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Been living with iOS 14 for a few months now so I guess I’ll do a tips and tricks thread.
Picture in Picture is I guess a thing now. Apps have to update to support it, but it’s rolling out. YouTube are a bit weird because it’s a Premium feature, but you can workaround that using Safari instead of the app. It can be moved, resized, or temporarily swiped off screen.
Speaking of YouTube and Safari, Apple and Google finally grew tf up and enabled 4K in both the app and on Safari. This will also be coming to Big Sur on release.
Obviously Home Screen customisation is a bigger feature. Widgets are there. My favourite thing though is the ability to hide pages. I have one page for my Apple apps, one for frequently used, and I’ve hidden the rest.
On this though, you can also prevent new apps from creating additional pages and instead just go to the App Library in Settings > Home Screen.
Back Tap will allow you to literally double or triple tap the back of your phone to start an action. When I double tap my phone I get a screenshot, for example. There’s a whole bunch, and they’re customisable with Shortcuts.
Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap.
Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap.
Honestly a feature I haven’t really used yet because I haven’t had anyone to use it with but I can see being useful lol. @replies will link to contacts, and threads in group messages.
Mirror front camera is finally a fucking thing. Photos taken on the front facing camera will no longer flip.
Settings > Camera.
Settings > Camera.
FaceTime eye contact is back. It’ll auto adjust your eyes to look like you’re looking directly into the camera, even when you’re not. Kinda creepy but I guess a better experience?
(No idea who this man is)
Settings > FaceTime > Eye Contact.
(No idea who this man is)
Settings > FaceTime > Eye Contact.
A couple extra iMessage tidbits. You can pin messages. You can set notifications so that you’re alerted if you’re @replied. Group names and customisation is a little more fun.
Security got some cute updates. You may notice an orange or green dot on the top of your phone - this is to alert you that either your camera or microphone are currently being used. If you swipe down to Control Centre it’ll show you what was using it.
If something is copied and pasted from another app, it’ll alert you. This is what got a few apps into trouble during the beta phase, because constant notifs showed they were copying shit you were typing, essentially.
If you need location services, you can now tell apps to only track your general location, and not precise location.
Instead of giving apps access to your whole gallery, you can also select which photos you want to give them access to instead.
Instead of giving apps access to your whole gallery, you can also select which photos you want to give them access to instead.
This is technically an accessibility setting, but could also be used in every day life. Say for example you have headphones in, your phone can recognise when there’s a knock at the door and send you a notification.
Settings > Accessibility > Sound Recognition.
Settings > Accessibility > Sound Recognition.
Apple Music has changed here and there, but it’s mainly UI stuff. Best part is the dynamic now playing screen that was limited to lyric view in 13 is now constant. They’ve also gone back to their old logo.
There is a cute little infinity mode though. If your playlist/album runs out, it’ll keep playing similar music.
Uhhh. Running out of things I can think of lol.
Double tapping the search button in Music will automatically take you to the search bar and keyboard, instead of the search page and having to click into the search box. Does that make sense?
One tap vs two.
Double tapping the search button in Music will automatically take you to the search bar and keyboard, instead of the search page and having to click into the search box. Does that make sense?
One tap vs two.
You can now zoom into photos properly again. Previous iOS versions had some weird restriction that you couldn’t zoom past the double tap, but that’s been (generally) removed, especially on photos you’ve taken.
Holding the volume down button within the camera app will now quickly start recording a video, instead of having to select it.
You can specifically disallow apps from tracking you in Settings > app. Bold move by Apple that literally everyone else hates. Facebook specifically, because they won’t be able to mine and sell your personal shit for targeted ads. https://www.macrumors.com/2020/08/26/facebook-ios-14-anti-tracking-ad-revenue-drop/">https://www.macrumors.com/2020/08/2...
But I mean. Truly the best part of iOS 14.
You can change your default Mail and Browser apps now. This requires the apps to implement, at the time of tweeting (lol) google has updated Chrome but not Gmail. I believe DuckDuckGo has enabled this too.
Settings > Chrome (for example) > Default App.
Settings > Chrome (for example) > Default App.
Oh, also with Picture in Picture, shrinking FaceTime will now enter PIP and won’t pause your camera anymore. Don’t get caught out lmao.
Emoji search is now finally a thing.
A nice little touch, FaceTime can detect when someone in a group chat is using sign language and will make them the prominent speaker so that everyone can read/see.
