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More than 4m units of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus were pre-ordered in 24 hours, says Apple.
More than 4m units of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus were pre-ordered in 24 hours, says Apple. Photograph: Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP
More than 4m units of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus were pre-ordered in 24 hours, says Apple. Photograph: Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP

iOS 8 review: the iPhone and iPad get customised, extended and deepened

This article is more than 9 years old

Apple’s latest iOS 8 mobile software is the most customisable yet, with improved security and faster messaging tools, says Charles Arthur

  • Live: iOS 8 launch day – download status, app updates and more
  • Can you remember what iOS 6 looked like? Probably not. It had all the skeumorphism - the slider on the lock screen looked like a slider, the Find Friends app with faux leather stitching, the Notifications tab with a “brushed denim” background… it’s a long list. Then last year iOS 7 swept that away, with a flat design where digital things didn’t pretend to be real things.

    The wild forecasts that iOS7 would put people off proved unfounded; there are now about 360 million iPhone users worldwide, and that’s more than ever.

    Now iOS 8 takes it to the next stage. There’s no radical change in appearance; instead, there are deeper changes, and an overall cleaning up of the interface.

    If you’re getting a new iPhone, there are two larger sizes to choose from: the 4.7in iPhone 6 and the 5.5in iPhone 6 Plus - just as I predicted a year ago when I reviewed iOS 7. As well as changing the look, iOS 7 changed a key gesture - how to go “back” from any screen. Before iOS 7, you had to reach up diagonally to an icon on the top left of the screen; since iOS 7, you just reach across left and swipe left-to-right. For Android users wondering “where’s the back button?”, it’s there - at least within almost every app.

    For starters: extra security

    For iOS 7 users - which according to Apple’s data is 92% of users, with 6% on iOS 6 and 1% on something earlier - iOS 8 has few obvious changes. Notifications are swiped down from the top screen, although the “Missed” category is gone and has been rolled into the main notifications list. You still can’t change what’s in the Control Centre, revealed by swiping up from the base of the screen.

    Except, that is, after restarting an activated phone – when the Control Centre and Notification Centre aren’t available (so Airplane mode can’t be activated). Nor is Siri, even if it’s set to work from the home screen. It’s a security measure so that if someone steals your phone and turns it off, they’re stuffed - they’ll need your passcode to get in (so use a long one), and won’t be able to wipe or do anything with the phone.

    That makes the phone even less attractive to thieves - something that the police have already noticed.

    Anyhow, enter your passcode, and let’s get started.

    Extensions ahead

    The really important changes are underneath. Apple now allows “Extensions”, which allow apps to share their functionality with other apps, so an app can add the ability to post directly from Safari to LinkedIn, Instapaper, Pinboard or more. Widgets - strictly “Today Extensions” - you can interact with directly in the “Today” view. It also enabled third-party keyboards, such as Swiftkey.

    Extensions are like Android’s “intents” - one app tells a second that it can do a particular function for the second app. I tried an app called “ShareEverywhere”, by Wandle Software, which can send a link, photo or other text to all sorts of services, such as Flickr, LinkedIn, Pinboard, and so on.

    To “install” the extension, you simply download the app; its extension then shows up in the related app. So ShareEverywhere offers its services in Safari or Chrome: from the “share” menu, it comes up as an option in the menu, and you then choose which service to send data to. Such apps will also run on iOS 7, but the Extension functionality won’t show up in the target app.

    Sure, Android had a form of this functionality since the stone age, but Apple claims to have secured it: it’s not the actual app that runs, but a stub with the same credentials, so it can’t take data. For Apple’s business users, this is a very important consideration.

    iOS 8 lets you edit the sharing options from Extensions - to reorder or remove them. Here, the “ShareEverywhere” app extension is moved from last position to second. Photograph: Guardian

    The menu organisation is well done: you can edit and reorder the list of Extensions that will appear in the menu. That’s quite a relief after Android, where every app that can fulfil an “intent” will appear in the dialog - even if you don’t want them to.

