iOS 8 is here, 10 biggest iOS 8 features you must know

Apple has released the latest version of iOS the iOS 8, and the company claims this is the biggest iOS release ever for both the devs and everyone else. Actually with iOS 8, Apple has let the OS more open, so expect some huge makeovers soon. So, here are the 10 biggest new features of iOS 8:

Actionable Notifications:

In iOS 8 users will be able to take action on the notifications straight way, i.e. notifications for text messages, emails, reminders or Facebook notifications can be replied from the notification center, no need to open their respective apps, so that you can carry on the app you are currently using.

Hey Siri:

In the latest iOS 8 update you can access Siri hands free, just like the Google Now on Android. The always-on, voice activated mode lets you use Siri by saying “Hey Siri”. Siri now understands more new language and can recognize Songs (Shazam Song recognition) and from now on you can tell Siri to buy contents from iTunes.

HealthKit app:

The new Health app introduced in iOS 8 can gather all the health related information from various health and fitness tracker apps and devices and will provide you a neat and compact overview of your healthiness in one place. Apple even lets devs the ability for health and fitness apps to communicate with each other.

Messages:

The next major update is the Messages app. Now you can add or remove contacts in group messaging, you can set do-not-disturb-mode, you can also open an attachment through Photos and Videos within a conversation. Tap to talk feature lets you share your voice and photo, videos via messages. Also now you can communicate through a swipe.

Keyboard & 3^rd Party additions:

Apple has introduced QuickType Keyboard, which can suggest the next word you are going to type and Apple has opened up the OS at last to allow third party keyboard apps to be installed in iOS devices and Adaptext, Swiftkey and more your favorite Keyboards are making their ways in the ecosystem.

Family Sharing:

With this feature you can set up upto six devices to share contents between them such as Photos, reminders, calendar, books, shows and music and all the devices can be billed with same registered credit card. Don’t worry if you flag users as kids, they won’t be able to buy anything without the permission of the users whose Credit card is registered.

Brand New Safari:

Safari now offers Tab view on iPad, It also includes the sidebar in Safari that lets you access the bookmarks, History, reading list and shared links. And the most interesting addition is the inclusion of DuckDuckGo search engine, it is a privacy based Search engine which do not track users or sell data to advertisers. Apple also now will be allowing third party app makers to create extensions for Safari which is a very good move.

Spotlight search:

Spotlight search now is more intelligent and can give you suggestions from Wikipedia entries, places nearby, trending news, iTunes Store and App Store. Bing now provides the search results in Spotlight on both OS X and iOS 8.

Touch ID is now available for 3^rd party app developers, it is really a necessary thing if added in banking apps as there you would like to have a extra layer of security. Don’t you?

Photos app and iCloud Drive:

The new “Photos app with iCloud Photo Library” in iOS 8 offers better browsing and editing features. The Photos app can automatically straighten the Horizons and users you can adjust the brightness and color or even access individual tools for deeper fine tuning. The Photos are shared automatically to iCloud Photo Library and only the light weight version of Photos will remain on your device.

iCloud Drive is Apple’s first party Cloud storage system and now it will be supporting third party apps integration soon. The iCloud service will be offering 5 GB of free storage and you can expand the storage by 20 GB with $0.99 and 200 GB for $3.99.

Continuity:

With iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, Apple says this Continuity feature will be the perfect companions when your iOS device is near your Mac, Handoff will let you start an activity on one device and pass it to the other. Instant Hotspot quickens the process of using the iPhone’s Hotspot. SMS and MMS messages will now be available in your all devices and you will be able to send SMS or MMS directly from your Mac or can attend a call through Mac as a speakerphone.

These 10 features are the biggest new updates on iOS 8 made by Apple. I will be back soon with some more small yet interesting new additions in iOS 8. So, visit daily and share this article to social media sites, so that all your friends become aware of this latest iOS 8 features. Have a good day friends.