iOS 8 comes with tonnes of new features and changes including Interactive Notifications, QuickType, third-party keyboard support, Messages and Siri improvements, and lots more. Here are some of the coolest user interface changes in Apple’s biggest iOS release.
Interactive Notifications
iOS 8 lets developers add custom actions to notifications like reply for messages, archive or trash for mails, decline/accept for calendar invites and so on. This will be really useful when you want to quickly respond to a message without leaving the current app, or when you like a Facebook comment.
Control Center
The Control Center features a new look in iOS 8. The icons do not have a black border around them, and the active state of a toggle is represented by a white background.
Control Center in iOS 7 (Left) and iOS 8 (Right)
Safari for iPad Tab View
iOS 8 finally brings the Tab view to Safari on the iPad. The Tab view on Safari is more organized, as tabs from the same site are grouped together, and the tabs open on your other devices are nicely arranged below the tabs.
Safari Tab change gesture
You can switch to the new Safari tab view with a two or three-finger pinch gesture as you can see in the video below, which is quite cool.
Lock screen apps
iOS 5 added a quick way to open the Camera from the Lock screen. iOS 8 takes that approach further with two new additions to the Lock Screen:
- Handoff apps: Handoff is a new feature in iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite that lets you seamlessly transition your work from Mac to iOS and vice versa. So if you have a Numbers document open on your Mac, you’ll also see a Numbers icon on your iPhone’s lock screen.
- Location-based app recommendations: iOS 8 can display app shortcuts on the Lock Screen based on your current location. So you’ll be shown an icon to the Apple Store app at the bottom left of your lock screen when you’re near an Apple Store, the Starbucks app when you’re in their store and so on.
Mail swipe for Quick Actions
In the iOS 8 Mail app, you can now swipe all the way to the left to delete the email, and all the way to the right to mark it as read/unread.
➤ Read more: How to quickly flag an email for follow-up in the Mail app in iOS
➤ Read more: How to quickly mark an email as read or unread in iOS 8
➤ Read more: How to quickly delete or archive an email in the Mail app in iOS 8
Mail Compose
iOS 8 comes with a redesigned Mail compose window to make it easier to jump between a draft email and your Inbox, so you can copy the information you need to compose your message. You can swipe down the compose window to dock it at the bottom, and tap on it again to bring it back.
Messages Quick Send
The Messages app got a major update with iOS 8. One of its most cool addition is a new way to quickly send photo, video or audio recordings. Just press and hold the camera or microphone icon to start recording, and swipe up to send:
Quickly send recent photos
In iOS 7 and earlier, it was a pain to attach multiple photos to a single message, but with iOS 8’s redesigned workflow, it takes far lesser taps, as demoed in the GIF below. Instead of the media picker taking up the whole screen, it now occupies just a portion of it, and lets you horizontally scroll through your entire library, allowing you to pick multiple photos, and then tap Send:
Progressive blurring when pulling down Spotlight Search
When pulling down the Spotlight search field on the home screen, there’s a new dynamic blur effect that kicks into action that gradually blurs the home screen as you swipe down.
Some of these changes like the Spotlight blur are just visually pleasing, many other changes like Message attachments and Interactive Notifications will help users become more productive, and get things done much faster. Let us know what you think of these changes in the comments below.
