Apple has given all the pre-installed apps like Mail, Weather, Photos, Safari, Camera, App Store etc. a whole new coat of paint to go with iOS 7’s all-new user interface.

In this post, we take a look at the new features and improvements in the apps that come installed with iOS 7.

As the head of design at Apple, Jony Ive has rethought the user interface to make it unobtrusive, with all “ornamentation” like fake linen and leather being stripped away to give importance to content. You’ll see this applied to all of Apple’s apps in iOS 7.

App Store and iTunes

The App Store and iTunes apps have remained largely the same except for a few feature additions and of course the change in the look.

• Wish list is a new feature added in iOS 7 that lets you add paid apps you want, but don’t own, to a list so that you can buy them later. The list is accessible from the top right button from all screens of the App Store. To add an app, go to the app detail page, tap the Share icon, and you’ll see a wand icon that’ll add the app to your wish list.

• Near Me is a new feature that shows you apps that are popular near your current location. The screenshot below shows popular apps near the Louvre.

• The App Store has a new “Kids” category which showcases the best apps for children based on their age.

• Automatic updates is a much-needed feature that Apple added in iOS 7, which updates your apps in the background automatically so that you don’t have to deal with the annoying red badge count everyday.

• Apple says that iOS will intelligently schedule updates during power efficient times such as when your device is on and connected to Wi-Fi to ensure that it does not impact battery life.

• You can turn this feature off in Settings > iTunes & App Store > Updates

• Apps that are automatically updated still show in the Updates tab with the change log and the date they were updated on.

• iTunes 11 added the ability to redeem gift cards using your Mac’s camera, and with iOS 7 this feature has come to the iPhone too. Tapping on the “Redeem” button in both the apps will present to you a screen that says “Redeem your gift card using your iPhone’s camera.”

• Once you bring the gift card in front of the camera, iOS will try to recognise the numbers and draw a box around them.

• Other minor UI tweaks include:
  • Top charts are now separated into vertical sections as opposed to horizontal ones in iOS 6.
  • Searching for an app now shows the number of results next to the search term.

Here’s a video walkthrough of the new features:

Phone

• The incoming call screen is completely redesigned.

• The phone app has an-all new dialpad that looks much better than its iOS 6-counterpart. The dialpad has circular keys which have a translucent ring around them that gives you a peek at your home screen wallpaper.

• The delete key and the “Add to Contacts” button have been shifted to the top, giving more space to the “Call” button which is wider now.

• The mute, keypad, speaker, add call and contacts buttons too follow the same circular, translucent pattern.

• The Favorites tab now shows you contact pictures along with contact names. For contacts that don’t have a picture associated, iOS shows the first letter of the name. (There is an option in Settings > Phone to disable photos in Favorites.)

• There’s a new option to block certain contacts from calling you. To add a contact to this blocked list, go to Settings > Phone > Blocked > Add New and select the contact you want to block.
• If you want to block the number of a recent caller then in the Phone app, when you tap on the small i button next to the number in the “Recents” tab and scroll down, and tap on the “Block this Caller” option to add it to the block list.

Messages

• The Messages app has been reskinned to go with the iOS 7 look, that means there are border less buttons, translucent navbars and flattened UI elements.

• The “Contact” button replaces the “Edit” button at the top-right. Upon tapping the “Contact” button, you get an option to call, FaceTime or view full details of your contact.

• The “Edit” button functionality is now accomplished by long tapping a chat bubble and pressing “More…”.

• You can now see individual message timestamps by pulling your messages from right to left.

• When you send a message, the chat bubble appears to come from below the keyboard, creating a very cool effect. The progress bar while a message is being sent has been changed, too — it’s now a thin blue line at the bottom of the nav bar.
• Just like the Phone app, there’s a new Blocked list for Messages too, found under Settings > Messages > Blocked.

FaceTime

• FaceTime existed as a standalone app on iPod touch and iPad, but was a part of the Phone app on iPhone. However, with iOS 7, the iPhone, too, has a standalone FaceTime app, which is of course redesigned in line with iOS 7 design changes.

• There’s now an option to initiate an audio-only FaceTime call with other iOS users, just like on Skype or Viber. Let’s hope carriers don’t block this feature on iPhones. In addition to the video camera option against a contact, you’ll also see a phone icon, which, when tapped, will initiate a FaceTime audio call.

• FaceTime’s interface is overlaid on a blurred preview of your front camera. (Screenshot thanks to TheAmitMalka)

• FaceTime, too, has a block list in Settings, from where you can add and remove blocked contacts.

Here’s a video walkthrough of the how to block calls and messages in iOS 7:

Weather

• The Weather app has undergone a complete makeover, with the most notable change being the dynamic background, which now reflects the current weather. So if it’s sunny, you’ll see a bright sunny background, if it’s raining you’ll see raindrops, thunder and so on.

• There’s a new view that shows you a concise summary of all the cities you’re tracking in the app, along with the dynamic backgrounds.

• Some folks have noted that the new layout makes the stock weather app very similar to Yahoo’s weather app, as seen in the screenshot below.

• If there are thunderstorms, the Weather occasionally also shows lightning as you seen in the screenshot below, which we thought was a nice touch.

Check out the video walkthrough of the new features:

Maps

• When you zoom, you’re shown a scale to give you an estimate of the distances at the current zoom level.

• There’s a full-screen mode that hides the navigation bar and the tab bar, giving more screen real estate to the map. This mode can be activated by tapping anywhere on the map once.

• Another addition is a Night mode that makes the UI chrome dark to make it easier on the user’s eye at night. The app automatically switches between the two modes based on the time of the day.

• Maps now shows you the time estimate to a location under the car icon

• Apple has also added Maps bookmark syncing and turn-by-turn directions for walking in iOS 7.

You can watch the video walkthrough of the new features in Maps app in iOS 7:

Calendar

• While many of the iOS 7 redesigned apps carried over the same information hierarchy and overall structure as their iOS 6 counterparts, the calendar has been not just been redesigned but also reorganised.

• As you drill down from year to month to day, the navigation context changes accordingly, and you can go up one level by tapping the back button.

• There’s an additional search button as well on the navigation bar, so that you can quickly find events by their name.

• The date and time picker in the new event view has been significantly redesigned, as can be seen in the screenshots below. Moreover, changing the time in the new event view no longer takes you to a new screen, with all the controls being presented inline.

You can watch video walkthrough of the redesigned Calendar app below:

Reminders

Reminders was one of the best examples of Apple’s excessive use of real world elements in its apps. The interface had fake leather all over it, and the list looked like a page out of a notebook with a paper like texture. The iOS 7 redesign of the Reminders app removes all of this in favor of a simple, colorful card-based interface.

• Each Reminders list is shown as a card, and the default view shows each of these list cards stacked one over the other.

• You can create a new list by tapping the “New List” card on the top. In addition to giving a name, you also have the option of setting a color for the list, which would be the color of the card’s title label.

• The search bar can be accessed by swiping down the cards, similar to how it is on the iOS 7 home screen. Unlike on iOS 6, Reminders now searches for text just in reminders and not the list names. Upon tapping a result, you’re shown the reminder with the search term highlighted.

• When you tap a card in the stacked cards view, that card is brought to the top, and a tap again brings you back to the stacked cards view.

• With iOS 7, when you create a location-based reminder, you now have the option to define your own custom radius as a fence that would trigger the notification.

Check out the video walkthrough of the redesigned Reminders app in iOS 7:

Calculator

• The Calculator app’s layout remains the same, but it no longer looks like a real calculator. The buttons have been flattened, there’s no leather texture in the background and the numbers itself are now shown in a very thin font.

• As you might have noticed, the Equals button now occupies just one block, instead of the earlier two, and the memory buttons have been removed in the portrait mode. The divide button has moved to the right, in place of which there’s a new Percentage button.

• The landscape mode has also seen some minor changes. The button grid is now 5 x 10 instead of 6 x 8, and includes 49 buttons instead of the earlier 46. The new buttons are Euler’s constant “e”, cube root and 10 power x.

• iOS 7’s Control Center also provides access to the Calcuator from anywhere within the OS

Check out the video walkthrough of redesigned Calculator app in iOS 7:

Passbook

Passbook’s design has remained largely the same except from a few minor iOS 7 design language changes, that include changing some icon-based buttons to text-based. But there are a few other changes as well:

• There’s a new button called “Scan Code” in the welcome pass that lets you scan barcodes with the camera to add new passes. The camera view shows you a moving rectangle as a guide to place the barcode.

• Another change is the added ability to share passes using email, message or AirDrop.

• The paper-shredding animation, that appeared when a pass was deleted has been scrapped, in favor of two lines that go from the top and bottom of the screen towards the center, wiping the pass as they move.

Stocks

Apart from a color scheme change, and a few button changes here and there, the Stocks app is nearly identical to the one found in iOS 6.

• The main color has been changed from blue to black, including the icon

• The bottom panel that shows the chart is now translucent and shows a blurred view of the contents behind.

• The button to add/remove stocks has been changed from an italic “i” icon to a list icon, and now the list doesn’t flip around the center, but instead appears from the bottom.

In addition to these stocks apps, iOS 7 also comes with all-new Camera, Photos and Music apps as well.

Check out our iOS 7 category page for everything you need to know about Apple’s latest mobile operating system for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

As always, let us know what you think of the design of the iOS 7 stock apps in the comments below.