    Android’s “intents” (apps that can fulfil a function) can’t be edited - not a problem when there are only two, but for photos or other functions the menu can quickly become unwieldy. Photograph: Guardian

    It’s the same in the “Today” part of the Notification centre, the element that pulls down from the top of the screen: apps can install Extensions there. They’re referred to as “Widgets”, though I suspect they’ll just get called “notifications”. Apps can install an extension that will be called when the menu is pulled down - that means the Guardian app will give you headlines, the eBay app will tell you about auctions you’re taking part in, the preinstalled stocks app gives you stock data.

    iOS 8’s Today panel can be edited and reordered to give a different view of the day ahead and urgent news. Photograph: Guardian

    As with Extensions, you can edit the content of the Today menu, removing widgets or putting them higher up. It’s iOS, with customisation. And that enables workflows - at first simple, but potentially more complex:

    iOS 8’s Extensions means that you can create workflows (here shown posting to Pinboard using the ShareEverywhere app from Wandle Software). Photograph: Guardian
    iOS 8 allows third-party keyboards, with warnings. Photograph: Guardian

    Third-party keyboards are much the same, except you have to configure them in Settings by adding them (Settings > General > Keyboards). I tried one called TouchPal, which lets you “draw” the words.

    That said, Apple’s own “Quick Type” keyboard is an improvement on what went before. It offers word suggestions - derived, Apple says, from the corpus of words in your emails and messages stored on the phone; the data remains on the phone - which appear in a bar above the keyboard. You can slide the bar down if it’s intrusive. Tap the “world” icon to get it back.

    Android users will be grumbling, that this is yet another thing Apple has finally caught up with, and they’d be right. But I found it only occasionally useful; I use two thumbs and can type quite quickly. Hunt-and-peck typists will probably like it more.

    The thing you still can’t do, and what Apple probably won’t ever do, is choose a different default app for browsing, or mail, or maps. Still a gap from Android; one that probably won’t ever be filled.

    Family Sharing: in-app purchases solved

    Last year Google introduced an option for tablets in Android 4.2 that let you create multiple user accounts - you could switch between them with a few taps. Considering Google’s business model, this makes sense: it wants to show tailored adverts to different people, so letting them create their own accounts on hardware is good, even if it means the company making the hardware gets no benefit.

    Apple, being a hardware company, isn’t going to go down that route. Instead, it has created “Family Sharing” - where a single iTunes payment card is shared among up to five people. The owner of the account can invite others, and also set up accounts for children under 13 (under US law, such children can’t).

    Family Sharing on iOS 8: up to five people can use the same card, and their purchases can trigger an “Ask to Buy” even for free downloads. Photograph: Guardian

    Finally, there’s a solution for those spiralling in-app purchases by children. The account owner can turn on “Ask to Buy” for any account, which means that before the user can make a purchase, it has to be approved by the owner, although they can still download free apps. I tried this feature on my 13-year-old - who detested it, which probably indicates that it works pretty well.

    Family Sharing also means that each member of the “family” gets access to the others’ apps, music, films and TV shows. This is obviously going to be a concern for app developers (and the music, film and TV business). Possibly Apple is paying some sort of per-download compensation, though I haven’t seen any mention of it.

    Finally, Family Sharing also adds a “Family” calendar, through which all those in the shared account can see and edit a calendar. Apple’s motive is obvious - make the incentive for a family to go all-iOS stronger - and executed well. If some of the family have iPhones and some have Android phones, this makes an argument for shifting to iOS (and hence cutting down on iTunes costs). Google hasn’t got anything to match it yet.

    Messaging: instant, and fleeting

    The rise of Snapchat, and Tim Cook’s observations of how people communicate in Asia, means that the new version of iMessage has some extra tweaks. Snapchat, of course, has made self-destructing pictures more popular. And in Asia, people often send brief voice messages rather than typing out a message.

