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12 New iOS 9 Feature Announced at WWDC 2015

At WWDC today, Apple has unveiled what it plans on adding to iOS, with iOS 9. we want everyone to get to iOS 9. The new iOS 9 will be available for all phones running iOS 8 and the update will require only 1.3 GB free space instead of usual 4.9 GB.

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Proactive Siri

The major change in iOS 9 is a new Proractive Siri. The new Siri is more intelligent and can act on preemptive search. Or in other words, Siri is now heavily inspired by Google Now. Apple claims 40 percent reduction in word error rate.

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Siri can add contextual reminder, read your emails and add events to calendar, show commute reminders, add location based reminders, read you mail and tell who the unknown number calling might be and so much more. The new iOS 9 will rely heavily on voice commands.

App recommendations

iOS 9 will also include a feature called Apps recommendation. If you wake up in the morning and like to work-out or mediate when you begin your day, your iPhone will show work-out or meditation apps as recommendations. We are not sure how effective or revolutionary this would be, but we will know soon enough


Low Power Mode

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With iOS 9 Apple has introduced a battery saver mode which will allow you to extend your battery life by 3 hours.

News App

Apple will add a new News App to iOS 9 which has user privacy integrated in every aspect. From what apple demonstrated in the slides, it looks like a wonderful intuitive app which integrates best features of all third party apps.

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“We think there’s never been a more beautiful mobile reading experieince. … we can’t wait to get it in your hands.”

Transit

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Users were expecting public transit added to Maps, but Apple has made a separate App to aid this purpose. Apple says it has taken great care to get details right. After all it can’t afford to repeat the 2012 Maps fiasco, which caused Cook to issue a public apology and to fire iOS chief Scott Forstall.

New Notes App

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About 50 percent of active iOS users use Notes and the app has gone a lot better. You can now add images, draw with your fingers, create tiles, create checklists and number list, and benefit from new attachment view which makes finding notes a lot easier.

Home Kit

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HomeKit adds a few more sensors to list including Carbon monoxide sensor. You can now control all your devices using iOS cloud remote from anywhere across the planet.

Health Kit

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Health kit also adds hydration, UV exposure and reproduction.

“HealthKit has been on fire. … We’re adding lots of addition health metrics to be tracked – hydration, UV exposure and reproduction.”

Swift 2

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Apple introduced Swift, a new programming language, during its developer conference last year. Swift was supposed to make coding easier, faster and more stable. Apple has today announced Swift 2 and has made developers very happy by making it open source. This isn’t exactly an iOS 9 feature but will play a major role in shaping up iOS experience.

“We will be rolling out the compiler and standard libraries for iOS, OSX and Linux. It will all be out there by the end of the year,” FEderighi said.

Wallet

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Passbook will now be called wallet. Google ditched wallet for Android Pay, which sounds similar to Apple pay and now Apple has adopted wallet. Wallet sounds a lot Cooler now?

Besides, Apple also announced adoption for Apple Pay with more banks joining the club. The contactless payment service is gaining momentum and will launch in UK this year. In addition to your debit and credit cards, you can now use Apple’s reward cards to buy stuff. Apple has partnered with Square to launch a new card reader which will allow small businesses to accept Apple pay and card transactions.

Side by Side Multitasking

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Apple has finally brought side by side multi tasking to iOS with iOS 9. The new software will allow you to split screen and switch between different apps. How this actually works has striking resemblance to how Windows 8 does it. You can pin apps to the side of the screen to get to them quickly. On iPad Air 2, you can work on two apps side by side.

Apple CarPlay

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Apple’s automobile OS CarPlay will be deeply integrated with other auto apps and allow you to control more of your vehicle using your iPhone. This is a huge boost for CarPlay.

Conclusion

These are the features which were primarily highlighted at the keynote today. iOS 9 will be available for developers starting today and public beta will release in July 2015. The major change we are looking forward to is the new smarter Siri and if it finally works better than Google Now.

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Deepak Singh

The Author spent a significant chunk of his formative years resisting technology. He now keeps an eye on where the world is heading to, and drives a passive pleasure from this indulgence. His passion to write, learn and improve drives him each day. When his day ends, he enjoys the pleasant languor and detoxifies with family. You can connect with him on and Twitter