New iOS 10 Features

10 New iOS 10 Features That Will Make You Want to Upgrade

iOS 10 has hit iPhones worldwide. It’s a complete renovation for your phone – and one that’s free for all (That is, if you have an iPhone or iPad that can run it. That would be iPhone 5 and later, 2012 iPad and later, 2013 iPad Mini and later, or the 2015 iPod Touch).

It is massive, easily the most significant update to the operating system that is powering the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. iOS 10 comes with many new and important core technologies like Differential Privacy, plus a bunch of improvements that makes the case to upgrade a strong one. Apple assures that you’ll be able to do all the things you love “more expressive, more dynamic, and more fun than ever with iOS 10. The design is getting cleaner and more consistent. The architecture is becoming more open and convenient. The wiring, much smarter and even more secure. It has taken time – and pain – getting the physics, extensibility and intelligence to this point. Now Apples gets to – has to – pay it all off.

Apple has opened up additional aspects of iOS to developers, turning Siri, Phone, Messages and Maps into extensible software platforms in their own right. It also fixes a number of pain points, makes expanded use of 3D Touch and haptic feedback and completes Apple’s overhaul of iOS that began with iOS 7, with its refined look and subtle design changes. Some of the new features might cause confusion or become the subject of strongly differing opinions. That’s natural. Balancing an operating system that’s meant to be both convenient and secure, accessible to the mainstream yet productive enough for power users, is a problem that gets tougher every year.

There’s a lot to look forward to in iOS 10 and this roundup is our attempt at giving you guys a comprehensive overview of some of its new capabilities and enhancements that you’re going to fall in love with. So without further ado, here are 10 new iOS 10 Features.

10 New iOS 10 Features

New Lock Screen
Redesigned Lock Screen

Redesigned Lock Screen. Image Credit: Everyeye.it

This might be the first thing you notice. When Steve Jobs first showed off the Lock screen in 2007, it had wallpaper, the date and time, and let you “Slide to unlock” your iPhone. Over the years, Apple added notifications and Notification Center, Control Center, fast camera access, Siri, suggested apps, fast Apple Pay access, and more. It has been completely redesigned.

The old slide-to-unlock lock screen is no more; in its place is one you press the home button to unlock. You can try that out in practice just by locking your phone and waking it up. All you really need to know is that you press the home button to do everything.

New Messages
Revamped Messages

Revamped Messages. Image Credit: iDownloadBlog

You can try these out straight away, though not all of them will work with people who haven’t yet upgraded to iOS 10 themselves.

The first things to have a go with are Apple’s own improvements to the app. You can find those by clicking the little arrow that’s appeared next to the field where you write messages – which will bring up options for sending handwritten messages, drawings, heartbeats or pictures.

But by far the biggest change is the introduction of apps to Messages. You get on that by clicking the little icon that looks like the App Store – in there, you’ll find a host of different apps including ones for finding gifs and others for sending people money.

Useful notifications
Useful Notifications

Useful Notifications. image Credit: iDownloadBlog

Notifications have got much richer (and also much bigger). Now, when they pop up on your lock screen you can hard or long press to interact with them, and if apps are properly made for iOS 10 then you’ll even be able to see a mini version of them as you do.

The best app to try this out with at the moment is the Messages app, when someone sends you a text. But integration should be coming to most apps soon, when you’ll get a proper chance to try them all out.

Useful 3D Touch
Added 3D Touch functionality

Added 3D Touch functionality. Image Credit: iDownloadBlog

And that same theme runs into the home screen, when you’re on it. If you hard press on an app icon with 3D Touch, you’ll get a mini version of it that you can interact with. That means that you can see who you’ve got emails from, for instance, or click to on Music to start some of your recently played albums. Each of those things can be added as a widget to the lock screen, making them even quicker to view.

