iOS 10 is Here. What’s New?

iOS 10 is Apple’s latest mobile operating system. Here’s what’s new.

Apple announced iOS 10 earlier this year in June, and it was finally released to the public a couple of days back. There are obviously a ton of changes and improvements, both developer-wise and user-wise. And, just as with any other software, there are also a couple of stuff that is not particularly user-friendly. I will be covering only the changes and improvements, from the users’ perspective, and the little annoying stuff in the new OS and how to get around them. So, let’s begin.

First, a look at some of the cool new features and improvements.

1. DELETING (SOME) STOCK APPS

Maybe Apple heard my prayers?!

iOS finally lets you delete some of the apps that come preinstalled on the phone. Some of the apps, like Messages and Safari, can’t be deleted. But, either way, this is a very much welcomed move by Apple, and I couldn’t be happier. Even if you delete some of the preinstalled apps, you can always download them back onto your phone, from the App Store. Thank you, Apple.

2. MESSAGING IMPROVEMENTS

Messages has a lot more up its sleeve when you are iMessaging someone.

• Messages with links now get sent with a preview of that link.
• You can send your iMessages with expressions, to someone. (Don’t worry, Apple. I won’t mention that this feature is copied from Android )

• You can now set Read Receipts for each individual person.
• Message notifications now show you the whole conversation, when trying to reply to a message directly from a notification.
• In-app message notifications are new.

• You can now choose the quality of the attachments that you wish to send over iMessage
• Words can easily be replaced by Emoji, by tapping on the Emoji button, and tapping the repleacable-by-emoji words which are highlighted. (although SwiftKey did this way back in 2014)
• You can also send animated hearts, heartbreaks, and scribbles, while iMessaging anyone.

• Messages has fullscreen animations too!
• Messages has its own AppStore where you can download iMessage apps for GIFs, stickers, games, and whatnot.

Goodbye, all the gif-keyboard apps! You shall be missed. NOT!

3. MAPS IMPROVEMENTS

• Maps can now display live traffic
• Third-party apps can also integrate their apps with Maps, so that you can use their services from inside the Maps app itself.

4. MAIL IMPROVEMENTS

• Filters have been added to the Mail app. Now, you can filter your mails by tapping the Filter icon on the lower-left corner of the screen.
• Threaded conversations have been redesigned.
• Now, you can easily unsubscribe from annoying newsletters by just tapping on the Unsubscribe button at the top of the mail.

5. WIDGETS

• Widgets can now be accessed from the Notification Center, as well as from the left-most screen on the home screen.
• Widgets that you have not added to the Widgets screen can still be accessed by force-pressing the particular widget’s app’s icon.

6. UNIVERSAL CLIPBOARD

The Universal Clipboard is one of the best features. Shared with MacOS Sierra, the latest macOS, this feature works through iCloud among the devices on which you have signed in with the same Apple ID. You can just Copy something on your phone, and Paste it on your Mac!

7. CONTROL CENTER IMPROVEMENTS

• Control Center has integrated 3D Touch for some of its features, like TorchLight, Timer, Calculator, and especially, Camera, which now offer you options that help you do what you want, faster.

• Control Center has also moved Music to a new second section in the Control Center. Swipe left on the Control Center to access the Music section.
• If you’ve configured any HomeKit devices at home, you should be able to see another panel in the Control Panel, on the right of the Music section, where you can easily control all your Home devices.

8. RAISE TO WAKE

This feature made its first appearance on the Apple Watch, and now, it’s come along to the phone. Now, just raising the phone will wake it up, allowing you to see your lock screen (and the notifications), without the push of a button. This feature is available only on the 6S, 6S+, SE, 7, and the 7+. So, if you’ve got an older phone, *poker face*.

If you don’t like it, you can always disable in the Display & Brightness section in the Settings app.

9. LOCK SCREEN — CAMERA

In iOS 9, there was this small camera button on the right-bottom corner of the lock-screen, and dragging it up would open the camera. iOS 10 makes it a tad easier. Swiping left anywhere on the lock screen takes you to the camera. Not a very creative or important improvement, but it sure makes life a little easier.

10. SIRI AND THIRD-PARTY APPS

You can now use Siri to help you with using third-party apps (at least those which have Siri integrated into them). Siri isn’t on my friend list, but if you’re quite close to her, I’m sure you’ll like this feature a lot.

11. PHOTOS BECOMES MORE INTELLIGENT

Apple has supposedly improved image processing in iOS 10, by adding a touch of intelligence to it.

• You can use the Search feature in the Photos app, to find photos that match your queries, say like “sunset” or “beach”.
• The Photos app can also compile best photos and videos in your camera roll, which were taken at particular places or periods of time, into videos, to highlight a particular visit or time. I just hope Apple doesn’t do what Facebook did .

12. MULTI-LANGUAGE TYPING

If you’re like me and use many keyboards lingually, you can do so more easily on iOS 10. Just select the required languages at Settings > General > Dictionary, and add the matching keyboards in Settings > General > Keyboards. Now, as you type, Autocorrect and Text Prediction will intelligently choose your words for you.

