business productivity because mobile devices have taken over such a large part of the workload. Mobile devices now make up 60% of the endpoints in an average business network and do as much as 80% of the workload. So, making it easier to navigate phone apps, improving messaging speed, and other improvements mean great things for work productivity as well as cool new features for the user. In this article, we’ll take you through an overview of the cool new updates you’ll find when you upgrade to iOS 14. (Note: All photos are from Apple.)
Things to Get Excited About in the iOS 14 Update
Better Screen Space Use
Most people multi-task on their devices. For example, you may need to look up an email while also on Facetime with someone. It can also be annoying when you’re in an app on your phone and an incoming call takes over the entire screen.
The new OS update gives you more of your screen back and makes multi-tasking much easier with a new compact UI.
Incoming calls now show in a banner at the top, not the entire screen
Picture in Picture allows you to watch videos or be on Facetime while using another app
Siri also has a new compact design, allowing you to use more of your screen
App Library Organizes Your Apps
The more apps you add to your phone, the harder they are to find. Swiping through screens takes up valuable time and search doesn’t always work if you know an app by its icon, not its name.
The new App Library automatically organizes all apps on your phone into categories. You can access each app with one tap and can see them all on a single screen instead of having to look through several.
Advanced Widgets Do More
Widgets were always nice, but they just sat over there on the far left-side screen of your iPhone, not really interacting with your Home screen.
Widgets are going to become your new “best friend” in the iOS 14 update. They’ve not only become more powerful to bring you more helpful information, they can also now be added to your Home screen.
Add widgets to your Home Screen
Size widgets small, medium, or large
Stack up to 10 widgets together and swipe to page through them
There are more widgets, for everything from music to podcasts to Siri Suggestions.
Developers can now use a new API to create their own widgets
More Efficient Messaging Reduce the risk of sending a message to the wrong text conversation by pinning your most important threads to the top of the Messages window. They’ll always be easy to find and you won’t have to scroll through several conversations trying to guess which one you need. Other ways that messaging has become easier on iPhone include:
Call out a person in a group text using a name mention
Set a group conversation photo using a photo, emoji, or Memoji
Inline replies allow you to reply directly to a specific message in a group conversation
More Helpful Siri If you only used Siri for setting reminders, you’ll find that it’s much more helpful once you’ve updated to iOS 14. Siri now knows 20x more facts than just three years ago. It also has new voices in more languages. Some of the other Siri improvements include:
Ability to send audio messages
More capabilities for web answers
Siri can now give you cycling directions
While navigating Apple Maps you can tell Siri to send your ETA to a contact
Support for over 65 language pairs for translations
Safari Security & Performance Improvements Safari has also been upgraded in this update. Improvements include the ability to monitor your passwords and let you know if a breach has been discovered. You’ll also find:
Web page translation capabilities
Website Privacy Report button
Up to 2x faster JavaScript performance than Chrome on Android