iOS 10 top features

With Apple calling it the biggest release ever, the iOS 10 developer’s preview build was launched  yesterday at Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) and here are some of the main features:

• You can remove some built-in apps from the home screen. Apple has made it possible to no delete unwanted stock apps that come with your iDevice, so you can free up some space. The data stored on these apps is deleted as well so remember that before you delete, except if you delete the Contacts app, you’ll still find your contacts in the Phone app. Some of these apps that you can remove are:

To remove a stock app from your home screen follow these steps:

1. Touch and hold the app until it jiggles.
2. Tap  on the app, then tap Remove.
3. Press the Home button to finish.

• Widgets: iOS 10 comes with widgets that give users easy access to apps without actually opening them.

• Siri open to app developers to allow them to integrate the digital assistant into their apps. Apple says ‘SiriKit helps developers easily design their apps to work with Siri for messaging, phone calls, photo search, ride booking, personal payments and workouts, or use Siri to control CarPlay apps, access climate controls or adjust radio settings within automakers’ apps.’ Imagine being able to send that WhatsApp message while you do other things with your hands?!

• Messages are more animated: if you like to be extra colourful when texting, iMessages just got sickly sweet to include animations like confetti, fireworks or balloon that can float/fly/explode over your screen when celebrating a special occasion (erm, seen before on Twitter profiles that get floating balloons when it’s their birthday). Some other messaging feature includes sending messages written in ‘invisible ink’ so the recipient can only see it when they swipe over the message area, or  a user can send handwritten notes as a message as well. There are also emoji suggestions for words now. Why type smile when you can have  🙂
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• Apple Music and News update: Apple Music has easier navigation and now includes a search bar to find music easily. Apple News has been redesigned with news sections to find news stories and also for users can find breaking news and paid subscription faster.

• Raise to Wake: this is a feature that uses the iDevice’s accelerometer to tell when it’s been lifted, and the screen will light up showing all the notifications right on the lock screen.

“iOS 10 is our biggest release ever, with delightful new ways to express yourself in Messages, a native app for Home automation and beautifully redesigned apps for Music, Maps, and News that are more intuitive and more powerful, making everything you love about your iPhone and iPad even better. iOS 10 adds Siri intelligence into QuickType and Photos, automates your home with the new Home app and opens up Siri, Maps, Phone and Messages to developers, while increasing security and privacy with powerful technologies like Differential Privacy.” – ” Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering.

When it comes to privacy, all iOS messaging apps are secured with end-to-end encryption, and user data from its News app is sent to Apple servers but is not used to create user profiles. Starting with iOS 10 ‘Apple is using technology called Differential Privacy to help discover the usage patterns of a large number of users without compromising individual privacy.’

The iOS 10 developer preview is available here, and will be available to all users in July at www.beta.apple.com. Apple has stated that features are subject to change and may not even be available in some regions or languages.

iOS 10 will be available later this year as a free software update for iPhone 5 and later, all iPad Air and iPad Pro models, iPad 4th generation, iPad mini 2 and later, and iPod touch 6th generation.