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Here’s everything new in iOS 9 [Gallery]

Apple introduced iOS 9 during its WWDC keynote today, and we’ve got a hands-on look at all of the new stuff you can expect to see when it comes out later this year.

iCloud Drive App – Your iCloud files are now accessible through a bundled app, though it’s hidden by default.

New Shift Key – It’s now easier to tell when your shift key is on or off. Check out the video to see how.

Design Tweaks – Several changes have been made to the design of key iOS elements. The two-factor login screen now has icons, while popups and action sheets have a decidedly rounder look.

New Notes App – You can now make lists, insert images, format text, and doodle on a blank canvas in the Notes app. A Recently Deleted list allows you to recover notes you accidentally got rid of.

Photos in Messages – The iPhone 6 Plus gained support for showing contact photos in the Messages app. iOS 9 brings that feature to more devices (the screenshot above is from an iPhone 6).

Updated Podcasts App – The Podcasts app is now more in-line with the podcasts section of iTunes, allowing you to create a separate list of unplayed podcasts beside your collection of subscriptions.

New Settings – Here’s a list of the new options you’ll find in the Settings app.

  • Search Settings – a search bar at the top of the main screen lets you quickly find what you’re looking for
  • Group notifications by app – by default notifications are now grouped by the time and date recieved. This setting brings back the old display style that groups them by app instead.
  • Touch Accommodations – a new accessibility setting allows for some leeway in determing where or how long a user touched the screen
  • Vibration – an accessiblity setting that eliminates all vibration system-wide, including those for amber alerts and weather alerts
  • Shake to Undo – a new accessibility setting allows users to disable the shake to undo feature completely
  • Side switch setting – iPad users have been able to determine whether the switch on the side of the device should mute it or toggle rotation lock; that setting is now available on all devices. Setting this option to rotation lock removes the rotation lock button from Control Center, leaving you with only four buttons across the top. It’s likely this will change to include a mute button in Control Center in future updates.
  • Battery – a whole new section in the Settings app now houses battery life details, including the new toggle for low power mode; activating low power mode turns your battery icon yellow
  • Show Contacts Found in Mail – this preference will allow your phone to search through your email for phone numbers to determine the identity of unknown callers
  • Notes – A new setting allo you to determine your default text format when you create a new note
  • Calls on Other Devices – the phone call Continuity setting is no longer located in the FaceTime settings pane; it has moved to the Phone settings instead
  • Content Blockers – this new Safari setting doesn’t seem to do much of anything just yet
  • Default video options – you can now set whether your iPhone will shoot video at 720p or 1080p by default; you can also set the frame rate. There are separate settings for regular video and slow-mo videos.
  • Siri Audio Feedback – Siri can be set to stop playing sounds when you mute your phone
  • Six-Digit Passcodes – Touch ID users are now required to use a 6-digit passcode instead of the old 4-digit code; an option to revert to a 4-digit code is present when changing your passcode
  • Wireless CarPlay – you won’t be able to use it just yet, but the ability to pair a car with your iPhone wirelessly has been added

New Siri Design – the Siri UI has been tweaked to resemble that of the Apple Watch; Siri also employs short vibrations to signal when it is listening. Dictation has also seen a small visual overhaul.

Photos Scrubber – You can quickly page through photos using a new scrubber at the bottom of the screen

Find My Friends and Find My iPhone baked in – Find My Friends and Find My iPhone are both now bundled with the operating system. Additionally, Find My Friends now has a Notification Center widget.

Two Kinds of Search – For now there are two different ways to search your iOS device. You can swipe to the left of the home screen to get to the new Siri/Proactive Assistant features, or you can pull down from the middle of the home screen (the same gesture as on iOS 7) to get to a widget-free search bar just like the old one.

All-New App Switcher – the new app switcher is very different from the old one: the home screen is now on the right side instead of the left, and double-clicking the home button puts your current app in a different location than the previous switcher, making it a little more difficult to quickly force quit the app you’re in by muscle memory.

Go Back – when tapping a notification that takes you into a new app, you’ll now have a button right on the status bar that lets you get back to wherever you were earlier. This feature is also triggered if you are pulled out of your current app for other reasons, like when an app opens a link in Safari.

[tweet https://twitter.com/arcyn1c/status/608011290523504640 align=’center’]

Battery Widget – you can track the battery life on your phone and Apple Watch with a new Notification Center widget

Apple Pay on the Lock Screen – depending on your security settings, you can now double-click the Home button while your phone is locked to bring up the Apple Pay interface

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Comments

  1. chrisl84 - 9 years ago

    I do like the improvements to notes

  2. thisisasticup - 9 years ago

    Update and siri doesn’t work and lost 20% battery life in 45 mins on iPhone 6.

