10 Great Updates in iOS 10
I’ve been playing with the new beta for iOS 10 and I have to admit, it’s a great improvement over iOS 9. In no particular order, here are 10 new features I’m really enjoying:
- Slide to camera — On the lock screen you can now slide the entire view to the left to reveal the camera. This is much faster and easier than the old style of swiping up on the camera icon. Considering how often we access the camera, this is a great addition.
2. New notifications design — This is mostly a styling update, but I much prefer the new notifications. In the past Apple seemed to try and remove as many containers as possible, but sometimes containers are actually really helpful.
3. Memories — I usually dislike the automatic grouping and features in Photos. That said, Memories is different. They auto create a “Best of last 3 months” album and generate a video as well. It’s surprisingly nice to watch.
4. Unread filter — Mail now has an easy filter for “unread” which when tapped collapses your inbox to show just the unread email. This is easy to access and really helpful for someone who has a lot of email to sort through.
5. Night Shift — Accessible from the slide-up panel, turning on “Night Shift” makes the screen much easier on the eyes late at night. It takes a little getting used to, but it’s a nice feature and one that I’ve already used a few times.
6. Large Emoji — I thought I was going to hate this, but it’s actually pretty fun. Messages look nicer and it’s a bit more emotional with the large emoji. The first 3 are large, after that they get small again.
7. Messenger Gifs — This is another one of those features we’ve seen in other apps. That said, I’ve found I’m already using it and it makes chat more fun.
8. Notification center (left area) — When you swipe to the left from the home screen you’ll notice an improved notification center. I never one used the old notification center but the new one is actually useful. I’m a fan.
9. Go back header — It used to aggravate me when I’d click a link from an email and the “go back” arrow in the top left corner of the status bar would conceal the cellular and wifi strength indicators. Not any more. This is much better.
10. Bottom pull up draw — Apple has been consistent with their card style design and rounded corners. The bottom pull up draw looks much cleaner in the redesign.
There are also features I don’t care for much. In messenger you can send texts with funny effects, but I haven’t found them natural to use. The music player, maps, and other native apps have also been improved but again, not necessarily features I’m using much of. The beta is still buggy with messenger and various apps freezing up on me, but that’s what I get for playing with a beta build. I’m sure that’ll be fixed before the go live.
Have any favorite features? Share them in the comments or tweet me @alexcapecelatro.
