Once a year, Apple rolls out a major update to the iOS software that runs on all iPhones. Millions of devices will get major new features for free, along with patches for security bugs and interface tweaks. The next update is iOS 14, and it will be announced in one month’s time.
After iOS 13’s troubled launch, Apple fans have high expectations for the next update. Despite offering new features such as Dark Mode and an overhauled Photos app, iOS 13 has had a bad run of bugs, with Apple releasing multiple smaller point updates in a relatively short time to try and improve stability.
iOS 14 is expected to break that trend, with the introduction of new internal measures to flag and squash bugs before public release. But what does that mean for the release schedule? And will Apple sacrifice features in favour of performance enhancements, as it did with iOS 12? Will Apple slow down and get iOS 14 right?
In this article we present everything you need to know about iOS 14 right now, including its expected announcement and release dates (and when the public beta will roll out), information on the new internal development system, iPhones that will and won’t be able to run the new OS and a list of new features based on a leaked build.
When will iOS 14 be released?
Based on previous years we cautiously expect Apple to release iOS 14 to the public between 14 and 18 September 2020.
This rollout is normally tied in with the autumn iPhone launches, however: falling one or two weeks after the new handsets are announced. Sadly, there are increasingly confident rumours that the iPhone 12 will be delayed until October or later, and we may have to wait a bit longer for iOS 14 too.
Here are the past five iOS release dates.
- iOS 13: Thursday 19 September 2019
- iOS 12: Monday 17 September 2018
- iOS 11: Wednesday 20 September 2017
- iOS 10: Tuesday 13 September 2016
- iOS 9: Wednesday 16 September 2015
WWDC 2020
But that won’t be the first time we hear about the new iOS. Apple will announce its plans for the upcoming software updates across its range of products at its annual developer-focused WWDC event, which takes place every June. This year it starts on 22 June 2020, a little later than usual, and will be an online-only event, as a response to the threat of the coronavirus.
Beta versions
Following the reveal at WWDC, developers get early access to the software to make sure their apps are up to scratch by the time it’s released to the public, which generally happens in mid-September.
The first developer beta release of iOS 14 will be rolled out pretty much straight after the WWDC keynote on 22 June. But members of the public will have to wait a little longer before they can try it out.
You’ll be able to get early access to iOS 14 in the form of a Public Beta, a program that lets eager Apple fans trial the software and help report any bugs before general release. The Public Beta usually kicks off a few weeks after the developer build is released, giving Apple a bit of time to correct any OS-breaking bugs that developers and Apple insiders might find in the initial build.
We expect the first public beta to arrive around 13 July 2020.
Which iPhones will run iOS 14?
According to French site iPhonesoft, which claims to have spoken with a contact who works on Apple Maps, iOS 14 will be compatible with the same list of iPhones as iOS 13 (but apparently not the seventh-gen iPod touch).
Here’s a list of iOS 13-compatible (and therefore iOS 14-compatible) iPhones:
- iPhone 6s & iPhone 6s Plus
- iPhone SE & iPhone 7 & iPhone 7 Plus
- iPhone 8 & iPhone 8 Plus
- iPhone X
- iPhone XR & iPhone XS & iPhone XS Max
- iPhone 11 & iPhone 11 Pro & iPhone 11 Pro Max
The big news there is the iPhone SE and 6s still being supported.
The iPhone 6s range made its debut back in 2015 and will be five years old by the time iOS 14 drops – around the age where Apple tends to discontinue support. It was a similar story with the iPhone 6 range, which came out in 2014 and missed out on the upgrade to iOS 13 in 2019, five years later.
Reliability & bugs
iOS 13 has a bit of a sketchy reputation. Between the initial release of iOS 13 at the end of September 2019 and December 2019, there had been eight updates pushed out to iOS users around the world to address various issues, from visual glitches and crashing apps to missing features. Why? Because iOS 13 is a buggy mess, and Apple knows it.
In fact, the company is so aware of how badly iOS 13 has been received that it’s planning to completely overhaul the way it develops operating system updates – according to a report from Bloomberg, anyway.
According to the site, Apple will introduce software flags in daily iOS builds that will help the company isolate bad code before it reaches the hands of developers and consumers. It’s a process already used by most big tech companies including Google and Microsoft, and should hopefully avoid overly buggy iOS releases in future.
It’s not the first time Apple has focused on performance over new features – iOS 12 was released with very few changes compared to iOS 11, but it was certainly a lot more responsive.
We’re hoping to see the same improvements here, although hopefully not at a cost of new features – bar a handful of new features like Dark Mode, it has been a slow few years for iOS, especially when compared to the early days of iOS where every iteration would have a game-changing addition.
New features in iOS 14
As we get closer to iOS 14’s official summer reveal, we’re getting a better idea of what it will let us do on our iPhones. Indeed, several sites have obtained leaked builds of the OS and have been combing through its code for snippets of information.
Messages enhancements
MacRumors has uncovered evidence that Apple is testing out several new features in Messages and may roll them out as part of iOS 14. These include three absolute bangers:
- The ability to retract iMessages you regret sending
- Tags – so typing @lewis would notify me in a group chat that I’d selectively muted
- Typing indicators in group chats: “Lewis is typing”
You’ll notice that two of these borrow fairly heavily from Slack, which suggests that Apple would like to position iMessage as a potential productivity/group-working tool. It’s pretty late in the day to be making a move on that market, and businesses will by now be set on a tool that they’re comfortable using, but Apple always has the leverage of its large install base – all those executives with iPhones could be a powerful negotiating resource.
Fitness app
Currently codenamed ‘Seymour’, but likely to be named either Fit or Fitness when it’s launched, a new (and apparently free) app in iOS 14, watchOS 7 and tvOS 14 will enable users to download and view guided workout videos across a range of exercise types.