    • rogifan - 9 years ago

      Are you a developer?

    • You do realize this is an early beta release?

    • Greg - 9 years ago

      It’s like they should have tested it or something huh ;)

      • Andrew Messenger - 9 years ago

        they should put out several test versions a few months early so people can see if everything is working and report the problems to apple.

    • therackett - 9 years ago

      AKA I paid $99 to be fly, and now my real phone don’t work.

      • Darrel Whidden - 9 years ago

        This would be why apple tells developers “NEVER install beta on your daily driver.” Betas are expected to have bugs, which is why developers test them….to report bugs. ;)

    • acslater017 - 9 years ago

      Oh man, iOS 9 is TOTALLY not ready for prime time! No, really, it’s not.

      • bwulfe - 9 years ago

        Neither were iOS 8.0 Beta 1, iOS7.0 Beta 1, iOS 6.0 Beta 1 ….. What did you expect? I installed it on a secondary iPad that I use for testing. Considering that iOS 8.4 randomly reboots on me about 2-3 times a day (on all iOS devices including iPad Air 2 and iPhone 6 Plus) I figure it can’t be too much more unstable; but then I have newer devices for normal day to day use.

  3. ifunography - 9 years ago

    I think the one big thing they missed was upgrading iCloud storage for Photos to compete with Google.

    I really, really, really, reeeeeaaally hate to bite this bullet but I’ll probably take up Google’s offer for unlimited photo and video backups. It’s just too convenient.

    Maybe they can surprise us in the Fall.

    • daniesy - 9 years ago

      They won’t offer storage for free. At least not yet.

    • Israel Molina - 9 years ago

      Be sure to read their terms and conditions…I did and will not be using it. quick snipet: “When you upload, submit, store, send or receive content to or through our Services, you give Google (and those they work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works,….communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content.”

      • keepingeyesopen - 9 years ago

        According to Leo Laporte (techguylabs.com, episode 1192), this is standard boilerplate legal language that is required for basic functionality of the app and of any service that would receive, store, process and transmit images to you. It’s not likely that Google would deliberately use anyone’s images nefariously. Any company providing a similar service would likely use a similar agreement.

      • myke2241 - 9 years ago

        I wonder why people give so much to google sometimes. i sure think people would think twice before letting that happen

      • Willa Brad - 9 years ago

        From Apple’s iCloud Terms and Conditions: “Apple does not claim ownership of the materials and/or Content you submit or make available on the Service. However, by submitting or posting such Content on areas of the Service that are accessible by the public or other users with whom you consent to share such Content, you grant Apple a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly perform and publicly display such Content on the Service solely for the purpose for which such Content was submitted or made available, without any compensation or obligation to you. ”

        So only the content you post in a publicly accessible area or share is open to Apple, where as Google automatically claims rights to everything you upload. I do agree with you keepingeyesopen that Google most likely won’t use your photos for anything…but isn’t it nice to know that Apple won’t?!?

      • There are some key differences between Google’s TOS and Apple’s TOS (and Microsoft, Flickr, etc.).

        First difference:

        “…you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license…” etc.

        Who are “and those we work with”? If Google partners with Comcast (not likely, but it will serve as an example), does Comcast then get included in their worldwide license? More relevant to photos, how about a service like Getty?

        Well, ok, then, If they do something I don’t like, I can remove my photos and delete my account, right? That brings up a second (and possibly more problematic) concern:

        “This license continues even if you stop using our Services…”

        That part made me stop considering uploading my photos to Google. The license continues even if I stop using their services? Do they ever truly remove my data, even if I request it? I think that’s a legitimate question to ask.

        There may be good, perfectly legal explanations for these clauses. If so, I’d like to hear them. I’m always looking for a good photo service. But the “magical” aspects of Google Photos are not (of course) magic. It’s deep, deep mining of every scrap of data Google can collect, and photos these days have a gold mine of data attached to them. That’s a lot of data in the hands of one company. The Google of today may be fairly benign, but who knows what tomorrow may bring. Yes, that could happen to Apple as well. But Google’s TOS seems to allow it to use our data more liberally than other services, and it also seems to give them a perpetual right to continue using it, not matter what I may decide to do.

        http://www.google.com/policies/terms/

    • Peter P (@drofish) - 9 years ago

      Agreed. Even though I feel uncomfortable with handing my photo library to Google, free storage for photos and videos backup is just tempting. If Apple don’t do something about iCloud pricing and Photos app, I think they probably gonna lose some users. If only Apple offers a larger free storage and downgrade the price for larger storage plans…

