Unlike their previous releases, Apple is focusing on performance improvements with the new iOS 12. To spice things up, the company did add a few interface features to make it a little exciting. Let’s go check them out.
Better Performance
Apple pretty much picked up where the iOS 11 left off and polished it for the new iOS 12.
With the new software, expect faster and better performance on both the iPhone and iPad. Apple claims that you can feel typing on the keyboard to be 50% faster and more responsive. It will also have 40% faster app launch, and opening the camera app will be significantly 70% quicker.
It also appears that iOS 12 brings better RAM management. The Cupertino company says that apps will launch twice as fast even when the system is under heavy load.
Grouped Notifications
Finally, Apple is finally bringing group notifications to the iPhones and the iPads. With this feature, all the incoming notifications will now be organized into a single tab per app or topic. It’s going to make the lock screen look clean even when the user gets bombarded with messages from a group chat.
You can also turn off or deliver quietly notifications from a specific app right from the notification center, which is pretty convenient.
New Do Not Disturb modes
iOS’ Do Not Disturb feature gets smarter and more intuitive. It will now automatically end depending on a specified time, action or location. This means that your phone won’t bother you in class, during dinner with family, or when you are in an important meeting.
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It also has a new Bedtime mode which will dim the display and hide all your notifications until you wake up in the morning.
Memojis
Other than the new features that are actually functional, Apple is also bringing an update to one of iOS’ biggest novelty feature — the Animoji.
With iOS 12, Apple is expanding the Animoji characters portfolio by adding the koala, tiger, ghost, and T. rex. Apple has also announced Memoji, which is a personalized Animoji on steroids.
In Memoji, you can customize your own Animoji to practically animate yourself. The way you can customize it is pretty cool. There’s an option to chose from different skin colors, hair, eyes, and even the type of eyeglasses you have on.
Group FaceTime
For the first time ever, Apple is finally adding group chat on FaceTime. We’re not sure what took them so long, but at least it’s officially here and there’s no need to use other apps just for this specific feature.
You can do group FaceTime with friends even when they are on different Apple devices — regardless if they are on an iPhone, iPad, Mac or Apple Watch via FaceTime audio.
ARKit 2
Apple is really betting hard on Augmented Reality. So, they announced the new ARKit 2 for the developers. With this, developers can make better AR-enabled apps for iOS as it provides new and exciting ways that users can play with on Apple’s AR technology.
For one, there’s a possibility for two users holding different iOS devices to see the same thing at the same time. This makes for some really cool and futuristic multiplayer gaming.
Privacy and Security improvements
Just like what they did on the new macOS Mojave, Apple is also adding new security improvements on the iOS 12 to protect the privacy of its users.
First off, Safari gets more secure with its Intelligent Tracking Prevention which will block social media websites from tracking you without permission. It will also present a vague and simplified system information of your device’s specs, so websites couldn’t track using fingerprinting.
Safari will now automatically create, autofill, and keep strong passwords when you create new web accounts. It will also notify you of reused passwords so you can change them as needed.
Others
Besides those mentioned improvements, Apple also added a few neat features to iOS 12.
There’s the Screen Time which shows a report of your smartphone usage and reacts to them by setting the different management tools. In addition, the Apple Books, News, News and Headlines, and Voice Memos get new interfaces and smarter features.
We were expecting Apple to bring big news with its voice assistant, but they did not. Siri has been completely left behind by Google Assistant, and with Apple’s WWDC 2018 keynote, that didn’t change.
What Apple did was to add 40 more languages that Siri can translate. Siri can now show your desired photos by a person’s name, location, event, time, or topic.
The new iOS 12 is now available for developers. It will enter public beta testing later this month, and the official final build release will come later this year. It will also be compatible with all supported devices of iOS 11.
This means that it will work even on the iPhone 5S — Apple’s flagship smartphone way back in 2013. It will also come to all iPad Air and iPad Pro models, as well as the 5th and 6th Generation variants. The iPod Touch 6th-Gen is also part of the party, as well as the iPad mini 2 and later.