3: App Clips
Picture the scene. You’re away on vacation, having lunch in a cafe.
The establishment in question has a great app that lets you review
your menu options, order your meal and pay the bill all from your
phone, but as there isn’t a branch in your locality, after your holiday
you’re unlikely to go there again. Do you download the app, use it
once and delete it, or not bother and stick to paper menus and cash?
The new operating systems introduce a great new feature that
gives you the best of both worlds. With App Clips, a small part of the
relevant app appears just when you need it. To get the App Clip you
want, just tap an NFC tag, scan QR codes from Messages, Maps, and
Safari, or use an App Clip code. It’s much quicker than downloading
the entire app, and it doesn’t take up space on your phone after
you’ve used it.
Being smaller than the full app, an App Clip downloads almost
instantly and is ready to use in seconds. They’re designed with the
same attention to privacy and security as Apple’s apps, and as App
Clips can use Apple Pay for payments, you don’t need to enter credit
card numbers. If you decide you want the full app after all, you can
download it directly from the App Clip.
4: Compact Calls
To date, if you get an incoming call while
you’re using your iPhone or iPad, it takes over
the entire screen. This can be very distracting,
especially if you decline the call and want to
get straight back to what you were doing.
Compact Calls is a new feature that shows an
incoming call as a notification, which only
covers the top of your screen. You can still
decline or accept it as before, but it’s far less
intrusive.
This applies to FaceTime calls and calls
from third-party apps as well as regular phone
calls. Obviously, this is a relatively minor
tweak to the user experience, but it’s yet
another step in the right direction.
5: Better Messages
The Messages app is looking old. It’s still a great way of keeping in
touch, but compared to third-party alternatives such as WhatsApp,
it has grown a little tired. In iOS/iPadOS 14 it gets a spruce-up,
with new features and new ways of interacting using the app.
The new Messages app lets you pin your most important
conversations to the top of your list, just like you can with Notes.
Pinned contacts appear as icons at the top of the screen. New
Memoji options are included too. There’s over 20 new hair and
headwear styles, more age options and even a surgical mask for
these COVID-hit times. There are now over one trillion ways to
customise a Memoji, so there’s bound to be one you like.
Finally – and maybe most importantly – group chats have been
overhauled, with inline replies to specific messages, alerts when
you’re specifically mentioned in the conversation and the ability
to give your group chat an icon or Memoji. It all serves to clarify
the somewhat-chaotic nature of current group chats, and make
them far easier to follow.
AppleUserMAGAZINE
antfer
(Antfer)
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