Apple AAPL +2.54% previewed the iOS 10 features at the Worldwide Developers Conference back in June. Last week, the golden master version of iOS 10 was released for public beta testers. And now iOS 10 is available for the public. The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus – which were announced last week – ships with iOS 10
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Not much has changed in terms of design in iOS 10, but many of Apple’s stock apps have been overhauled with many new features. So what is included in the update?
Apple Music Redesigned And Now Lets You Sing Along
Apple Music redesign / Photo Credit: Apple
Apple Music has been completely revamped. The colors are now brighter. And the lyrics of songs now appear toward the bottom of the screen. So now you can sing along as you listen to songs.
Lyrics feature in Apple Music / Photo Credit: Apple
And Apple Music now has a new Discovery Mix feature that offers personalized music selections based on your tastes. This feature makes Apple Music more competitive against Spotify.
Emoji Suggestions And A Size Increase
Emoji suggestions / Photo Credit: Apple
Now when you type out a sentence and tap on the emoji keyboard, iOS 10 will suggest some emoji to use instead. For example: if you type the word “taco,” then iOS 10 will suggest that emoji. And emoji in the Messages app for iOS 10 are now three times bigger:
Emoji size increase / Photo Credit: Apple
Control Center Redesigned
Control Center Redesigned / Photo Credit: Apple
Apple has slightly changed the design of the Control Center, which is the menu that appears when you swipe up from the bottom of the screen. Now you can swipe over to the right of the Control Center to see a new music menu that shows the cover art, audio controls and listening device selector. If you have “Internet of Things” devices, then you will see some options in the Control Center for the Home app (more on that below).
Major Changes In The Photos App
People section of Photos app / Photo Credit: Apple
You will notice some major changes in the Photos app within iOS 10. Through the iCloud Photo Library, you will see all of your photos from all of your devices and the Places you took them on a map.
The Photos app in iOS 10 will show you people that appears the most under the “People” section of the app. Apple’s advanced deep learning techniques supports facial recognition on iOS done locally within the device, thus ensuring rapid object and scene recognition processing. Around 11 billion computations are calculated per photo to detect objects such as mountains, beaches, dogs and horses.
Your photo library is also analyzed to cluster the people and locations involved in memories to automatically generate photo and video collages. Those collages are known as “memories” and it will have titles like “On the water” if you are at the beach or “On the mountain” if you went for a hike.
Maps Has Been Revamped
Maps app updated in iOS 10 / Photo Credit: Apple
The Maps app has been updated in iOS 10. And the Maps app will predict your usual activities and make suggestions. So if you leave for work at 8AM every day out of habit, then Maps will show you how long your commute will be based on current traffic conditions. Maps will also automatically detect your calendar events of the day and pull up the locations of your meetings.
The Maps app also supports third party apps. So you can book an Uber, pay for it with Apple Pay and monitor the driver status without leaving the Maps app.
Messages Has A Few New Features
Loud bubble effect in the Messages app / Photo Credit: Apple
Apple said that Messages is the most frequently used app on iOS. To make Messages even more fun to use, Apple has created a separate app store for iMessage. Some of the iMessage apps include JibJab, Square Cash, Disney and DoorDash:
Photo apps for iMessages / Photo Credit: Apple
iMessage now supports rich links so you will previews of websites if someone pastes a URL into a message. And videos can be played from within iMessage without actually leaving the Messages app when someone sends you one.
There is also new bubble effect options in Messages. Within iOS 10, you can add bubble effects to iMessage text messages like slam, loud, gentle and invisible ink. The invisible ink effect keeps the message hidden until the recipient slides his or her finger across the particles covering the chat bubble.
There are new tapback responses in the Messages app so you can quickly reply to messages with icons like: heart, thumbs up, thumbs down, “haha”, “!!” or “?” Plus you can hand-write responses in text messages to add a personal touch:
Handwritten messages in iMessage / Photo Credit: Apple
And the Messages app supports full-screen effects like fireworks, confetti, balloons and disco lights. Here is a screenshot of the fireworks effect:
Fireworks effect in the Messages app in iOS 10 / Photo Credit: Apple
New Home App
New Home app / Photo Credit: Apple
Apple has released a new Home app to control a wide variety of “Internet of Things” utilities such as garage doors, thermostats and fans. And iOS 10 includes new categories like cameras and door locks.