Apple Maps Redesign
Apple Maps. Image Credit: Scoopnest.com

Apple Maps. Image Credit: Scoopnest.com

Apple’s controversial but hugely improved mapping has received perhaps the biggest renovation in iOS 10. The design is very different, and as are the features that are included. It now gives you the opportunity to have your routes change as you move along, and to zoom in and out while you’re on your journey. And it’ll let you schedule stop-offs, finding coffee or petrol while you’re on your journey. Apple Maps can work with third-party apps and calendars. It can also now search along your route. Using the search bar at the bottom will bring up a range of suggestions – including things pulled out of your mail and other apps, which the phone thinks that you’re likely to be heading to.

Apple Music Gets a Tweak to Make Finding Music Easier
 Apple Music. Image Credit: iDownloadBlog

Apple Music. Image Credit: iDownloadBlog

When Apple Music came out last year, it was interesting and exciting but also a little confusing. Thankfully that’s been scrapped this year – and in its place comes a far easier to use design. Gone are the different confusing sections like “New” and “Connect”, with their features being folded into other parts of the app. In its place is an app that is like the rest of iOS 10 – slightly less packed with information, but with that information far more organized.

Deleting apps
Delete Stock Apps. Image Credit: iDownloadBlog

Delete Stock Apps. Image Credit: iDownloadBlog

There’s never been a finally more heartfelt and true than this one: You can finally delete the stock apps that you don’t use from your home screen. So, for example, you can get rid of the Stocks app that you never use to check how the markets are doing; you can get rid of the Tips app that you never use to see how to use your phone. It’s done as you’d expect to delete it. Just tap and hold on the relevant app and click the cross in the corner. Some of the apps aren’t actually deleted, but all of them can be recovered through the App Store all the same. Just search for the app that you want to get back and it’ll look like you’re downloading it, but actually it’ll just appear back on your phone.

Changes to Photos
Smarter Photos. Image Credit: TheCanadianTechie

Smarter Photos. Image Credit: TheCanadianTechie

Photos has become far cleverer. Photos will now tag and organize photos automatically, which will hopefully improve its organization. It will continue doing this by date and location as always, but can now also automatically build albums with the new Memories tab. Here, you’ll find albums that Photos creates all by itself, usually based around things like vacations. Using artificial intelligence, the app can also now search for people’s faces in the app and can recognize objects that it will automatically tag so you can find them later by searching. This works for all kinds of things, like mountains, cars, bikes, cats, sunsets, and plenty more.

Cleverer Siri
Cleverer Siri. Image Credit: WIRED

Cleverer Siri. Image Credit: WIRED

Apple is finally letting other apps have Siri talk to them, and them talk back. Though before you get too excited, it’s a bit limited. Siri can access 6 different types of apps: ride, booking, messaging, photo search, payments, VoIP calling and workouts. So you can ask for a ride to somewhere, for instance, and Siri will be able to ask Uber for a car; or you can ask to send someone money and it’ll sort that out for you. Apps are just being updated to make this work correctly, but you should be able to try it out in apps like Uber from the beginning.

Better keyboard
Better Keyboard. Image Credit: CNET

Better Keyboard. Image Credit: CNET

This might not be the kind of thing that you’d want to try out straight away. But it’s the sort of thing that will gradually improve your life, quietly and slowly – which is actually a great representative for how iOS 10 feels. The new keyboard can read your messages, so that it knows what people are asking. And it can then raid information to give up what people are asking for, quickly. So, for instance, if someone asks for your email, it’ll just pop up in the suggestions box. No typing for you – you’ll be able to send it straight away.

So,

And with that, we complete our list of 10 new iOS 10 Features. This post is by no means the complete overview of the major features in iOS 10. There are plenty more and some awesome ones are hidden under the hood, the ones Apple isn’t advertising. We’ll be talking about our favorite lesser-known new features in the next post.

That said, if you have discovered a cool nice-to-have or lesser known feature not mentioned in this article, tell us in comments and we’ll update. Share your experience with iOS 10.