    • Michael (@Nyk0n) - 9 years ago

      um yeah that came with iOS 8.3 its called iCloud Photo Library

  4. Greg Kaplan (@kaplag) - 9 years ago

    “Find My Friends and Find My iPhone baked in – Find My Friends and Find My iPhone are both now bundled with the operating system. Additionally, Find My Friends now has a Notification Center widget.”

    few, thats good to know. I think the spotlight icon is there for new users to find easier but power users would miss the convince of pulling down on any home screen. Wonder what the home button behavior is. I hope it doesn’t ever pull you to spotlight like it did in past versions. I found that pretty annoying when I didn’t realize I was on the first homepage.

    • Greg Kaplan (@kaplag) - 9 years ago

      Whoops totally meant to quote this… “Two Kinds of Search – For now there are two different ways to search your iOS device. You can swipe to the left of the home screen to get to the new Siri/Proactive Assistant features, or you can pull down from the middle of the home screen (the same gesture as on iOS 7) to get to a widget-free search bar just like the old one.”

  5. daniesy - 9 years ago

    They forgot about updating the notifications ui, predictive keyboard for other languages…The “intelligence” features are absent in my country. Maps is still crap. Not every consumer lives in the States…

  6. duepeak07 - 9 years ago

    There is also an iCloud Drive app now, which is much appreciated!

  7. duepeak07 - 9 years ago

    The Notification Center listed notifications by time now. It no longer groups by apps by default, just lists them in the order received.

    • bwulfe - 9 years ago

      Go into your Notification Center settings. There is now a toggle to turn group by app on or off.

  8. Michael Rosenberg - 9 years ago

    Double press the home button to bring up apple pay

  9. vandy75 - 9 years ago

    I don’t know why no love for Kevin Lynch. He may not have that Craig Federighi’s rock star thing going on but he did a very good job at the presentation. He was engaging and it was clear that he had worked hard on his material. Thumbs up for Kevin!

  10. sendingitagain - 9 years ago

    I don’t know if this has been stated, but you can also quickly access ‘Wallet’ from the lockscreen by double pressing on the home button now as well.

  11. lmpacts - 9 years ago

    Does anybody have an Ipsw that I can directly download from my iphone (6+) or at least a developer account I can use? 😕 I really waited all year long for iOS 9!

    • Can you not wait for the public beta?

      • lmpacts - 9 years ago

        Nope, I can’t. 😐

    • bwulfe - 9 years ago

      Without a developer provisioning profile on your device, a developer-only beta will not function. It will simply brick your phone until (if you can) restore back to 8.4. Besides, the first beta release of any new iOS full decimal update has always tended be be EXTREMELY buggy. That is why it is restricted to use by developers on devices dedicated to application development. Once developers have reported some of the most detectable bugs and Apple has an opportunity to fix them (or at least attempt to fix them), Apple will release a revised beta which will be less likely to result in whining from users (like some commenters in this thread) who are upset that everything isn’t working perfectly. Unless you really enjoy suffering with inoperable hardware; wait for Apple to make a public release.

      • lmpacts - 9 years ago

        Thanks! I hope the public version is available over-the-air.. I don’t have my laptop right now.. 😕

      • bwulfe - 9 years ago

        Impacts: it doesn’t matter whether or not you have your laptop right now, since the public beta isn’t available right now. Regardless; you WILL need to install at least your initial version of iOS 9 beta via iTunes. No one with half a brain cell at Apple would contemplate seeding an iOS 8.X to 9 beta OTA. Other than detecting that a current version of OS9 is already installed on a device, how would Apple determine if someone actually wanted to install a beta? Just send it out to everyone and deal with a million complaints about sending out an update that wasn’t really ready for general release? They have enough problems with Gold Master releases of major revisions (Usually getting things under control by the .1 or .2 update). Do you have any realistic idea of what a beta release is? It isn’t for use by anyone who isn’t fully aware of the possible negative consequences of software that is still being debugged. It shouldn’t be too easy to initially install. You need to take intentional steps to acknowledge that what you are installing may not be stable and that you are willing to accept the consequences. Beta’s are not Toys to play with.

