It ’s that fourth dimension of class again , when we look at the new Io update and stress to adjudicate whether to put in it or not . Apple fail to take aback anyone by naming this class ’s iPhone software update iOS 14 , but there were plenty of surprises in the feature article list and potential upgraders have much to think about .
In this clause we compare the forthcoming iOS 14 with the currentiOS 13 , and aid you adjudicate if the raw version is right for you . Note that this is based on Apple ’s announcement at WWDC , and the software system itself is n’t finish ; we ’ll post a review when the final version come out .
Release date
Now , before you get too attached to iOS 14 , be warn that it wo n’t roll out formally until the fall – most likely mid - September . Before then you could strain out theiOS 14 beta , which is now availableto the publicas well as to developer . The public genus Beta lags more or less behind the developer one , but it ’s still a capital way for adventurous iPhone owners to dip their toes in the waters of iOS 14 .
Here’show to join Apple ’s beta plan .
If you ’re not on the beta programme and go to preferences > General > Software Update before iOS 14 is uncommitted , you ’ll be offered the tardy version of iOS 13 rather . At time of writing that ’s Io 13.5.1 . The first public rendering of iOS 13 get along out on 19 September 2019 but smaller point upgrades have been coming out ever since .
Which iPhones can run iOS 14?
The first question to ask is this : can my iPhone get iOS 14?If it ’s presently running iOS 13 then you ’re in fortune , because every mannikin from the iPhone hexad ahead will also be able to set up iOS 14 .
Here ’s the complete list of iOS 14 - quick iPhones :
Plus of course the various models of theiPhone 12will get along with iOS 14 preinstalled .
Design & interface
Looks alone can be important – we all recall the collide result when iOS 7 brought in a radically different design language . But an operating system ’s interface transcends bare cosmetics . It ’s central to the ease with which you’re able to sail the apps and circumstance that the OS hosts .
iOS 14 has three far-famed changes in this section .
Widgets
in all likelihood the biggest alteration to iOS 14 ’s user interface , and debatably the one that ’s been quest for longest . ( Default third - company appsmay dispute that . )
Widgets , which is to say small shorten - down versions of apps that you’re able to utilize without actually open up the app , have been usable in Io before now , but were confined to the Today View . In iOS 13 you swipe right from the family projection screen to see sum-up of the weather , your calendar , news program headlines and so on . ( you’re able to select which widgets appear here by scroll to the bottom and tapping Edit . )
In iOS 14 the widgets have broken escaped . you could choose them from the new Widget Gallery , resize them to befit and drag them into the area of the silver screen where you require them to sit , just as you ’d reorder your app icons . With one exception . An eagle - eyed confrere who ordinarily publish about Android has spotted that you ’re not allowed to target a 2×2 whatsis in the centre of your iPhone ’s filmdom – it has to be pushed to the leftover or right .
Google fans will insist on proclaiming that this characteristic has been uncommitted in Android for age , but it ’s a with child step ahead for iOS .
No more fullscreen for Siri and Phone
Siri and the Phone app used to get peculiar privileges in condition of interface material acres : when activate ( when a speech sound call was come in , in other words , or when you say Hey Siri ) they would take over the full screen . Other apps are more discreet when trying to grab your attention .
Those privileges have been withdraw in iOS 14 , which is brilliant : both are now restrain to small notice box . It will be much easier to ignore an incoming call , and Siri wo n’t take up more screen blank space than he / she necessitate .
App Library
This new way of viewing your apps will appeal to those who have so many apps that they are split across legion pages . App Libraryis a undivided view that mechanically arranges your apps according to categories such as Entertainment , Health & Fitness , and Social .
These categories front like app booklet , but ( aside from the fact that you do n’t have to put the folders yourself ) have a distich of smart features . The icon indicate diverge in sizing ; iOS will have it off to make an icon bigger if you ’ve used the app more often or more recently than others in the category , which could help you voyage thing more easily and launch apps with a individual tap , without ingest to go into the brochure .
There ’s also an especially cagey category call Suggestions , which operates in a like way to the Siri App Suggestions widget . It will pop the question apps that it reckons you ’re likely to want at a given time and place .
Picture in picture
This brings an existing feature on iPadOS to the iPhone . you may play a TV , recoil it , and then have it playing in recession while you use a dissimilar app . Very handy when seek to multitask – deal notes from an online lecture , say .
Performance
Does Io 14speed up your iPhone , like iOS 13 did , or slow it down like a number of late update ? It looks like the answer is … neither .
It ’s a amusing one . Most of us expected this year ’s update to focus on stability , which in the main means ‘ not so many bugs ’ ( we desire that will still be the case ) but in some rendition also encompasses pocket-size tweak to operation , peculiarly on older devices . But Apple did n’t mention speed at all .
We ’re fairly sure we ’re not about to go back to the unsound old days when installing an Io update on a telephone set that was more than , say , three old age erstwhile was a recipe for lag . But do n’t require a speed boost either – if that was on offer , we ’re sure Apple would have mentioned it before now .
When the complete version of iOS 14 roll out we ’ll run some speed tests and report back on both benchmarks and immanent flavor . We find that it would n’t be reasonable to run mental testing on a beta variation , since that ’s not finished – although that has n’t stop over mickle of sites doing exactly that , and discovering that functioning on the first developer beta of Io 14 is roughly the same as on iOS 13.5.1 .
New features
This is the kernel and potatoes of this article : the New Things you may Do . What can an iOS 14 iPhone do that an iOS 13 iPhone can not ?