13. SMART HOME MANAGEMENT

iOS 10 brings with it a new app called Home , that helps to manage your home’s smart HomeKit devices. You can also group devices and settings together, so that you can make your smart home do a set of stuff whenever you want, say when you wake up, go to sleep, or even get in the bathtub!

As I mentioned above, Control Center has a new panel especially to control Home devices easily. This panel will not be visible if you have not configured any Home devices, though.

14. SAFARI IMPROVEMENTS

• Split View: You can now view two web pages simultaneously on Safari in iOS 10, on the iPad. This feature is only available on the iPad Air 2, iPad Pro, and the iPad Mini 4.

• You can also close all the tabs easily, by long-pressing on the DONE button (on the iPhone) / TAB VIEW button (on the iPad).

15. NOTIFICATIONS IMPROVEMENTS

• Clearing the Notification Center can be quite an exhausting job, especially if you’ve got a gazillion apps that keep sending you those pesky notifications. Well, worry not. With iOS 10, you can now easily clear all the notifications by force-touching the X icon, and selecting “Clear all notifications”. You can do this only if you’ve got a 3D Touch iPhone, though.

Our kids will never know the struggle :(

• Notifications are now much more interactive. Notifications used to have a textfield or a couple of buttons before. In iOS 10, notifications have the power of the 3D Touch to give us more options, helping us to do stuff without needing to open the mother-app.

These are most of the stuff that I think will be really useful in iOS 10. Of course, iOS 10 still has a lot more useful features under its hood. Notes sharing, remembering where you park your car, new emojis, prioritizing app-downloads are just the beginning of that big list.

HERE’S WHAT I DON’T LIKE ABOUT THE NEW OS:

The lock screen has been redesigned. The Widgets screen is shown when swiping right on the lock screen. This clashes with my (our?) habit of swiping right to unlock the phone, and this is irritating. VERY. IRRITATING.

The Widgets screen is there on the left-most screen on the home screen, and on the left panel of the Notification Center. This redundancy doesn’t help, and frankly…

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO IMPROVE YOUR iOS 10 EXPERIENCE?

• iOS 10 drains the battery faster than iOS 9 used to (Sorry, iOS 9). You could disable the Raise To Wake feature to try to save the battery : Settings > Display & Brightness > Raise To Wake > Toggle Off.
• Like the previous iOS versions, iOS tracks frequently visited locations. You can disable it by going to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services > Frequent Location > Toggle Off.
• You can choose to send lower quality images over iMessage, to save data. To do so, go toSettings > Messages > Low-Quality Image Mode > Toggle On.
• The Camera can be used as a magnifying glass. Go to General > Accessibility > Magnifier > Toggle On. Triple-click the home button to use it.
• The phone-unlocking method has been redesigned. If you’re using TouchID, you will have to turn the screen on first and then press the Home button with your TouchID finger. This could get annoying as the days pass. So, you could go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Home Button > Rest finger to open > Toggle On. Now, when you click the home button with your TouchID finger, it should unlock immediately.

Life’s complicated enough. Why complicate it more?

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO BEFORE YOU MOVE TO iOS 10?

A reasonable number of people are also facing an issue where iOS 10 is bricking their iPhone / iPad while updating. So, my recommendation would be to wait for a month if you can, before updating to iOS 10.

If you must update, I would recommend you to update directly on the iPhone, after you take a backup on iTunes. This way, it is just simpler and faster. Or you could just download the update on iTunes on your Mac, and update through iTunes, after taking a backup of your iPhone first.

MY THOUGHTS ON THE NEW iOS:

iOS 10 is, no doubt, a great operating system with a lot of nice improvements. Deleting (some of) the pre-installed apps, clearing all notifications easily, universal clipboard are some of the ones that I will really enjoy using. The rounded edges of the notifications, the moving of the Music to a new section in the Control Center are some things that I guess I will need a little more time to get used to. I am also not a fan of the way they have added so much fun to iMessages.

You can take a look at iOS 10 on Apple’s official site, because there is so much more to iOS 10 than what I’ve written about in this article.

I can’t wait to get my hands on the latest iPhones too, so that I can feel and enjoy the power of iOS 10 unleashed.

Apple seems to be more interested in features that do not have much use in the real world. Yes, some features that have more priority, like locking individual apps like Photos and Messages, are missing on the iPhone. I have waited 4 years for Apple to bring this to the iPhone. I guess I can wait another year to see if Apple adds it to iOS 11 :)

Thanks for reading. I hope you liked my summary of the changes in iOS 10.

A big “Thank you” to the guys at CultOfMac , CNET ( 1 , 2 ), LifeHacker , TheNextWeb , and Gizmodo , without whom I could not have written this article.

If I have made any mistake, grammatically or factually, please let me know so that I can do the necessary corrections ASAP. If you feel I’ve left out a good feature, please do comment on it, and I will add it to the article if necessary.

Cheers.