Apple released a public beta of iOS 14 last week. iOS 14 is scheduled for release this fall.
Here is a list of a few of my favorite new features and a link (below) to an extremely detailed (1.5 hours!) summary of the new features in iOS 14:
Favorite New Features:
- Pin favorite conversations to the top of the list in Messages!!! (no more scrolling a huge list of text recipients to find someone you text regularly)
- Name Mentions in Messages (get notified when someone mentions your name in a conversation, even if you have that conversation on “Do Not Disturb”)
- “Now Typing” alert in Conversations list in Messages. (see the three little ‘someone is typing’ dots in the LIST of conversations in Messages)
- Emoji search (no more scrolling all the emoji to find one)
- Rename Bluetooth devices (i.e. car stereos, wireless headsets, etc.)
- Sound Recognition (receive a visual alert if there is knocking, cats/dogs, smoke alarms, etc in an environment. Awesome for hearing impaired)
- Back Tap controls (configure actions such as app switcher, screenshot, etc, when you double or triple tap on the *back* of your phone)
- Cleaner/smaller interface for phone calls in progress and Siri (a call or Siri task doesn’t take up the entire screen!)
- Dismiss/silence an incoming call with swipe up on the banner/notification at the top of the screen.
These are only a few of tons of new features. So far, I’m impressed with the functionality and stability of this beta release. I don’t recommend you update on your primary phone just yet, but *if* you choose to do so, MAKE SURE you make a backup of your phone to your computer first and ARCHIVE that backup before you update!
iOS 14 beta – 250+ Top Features/Changes: