Apple unveiled iOS 8, the biggest iOS release ever, at the WWDC 2014 keynote in June. It includes a number of new features and improvements such as Interactive Notifications, QuickType, third-party keyboard support, Messages and Siri improvements, and lots more.

Here’s the exhaustive list of new features and improvements in iOS 8.

iCloud

• iCloud Photo Library – All your photos and videos are synced to iCloud Photo Library, and the total number of photos on your device can be more than what you can store on it physically, thanks to the cloud.
• iCloud Drive – Apple’s own Dropbox competitor. Exists as a folder on Mac and iOS, where all files and subfolders are synced.
• iCloud settings now also show account info, payment info and security settings.

App Store

• You can now see the trending searches in the search tab
• Related searches, a feature that we had spotted previously, is being rolled out in iOS 8 to everyone.
• TestFlight – An easy way for developers to enrol up to 1000 beta testers for their app.
• App Bundles.
• Video previews – Along with screenshots, developers will also be able to add videos for their apps.
• Editors choice badge.
• A pause icon shows when you pause an app download
• App Store search results now scroll vertically, rather than horizontally
• A new Explore tab, which includes Near Me.
• Apps also show supported languages and Family Sharing compatibility status.

Calendar

• A new Calendar week numbers display.
• Custom calendar repeat events.
• Travel time in calendar appointments.
• iOS 8 can tell you when to leave for calendar events.
• You can decline calendar invites with a comment
• iPhone 6’s larger display shows more days at a time in week view/
• The landscape view now sports a split-screen iPad style design on iPhones

Control Center

• Control Center UI changes.
• Screen is no longer dimmed when brightness control is selected.
• New buy button for songs playing in iTunes Radio.
• Control Center shows number of iTunes Radio skips remaining.
• Easier to bring up Control Center when the keyboard is active.

Messages

• You can now send voice messages by tapping the “microphone” button to the right of the text field.
  • Press and hold the microphone button to record your voice and swipe up to send it.
  • You can listen to the messages by tapping play or raising your phone. On the Lock Screen you can raise your phone to reply with your own audio message.
• You can quickly send photos and videos by tapping the “camera” button to the left of the text field.
  • Press and hold the camera button to click a photo or video and immediately send it.
  • Tap the camera button to see most recent photos in your camera roll. It is much easier to send multiple photos at once in a message compared to iOS 7.
• There’s a new details menu where you can:
  • Set a name/topic for a group thread.
  • See a list of everyone in the thread along with an option to call, FaceTime or view their full contact.
  • Add or delete people form a group.
  • Leave a group.
  • Share your current location.
  • Location can be shared for an hour, until end of day or indefinitely.
  • Mute groups with a new Do Not Disturb option.
  • See all all photos that are shared in a message thread.
  • Delete or save images at once for a message thread.
• Threads now synced across devices.
• See much larger images in conversations.
• Scroll to top to automatically load older messages.
• Mark all texts as read.
• New option to auto delete messages after 1 year, 30 days or never
• Option to auto delete video/audio messages after 2 minutes or never.
• Avatars displayed next to message threads on the iPhone 6 Plus.
• Split-screen iPad style landscape view on iPhones.

Music

• You can swipe left on an album to delete it.
• Add songs to a playlist from another playlist.
• New Icon.

Multitasking UI

• Recent Contacts: See people you’ve contacted recently in the multitasking switcher. Swipe right to see your favorites.
• Faster animation when opening and closing the app switcher.
• New landscape view in iPhone 6

Share sheets

• New Share sheet icons.
• You can now rearrange share sheet icons.

UI

• Improved animation system. Gestures like opening Notification Center won’t be blocked by an animations like the home screen icons flying in.

FaceTime

• Call waiting.
• Conference calls in FaceTime Audio.
• H.265 (HEVC) support for reduced data consumption during FaceTime calls

Mail

• Swipe to the left to flag for follow-up, move it to a folder or delete.
• Swipe all the way to the left to delete.
• Swipe all the way to the right to mark as read/unread.
• Easily reference other mails when composing a new draft by swiping the compose window towards the bottom, where it gets docked.
• Easy action buttons when Mail sees a reservation, flight confirmation, or phone number in an email. A notification appears at the top with actions like add to calendar etc.
• Mail conversations are now threads.
• Set VIP status for individual threads so you get an alert when a reply arrives in that thread.
• Per thread S/MIME.
• Auto reply messages.
• Delete attachments.
• New folders: Unread, To or CC, Attachments, Thread Notifications, Today.
• Split-screen iPad style landscape view on iPhones.