    In the new iMessage, you can now send pictures or video that will self-destruct within a few seconds - unless the recipient chooses to keep it, so remember that. You can also press the microphone icon on the right of the message bar to record a message which, again, will self-destuct unless the recipient decides to keep it.

    I’ve written previously about the user interface challenge that the new Messages represents. I think the really tricky part will be discovering the new interaction.

    iOS 8 lets you share location in Messages
    iOS 8 lets you share your location in Messages - useful for arranging meetings. Photograph: Guardian

    More broadly useful is the ability to share your location (either temporarily or permanently), view the photos from a discussion in a single list, and mute a discussion if it’s getting annoying. All will be important to the teenage demographic that loves iMessage.

    Camera, light, slow action

    Apple has opened up some APIs for developers so that apps can control all sorts of camera details, including exposure, time, white balance, and focus. Filters can be embedded (via Extensions) into the Photos app, where they can make “non-destructive” changes - that is, the original photo remains in your library, and the alteration instructions are stored.

    Exposure meter on iOS 8’s camera: move the “sun” icon up or down to change the exposure. Photograph: Guardian


    The most obvious addition when using the camera is the new “exposure” control - a yellow sun icon around the focus square, which you can slide up or down. The other obvious addition, to go with the Panorama, Square, and Video functions on older phones is Time Lapse, which creates a time-lapse film at 1/30th normal speed. Instagram beat Apple to the punch on the latter with its gyro-stabilised Hyperlapse, which does much the same and even lets you change the speed afterwards. There’s also a timer function, useful for the selfie generation.

    We won’t see the full potential of the Camera in iOS 8 until more photography apps appear which use the potential of Extensions. That could take a few months.

    Privacy

    With the Snowden revelations in 2013, attention to internet privacy gained a sudden intensity. Apple has been emphasising this, though without much effect - but in iOS 8, it’s trying harder.

    One of the smallest changes is also the most indicative.

    In Safari, Google is the default search engine, and you can also choose Bing or Yahoo, as in previous years. But now you can make your default search engine DuckDuckGo, Gabe Weinberg’s little startup which doesn’t collect any data about you. (It does serve ads, but based simply on your search term.) I use DDG on the desktop, though on mobile, I’ve never found Yahoo or Bing to be good substitutes. Bing is a mess on mobile (if you do one search, and then try to do a second, it reloads the page and fills it with an image). Yahoo’s results aren’t much help.

    I like DuckDuckGo and its results. It’s still growing. Will many people will switch their default from Google? Almost certainly not - but it is at least an option. For those who don’t like the datenkraken, it’s a viable alternative.

    Apps: more privacy

    iOS 8 is even tougher on app privacy than iOS 7, and will tell you if an app has been using your location in the background.

    iOS 8 warns you if apps use your location or other functions in the background. Photograph: Guardian

    It asks you before they can use your contacts, or access the camera, or Health, or the microphone, or pretty much any useful element of the phone. And you can revoke them. This is a big difference from Android, where location is all-or-nothing, and apps make land grabs for your data.

    Maps and Siri

    Once derided as a joke, Apple’s maps have been steadily improved and have a better interface. Getting walking directions used to be difficult. Now, when you choose a route, you’re subsequently offered the choice of driving, walking or getting an app to tell you.

    iOS 8 improves the Maps functionality for choosing whether to drive, walk or take public transport. Photograph: Guardian

    On the latter, the lack of public transport directions - rumoured for two years, but still missing - is a big omission when compared to Google Maps. But if you have an app installed that will give public transport directions, such as the excellent Citymapper, you’ll be able to go and plan your journey directly there. That’s been the case since last year.

    Siri, meanwhile, has barely advanced since last year. The only modest enhancements s/he gets this are the ability to be activated by saying “Hey, Siri” as long as the phone is connected to power, and to identify music via Shazam, even without the Shazam app. Ask “Hey, Siri, what’s that song?” and you’ll get an answer.

    However, it’s still some way off Google Now, or even the “intelligent assistant” made for Microsoft’s Cortana. Possibly Siri will get more love next year.

