Here we are again friends, just a few months before we get an official release of the top two smartphone operating systems. For those of us who are font of beta testing new OS’s, you already had a taste of what to expect before everyone else and just like you’d imagine, I’m stuck on iOS for reasons I can’t really explain but can share on some of the cool features to expect. I’ve used the beta version of iOS 14 on my iPhone 11 for a couple of weeks now and here is my experiences on what to expect but not guaranteed, as Apple might just decide to pull some of these features before the official public release.
Top cool features to care about
- Back Tap
Apple has been pretty conservative on the new features it deemed appropriate for their devices, this can be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it. Coming to the next iteration of iOS 14 is a back-tap feature that let’s you initiate specific functions by just double tapping at the back of your phone. The feature currently works on iPhones with a notch so iPhone SE, iPhone 8 or older models won’t be getting it. The feature works in a similar way we’ve seen squeeze feature on android handsets only this time you just tap at the back. To choose your preferred double back-tap initiated function, just head over to the settings, accessibility then select touch. Scroll down until you see Back Tap and choose what you want.
- Widgets
Finally, what android fans have had for years is now available on iOS 14, well I really didn’t like android’s implementation but now Google can take a lesson or two from Apple’s approach. To select and use widgets, just hold still on your home screen until you’re in jiggle mode, then head over to widgets page and drag and drop wherever you want them to be. You can choose various sizes and even stack some widgets together by dragging and dropping on other widgets.
- Camera
Believe it or not, Apple just made the camera look new again with some brilliant features in iOS 14. When you launch the iPhone’s camera and point onto something then click and hold volume down button, it’ll automatically start recording and as soon as you let go, it’ll stop recording. It’s a small feature that might come in handy for some of us – more like a shortcut. Additionally, if you want to take those burst photos, then just press and hold the volume up button.
- Photos app
It’s now easier to add captions on your photos, just slide up and at the bottom of the photo you’ll see “add caption” option. You can then search photos by captions whenever you want to send an email or share on different platforms.
- App Library
Just swipe to the right and you’ll see all of your installed apps. Call it app drawer for android but I think it’s pretty nifty to ignore this addition on iOS 14. Apps are automatically grouped in folders such as socials, recently added for your convenience.