This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of utilise.

iOS 9 Features

Apple tree has finally released iOS 9 unto the world. While some aspects have stirred upwards controversy, the overall response has been mostly positive. Information technology runs on the vast bulk of Apple's existing mobile devices, the performance is solid, and the upgrade process is relatively painless. At first glance, it'south not drastically different from iOS 8, but a handful of strategic changes will make your iPhone and iPad significantly easier to use.

iOS 9 contains far too many changes to mention in a single article, just later using it extensively on my primary devices, I've settled on vii major improvements and additions that are worth bringing to your attention. At present, let'south jump in, and explore what exactly iOS 9 has to offer.

Content Blockers

Content Blockers

Regardless of the ethical and business aspects of blocking ads, the introduction of content blocking extensions for Safari in iOS 9 is a good thing. Giving the end user more control over what content is being loaded, and how they're being tracked, is an incredibly smart motion for Apple equally a company focused on the user experience.

Keep in mind, this isn't all nearly removing ads. In fact, Marco Arment's $2.99 Peace content blocker is actually using the Ghostery database to detect and block trackers. And if reading annotate sections makes you sick to your tummy, you can simply toggle them off completely.

While this addition is definitely controversial, the implications for improved mobile privacy are likewise massive to ignore. Skilful on Apple for prioritizing its customers over advertisers.

Battery Savings

Battery improvements

This time effectually, Apple is focusing heavily on improving battery life. The built-in apps and core technologies have been optimized to describe less power, so you should meet a longer battery life on your existing devices after you make the jump to iOS ix. It's certainly not going to double your battery life, but Apple estimates that you'll exist able to squeeze in an actress 60 minutes of use between charges.

Even better, Apple tree also introduced a new depression ability mode that will assistance you conserve bombardment power until you tin can discover an outlet. Head to Settings > Battery, and toggle on the "Low Power Mode" switch. Groundwork activities like mail fetching and notifications will terminate, fancy dwelling screen animations will be turned off, and the CPU clock speed volition really dynamically drib. Information technology'due south not something you'll want to use everyday, but it will likely come up in handy during emergencies.

Siri Improvement

Siri and search improvements

Since its introduction in 2022, Siri has steadily connected to ameliorate. This year, the large changes are based around context awareness. When you reference what's on your screen, Siri will actually know what yous're talking nearly. Need a reminder virtually a sure email? Just tell Siri "Remind me to read this email when I get home." It will set a reminder, and when you render habitation, a notification volition popular upward with a link to that specific message.

Want to evidence your co-workers some photos from your family reunion? You can tell Siri "Show me photos taken in Pennsylvania" or "Show me photos taken on September 13th." Same goes for electronic mail too. Need to find your receipt? Tell Siri "Show me emails from Amazon in the last week." Better yet, simple conversions are now handled locally instead of using the Wolfram Alpha API, then results will come in faster than e'er.

Prefer to search with your thumbs instead of your voice? iOS 9 has that covered likewise. Swipe to the right on your home screen, and you lot'll be greeted with a fully functional search bar, contact and app recommendations, and defended search buttons for nearby locations (restaurants, gas stations, et cetera).

Bread crumb

Breadstuff nibble trail

iOS has long allowed for 1 app to launch a different app with custom URL handlers, but getting back to where y'all started has been something of a hassle. If your Twitter app kicked you to Safari to load a folio, you'd accept to double-tap the home button, swipe, and relaunch the original app.

With iOS ix, you'll now see a small string of text in the upper left-hand corner. Give it a tap, and it volition instantly bring you lot back to the app yous were using earlier. Combine this with iOS 9'due south improved method of loading spider web pages within apps, and you lot'll see that Apple is slowly moving towards merging dedicated apps and the open web into a single seamless experience.

App Slimming

App slimming

"Fat binaries" are a legitimately great concept. Instead of having developers compile and upload different versions of their apps for each device, all of the different assets can exist bundled upward in a single app that works on all supported devices. Unfortunately, that likewise means that as more platforms are supported, the larger the size requirements abound. And since Apple refuses to stop shipping devices with a mere 16GB of storage, massive apps are a serious issue for consumers.

Thankfully, iOS 9 now supports a suite of features dubbed "app thinning." Only the assets needed to run the app on your device are stored locally, and the cruft is excised. If you lot're running on a non-retina device like the iPad 2 or first iPad Mini, you should run across some significant savings here.

And since developers can now choose to dynamically download or delete specific resources within the app, y'all won't always need to accept a complete installation when y'all're only using a modest subset of what an app offers. Information technology will likely accept some time to meet widespread adoption of this functionality, but it has a lot of space-saving potential for games or multifaceted apps like Garageband.

Keyboard

iPad keyboard improvements

If you do a lot of typing on your iPad, you're in for some big improvements. Selecting text is significantly easier to pull off, the shortcut bar on top on the software keyboard allows for easy editing, and support for shortcuts on Bluetooth keyboards is even better. Now you have no alibi not to write that novel you've been kicking effectually in your head.

Multitasking

Side-past-side multitasking

On newer iPads, diverse forms of side-by-side multitasking are at present possible. Carve up view — effectively two iPad apps running next to each other — is available on the iPad Pro, iPad Air two, and iPad Mini iv. Slide over — a feature much similar the Xbox I'due south snap mode — works with the iPad Pro, the original iPad Air (and above), and the iPad Mini 2 (and to a higher place). And every bit a nice little bonus, motion-picture show-in-picture mode allows yous to keep watching videos as you scan. Older models don't get any of those benefits, only that'due south not peculiarly surprising. Frankly, I'm just amazed that the iPad 2 is being supported at all.

An update to recollect

Taken as a whole, iOS 9 serves to make the iPhone and iPad fundamentally ameliorate devices. Usability is clearly all the same Cupertino'southward number 1 concern, and this is easily-down the best Bone it's e'er shipped. Even so, there'due south however plenty of room for improvement by the time iOS 10 rolls around adjacent year. Let's just promise that Apple fixes watchOS 2 in the meantime.