On September 16, Apple made its new operating system available with improved home screen, Siri updates, certain feature tweaks, and more. These welcome improvements will enrich your overall iPhone experience and give you reason to spend more time customizing and playing around with your device.
The most interesting of all the improvement in this Apple’s biggest iOS updates to date is the revamped home screen that, for the first time now, includes support of Widgets. This when combined with the Shortcuts feature will open up unprecedented level of customization options on the iPhone. Let’s take a look at two very unique features Apple has introduced with iOS 14.
Support for Widgets
If you are fine with changing the look of the classic app grid on your device, then widgets are for you. These will give your favorite apps more space on the Home Screen and provide more information at a glance. You can add the widgets to the Home Screen or the Today View screen (that appears on left swipe from Home Scree) and choose from different sizes to arrange them in a way you like.
Adding a widget is simple, touch and hold an app or empty space on the screen until the apps begin to jiggle. Now select add (+) button on the upper left corner of the iPhone and select widget. Select the widget size — small, medium and large — and then tap done.
Interestingly, you also get a widget called Smart Stack – this is different from other app widgets for it houses multiple apps. You can use the Smart Stack to curate your most-used apps saving the effort of adding widgets to each individual app. Apple says the Smart Stack is intelligent enough to learn which app you use at what time of the day and automatically show the right app when you need it.
The Orange Dot
In the iOS 14 you can notice an orange dot in the top right corner of the screen. This should not be mistaken for some battery connectivity issue in fact, it is included to protect user privacy.
This orange spot is a new feature in Apple’s latest OS that turns on to indicate when the iPhone’s microphone is being used. So when you’re screen recording or calling out to Siri for help, you will notice the orange light turned on. Additionally, there is a green dot that appears when the phone’s camera is being used.