What Can We Expect from iOS 10?

The refinement of the iPhone experience has taken a leap with iOS 10, and mostly for the better. While the public beta release is out and available for everyone to get their opinions on board, don’t expect too many widespread changes, because you’ll probably be disappointed. As always, Apple has found it prudent to just introduce a plenitude of little tweaks for better user experience.

Seeing as a beta mode could see some differences when it does get released, here are some of the findings we have unearthed for now:

Built-in image search

GIF keyboard app-makers should take notice here, for they’ll no longer be needed. Apple has now made it possible to search for animated images directly from within the Messages App. Simply tap the App Store icon (visible in blue), get to your images, and embark on a quick search for your endeavour.

Music storage

You’ll find that this area has been completely overhauled, with the exodus of a cluttered interface, making way for a cleaner one. When your eyes scan through the default view, you’ll see playlists, artists, albums, songs, and your downloaded music. What’s awesome here is that if you get low on storage space, iOS will take a look at the songs you’ve downloaded that you hardly listen to and clears them.

Mail filters

All you need is a tap in order to quickly filter messages, with the default being just ‘unread messages. This latest tweak now allows you to change this filter by tapping on ‘Filtered by Unread’ and giving yourself options for your preferences. Once this is settled, you get to see the change in conversation layout: all your messages converging on a single list, instead of having to select the one you want to view.

Maps

With news that developers will be able to access the Maps API in iOS 10 onwards, we can all look forward to intuitively convenient things like dining suggestions, bookings you have made, and being able to hail rides a lot easier, with improved navigation and traffic report integration. You’ll never have to leave the Maps app in order to calibrate a single dinner plan!

Home app

All your compatible smart home devices will now be conducted by your voice, and via touch too if your voice ever breaks. This expansion on the HomeKit network will be featured in the control centre too, which you can access from the lock screen. The really cool thing about this app is that you can control each smart home device individually if you want, but you can also set them up in groups (called ‘scenes’) and get them to work in tandem.

Siri

Like Maps, Siri will now find itself open to developers, potentially making it one of the most useful features of the new OS. By simply making voice commands, you can now make things happen with third-party apps like WhatsApp, Uber, and Skype. This heightened ‘Siri Intelligence’ will allow you to receive contextual predictions and relevant information based on where you are and what your calendar looks like. The sweetener here is that predictive typing will now be able to support multiple languages without seeing a need to switch keyboards. Handy!

We can also safely say that the launch of the iOS will precede the launch of the new iPhone if one peer into the past to make predictions. With public betas being released every two weeks till the launch, we could still be pleasantly surprised in due time. Nothing as surprising as their yearly proclamation of “Our biggest release ever..”, we can assure you.

Photo:www.cgap.org