    Health

    The Health app seems innocuous at first, but can hook into so many possible devices and sources that it looks like Apple is planning for the iPhone to be the adjunct to everything. The only thing it seems to lack is space to store X-rays.

    In the new iPhones, the addition of a barometer means Health can record the number of stairs climbed, not just steps taken (a personal bugbear). You can show these in your “dashboard” to monitor quite how wonderfully healthy you’re being.

    iOS 8 introduces a Health Dashboard. The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus will tell you about stairs climbed as well as steps taken. There are many other medical attributes too which can be added to the Dashboard. Photograph: Guardian

    Potentially more helpful is that you can create a “Medical ID”, where you can add details such as name, age, blood type, emergency contacts, allergies, medical treatments you’re having, medical notes, and whether you’re an organ donor. Those are optionally accessible on the emergency screen, so no phone unlocking is required - meaning they can be accessed by medical staff if you’re unconscious. Here’s mine:

    iOS 8 can create a Medical ID accessible on the lock screen for medical staff. Photograph: Guardian

    iCloud: get in and Drive

    Having tried to abstract away the file system, Apple has finally caved in and accepted that some people like finding their way around directory trees. Thus “iCloud Drive” is very like Google Drive or Dropbox, except it isn’t free. You start with 5GB of free storage, and it then jumps to 20GB for $1 per month, 200GB for $4 per month, 500GB for $10 per month or 1TB for $20 per month.

    The storage allowance includes backups of things like photos from your phone; nubile starlets with publicly available answers to security questions should probably avoid.

    It’s a huge improvement on the small, highly-priced amounts ($20 per 10GB) of last year, but still feels like Apple is just squeezing money for no good reason. If you’ve coughed up for a 128GB device, you might hope for the same amount of backup. But no dice.

    Oh my God, it’s full of settings

    While iOS 8 mostly brings good things, there’s one area that’s growing like Japanese knotweed: the number of settings, and their submenus. There are tons of new things in there - battery usage by app, the Family Sharing element in iCloud.

    But here’s the problem: you can’t find them via the Spotlight search interface. Will Passcode be at the top level of the menu, or is it buried somewhere in Privacy or General? Is Call Forwarding part of Mobile, or Phone?

    The Settings menu is becoming gigantic, which wouldn’t be a problem if only you could search within it. But you can’t - which condemns you to endless hide-and-seek games. With broad OS-based settings becoming more important, this is a flaw that will only get worse until Apple fixes it - either by having specific search inside Settings, or adding its elements to the OS-wide search. The desktop OSX has had search within its Preferences (equivalent to Settings) since 2005. It’s overdue in iOS.

    But how fast is it?

    The criticism of iOS 7 was that it was slow on older devices, particularly the iPhone 4 and iPad 2, which were the oldest devices on which it would run. For the past couple of months I have been testing beta builds of iOS 8 on an iPhone 5C - effectively iPhone 5 hardware - and found no sluggishness. Owners of iPhone 4Ss might want to see how others get on, but I found no noticeable performance hit compared to iOS 7.

    Conclusion

    As we approach the end of 2014, Apple has made iOS more customisable than ever before - bringing it closer to Android’s flexibility - through Extensions. It’s also added useful touches and more privacy throughout. Should you install it? This is absolutely a no-brainer. Yes, you should.

    Pros: Extensions add functionality, third-party keyboards and “widgets”; camera gets more function (and APIs); Family Sharing gives parental control over in-app purchases; extra app and search privacy; greater security if phone is stolen

    Cons: no search in Settings; unclear how well it will run on iPhone 4S

    iPhone 6 Plus review: it’s a very big phone - and it feels great

    Apple iPhone 6: thinner, faster and slightly cheaper - review

    Update: this article was corrected: the Wandle Software app is called ShareEverywhere, not Share.

    This footnote was appended on 23 September 2014. Charles Arthur’s travel and accommodation was paid for by Apple.

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