Obviously, the newly launched devices – iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will be pre-installed with the iOS 8. The Apple devices that are compatible with the iOS 8 include iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, fifth generation iPod touch and all the generations of iPad other than the original model. As per Apple, the iOS 8 is one of biggest iOS upgrade since the origin of Apple store and the software upgrade. Here we explain some of the features that the iOS 8 update will bring about to the devices.

Notification Center

Apple has made use of a refined Notification center in the iOS 8 that will allow the users to scroll down the notifications from anywhere without the necessity to close the app in use. Also, users can reply to messages directly from the Notification center. Apple has termed this feature Interactive Notifications and users can simply swipe away notifications from the lock screen and like posts on Facebook from Notifications.

QuickType Keyboard

QuickType provides advanced predictive text options and supports more languages such as English, Spanish and Chinese. This keyboard makes it easy to type the messages and renders an enhanced UI. QuickType Keyboard learns how the user types with different people in different applications to render superior predictive suggestions. All these details that are collected remain on your device itself in order to save the user’s privacy.

iMessage

The iMessage application has been provided with an option for the users to send and receive audio and video messages. It is pretty easy to send these short messages and they are accessible within a few taps. When it comes to Dictation, Apple has made it even easier to access with support for multiple languages.

iCloud Drive

The iOS 8 update adds support to cloud storage with the iCloud Drive support. This feature allows users store their personal files and other content to the cloud. All the files are accessible across all the devices supporting iCloud and the cloud storage also has Finder integration and Windows compatibility.

Apple has improved the Spotlight search for iOS 8 and it will show results from app stores, locations, news, Wikipedia, restaurants and more. Previously, Spotlight could search only through content on the website and apps. Now, it has got smarter and is pretty handy.

Family Sharing

The family oriented feature lets the users of iOS 8 based devices to connect their devices with those that their family members use. By connecting the devices together, users can access all the content such as media libraries including Music, iBooks, Movies, Apps and more stored on the other devices. The family sharing feature does leave even the location sharing and parental approval for purchasing applications.

Photos

The iOS 8 brings a great enhancement to the Photos app with integration to iCloud. After the update, it would be great to search through the photo gallery the photo editing options. These aspects make the iOS 8 platform a mini Photoshop. The editing options include cropping, color and light enhancements, fine tunes and more. Moreover, Apple has used Instagram-style filters as well on the iOS 8 and another feature that adds the ability to create time lapse videos easily. Recommended: 11+ Hidden, Less Known Features of iOS 8

Health

With the new Health App, users can integrate all their health related information and others in one place. Users can also integrate third party applications that are used for tracking sleep patterns, calroies burnt and with this enhanced health app with the HealthKit feature.

Continuity

Apple has provided the continuity features that are a part of the Latest Yosemite OS on the latest update, iOS 8. These features make transitions between iPhone and Mac easy. Apple has also enabled the Airdrop file transfer to share content between Mac and iOS. This feature will let the users to send messages and make calls directly from Mac.

Widgets

So long, widgets were enjoyed only by the Android users and now the situation is all set to change. Applications can now have widgets in the Notification center and not on the home screen. However, users can interact with the widgets right from the Notification center.