There are , as ever , lot ofbrilliant new features . Here are the headline attractions .
Default apps
iPhone owners have been asking for this foryears , and at last they ’ve get their wish .
If you ’ve got an ( unjailbroken ) iPhone running iOS 13 or earlier , Safari is your default entanglement web internet browser and Mail is your nonremittal email app . If you select a vane link or electronic mail address in most apps – and certainly all Apple apps – then you ’ll be sent to Safari and Mail severally . This obviously micturate it rather otiose to instal a third - political party internet browser or electronic mail app , even if they are otherwise excellent .
Now – andsurprisingly quiet – Apple has provide us to make third - part web web browser and electronic mail apps the default in iOS 14 . Apps will have to go through an additional vetting cognitive process to make it on to the listing of option , so do n’t depend on this happening overnight . There are also other types of app where changing the default option would be handy , such as mapping , and we ’ll have to wait longer untilthat happens . But baby steps , and this is effective news .
App Clips
This is a bang-up thought . Ever had that experience where you attempt to park somewhere , but the company running the carpark insists that you pay up using their own consecrated app , which is ten time bigger than it call for to be and takes forever to download ? Now you ’ll be able-bodied to download a much smaller version , called an App Clip .
App Clips wo n’t be accessed via the App Store – or not only from there . company will be able-bodied to put Clips on their website , with a link to download it when you need to yield for your shopping or rent a elbow room or whatever . There will also be links in the literal world : sign that combine a QR - style code with an NFC chip that take you to the App Clip .
App Clips are designed to let you do one exclusive matter that an app offers , without having to download the relief of the app . It sounds like they will disappear after a while , too , although it ’s not yet quite exculpated how this will work .
Siri
We already mentioned that Siri does n’t take up the entire screen any more , but she gets some more rise in iOS 14 . She has , Apple reckons , 20 prison term more facts at her fingertip than three years ago , and in iOS 14 is able to take on more complex question than ever before . We will put this to the test , but it sounds assure .
Translate
lease ’s appease on the theme of voice recognition . iOS 14 brings in a young app calledTranslate , which can understand spoken word in real metre . Only 11 spoken language are supported initially , which is a longsighted way behind Google Translate , but the fully grown reward is that Apple ’s app does it all on equipment – a genuinely handsome deal , as anyone who ’s adjudicate to put food in a Gallic eating house without go up a immense data - roaming bill will attest .
Translate has a neat conversational mode , too . Again , this is something already proffer by Google but this streamline things by offering only a single microphone release – instead of having to tell it when each person is speak , it listens out for the linguistic process and assigns them to the right side of the rebirth .
This sounds excellent , but evidently calls for across-the-board examination : at this point we ca n’t count on Translate hitting the earth running any more than Maps did in its former day . However , it ’s worth keep that , should Translate prove to be useless at this point in its ontogeny , iOS 14 iPhones will still be able-bodied to unravel Google Translate just as well as iOS 13 one .
This is the case with most of the fresh thing in an iOS update : if you care them , you could use them , but if you do n’t , there ’s no harm done . The exceptions to look out for are variety to the way thing work , rather than plainly new features you now have access to .
There will also be a handy transformation feature of speech coming to Safari . Read abouthow to translate web pageboy .
Messages
Changes in this department are mostly focused on Messages as a radical communications peter , and some seem intend to challenge work shaft such as Slack . You ’ll still be able-bodied to send messages to and fro with a unmarried contact , but the improvements affect the experience when talking to multiple people .
Conversations have ikon which show the various player , and the ace who ’ve ‘ spoken ’ most of late are bigger . There will be inline replies so you’re able to play along threads within a big conversation , and you’re able to set notice in such a manner that you do n’t get a line about every single subject matter get off to the conversation , but are instead apprise only when you ’re ‘ mentioned ’ – when someone chooses to flag your name in a message . That ’s one of the best features in Slack , and welcome here .
You ’ll also be capable to immobilize a conversation to the top of the screen , and there are 20 new hair and headwear styles forMemoji .
Verdict: Should I update my iPhone to iOS 14?
The light answer is yes . The long solvent is that it ’s a chip ahead of time to say but the new features take care good and it ’s unlikely that there will be any drawback to upgrading .
What are the downside to promote ? It ’s a act of fuss and takes some sentence ; tweak to the interface will take some fourth dimension to get used to ; and there could be microbe . But there are hemipteron in iOS 13 – alotof bugs – and app updates generally fix far more bugs than they innovate .
The very funny will need to put in the public beta of Io 14 and take a expression for themselves , but we ’d advise against this , or at least warn that it will be less polished than a terminal release . For your primary devices ( the one you ca n’t afford to have misbehaving ) we ’d say that it ’s better to wait until autumn , when iOS 14 launches officially – indeed as ever we ’d commend wait until a day or two after that , because it will give you a chance to see if any really rank bugs have made it through beta examination , and because the servers will be quieter and it should n’t take so long .
But being able to select third - party web web web browser and email apps as your default is a braggy stone’s throw forward . App Clips and the Translate app both sound really cool , and fall into the category of ‘ if it work well I ’ll practice it , and if it ’s rubbish I can just disregard it ’ . domicile - silver screen widgets , finally , are an all-important comprehension .
observe at last that this applies to the final version of iSO 14.0 which will be released in the fall . Installing the iOS 14 genus Beta is a different matter , since it ’s unfinished and spring to be full of hemipteron . Unless you ’re driven to get crow rights , or you ’re a developer , we ’d wait until September .
If you want todowngrade the latest version of iOS 14 we excuse how to do that here .
