Even though us developers get access to new versions of iOS, it doesn’t mean that Apple actually tell us what’s new in a release. iOS 8 is no exception.
When you upgrade on your device there’s a handy “Learn More” link that gives you a summary of the new features. I wish this was accessible to developers when the first beta comes out. Perhaps one day it will be, or it always has been and I’ve always missed the link.
Until such time, here’s what’s new in iOS 8 (without the marketing hype):
This update contains hundreds of new features, including the following:
- Messages improvements
- Tap to Talk to send your voice, a video or a photo with just a swipe
- Group messaging options to name a conversation, add a contact, remove a contact, or leave a conversation
- New details view with Do Not Disturb, location sharing and attachments view
Photos improvements
- Smart editing tools to adjust light and color with a swipe
- Fine-tune controls to adjust exposure, brightness, contrast, highlights, shadows and more
- Search by date, location, or album name or use smart suggestions
- Smart albums for Slo-mo videos, Bursts, Panoramas, and Time-lapse
- Third-party photo filters and editing tools supported directly in Photos
- Your photos and metadata from iPhoto will be migrated to Photos. Books, Journals and Slideshows will be converted to albums containing only photos.
- iPhoto for iOS is not supported on devices running iOS 8 or later.
Camera improvements
- Time-lapse mode
- Capture timer
- Adjust exposure with a simple nudge to lighten or darken a photo prior to capture
- Burst mode on front facing camera on iPhone 5s
- Panorama for iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display
QuickType keyboard
- Predictive typing personalized to your writing style, and customized based on the recipient and the app
- Predictive is available in English (Australia, Canada, UK, US), French (Canada, France, Switzerland), German (Germany, Switzerland), Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, Thai
- Third-party keyboard support
Health
- New Health app with easy-to-read dashboard of health and fitness data
- Ability to share health data with apps to provide a more comprehensive way to manage your health and fitness
- Add a Medical ID with information about allergies, medical conditions, and more with the option to make accessible from the lock screen
- Available on iPhone and iPod touch
Family Sharing
- Share iTunes, iBooks, and App Store purchases with up to six members of your family.
- Pay for family purchases with a single credit card and approve purchases by children with Ask to Buy
- Easily share family photos, a family calendar, locations and more
iCloud Drive
- Store all your documents in iCloud and access them from your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, or PC
- Share the same file across multiple compatible apps
- Edits you make on one device update on all your devices automatically
- Continuity features so your iPhone, iPad, and Mac work together more seamlessly
- Handoff to continue what you’re doing as you move from one device to another
- Make and receive calls and send and receive SMS or MMS messages on your iPad or Mac
- Instant Hotspot to automatically use your cellular connection to get online with your other devices
- AirDrop compatibility with OS X Yosemite
- Available on iPhone 5 or later, iPad (4th generation), iPad Air, iPad mini, and iPod touch (5th generation)
Spotlight improvements
- Displays suggestions from Wikipedia entries, places nearby, movies (US only), popular web sites, App Store, iTunes Store and iBooks Store
- Safari also supports Spotlight suggestions alongside Top Hit and search suggestions
- Supported for local languages in US, UK, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland
Mail improvements
- Easily jump between drafts and your inbox with a simple swipe down on the draft
- Intelligent suggestions for Calendar events and Contacts
- VIP threads
Siri improvements
- Improvements to responsiveness, reliability and accuracy
- “Hey, Siri” option to initiate Siri using just your voice when your device is plugged in
- Streaming voice recognition
- Works with Shazam to answer “What song is playing?”
- Purchase content from iTunes Store
- Safari improvements
- DuckDuckGo search engine support
- Private browsing per tab
- Subscribe to RSS feeds in Shared Links
- Use Camera to scan and enter credit card info
Maps improvements
- Flyover city tours
- Maps place cards in Phone and Contacts
- Inline map view and travel time notifications for Calendar events
App Store improvements
- New Explore tab for easier category browsing
- Top trending searches displayed in Search tab
- Scrolling search results
- App video previews
- Editors’ Choice badges
- Quick access to key contacts in multitasking view
- Interactive Notifications for Messages, Mail, Calendar, Reminders and enabled third-party apps
- New Tips app to help you do more with your iOS devices
- iBooks app built into iOS, now with auto night mode and new organization for book series
- Podcasts app built into iOS
- Battery usage by app
- iCloud Keychain can use saved website passwords to easily sign in to associated apps
- FaceTime Audio call waiting
- Rich text editing in Notes
- Peer-to-peer AirPlay discovery and playback
Enterprise features
- Expanded data protection to Calendar, Contacts, Messages, Reminders, and Notes in addition to Mail and 3rd-party apps
- Per message S/MIME email controls
- Improved UI to make it easier for users to understand the remote management of their device
- Automatic reply for Exchange
- Free/busy lookup for Calendar invitations
- MDM Managed books can be automatically pushed to users
Accessibility features
- Redesigned Zoom with one-handed control and multiple zoom modes including picture-in-picture
- Built-in timer and Touch ID support for Guided Access
- Speak Screen to read out contents of the screen via gesture or Siri command
- VoiceOver improvements including Alex voice option and Braille input support
- Multi-device support for MFi hearing aids to seamlessly switch from one paired iOS device to another
Features for China
- Vector-based maps
- Turn-by-turn navigation
- Lunar calendar support
- Improved predictive input
- Improved weather data
Expanded language support
- Dictation support for 22 additional languages: Croatian, Catalan, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Slovakian, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese
- New keyboards for English (India), Bengali, Filipino, Marathi, Slovenian, and Urdu
- Hindi localization
- Definitions of a selected word for additional languages: Russian, Portuguese (Brazil), Thai, Turkish
- Spanish-English bilingual dictionary
- Spell check for Turkish
- Hebrew language support for Text to Speech and VoiceOver
New developer capabilities including
- Extensibility, giving apps new sharing options and the ability to create widgets, photo filters and editing tools in Photos, and 3rd-party keyboards
- Metal, a new graphics technology for game providers to bring console-class 3D games to mobile devices, this is extensively blogged about on gamingbuff.com
- SpriteKit and SceneKit for improved 2D and 3D games
- HealthKit, so health and fitness apps can share their data with each other
- HomeKit, a new way for you to control supported devices in your home using Siri
- Touch ID support so you can sign in to third-party apps with just your fingerprint
- CloudKit, offering a complete and scaleable back-end solution helping developers eliminate the need for writing server code and maintaining servers
Bug fixes
Some features may not be available for all countries or all areas.
For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222
Much like every time a new version of iOS is released, developers don’t find out what’s actually changed until everyone else. iOS 8.1 is no different, so here’s what’s new – straight from the update dialogue: