What Are the Most Useful New Features of iOS 14?

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One of the biggest updates to come out in a while for the iPhone operating system was recently released, and it is chock full of efficiency improvements.

iOS 14 was released in September 2020, and if you haven’t updated yet, you’re going to want to as soon as possible because this update significantly streamlines the mobile experience.

Mobile devices now make up about 60% of the endpoints in a typical company and do more than half the workload. So mobile operating system updates have a more far reaching impact to a business than they did a decade ago.

The technology solutions in a company shape it’s performance now and in the future, so it’s important to stay on top of new developments both for PCs and mobile devices.

The BrainStomp team has taken a look at the new iOS 14 features, here are some of the most useful and time saving.

App Library

How many times have you swiped back and forth between your app screens trying to find a particular app? That problem has now been solved with the App Library feature in iOS 14 .

As soon as you complete the update, you’ll notice the App Library when you swipe to the last screen on the right. It neatly categorizes all your apps and makes the most used app icons larger. You can also access them all from one screen.

All images are from Apple

To further optimize your iPhone user experience, you’ll now want to hide the screens of apps between the App Library and your Home screen. 

To do this: 

  • Press and hold any open area on your Home screen.

  • Click the dots at the bottom.

  •  Uncheck the circles under the additional pages to hide them.

  • You can unhide pages by repeating the process and re-checking the circle.

Stacked Widgets on Your Home Screen

Widgets have had a major overhaul in iOS 14, they’re more helpful, there are more of them, they’re sizable, AND you can bring them to your Home screen.

You can choose to bring individual widgets to your home screen to see in a glance, without needing to swipe left. You can also make them small, medium, or large.

But one of the coolest ways to use widgets in iOS 14 is through stacked widgets. You can stack up to 10 different widgets in one single widget area to save space and then just swipe through them as you like. 

Siri Suggestions

One of the new widgets is Siri Suggestions and this can be a big time-saver, saving you a few clicks here and there, which really adds up over the course of a week or month.

What this widget does is anticipate activities you may want to do on your iPhone based upon your use patterns. For example, say you always open Pandora for background music as soon as you connect your phone to a speaker via Bluetooth in the morning. As soon as you make that connection, the Siri Suggestion widget will display the Pandora app for you on your Home screen as a suggestion.

Pinned Messages & Group Conversation Images

Another frustration that many users have on a regular basis is trying to find the right Messages conversation to reply to. Scrolling down a list of conversations can be time consuming and the difficulty of telling one group text from another can result in texting the wrong group.

These are two more issues solved in the iOS 14 upgrade.

You can now pin up to 9 conversations to the top of the Messages screen. They are displayed by the image icon you’ve created, making it much easier to find the conversation you need.

Group conversations can also be pinned and will be much easier to recognize because you can now give a group conversation its own image using a photo, Memoji, or emoji.

Send an Audio Message with Siri 

There are many times that you need to send a text, but you’re on the go and it’s not convenient to stop what you’re doing to tap out a text message. For example, if you’ve just landed at the airport and are rushing to make a connection, you don’t want to stop to send a text.

You can now send an audio text instead with a Siri command, allowing you to make an audio note “old school” style and have Siri send it for you via Messages.

To send an audio message with Siri:

  • Bring up Siri with “Hey, Siri” or pressing the Home button

  • Say, “Send an audio message to (contact name)”

  • Siri will respond, “OK, recording”

  • Speak your message

  • When you stop speaking, Siri will give you the option to send, play back, or cancel.

Small Efficiency Improvements Add Up to Big Bottom-Line Benefits

BrainStomp experts help businesses create optimizations in their workflows that save time, lower costs, and improve productivity. Find out what we can do for you!

Contact us for a consultation at 260-918-3548 or reach out online.