The iOS 12 update matters, because it will be coming to all the devices that support iOS 11 and it brings a bundle of new and exciting features that are set to change how you use your iPhones and iPads.
The World Wide Developers Conference hosted by Apple on Monday saw a bunch of operating systems rolling out of the mill. The company announced new versions of MacOS, WatchOS, tvOS and iOS. The iOS 12 update matters, because it will be coming to all the devices that support iOS 11, for one. For two, it brings a bundle of new and exciting features that are set to change how you use your iPhones and iPads. Here are 10 of them.
We don’t really know right now if Siri gets better with the iOS12 update, but Apple is definitely giving it more work. Siri Shortcuts will allow Siri to access apps and get work done from them. You will be able to add personal search queries within apps with an „Add to Siri“ option.
For example, the Tile app on iPhone connects to tiny Bluetooth trackers that you can attach to your frequently misplaced items like your phone, keys, or wallet. Now instead of opening the app and locating your keys (or other stuff), you can just ask Siri „where are my keys“ and it will locate them for you via the Tile app. Smooth.
And it is just scratching the surface. Imagine being able to integrate Siri with every app, creating custom shortcuts to perform certain actions in the app. It is something similar to Alexa skills that developers can create for their apps and integrate into Siri.
The photos app on iOS12 gets an improved search mechanism, so you are bound to get a photo you are looking for, faster. Firstly, the new ’search suggestions‘ would highlight important things before you being your search. It uses photo recognition to filter out photos it thinks are important to you according to people, place or activity in them.
There is a new ‚For You‘ tab that shows customised actions and photos sorted according to those actions.
After Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp announced their group video calling feature, Apple has also introduced Group FaceTime with iOS 12. But the number of people that can talk together is huge.
Group FaceTime will allow you to connect with up to 32 people simultaneously. And all the people you are chatting with are arranged on your screen in a dynamic fashion. The silent ones are given small space, as the app detects who is talking and raises the chat to a bigger size.
Group FaceTime can also be accessed directly within groups in Messages and works across iPhone, iPad and Macs.
Like Google’s JoMo – Joy of Missing out (a phone notification), Apple has also introduced Screen Time feature that informs you about your phone’s usage. On a weekly basis, it will report what all apps you used and how much time you spent on your beloved iPhone or iPad.
You can also set limits to your phone’s usage and get alerts when you flout them, create downtime for a period which will block all unimportant apps. App Limit is a feature that lets you set a timer on the how long you want to spend on an App.
„Do not disturb during bedtime“ is another feature to help you stop your phone from annoying you. It not only mutes all notification sounds during bedtime, but also keeps them away from home screen. You don’t hear them, you don’t see them notifications.
Apple has upped the ante when it comes to sharing emotions with the new iOS 12 update. For starters, the AI can detect your tongue. You can now stick out our tongue and see your Animoji do the same. Ghost, Koala, Tiger, T. Rex are added to the big close Animoji family.
What’s more interesting is being able to create your own Avatar. The Memoji feature allows you to create an Animoji of yourself and you can also customise it further.
A feature even iPhone user was waiting for – grouped notifications. AT LAST IT ARRIVES. Now if you have hundreds of messages from your YouTube fans they won’t show as hundred notifications on your lock screen but one with a count of hundred. Basically, iOS 12 combines notifications from the same app together and there is less clutter.
Some stock iOS apps are getting an overhaul on the iOS 12. The Apple News gets a new Browse tab and a new sidebar on the iPad that makes it easy to look out for topics that you are looking for. Simpler navigation, to say the least.
Stocks app also gets an update with Apple News now ingrained within the Stocks app. It is built from scratch, gets a brand new UI and will come to iPad too (wasn’t present earlier). Also, iBooks is now renamed Apple Books.
New AR features have made it to iOS 12 that are riding on a new basic structure that allows creating and sharing 3D drawings. A USDZ file format optimized for AR sharing will be supported on iOS and macOS devices and so will be popular third-party software such as all of the relevant apps in Adobe’s Creative Cloud suite.
Apple also announced Measure, an AR tool that will help you take measurements of a real object using your phone’s camera. You can tap on the object and start dragging the line to measure it in real-time.
ARKit 2 was also announced at the event for developers and brings new AR tools to the table to create plethora of Augmented Reality apps.
iOS 12 is Apple’s next major update and a big chance for Apple to undo the damage done with iOS 11. According to Apple, with iOS 12 it is „doubling down on performance.“ Apps will open 40 per cent faster than before, keyboard will appear 50 per cent faster and the camera app will launch 70 per cent faster on older devices with the latest iOS 12. Keep your fingers crossed.
Also Read: WWDC 2018: iOS 12 and macOS Mojave big announcements, new Mac and iPhone will come later
You may not want to count this as a feature, but Apple giving support for iOS 12 on older legacy devices is something Android phone companies should copy, not just the notch. Here are the list of devices iOS 12 will be coming to.
iPhone X
iPhone 8 and 8 Plus
iPhone 7 and 7 Plus
iPhone 6S and 6S Plus
iPhone 6 and 6 Plus
iPhone SE
iPhone 5s
12.
