assist
Instead of giving an app entry to your actual location, customers now have the choice of creating an approximate location. This characteristic protects your privateness by offering a wider location scope, whereas nonetheless putting you in the normal space.
Only entry chosen photographs
Instead of giving an app entry to your total photograph library, now you can restrict photograph sharing to designated photographs of your selecting.
App Privacy labels
The App Store’s App Privacy labels characteristic empowers customers by offering deeper insights into how an app makes use of your private information.
Long-term verdict: iOS 14 is a enormous win for customers’ privateness, however there are enhancements that may be made. For starters, I’d like the potential to make approximate location the default international choice, as a substitute of getting to manually select it every time my location is requested by a new app. I’d additionally like the potential to offer apps entry to total albums of photographs, as a substitute of getting to pick particular person photographs one-by-one. The particular person photograph choice is cumbersome, and makes it much less doubtless that individuals will truly use it.
Home Screen enhancements
One of the greatest additions to iOS 14 is the potential so as to add or take away total Home Screen pages in simply a few faucets. Thanks to the new App Library in iOS 14, it’s additionally potential to take away particular person apps or total folders from the Home Screen, whereas maintaining them put in in your iPhone.
Long-term verdict: Being capable of edit pages in iOS 14 affords customers extra management over the Home Screen expertise, and this characteristic has held up properly. However, I want the web page modifying interface had extra customization choices for shortly shifting apps and folders between pages, and for rearranging the order of pages.
Related video: 250+ iOS 14 features
App Library
The App Library is a catch-all location the place all of the apps put in in your iPhone might be discovered. Apps are routinely sorted in pre-named classes that work equally to folders, however customers haven’t any management over class names, or how apps are sorted. The App Library additionally features the potential to seek for a particular app and consider all apps in an alphabetically sorted record.
Long-term verdict: I like the thought of the App Library, primarily as a result of it’s what makes a part of iOS 14’s Home Screen enhancements potential, however it’s largely a combined bag. After utilizing the App Library for the final 9 months, I discover that Apple’s auto-sorted classes can usually be tough to parse on the fly. I a lot favor the alphabetically sorted record that seems when tapping the search field, and I want there was an choice to solely show this record of apps when utilizing the App Library.
Music app enhancements
Several of the Music app enhancements are visible upgrades, reminiscent of the colour-matched now-enjoying interface that corresponds to the album paintings. The new now-enjoying interface is similar to Spotify, including a extra fascinating visible aptitude to the inventory Music app.
But maybe the finest new addition to the Music app in iOS 14 is the inclusion of AutoPlay, which coincidently, is one other Spotify characteristic. AutoPlay continues music playback when you attain the finish of your music queue, affording steady playback that’s themed round the songs that had been beforehand enjoying.
Long-term verdict: The Music app in iOS 14 is one in all iOS’ finest new software program updates, even when a lot of it was influenced by Spotify. What’s even higher is that the upcoming release of iOS 14.5 will convey much more enhancements to the Music app, reminiscent of the potential to share lyrics, up to date pop-over menus, and a new swipe gesture interface for shortly managing your play queue.
In gentle of the potential to set the default mail and browser functions, the truth that you just can’t set a default music participant is a obtrusive omission. iOS 14.5 addresses that situation, albeit in type of a lackluster approach. In iOS 14.5, Apple uses Siri intelligence to pick music companies primarily based on listening conduct. If you ask Siri to play a music, it might ask you which of them service, reminiscent of Spotify, that you just’d like to make use of for playback. Unfortunately, there stays no devoted setting to completely configure a default music service.
Emoji search
The potential to shortly search inside an ever-rising cache of emoji characters is surprisingly helpful. This iOS 14 enhancement helps me to be extra productive and artistic when engaged in conversations.
Long-term verdict: In future variations of iOS, Apple might make emoji even higher by permitting customers to create emoji favorites, or disable emoji characters and classes that they by no means use. That mentioned, I’m proud of the addition of emoji search. Instead of getting to swipe by way of pages and pages of characters that I by no means use, the new search interface makes it tremendous-straightforward to search out the actual emoji that I’m in search of.
Related video: top iOS 14 hidden features
Widgets
iOS 14 introduced widgets to the foremost iPhone Home Screen for the first time, and this closely influenced person customization. There are many default widgets in iOS 14, however it was the availability of third-social gathering Home Screen widgets, especially ones that provided aesthetic customization, that made waves with iPhone customers.
iOS 14 widgets introduced forth a complete new class of apps, reminiscent of Widgetsmith, which paved the approach for in depth Home Screen customization. Coupled with extra pleasant icon theming capability, additionally made potential in iOS 14, the look of the Home Screen has by no means been extra customizable or extra versatile on a inventory iPhone.
Long-term verdict: Combined with the new iOS 14 Home Screen controls and App Library, Widgets are one other nice approach to alter the look of the iPhone. Hopefully Apple builds on this momentum and permits extra widgets sizes and deeper widget interactivity straight from the Home Screen.
9to5Mac’s Take
By and enormous, the launch of iOS 14 has been a main success, and Apple has addressed tons of problems with concern, whereas concurrently offering the kind of fan service that makes this launch a favourite amongst Apple customers. I feel iOS 14 has greater than lived as much as its preliminary billing, and is one in all the finest iPhone software program releases in its storied historical past.
Of course, there are lots of issues that Apple might repair, which I’ve outlined all through this review, that would make the iPhone expertise even higher. Here’s hoping that Apple addresses at least a few of these issues in the upcoming release of iOS 15.
What are your lengthy-time period ideas on iOS 14? Do you agree with my observations and commentary? Feel free to drop a remark down under along with your enter.
FTC: We use revenue incomes auto affiliate hyperlinks. More.
