San Jose, US, June 4, 2018 — At the annual WWDC event in San Jose, California, Apple announced the latest version of their mobile OS – iOS 12. The primary goal of this update for the company is performance and the inclusion of new features – some that were needed for a long time.
Apple is always known for delivering most popular features later than the competition. But, when Apple makes it, we know for sure that it is going to get a lot of popularity. Without any further ado, here are the top three features of the new iOS 12.
Grouped notifications
Finally, the feature that all iPhone users have been waiting for – notifications from the same app will be stacked in a single notification item. Apple finally heard the call from their user and will make the notification area a much cleaner place thanks to this. Android users enjoyed this feature a long time ago, and now its iPhone user’s turn to join the fun. Any new and unread notifications will be grouped by app or person, and you can swipe aside to dismiss them all together.
Shortcuts for Siri
Siri is another part of iOS that is getting some love, catching up to the Google Assistant and Alexa. Namely, you can set custom voice commands that trigger specific actions in third-party apps. As an example, you can set a custom command that will turn on the lights and heating in your house and start playing the music in your car. All of that, with a simple: Hey Siri, I’m heading home. Up until now, only services like IFTTT were capable of doing that on Apple’s side, so it’s nice for them to implement it natively.
Group FaceTime
Finally, FaceTime is getting an update as well – the addition of group calls. You can take part in a single group call with up to 32 participants simultaneously. This feature will be available on any Apple device – iPhone, iPad, Mac or through an audio-only call on the Apple Watch. This has also been a long-requested feature, and we can finally see FaceTime coming up to the ranks of other video chat apps.
These have been the top three features for the upcoming iOS 12 update. Some other notable features are the improvements in ARKit and augmented reality, improvements on the Photos app, a new “Screen Time” feature that will show a weekly summary of how you engaged your iPhone, and many more. Check them out on Apple’s official blog.
Apple video: iOS is the largest AR platform in the world with hundreds of millions of devices supporting AR experiences.
Source: Apple press release, product website
