iOS 14: A Transformative Redesign of the Home Screen

Apple unveiled iOS 14 on June 22, 2020, at WWDC 2020 and released it to the public on September 16, 2020. This update brought the most visual and functional changes to the iPhone experience in years — especially with iOS 14, which came with Home Screen widgets, a huge change in how people use their devices.

For example, iOS 14 remained compatible with all devices that supported iOS 13 — which even includes older models like the iPhone 6s, 6s Plus, and the original iPhone SE — showing just how much Apple really values long-term device support.

Home Screen Widgets & App Library: A New Way to Use Your iPhone

This was Apple’s first time letting users add widgets to the Home Screen — and also bringing more glanceable layouts involved in using iOS:

Sizes for widgets, which showed things at-a-glance like weather, calendar events and activity stats.

Smart Stack, which was based on-device intelligence and automatically switched out widgets through the day depending on usage patterns.

And they were all App Store compatible and could be dragged and dropped to mix widgets with app icons at will — on any Home Screen, blowing up the grid.

Apple also took the wraps off App Library, a new page at the end of your Home Screen that put all your apps into categorized folders:

For people that wanted to tidy up, it provided a neat-looking top-down view.

This therefore provided a quick way to find apps without going through each screen and organizing them manually.

With this update users had more customization and control.

Striking the BalanceCompact UI: More.

Many of these fit in well with the more compact interface designs introduced by iOS 14 that lessen on-screen distractions.

Incoming calls ceased to show up full screen and rather resembled a flag notice.

Siri got a redesign, with a new, minimalistic, floating interface that didn’t block the entire screen you are in.

On iPhone, Picture-in-Picture allows users to watch a video or take a FaceTime call while using another app in the form of a small overlay that can be resized and positioned.

These changes made it easier to multitask and less cumbersome.

Messages — Better Conversations and Group Chats

Messages got big makeovers to make it easy to chat and keep up with your replies:

The conversations pinned to the top of the Messages listicensuspendLayoutViewBackend & Environment The view backends were modified (ContentPane, SplitPane).

Inline replies, mentions and group icons customization to the group chat.

New hairstyles, headwear, face coverings and age options were added to Memoji.

App Clips: Lightweight, Instant Apps

Let’s say you have used App Clips in the past.

These were little bite-sized app tastings that launched fast from NFC, QR codes, Safari, Messages or Apple Maps.

Good for one-off tasks like; paying at a parking, renting a bike or order food.

App Clips have made interacting with real-world services more immediate and convenient.

Privacy Enhancements: Transparency and Control

Major strides in privacy and data transparency occurred in iOS 14:

For example, apps were told they could no longer track users across other apps and websites without explicit permission.

Proposed an App Store feature called privacy “nutrition labels” to tell people what data an app gathers before they download it.

A visual indicator in the status bar warned users when an app used either camera or microphone.

These steps empowered users to understand and tweak how their data was being utilized.

In short: Siri, Translate & Search Becoming More Intelligent

Siri was generally better with context, faster, and also answered a lot more questions.

Apple also debuted Translate, a brand new, real-time translation app that works for for 11 languages and is operational online and off.

These included an updated version of Universal Search, which has been revamped to provide faster and cleaner universal results, including app suggestions, documents, shortcuts and web results.

Other Notable Features

Cycling directions, EV routing and curated Guides for different cities now available in Maps.

CarPlay Custom wallpapers and digital car keys (Initial availability starting with select BMW models.)

Apple introduced the Home app with adaptive lighting, face recognition for video doorbells and expanded automation.

The browserSafari has become a Privacy Report, built-in translation and improved performance.

iOS 14. x Updates: Continuous Improvements

iOS 14.1 (bugs fixed and iPhone 12 series support)

iOS 14.2 brings over 100 new emoji, Shazam in the Control Center, and powers up HomePod with Intercom support

Apple Announces iOS 14.3 with Apple Fitness+, ProRAW Photo for iPhone 12 Pro and AirPods Max Support

iOS 14.4 — 14.8 (Security, performance and more COVID-19 Exposure Notifications + App Tracking Transparency)

In Summary

Alongside with iOS 14, Apple debuted a slew of features that redefined how users interacted with the iPhone, such as home screen widgets, App Library and basic UI changes to improve multitasking. It aimed to add greater user control and customization, more intelligent interactions, and stronger privacy controls. This also marked the beginning of an updated iOS experience, one more intimate, efficient and privacy aware than ever before and paved the way for a higher-grade personalization in future iOS releases like iOS 15.