By nature, iOS is not a permissive operating system. Apple started from a position of not trusting third-party software developers, fearing those outsiders could screw up the company's platform (a completely reasonable position to take, incidentally). Every new version of iOS since the second one has been very cautious and deliberate about what new capabilities are given to third-party apps.
iOS 10 offers a lot of new stuff for users, including several redesigned apps, a new design for notifications, an improved Control Center, and more. But it's also got a lot of under-the-hood changes for developers in the vein of iOS 8: it opens up notifications, the UI for making and receiving voice and video calls, the Maps app, and Siri, and it re-imagines Messages as a sort of platform-unto-itself complete with its own branch of the App Store.
We'll be running down the highlights for both users and developers, and we'll also be looking at how iOS 10 runs on a wide variety of hardware. There's a lot to talk about, so let's dive right in.
Table of Contents
- Compatibility and feature fragmentation
- Missing iPad features
- Missing iPhone and iPod features
- Features missing from both
- Installation: Free space and Setup Creep
- The new lock screen and “raise to wake”
- Faster animations, better “back” button, a smarter keyboard, and Spotlight
- Today View and widgets
- Richer notifications
- Control Center
- Making 3D Touch feel more necessary
- iPad-centric changes
- Settings shuffling
- Apps: Messages
- Music
- Home
- Maps
- Photos
- News
- Collaborative Notes
- Clock and “bedtime”
- Under the hood: SiriKit, the Siri API
- CallKit
- Voicemail transcription
- Universal Clipboard
- Performance and battery life
- Grab bag: Removing default apps
- RAW camera support
- Tweaked emoji designs
- A significant update with no major downsides
reader comments
237