iOS 14 officially unveiled by Apple: smart home screen, car unlock and App Clips

Sylvie Claire / June 22, 2020

Apple has lifted the veil on iOS 14. We especially remember the arrival of widgets on the new interface for iPhone, the possibility of unlocking your car or the App Clips which allow you to discover applications without installing them.

As expected, Apple took advantage of WWDC 2020 to unveil new features in iOS 14, the next interface for its iPhone. Several new features enrich the user experience.

HOME SCREEN AND WIDGETS
The home screen is entitled to a new organization. You can take advantage of the App Library functionality. It simply wants to make it easier for you to find your applications by automatically arranging them in sections, and this, in an intelligent way.

For example, games downloaded from Apple Arcade will go directly to a folder with the same name. The idea is obviously to simplify your life by letting the smartphone take care of the organization for you.

Still on the home screen, we also note the noticed arrival of widgets. Just like on Android, you can display small windows giving access or a quick overview to an application installed on the iPhone.

You can place the widget where you want, the apps around reorganize to adapt to the chosen location. Something interesting, a kind of carousel called Smart Stack also allows you to access all the widgets of the home screen in one window. The user only has to scroll in the rectangle to see the different widgets in the same place.

The picture in picture also arrives on iOS 14 to display a video in a small window over the home screen. At the same time, Siri is also entitled to a redesign for more efficiency and for better instant translations.

UNLOCK YOUR CAR WITH IOS 14

iOS 14 also wants to serve as a key for your car thanks to CarKey. Just close your iPhone to the door of your vehicle to unlock it using NFC. If the smartphone is lost, you can deactivate this feature via iCloud.

In addition, parents can apply restrictions to driver profiles to, for example, monitor the movements of their children. For the moment, only the BMW 5 Series are compatible with CarKey, but the list of cars concerned will be extended "from next year".

To get around, the apple firm also wants you to use Apple Plans. With iOS 14, the mapping application now displays the best cycling routes and also refines traffic information.

NEW MEMOJIS AND CONVERSATIONS PINNED ON MESSAGES

Another interesting novelty: the Messages application is also entitled to new features with iOS 14. This entitles you to more Memojis, but you can also give them reactions to messages. The service also now allows you to pin certain conversations, mention people, and fine-tune your notifications so that a group chat does not send an alert until you are mentioned.

DISCOVER APPLICATIONS WITHOUT DOWNLOADING THEM
Finally, iOS 14 also has a small novelty in the App Store. So even if you haven't downloaded an app, you can still use a small part of it using App Clips.

Thus, depending on the situation, you will only have to approach your iPhone with an NFC tag (at a merchant for example) or scan a QR Code. Even if the application that triggers by this action is not installed on your device, you can still use a small one.

For developers who make their apps compatible, this will make it easier and more effective to discover their services to the general public.

COMPATIBLE DEVICES WITH IOS 14
The list of devices compatible with iOS 14 is not negligible. For smartphones, count on the two generations of iPhone SE as well as on all high-end models from the iPhone 6s. In addition to this, the iPod Touch (seventh generation) is also affected.

WHEN WILL IOS 14 AVAILABLE?
iOS 14 will be released this fall, we do not yet know the precise date for the deployment of the final version. A beta of iOS 14 is available for developers (members of the Apple program) today, the public beta for all iOS users is scheduled for July.

WHAT IPHONE IS COMPATIBLE WITH IOS 14?
iOS 14 will be available from iPhone 6S and SE (first generation) to the latest iPhone SE (2020). In the list of compatible devices, there is also the 7th generation iPod Touch.

Credit : Frandroid