Apple unveils iOS 8 at WWDC

By Abhinav Pathak on Jun 02, 2014 06:00 PM

iOS 8 is here. Tim Cook, Apple CEO has just officially announced iOS 8 at WWDC 2014 in San Francisco. There isn't such a drastic shift as iOS 7 was, but there are a few goodies for developers. Some new features include interactive notifications, a better mail app and support for the iCloud Drive.

Notification Improvements

Using the new Interactive Notifications you can reply to a message from within the notification shade, but its not just limited to messages, you can reply to Facebook messages, handle calendar events, alarms etc as well without the need to jump into a separate app.

The new Mail app gets new actions which allow you to dismiss tags without opening them.

Widget Support

Yes, iOS is finally getting widgets, but they would only appear in the Notification Center.

Third-party Keyboard Support

Apple is bringing third party keyboard support to iOS 8, so you can expect Swiftkey like keyboard making to iOS 8 running devices. The stock keyboard on iOS 8 has also been improved and now learns from the way you type and suggests words or sentences based on your use.

Family Sharing

Now with iOS 8 you will be able to share photos, reminders, calendars and more with your family. You can add upto 6 members to your circle and share books, movies, apps and songs between them as well. A single credit card can be used by the entire family, and parents will get notification when their kids decide to make a purchase.

Improved Siri

Siri has got a few new tricks up her sleeve with iOS 8. She will now be able to identify songs using Shazam and then provide you with an option to buy it over iTunes. You can now start Siri up by just saying "hey, Sisi" akin to "OK, Google".

iCloud Drive

With iCloud Drive you will be able to share your photos, documents etc with iOS, OSX and even Windows devices. All will be tied to your existing Apple ID.

TouchID Improvements

Apple has announced a new TouchID API with iOS 8 which will let developers of third party apps to use authentication using your fingerprint. The actual fingerprint data is safely stored on hardware, and it won't be accessible to third party apps.

There are several more improvements in iOS 8 which we will continue to cover over the new few days.