The Home app lets you personalize a wallpaper and it automatically detects all of your home accessories. And the Home app allows you to control your home utilities simply by tapping on its respective icon. For example, you can control the light dimmer when you tap on the smart light bulb icon.
Siri also responds to Home commands. For example, you can say “good night” to Siri and the shades can automatically close, the door can automatically lock, the lights can turn off and the thermostat can be automatically adjusted if your home is configured with all of the compatible “Internet of Things” utilities.
The Home app can also be controlled within the Control Center. When you swipe up from the bottom of the screen and swipe to the right, you can see the Home dashboard. For example, you will be able to see a live feed of the camera at your door, interact with the guest through the intercom and even unlock the door all within the Lock Screen.
If you have an Apple TV, then it can be used as a secure point for remote access and automation within the home. So you can still access your “Internet of Things” products even if you are not at home securely with end-to-end encryption. And you can set up automated geofences so when you arrive at home, the garage door will open and the lights will turn on automatically. There is also a Home app for the Apple Watch so you can control your “Internet of Things” utilities from your wrist.
News Is Now More Personalized
News app in iOS 10 / Photo Credit: Apple
The News app has been updated to support enhanced personalization. And the News app in iOS 10 now has a Subscriptions feature so that you can read every article from magazines like National Geographic and newspapers like The Wall Street Journal. Within iOS 10, the News app also now has breaking news notifications sent to the Lock Screen.
Phone App Now Supports Voicemail Transcriptions
Voicemail transcriptions / Photo Credit: Apple
Sometimes you might be in a situation where you cannot answer a phone call because you are in a meeting. Fortunately, iOS 10 now supports voicemail transcriptions so you will be able to read the message that is left on a voicemail to determine how urgent it is. There is also a new feature that determines whether an incoming phone call from an unknown number is “possible spam.”
Quick Action Changes
Quick actions on Weather app icon / Photo Credit: Apple
Apple has enhanced its Quick Actions feature, meaning rich information is now displayed when you push down on app icons using 3D Touch. If you push down on the Mail icon on the Home screen, you will see the faces of your VIP contacts, the number of your total unread emails and the unread emails you have from VIP contacts. Pushing down on the Weather app icon allows you to select cities where you want to see detailed weather information.
QuickType Keyboard Enhancements
QuickType Keyboard Suggestions / Photo Credit: Apple
The QuickType keyboard is known for making intelligent suggestions while you type by predicting what you want to say next. In iOS 10, QuickType will be using Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) to predict longer context. So QuickType will be able to predict responses to some of your incoming messages. For example, if someone asks “where are you,” then the QuickType Keyboard will be able to automatically suggest a response based on your current location via Maps. And if someone asks you for a friend’s email address, then the QuickType Keyboard will be able to automatically determine a response based on your Contacts.
Siri Becomes Smarter
Siri third party app support / Photo Credit: Apple
Siri serves over 2 billion requests per week and Apple has been continuously making improvements to the digital assistant. iOS 10 makes Siri even smarter.
Now you can tell Siri to perform specific commands that depends on third party apps. For example, you can say “Get me a Lyft to the San Francisco airport.” Or you can say “Send a WeChat to Gordon saying I will be a few minutes late.”
User Experience Changes
Raise to wake feature / Photo Credit: Apple
There is a new raise to wake feature in iOS 10. One of the reasons why Apple added this feature is because the Touch ID fingerprint sensor is known for being fast and it “blows past” the notification screen. After you pick up your iPhone to wake it up, your notifications will be right there.
Apple enhanced the Lock Screen by making notifications interactive via 3D Touch. And the notifications appearing in the Lock Screen are now brighter.
How To Get iOS 10
You can upgrade to iOS 10 now through Settings > General > Software Update. Or you can download and install the iOS 10 update by connecting your device to iTunes. iOS 10 is supported by the following devices: iPad (4th generation), iPad Air, iPad Air 2, iPad Pro, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3, iPad mini 4, iPod touch (6th generation), iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone SE, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.
iOS 10 update screen / Screenshot Credit: Amit Chowdhry
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