      • Jeremy Diaz (@j_ddiaz) - 9 years ago

        “Impacts: it doesn’t matter whether or not you have your laptop right now, since the public beta isn’t available right now. Regardless; you WILL need to install at least your initial version of iOS 9 beta via iTunes. No one with half a brain cell at Apple would contemplate seeding an iOS 8.X to 9 beta OTA. Other than detecting that a current version of OS9 is already installed on a device, how would Apple determine if someone actually wanted to install a beta? Just send it out to everyone and deal with a million complaints about sending out an update that wasn’t really ready for general release? They have enough problems with Gold Master releases of major revisions (Usually getting things under control by the .1 or .2 update). Do you have any realistic idea of what a beta release is? It isn’t for use by anyone who isn’t fully aware of the possible negative consequences of software that is still being debugged. It shouldn’t be too easy to initially install. You need to take intentional steps to acknowledge that what you are installing may not be stable and that you are willing to accept the consequences. Beta’s are not Toys to play with.”
        That’s not true, you don’t need a computer to install the public beta version because you sign up with your apple ID at beta.apple.com and when it becomes available you’ll be able to see “enroll your ios device” or something along those lines and then it’ll have you install the profile that will allow you to receive beta updates. So its basically the same process as signing up for Mac OS X betas.

      • Jeremy Diaz (@j_ddiaz) - 9 years ago

        The public betas are designed to be somewhat more stable than the developer previews since they’re going to be released to the general public but they’re going to have the “feedback assistant” app because the purpose of volunteering to sign up for the beta releases is for you to provide feedback on bugs and errors you encounter in iOS so that it helps Apple improve the overall performance of the software in the final release and future updates.

  12. Wildcat1 (@Wildcat_1) - 9 years ago

    No news app included in first beta ?

  13. lmpacts - 9 years ago

    I’m upset that At&T still hasn’t offered wifi calling and iOS 8 is about to be gone.

    • bwulfe - 9 years ago

      Neither has Verizon. If that is a problem, pay off your contract and take your phone to T-Mobile.

  14. SKR Imaging - 9 years ago

    does the “all new” app switcher allow to force quit all running apps?.. seems that this feature is missing from every version since iOS 4..

    • Andrew Messenger - 9 years ago

      Because it’s not necessary.

      • SKR Imaging - 9 years ago

        Why is that not necessary?

      • Evan - 9 years ago

        Because the wildly popular theory that having too many apps open in the background will slow down your device like it will on Android is a myth. The only parts that are actually running are parts you used recently. Having Temple Run open in the background a month after you used it will have zero impact on performance.

      • Josh Hurd (@jmhurd84) - 9 years ago

        Agree. Totall unnecessary. Force quit only when the application has indeed become unresponsive.

  15. Also, San Fransisco typeface is confirmed.

  16. Siri can have an accent now without having to switch languages.

  17. Balaji Chidambaram - 9 years ago

    Updated my ipod touch 5g to ios 9 beta 1 for free!!!!
    no new music app yet :(

    • bwulfe - 9 years ago

      The Music app isn’t tied to the iOS version. It is simply a new App. (More accurately, an updated version of the Beats App; which was an updated version of the MOG App.) Per the Keynote announcement; it will become available for download on June 30th. That applies to iOS 8.? and iOS 9 beta.

      • Evan - 9 years ago

        You’re right bwulf. The new Music app with the new Apple Music functionalities will arrive with 8.4
        Although it is kind of funny to see screenshots of iOS 9 with an icon that will never appear on it.

  18. Trent Deckard - 9 years ago

    I don’t see how turning the battery icon yellow is going to save very much energy.

    – I’ll show myself out.

    • guacho8 - 9 years ago

      I hope you are joking. The yellow battery icon is just so you know you are in reserve mode, there are a bunch of settings that are turned off in the background to help save battery life

    • Evan - 9 years ago

      It’s magical isn’t it? :D

  19. Tom@L (@_ArcTic_FiRe) - 9 years ago

    Does it have “clear all notifications”? Man I really need that

  20. baussie - 9 years ago

    Still no option to avoid toll roads in the Maps app.
    Not a fan of the new font, but the new keyboard with lower case letters is plain ugly.

  21. Tristan Rogers - 9 years ago

    Is anyone else missing the News app? I’m on a 5s and it’s curiously nowhere to be found.

    • I think it’s only for the US, heard it wasn’t available in Canada aswell..

    • Andreas Dettlaff - 9 years ago

      Im in the US and Im missing the News app as well. iPhone 6 +

      • Tristan Rogers - 9 years ago

        Yeah, I’m in the US, too. I haven’t seen it in any videos or anything so I guess they opted to leave it out of this build. Thanks!

      • Josh Hurd (@jmhurd84) - 9 years ago

        Confirm on 5c it is missing as well. But news articles show up in the Spotlight screen (whatever you wanna call the return of the far-left search screen), and they appear to be updating so you can get headlines at least for now.

