I’ve been running the iOS 14 beta for a little while on both my iPad Pro and iPhone 11 Pro, and wanted to highlight some of my favorite features:
- Widgets: I am loving having my calendar, weather and Shortcuts out on my home screen. This will only get better when third-party applications start adding support for them later this year. While they take up spots I used to have apps in, being able to ditch an app’s icon is a nice side effect.
- Folders in Shortcuts: One of the first things I did was organize my shortcuts into several folders. These folders can then be turned into widgets. Organization bliss!
- Changes in Mail: Nah, JK. Apple never adds features to Mail.
- Pinned threads in Messages: I love that this feature works both with individuals and groups, and as a bonus, they sync across devices, including Macs running Big Sur. My only wish is that the layout was a little more dense; I’d like to have four across, not just three.
- Compact UI elements: No phone call can take over the screen now!