Notes

• Rich-text editing.
• Image support.

Notification Center / Notifications

• Third-party widgets in Today view.
• Interactive notifications – Additional options to take action on a notification without opening the app. Reply for messages, accept for calendar invites, Like for Facebook comments, delete for mail notifications and so on.
  • Actions show up as a button in the standard notification alert from the top.
  • In case of Lock Screen and Notification Center, options accessible by a swipe to the left.
• Individually delete notifications in Notification Center.
• Missed Notification tab is removed.

iBooks

• Pre-installed on iOS 8.
• Auto night mode.
• Books can now be categorized into series.

Passbook

• Updated Icon.
• Apple Pay Support: Add your credit or debit card by taking a photo and use it for NFC Payments 
• A history of recent Apple Pay purchases.
• Passbook “info” card only displayed if no other cards are present.

Safari

• iPhone tab view now also available on iPad.
• Two-finger pinch gesture to see Tab view on iPad
• New Sidebar for bookmarks, Reading List, and Shared Links on iPad.
• Full screen view on iPad where address bar hides when scrolling.
• Spotlight search in Safari’s address bar powered by Bing.
• Scan Credit Card to autofill payment info in a web form.
• WebGL
• Private browsing per tab.
• RSS feeds in Shared Links.
• New DuckDuckGo search options.
• Request the desktop site.
• Add website to Favorites while entering a URL.
• Swipe to close iCloud tabs from other devices.
• See recently closed tabs by pressing “+” button, now on iPhones.
• Delete individual items from History.
• Safari blocks ads from opening App Store pages without user permission.
• New Bookmark icon.

Maps

• Flyover city tours.
• Indoor Mapping

Siri

• Hey, Siri – Handsfree Siri activation when plugged in.
• Shazam song recognition.
• Purchase iTunes content.
• Download apps via Siri.
• Streaming voice recognition.
• 22 new dictation languages.

Phone

• Wi-Fi calling.
• Contact name scrolls when it won’t fit in the screen.
• Access full Phone app in-call.
• Full screen Caller ID.

Contacts

• Split-screen iPad style landscape view on iPhones.

Accessibility

• Braille keyboard for direct 6-dot Braille.
• Gray scale mode.
• Improved zoom.
• Speak screen.
• Natural sounding Alex voice for VoiceOver.
• New voices and gesture for speech accessibility.
• New options in AssistiveTouch to open Notification Center and Control Center.

Guided Access

• Exit Guided Access with Touch ID.
• Time limits and countdown timer for Guided Access.

Privacy

• Background location notifications – iOS asks user to “continue to allow” apps accessing Location in background.
• More Location Services options per app.
• Privacy settings for Camera, HomeKit and Health

Photos

• Search Photos by location, album, date and more.
• Date, time and location information displayed.
• Favorite Photos
• Recently Deleted photos
• Hide Photos and videos from Moments.
• New Hidden album for hidden photos and videos.
• New Albums for Bursts, Slow-Mo and Time-Lapse Videos.
• Auto optimise storage on device by removing local copies of pictures and videos.
• Improved editing.
  • Smart composition tools.
  • Smart adjustments.
  • Extension support.

Voice Memos

• Play/Pause button next to the record button in Voice Memos.

Lock Screen

• App shortcuts for Handoff on the Lock Screen.
• App shortcuts on the Lock Screen based on location.
• Listen to Audio iMessages on lock screen and reply by raising phone.
• iTunes Radio “buy” song button.
• See iTunes Radio skips remaining.
• New animation when opening apps from the Lock Screen.
• Access Medical ID from emergency dialer.
• New “Slide to Unlock” text in some languages.

Keyboard

• QuickType – See word suggestions as you type in a row above the keyboard. Word suggestions are contextually aware, and take into account tone of when you’re responding to, giving formal or casual suggestions.
  • QuickType can be hidden by swiping down.
  • QuickType can be toggled on or off from within the keyboard switcher.
• iPhone 6 has new options like copy, paste in the keyboard thanks to the larger display.
• If Emoji keyboard is only alternate keyboard, then you see a Smiley icon for changing keyboard. If not so, then the change keyboard icon is a globe icon.
• Streaming voice recognition for Speech to Text dictation.
• Third-party custom keyboards.
• iOS 6 keyboard no longer shows up in apps that are not updated for iOS 7 or higher.
• New keyboards for Indian, Tagalog, Irish Gaelic, and Slovenian.