      • Contrel Walter - 9 years ago

        Be thankful.

  22. Jeff Byrnes - 9 years ago

    “Six-Digit Passcodes – Touch ID users are now required to use a 6-digit passcode instead of the old 4-digit code”

    Actually, if you tap on “Passcode Options” at the bottom of the setup page, you can choose to use a 4-digit passcode alongside Touch ID.

  23. Tuvatech - 9 years ago

    What happened to the ”portrait orientation lock” button in Control Center? How would one go about that in iOS 9? I use that a lot…

  24. Anthony Wolfe - 9 years ago

    No mention of the improved music app? Not for streaming

    • bwulfe - 9 years ago

      Look at the comments regarding the Music App above. This is NOT part of iOS9. It is a new app that will replace the current Music app. It will be available on June 30th for existing iOS (8.4) users. iOS9 is not required.

      • Josh Hurd (@jmhurd84) - 9 years ago

        My interpretation of it is that it was excluded from this first beta build of 9.0, but will be in later builds. I expect 8.4 to officially drop on June 30th (with the new music app baked in) and we’ll probably see a new beta of 9 released around that same time. That’s the impression I get anyway.

  25. Ilko Sarafski - 9 years ago

    The things that annoys me is that the icon for quick 3/4G on/off is missing from the quick settings. WHEN will they have this? Since Android has it few years now?

  26. So when could they implement the Unicorns in Note app ?

  27. Yuval (@YuvSchwartz) - 9 years ago

    I wish they’ll move all the widgets from notification center to the new Siri/Search screen!

    This new screen already has some sort of widgets, so it will be great if all 3rd party apps that created widgets fro NC will move there as well.

    Notification center is for notifications…

    • Mike Beasley - 9 years ago

      It would make those widgets much less accessible if you had to access them from the home screen. I think they’re fine where they are.

    • Nick Techman - 9 years ago

      On the iPad in landscape mode, widgets are in a separate tab from notifications and the Today view in iOS 9.

  28. 24skelly - 9 years ago

    Are there any other improvements to iMessage? I had seen rumors that you would be able to turn on read receipts for specific contacts only, is this true?

  29. bwulfe - 9 years ago

    Early impressions of beta 1: It seems to be far more stable than previous iOS beta 1 releases. That doesn’t mean that it is anywhere near ready for prime-time. Most operations appear to be far more responsive than in 8.3. As one would expect, there are a number of apps that simply crash under this beta. (Some will be due to developers not updating code to avoid library / api calls that Apple previously advised it would be dropping support; others are simply the victim of early beta bugs). The most notable item I have detected is that this puppy really sucks down battery life. Once again, not uncommon for a beta 1 release; but worth noting. With about three months to go before final release, it looks pretty solid.

  30. jarrodldavis - 9 years ago

    Looks like Find in Page and Request Desktop Site have been moved into Safari’s share sheet. Find in Page also has a new UI.

  31. jarrodldavis - 9 years ago

    In Photos, you can hide specific pictures from Years, Collections, and Moments. This is great if (like me) you have an Album of screenshots but don’t want to litter your main screen with them.

  32. I have iOS 9 Beta 3 on my Daily Driver. It’s not bad

  33. Imad Yafi - 9 years ago

    I just updated my ipad air 2 to ios 9 beta 3 and after putting my id and password and agreed
    to the terms and conditions, a window pops up telling me could not sign in. no way to go to
    settings. can you help me please.

    imad

  34. jaxbeachsurfshop - 9 years ago

    Really was hoping the read receipts w/contact option was going to be added.

  35. Checed de la Cruz - 9 years ago

    i upgraded my iphone to ios 9 . And after i press the agreed button after the terms and cons.. “could not sign in” pops up. HOW TO FIX THIS! HELPPP! :'(

  36. Contrel Walter - 9 years ago

    HATE the new app switcher. HATE IT. Why cant they allow us to choose the old way. Stop forcing people to change after they just get used to something. Oh, and here is another suggestion: please STOP changing my brightness settings upon each and every update. Stop that! Its rude. Also, my battery life now SUCKS. Thanks. I am going back to the 8.xx I had working just fine.

  37. Rohini Narasimha Murthy - 9 years ago

    My phone is do not show passcode options to change from 6 digit to 4 digit. Please help, Thanks!

  38. Michele Kerschner - 8 years ago

    The Next Track and previous track buttons are gone on the Podcasts now. How can I get them back? Why would you want to fast forward 15 seconds or go back 15 seconds or use the 1X speed buttons the next and previous should be the most important buttons there. :( Using an ipod.