Apple released their latest version of iOS at the WWDC 2017. The 11th version of Apple OS has redesigned apps, control centre, new Siri and a new App Store. The working version of iOS 11 will be available in September 2017.
One of the biggest visual changes have been made to Siri. Siri is more interactive, unlike in the previous versions where Siri was limited to a single question followed by an answer. Siri can now translate your voice and respond accordingly. You can also ask follow up questions.
Big focus on technologies in iOS 11 and many new features like:-
Messages:
iMessage gets a redesigned app drawer in iOS 11. All your applications will be accessible right there at the bottom of the screen with just a tap. You can scroll through them while messaging and tap into any app. It is really easy and a lot of fun to use.
Messages are now synced with iCloud. When you sign into a new device with your iCloud Id, all your messages will automatically be synced. They remain in sync which means that if you delete a message it will automatically be deleted from all devices at the same time. It optimizes device storage and helps in smaller and faster backups.
Apple Pay:
Apple Pay is the 1st contactless payment on mobile devices. In addition to retail, you can use Apple Pay in apps, webs and paying from person to person.
You can send and receive money via iMessage. You can send money by simply tapping on the Apple Pay app in the iMessage App drawer. Sending and receiving money has never been easier. The money received automatically goes into your Apple Pay cash card.
You can use the cash card to transfer money to your friends, family and even transfer it back into your bank account.
Siri:
Siri is used by 375 million active users in a month. It is available in 21 languages and 36 countries. With the help of Natural Language Processing, Apple has given Siri a natural voice. Siri will also be able to respond to you in three different sounds.
Apple has completely redesigned Siri by giving it a new visual interface. It will now provide multiple results for one query. Siri has a new capability with which it will be able to perform translations. It will initially support translating from English to Chinese, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. There will be more languages added to this in the future.
When it comes to accessing apps in Siri. There is a Siri Kit that is available. You can manage tasks, take notes, using banking facilities and much more. Siri is not only a voice assistant. It understands context, your interests and how you use your device. This allows Siri to understand what you want next.
In iOS 11, Siri uses on device learning to understand more about the topics that interest you. In addition to this, all that Siri learns about you will be synced across all your devices through iCloud.
Camera:
iOS 11 provides a High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) which gives upto 2x better compression leading to less storage space used on your device and in Cloud. These HEVC Pictures will replace the JPEG format with HEIF (high efficiency image format).
Photos:
Some new features have been added to live photos. You can now trim and mark any part of the picture as your key photo. You can also create a seamless loop around a live photo so the picture continues to do what it is doing.
Control Centre:
A major redesign to the control centre in iOS 11. All the features have been added in a single page.
-It has some simple switches like the orientation lock.
-It has sliders available to adjust the light and volume.
-With 3D touch, you can access more features by launching a section on your screen.
Notification Centre:
You can swipe down on the home screen to view your lock screen with the same notification. You will have to scroll further to see all your notifications.
Updates to Maps:
Maps will give you detailed information when you get to say the mall. It will give you detailed floor plans with place card and directory. It also lets you browse by floor.
There are a few improvements to navigation like speed limit and lane guidance will be mentioned.
Do Not Disturb While Driving:
This is a new feature that has been added in the latest version. Your phone will use bluetooth to understand that you are connected to the car. If you don’t have bluetooth, then the wifi-doppler effect to measure that you are moving in a car. When you finish your first drive, you will receive a notification requesting you to switch on the Do Not Disturb While Driving feature. As soon as this feature is activated, you will have a blank screen while driving in order to avoid any distractions.
Just in case you are tempted to look at your notifications and you click on the home button. You will see a notification that says, ‘You will not receive Notifications while driving.’ If you are sitting in the back seat, you can respond to it by saying,’I am not driving’ and use your phone.
You can even allow some really important people in your contact list to actually send you notification even while you’re driving. The rest will receive an automatic message.
Apple Music:
It has a new feature called Share up next with which you can share your music with your friend’s playlist without interrupting the music. You can also discover what your friends have been listening to right inside the application with a separate section.
For developers, a Music Kit will be available with full access to Apple Music services, Cloud library, featured music and charts, search playlists, stations, and catalog.
App Store:
There are 500 million active weekly visitors to the App Store. There have been over 180 billion apps downloaded till date.
There have been only two very important since the beginning which are:
-A trusted and safe place for users.
-Great opportunity for all developers.
A few new features include:
One of the main features of the App Store is faster app review. The majority of apps are reviewed under 24 hours and many in just one to two hours.
Phased releases is another major feature. When you submit an app, you can choose if you want it to be phase released over time so it doesn’t hit your infrastructure all at once.
A complete redesign to the App Store in iOS 11. The App Store starts with a brand new tab called today which features all the apps that you might want to download or review. It also has a separate section for in-app purchases so if you have a new character available or a new level, it will be there in front of you.
Home Kit:
Apple has launched a new Home Kit allowing users to communicate and control connected accessories in their home. With the HomeKit framework, you can provide a way to configure accessories and create actions to control them. Users can even group actions together and trigger them using Siri.
Apple launched its newest product HomePod at the WWDC 2017. It looks like Apple has finally decided to join the AI battle for homes. With the help of the HomeKit, Siri can control elements of your smart home with the integration of Apple HomeKit. You can tell Siri to switch off the lights, turn on the heater and much more.
Vision API for developers:
Lastly, Apple is making Machine Learning ability easily available to developers with its new Vision API. This API provides the following:
-Face tracking
-Face recognition
-Landmarks
-Text Detection
-Rectangle detection
-Barcode detection
-Object tracking
-Image registration
Natural Language API for developers:
It provides capabilities like language identification, tokenization, lemmatization, part of speech, named entity recognition. These are built on core Machine Learning which provides high-performance implementation.
In addition to the above, a new AR Kit available for the developers. The code for a new test application will be available to all developers to test the application with AR capabilities. The AR kit provides fast and stable motion tracking and it uses the camera on your device to do it.
Other updates include:
On the go screenshot, Mark up And Screen Recording without Mac.
However, the much anticipated Dark mode is not available but there’s a smart invert colors option in accessibility now which doesn’t invert colors on things like images and icons. iOS 11 also supports one-handed keyboard(s), both left and right for certain iPhone models based on screen size.Finally, users can hold and drag images and texts across the apps in split view on an iPad.
iOS 11 also supports one-handed keyboard(s), both left and right for certain iPhone models based on screen size.Finally, users can hold and drag images and texts across the apps in split view on an iPad.
Finally, users can hold and drag images and texts across the apps in split view on an iPad.