Despite the range of compatible platforms, it seems that an Apple Watch will be necessary to use this feature. You’ll view the workout on the screen of an Apple TV, iPad or iPhone, while the Watch tracks your movements and progress.
MacRumors says the exercise options include walking, running, cycling, rowing, stretching, core and strength training, dance and yoga.
What we want to see in iOS 14
iPhone owners are demanding types, and there are plenty of features that we want to see in iOS 14. We can’t be sure Apple is working on these, but we try to be optimistic.
We really like the look of this iOS 14 concept, for example. It includes new features, updated icons and always-on display functionality for OLED-enabled iOS devices.
Concept videos aside, we’ve comprised a wish list of our most-desired features of iOS 14. If we’ve missed out your sought-after feature of iOS, drop us a line on Twitter and let us know.
Banner-based call notifications
When you get a call on your iPhone, the alert takes over your entire screen – and has done since the birth of the iPhone in 2007. But while phone calls were one of the primary functions of phones in 2007, smartphones have evolved over the years. We now use our smartphones to text, take photos, record videos, play games and consume media content as well as call people, so why are incoming call notifications put on such a high pedestal?
With this shift in focus, we think it’s about time to ditch full-screen incoming call notifications, especially when you’re playing a game or watching a YouTube video. Instead, we’d like to see the introduction of Android-esque incoming call banners that act in the same way as most other banner notifications on iOS, but with Answer and Decline icons that can be quickly tapped.
Redesigned notification system
We’d love for Apple to take another look at the notification system in iOS 14 as, for the most part, we’re not a fan of how notifications are currently handed in iOS.
Our biggest issue is that the notification drop-down now mimics the lock screen – a design decision that we’ve never really understood, to be honest. We don’t need the time and date taking up a big portion of a notification shade, especially when iOS displays the time in the top-right by default. The previous design, offering a semi-transparent dropdown with access to notifications, worked much better from a visual point of view.
We’re also longing for the return of automatic notification grouping on a per-app basis, an extremely valuable feature for notification management that was available in the early days of iOS but was removed in subsequent updates.
Currently, notifications will display in the order that they were delivered to your smartphone. That’s great for most users, but for power users with a lot of notifications, it quickly becomes a mess – especially with multiple notifications from multiple apps.
iOS 13 takes steps towards that with manual notification grouping, a feature that takes all notifications from an app and groups them together, allowing you to, for example, clear all Instagram notifications with a single tap while leaving Twitter and Messages notifications on display.
That’s exactly what we want, but there’s no way to select this as the default for all notifications – you have to go into each individual app and toggle the setting on, a process that can take quite some time if you’ve got a lot of apps installed. Please, Apple, let us apply this option to all notifications in iOS 14. Please.
Messages
Dan Moren on our sister site in the US argues that the Messages enhancements discussed above do not go far enough in emulating the productivity and group-friendliness of rival apps such as Slack.
Moren suggests that Messages can get better in numerous ways, requesting among other things threading, access to Files from within the app (as in Mail) to make file transfers easier, the wider emojification of Tapbacks, the ability to use Apple Pay Case in group conversations and the “several people are typing” status update from Slack.
Some great ideas here. We hope Apple is listening.
Easy access to App Store updates
With the introduction of Apple Arcade in iOS 13, Apple removed the Updates tab from the App Store on iPhone, making it more difficult for iOS users to quickly access and install a list of pending app updates.
To be fair to Apple, you can access Updates via a tap-and-hold shortcut on the App Store app and by tapping your profile icon in the top-right of the App Store, but it’s not as accessible as it has been in previous iterations of iOS – especially for the less tech-savvy amongst us.
We’d like to see Updates return to the tabs on the App Store – after all, it’s important to keep your apps up-to-date.
Animoji filters in the Camera app
This one seems like a no-brainer. Animoji has been a highlight of the core iOS experience since its introduction on the iPhone X in 2017, allowing you to send cartoonish videos of yourself to friends – complete with accurate facial mapping. You’ll often see Animoji videos shared on social media, which begs the question; why has Apple limited Face ID to the Camera function of the Messages app?
We’d love to see Animoji effects made available in the main Camera app, allowing you to take longer Animoji-themed videos for sharing with friends and family. It’d certainly be easier than the current method of creating Animoji videos and sending them to yourself to save and share, that’s for sure!
Alarm enhancements
The Clock app functions as we’d expect for the most part, but there are a couple of tweaks that could perfect the overall experience.
First up, we’d love the ability to tweak the Bedtime routine on a per-day basis for days where you regularly get up a bit earlier or later than usual – if you work from home a couple of days per week, for example.
It’s admittedly not the biggest headache having to manually change the Bedtime routine when required, but it’d be nice to have it automated, especially when the feature is already available for standard alarms and has been for quite some time.
We have alarms set up for every day of the working week, allowing us to go to bed at night without having to set an alarm for the following morning. It’s a great feature, but not when you’re on holiday and are rudely awoken at 6am by your work alarm.
We’d love the ability to snooze alarms, or even groups of alarms, for a day, a week or even a month without having to turn them off (and then back on) manually. It’s a small feature, but one that we think would make a difference to users around the world.
Siri improvements
We’re not that sure that any of the voice assistants – Alexa, Google Assistant or Siri – are all that great, to be honest. But Siri certainly has a lot of room for improvement just in terms of what he/she can do for you other than tell a joke or perform a web search.
At some point, will Siri move from being a gimmick to something we actually rely on? We hope so.
What next?
If this article has been of interest, you may also enjoy our thoughts on the next software update for iPad, detailed in iPadOS 14 release date and new features.
Advice on getting the most out of the current version of iOS, meanwhile, can be found in our roundup of iPhone tips and tricks.
Via MACWORLD