Apple is developing the next generation iOS 12 that will release this fall but guess what? The Cupertino giant has released a public beta version of its iOS 12 which is available for download on Apple’s public beta site where the users and developers can download and install it to check out what’s new with the upcoming OS. Note that for now, the OS is full of software bugs and thus, ‘beta’, so if you are looking forward to downloading this buggy iOS 12 to check out cool features, you are good to go. But if you aren’t ready for a buggy iOS, you’ll have to wait till the fall to receive an update.
Now, there are many features that iOS 12 brings along with it which I will be discussing here. The first cool feature is Memoji or animated emoji which is available for iPhone X users only. This feature lets the user create and customize his own emoji or use for hundreds of emojis available and use it as a face filter as it overlays onto your face mimicking the actions and expressions made by the user. You can also FaceTime someone up to 32 persons in a conference call assuming everyone has an iPhone X and the iOS 12 beta version.
In order to combat increasing addiction towards smartphones, Apple has provided a Screen Time function under the Settings that records all the activities of the users for each and every app or service used. It clubs apps from the same category such as social networking, entertainment, etc that allows an in-depth view on how much a user spent on the apps. The function lets users create daily limits for each individual apps or the smartphone as a whole exceeding which, a popup dialog box appears on the screen. This is where the user can either close the apps or ignore the notification.
Apart from Screen Time function, now the notifications displayed on the notification tray are more efficiently placed. The user can club notifications of the same category, therefore, eliminating the endless arrays of notifications when the user checks out the notifications received. The user can set priority on particular apps or tag it as ‘Do Not Disturb’ and much more.
Apple has improved Siri’s performance too as it lets the user create various shortcuts for various tasks. When you go to Settings and open More Shortcuts, you can add or tweak the available commands. When the user speaks the command, Siri will automatically open the particular app or service. For instance, the user can set ‘Set Alarm’ and when he/she says it, Siri will automatically open alarm on the phone. The iOS 12 public beta version is available for everyone on its website here where they will have to navigate through the site to the Download section and download the public beta version and then, install it.