I have been playing with the beta of iOS 9 for some time and I have already gotten so used to some of the new features that I no longer consider them new. But for most people these improvements will be a pleasant surprise. I definitely encourage you to download iOS 9 so you can check out some of them! Here are some of my favorites for the iPhone. We will cover the iPad and iOS 9 next week.
Multitasking – the App Switcher
You still double click the home button to access the App switcher but it has changed. The screens of open apps are shown in large size and you scroll right to left in order of most recently used. On the bottom of the screen you will see an improved Handoff indicator. It is a thin tab that you pull upwards to open the active Handoff screen.
Go Back to App
If you click on a Notification or a link from an email or Safari and it opens a new window for the new app you can now quickly go back to the previous app. The “go back” button will only be there for about a minute before it vanishes but if you just want to check something out you can quickly go back to where you were.
Folders for Photo App
iOS 9 has new folders or albums for selfies and screenshots within the Photos app. The Selfies folder is basically all the pictures taken with the front-facing camera while the screen shots folder log all the screen captures you do by holding down the home button and clicking the power button.
Low Power Mode
Running low on juice and no convenient charger? iOS 9 introduces Low Power Mode. This power saving mode switches off some of the battery-draining features such as visual effects, background app refresh, automatic downloads and email refresh. You can switch to Low Power Mode in the Battery screen of settings or once you reach about 10% you will be asked whether you want to go into Low Power Mode. Once you plug your phone in you it reverts to regular mode.
News App
Apple has introduced their News App which is pre-installed. You can customize it from their variety of feeds and subscribe to stories from a variety of sources. I have found that News is more useful to me than many of the other news apps that I have used so it has a prominent place on my home screen.
Searching
Swipe to the left from the home screen and you get to the search screen. Spotlight which uses Siri now can answer a wider variety of questions. It interprets your plain english typing. You can do currency conversions, look up sports scores, do simple math, etc right there. Even without typing you can see other listings. These are the “proactive” Siri suggestions where Apple tries contextually to find you some relevant information.
There is lots more to discover with iOS 9 and plenty that is “under the hood” to improve speed and performance. You are going to love it!