Family Sharing

• Share purchased iTunes content with up to 6 members of your family.
• Shareable content includes iBooks purchases, iTunes purchases, and App Store purchases.
• Groups members can pay for family purchases with the same credit/debit card.
• Children can ask their parents to buy apps for them by sending them an alert on their phones.
• Shared Photo Stream, shared calendar and shared Reminders list.
• Automatically share user’s location with family members.
• See other family member’s devices in Find My iPhone app.
• Create Apple IDs for kids under 13, and ask them to purchase apps with the new “Ask to Buy” feature

Health app

• A single-place dashboard for all your fitness and health data
• See heart rate, calories burned, blood sugar, cholesterol, etc. of the user.
• Emergency card with medicinal details, visible from Emergency Dialler and the app.
• Track steps and movement data with the M7 & M8 chip.
• Export health data.

Continuity

• AirDrop now works with OS X Yosemite.
• Handoff – Start activities on one device, and continue from where you left off on another device. For example, continue working on the same mail draft, or the same spreadsheet or browse the same Safari link.
• Receive and send SMSes, answer and make phones calls from iPad or Mac, as long as your iPhone is nearby.
• If iPhone senses other devices nearby, it automatically appears in the Wi-Fi menu of other devices like iPad and Mac.

Spotlight

• Search Wikipedia, iBooks, iTunes, App Store, nearby places, news, Suggested Websites, and Movie showtimes.
• Works from Safari.
• Recent searches.

Weather

• Powered by The Weather Channel instead of Yahoo!.
• Weather data shown for More days
• More weather information shown at the bottom.
• Landscape view added to iPhone 6.

Clock

• New Icon with changed length of hands.

iTunes

• Wish List also includes songs identified with Siri.

Apple Developers – iOS SDK 8.0

• 4000 new APIs.
• New modern programming language called Swift
• Metal API for low level graphics.
• Touch ID API for third-party developers.
• Apple Pay API for adding payments within apps.
• Camera API – Precise control over exposure, focus, and white balance.
• Native apps can access credentials from Safari Auto-fill for easier logins.
• CloudKit – Database storage, authentication and file storage for third-party developers.
• HomeKit – Standardized control of home automation devices.
  • Discover accessories and add them to a persistent, cross-device, home configuration database.
  • Display, edit, and act upon the data in the home configuration database.
  • Communicate with configured accessories and services to get them to perform actions, such as turning on the lights in the living room.
  • Siri integration
• SceneKit – Easy 2D/3D casual game development.
• SpriteKit – improved to allow force fields, collision detection, and new lighting effects for games.
• PhotoKit – Developers can add their own filters inside the Photos app.
• HealthKit – A way to communicate with the health app and access and submit health and fitness data
• Extensions.
  • Today widgets
  • Share sheets
  • Actions to view or manipulate content in other apps
  • Photo Editing inside Photos app
  • Storage Provider – Dropbox, Google Drive etc can show up as a document provider in third-party apps.
  • Custom Keyboard

Enterprise

• Improved security – expanded data protection and finer control over mail encryption.
• IT departments have more ways to manage information securely.

Camera

• Panorama Mode for iPad.
• Time Lapse Mode.
• Separate focus and exposure controls.
• Shutter Mode (timer can be set to 3 or 10 seconds).
• Burst Mode for front camera

Settings

• Every app installed now has its own settings panel.
• Battery consumption info per app in Settings.
• A new “Allow Notifications” setting for each app, to disable notifications with one switch.
• “Raise to Listen” setting for Messages.
• New Wallpapers.
• New Handoff and Suggested Apps in Settings > General.
• Wallpapers and Brightness split into two separate menus:
  • “Display and Brightness”: Brightness settings were moved here along with Text Size and Bold Text.
• EU options for roaming.
• Split-screen iPad style landscape view on iPhones.

Wi-Fi

• Wi-Fi network scanning to use random MAC addresses to prevent tracking.

Bluetooth

• MIDI over Bluetooth LE

Podcasts

• Pre-installed with iOS 8.

China features

• Vector based maps.
• Turn by turn navigation.
• Lunar calendar support.
• Improved predictive input.
• Improved weather data.

Other

• AirPlay works without a Wi-Fi network.
• ”Send Last Location” option for Find My iPhone.
• Screen activity recording as a video camera device using OS X Yosemite through Lightning cable.
• Tips app.
• New definition dictionaries for Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, Thai, Turkish and Hindi localization.
• 24-hour/military time formatted correctly (e.g. “0010” instead of “010”).
• Springboard Landscape view added to iPhone 6.