iOS 12: Main Feature Review! What's new?

Apple has released iOS 12 to the public. We've reviewed all the main new features. 

After what seems forever, iOS 12 is now out of beta and released to the public. There are many new features and big changes you may notice and we will be recapping them and telling you about them here. 

Please note that some of these new features are not available on older devices! 

Performance and stability 

After the iOS 11 disaster, Apple has focused on performance and stability of iOS in this update. You will find it dramatically faster after updating, especially on older devices, so if you have an iPhone 5S or 6, it's recommended that you install the update. Lots of bugs are also fixed and many current features in iOS have been stabilised and improved.

Grouped Notifications

Your notifications are now grouped depending on the app they come from, topic and thread as well. Swipe left to have the option to manage notifications for that specific app,  You can also go into Settings and customise the notification settings to your liking. This is one of the biggest changes in iOS 12 and we love it! 

How to customise Grouped Notifications

Screen Time

Screen Time is Apple's new tool that lets you manage the time you spend on your iPhone. You can see Activity Reports, set app limits and timers, and also use Do Not Disturb which has been updated to block ALL notifications on the lock screen and prevent interruptions. There is also Downtime for at night, and improved restrictions which work with these new Screen Time features. We'll have an article on using Screen Time soon. 

Revamped FaceTime (and Group FaceTime)

FaceTime has seen a complete overhaul in iOS 12. The user interface is much simpler and it's easier to make a call. You can also put stickers when in a video call, text and much more (and Animoji on iPhone X). Finally, Group FaceTime allows you to chat with up to 32 people at once - but has been delayed until a future iOS 12 release. 

Siri Shortcuts

You can download this new app from the App Store. It allows you to create a shortcut to do a bunch of actions at once - using Siri. You create your list of actions, set a phrase to activate it (eg "my shortcut") and say that to Siri. It looks like it works really well, and again, we'll have more details on Shortcuts soon. 

Photos app improvements

You can now search photos with a location, name or tag. The search will quickly bring up places photos were taken and the photo related to the keyword you searched for. Photos has also seen some UI changes, with albums appearing at the bottom of screen now. The new search feature also works with Siri as well. 

Memoji and new animoji

iOS 12 brings Memoji for iPhone X, Xs and XR users. It allows you to create a custom animated emoji of yourself and then use it in iMessage and FaceTime. Along with this, you can now record up to 30 seconds in Animoji, and there are 4 new animals. 

Measure app

iOS 12 makes use of ARKit 2 (also new) and brings a new built in app : Measure. In simple terms, it's a virtual tape measure you can use to measure objects. You place it on a point, then on another point. This is only for the iPhone 7 and newer phones, so if you see it on your older iPhone, it work work and you can delete it. 

Author

Ben W.