Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks about iOS 8 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. Photo: Jeff Chiu/AP
Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks about iOS 8 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference.
Photo: Jeff Chiu/AP
A new app called Health will collect and display your health data collected from your health-tracking devices and health-related apps. Photo: Apple
Let's say you've got multiple fitness apps on your iPhone: FitBit to keep track of your footsteps and calories, Strava to map your bike rides and Nike+ Running for your morning jogs. The new Health app in iOS 8 will consolidate all your fitness data in one convenient place. No more bouncing between different apps to get all your fitness information. Developers can use a brand new framework called Healthkit to share fitness data to and from your iOS device, but as the end user, you still have full control over the kind of data that each app can access.
Photo: Apple
Family sharing lets you view all your family media purchases, for up to six family members sharing the same credit card, no matter whose device is being used. Photo: Apple
If you're an Apple family, life just got a whole lot easier for you. The new Family Sharing feature in iOS 8 will let you view music, books and movies purchased via iTunes by up to 6 family members as long as they used the same credit card, even purchases made from different Apple devices. And parents, you will now get a notification if your kid tries to purchase something. If they don't get your explicit permission, they can't buy the app!
Photo: Apple
Photos now show all your photos stored on iCloud. Search lets you match by location, time, and album names. Editing tools let you adjust light and color, straighten pictures and crop them. Photo: Apple
The Photos app already got a huge upgrade with iOS 7 with the ability to automatically organize your pictures by year and location. In iOS 8, Apple's enhancing the app even more. Photos in iOS 8 gets a brand new search feature that will allow you to look for photos by location time and album names. There are also some nifty editing tools in there that let you straighten and crop pictures, and adjust light, exposure and color. Bonus: the Photos app on the iPhone will now show you all the pictures stored on iCloud.
Photo: Apple
HomeKit is Apple's new centralized home-automation platform in iOS. It will let you talk to connected devices from various manufacturers in your home. You can even use Siri to control it all. Photo: Apple
So you live on the cutting edge. Your home is filled with smart devices like Wi-Fi-enabled doorknobs, smart light bulbs, and intelligent thermostats (one not made by a certain company Google just bought). HomeKit turns your iPhone into a hub that lets you control every connected device in your smart home. You can group multiple devices from different manufacturers together, and you can use Siri to control it all. So you can do cool things like say, "It's time for bed," which will dim the lights in your bedroom, lock the garage door and adjust the heat in your house all at once.
Photo: Apple
Applications can now define widgets, which live in the notification center. Photo: Apple
Apple enthusiasts have been clamoring for iOS to support widgets like Android for a long time. Apple has finally listened. iOS 8 will be the first version of the operating system to support widgets from third-party apps. But unlike Android, where users can pin them on any Home screen, the widgets in iOS will live in the Notification Center.
Photo: Apple
Notifications are now interactive, to let you reply to, "Like," or dismiss some items like text messages and calendar alerts directly from the notification center and lock screen. Photo: Apple
You're acing it in Plants vs Zombies 2. Your peashooters are firing crazy streams of frozen peas, your melon-pults are working in overdrive, and the Zomboss is getting its butt kicked. Then you get a text message, which you tap on and—boom—you're out of the game and in the Messages app. Harsh! With iOS 8, that all changes. You will be able to reply to an SMS, Like a Facebook comment, or deal with calendar alert right from the Notification Center. It also works on the Lock Screen.
Photo: Apple
Mail added several features to let you better navigate between messages and add items like a calendar event without leaving the message. Photo: Apple
There are plenty of third-party mail apps on iOS that incorporate all sorts of nifty gestures to delete and archive your emails. The Mail app in iOS 8 borrows a few of these for itself. You can swipe all the way to the left across an email to delete it. A short swipe to the right will flag it. And if you want to access the rest of your emails as you're composing one, you can push down the Compose window all the way to the bottom and scroll through the rest of your messages at the same time.
Photo: Apple
We can finally install third-party keyboards! Rejoice, Swype users!
We can finally install third-party keyboards! Rejoice, Swype users!
A predictive text feature called QuickType will learn your idiosyncratic linguistic tics and suggest personalized autocomplete text. Photo: Christina Bonnington/WIRED
Sure, Apple revamped the virtual keyboard with iOS 7. But the keyboard in iOS 8 will be much, much better. There's finally predictive text, so you can now tap-tap-tap the space bar, as long as the word iOS predicts is the one you want, and blaze through those emails. The predictions are smart and context-sensitive. The OS learns the tone of your voice and will suggest appropriate words depending on the content of the message.
Photo: Christina Bonnington/WIRED
Messages gains the ability to name group threads, drop people (or yourself) from a group chat, or mute a chat. You can send an audio or video message in a way that's similar to WhatsApp. Photo: Christina Bonnington/WIRED
Messages takes a leaf out of WhatsApp's book in iOS 8. You can now rename message threads, add and remove users from a thread, and mute group chats. You can also share your location with a single tap, which is handy, and send audio and video messages. Just tap and hold with a finger to record a message, then send it off. It's WhatsApp with a prettier UI.
Photo: Christina Bonnington/WIRED
Awaken Siri solely by voice command. Say "Hey Siri," then ask it questions or get directions without having to physically touch the phone. It also has Shazam-based song recognition. Photo: Apple
The best feature of the Moto X – the ability to simply say "OK, Google" to wake up your phone and have it do your bidding is coming to the iPhone. In iOS 8, you can simply say "Hey Siri" to launch Siri without ever touching your phone. There's also built-in Shazam integration, so if you're dying to know what that song playing on the radio or in the pub is, simply ask Siri. We're not perfectly clear on how Apple will keep this secure, but we'll get an update closer to iOS 8's actual release.
Photo: Apple
Third-party apps can now use TouchID for login. Photo: Apple
TouchID, the fingerprint sensor on the iPhone 5s and its underlying software, makes unlocking the iPhone and authorizing App Store and iTunes purchases a snap. With the release of iOS 8, Apple will allow third-party apps use the system for logins. No more remembering multiple passwords for all the different apps on your iPhone. Placing your finger on the Home button should now be enough.
Photo: Apple
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If you thought iOS 7 was big, wait until you see all the new features in the next version of Apple’s mobile operating system. iOS 8 will be available to everyone this fall as an update on iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches. What we’ve collected here are the biggest new features shown at Monday’s WWDC keynote address. See the coolest stuff you’ll get to play with once it’s out.
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