The best road to progress is freedom's road. - JFK
Texas
This article is about the version history of the mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. For the router/switch OS developed by Cisco Systems, see Cisco IOS.
History of the mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc.
The version history of the mobile operating systemiOS, developed by Apple Inc., began with the release of iPhone OS 1 for the original iPhone on June 29, 2007. Since its initial release, it has been used as the operating system for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and HomePod, seeing continuous development since then, resulting in new major releases of the software typically being announced at the annual Apple Worldwide Developers Conference and later released in September, coinciding with the release of new iPhone models. The latest stable version, iOS 14.4, was released on January 26, 2021. The latest beta version, iOS 14.5 beta 3, was released on March 2, 2021.
Updates can be done over-the-air through settings (since iOS 5), or via the iTunes or Finder applications.[1]
June 2007 saw the official release of what eventually became iOS – concurrently with the first iPhone. iOS did not have an official name until the official release of the iPhone software development kit (iPhone SDK) on March 6, 2008. Before then, Apple marketing simply stated that iPhone ran a version of Mac OS X made specifically for the iPhone.[2] When iOS was introduced, it was named iPhone OS. It was officially renamed iOS on June 7, 2010, with the announcement and introduction of the first-generation iPad. The introduction of what would later become the iPad line, and the existence of iPod Touch, meant the iPhone was no longer the only device to run the mobile operating system. iOS 4 was the first major iOS release that reflected the name change.[3] Apple licensed the "iOS" trademark from Cisco Systems.[4]
Apple concurrently provides the same version of iOS for the comparable model of iPhone and iPod Touch, usually devices released in the same calendar year. iPhone users receive all software updates for free, while iPod Touch users paid for the 2.0 and 3.0 major software updates. As of iOS 4, Apple no longer charges money for iPod Touch updates.[5]
As of 2020, four versions of iOS were not publicly released, with the version numbers of three of them changed during development. iPhone OS 1.2 was replaced by a 2.0 version number after the first beta; the second beta was named 2.0 beta 2 instead of 1.2 beta 2. The second was iOS 4.2, replaced with 4.2.1 due to a Wi-Fi bug in 4.2 beta 3, causing Apple to release 2 golden masters (4.2 GM and 4.2.1 GM).[6] The third was iOS 13.4.5, which was renamed to iOS 13.5 when Beta 3 was released, with the introduction of the Exposure Notification API, which required an SDK update. Similarly, iOS 13.5.5 was renamed to iOS 13.6 in beta 2, with the introduction of new features for the Health app.
One version of iOS was pulled back by Apple after being released: iOS 8.0.1 was pulled back by Apple because of issues with cellular service and Touch ID on iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus units.
Legend: Discontinued Old, still maintainedCurrent Beta
Version history
Legend:
Obsolete; completely unsupported
Discontinued
Old, still maintained
Current
Beta
iPhone OS 1
Apple announced iPhone OS 1 at the iPhone keynote on January 9, 2007, and it was released to the public alongside the original iPhone on June 29, 2007. No official name was given on its initial release; Apple marketing literature simply stated the iPhone runs a version of Apple's desktop operating system, OS X.[10] The release of iPhone OS 1.1 brought support for the iPod Touch (1st generation). iPhone OS 1.1.5 was the final version of iPhone OS 1. It became unsupported on May 18, 2010. What Apple did not announce was the prototypecode name "Acorn OS" which looked like the iPod Classic.[11]
Free update on iPhone, $19.95 on iPod Touch; commonly called the iPhone "January '08 Update" and January Software Upgrade by Apple.[15]
Recent calls contact details now show most recent call times.
'Locate Me' feature for Maps; determines the phone's approximate location using a combination of cellular triangulation and Wi-Fi data from Skyhook Wireless. Also adds hybrid map support and the 'Drop Pin' feature.
Icons on the home screen can be rearranged and placed on multiple home screens (up to nine).
iTunes gift cards can be redeemed on the iTunes Store.
Movies downloaded through iTunes have chapter support.
Music now supports lyrics.
Web Clips can be added to (and subsequently removed from) the home screen.
SMS messages can be sent to multiple contacts using messages.
SMS storage capacity increased from 1,000 to 75,000 messages.
Defaults to IMAP for new Gmail accounts (formerly defaulted to POP3).
The clock timer now remembers the last used options (bug fix).
Incoming SMS messages now prompts the user to "Close" or "Reply" (formerly "Ignore" or "Reply"). Pressing either option now marks the message as "seen".
Labels for contact data can now be deleted.
Applications on the phone no longer run as root; they run as the user "mobile" instead.
The ability to listen to music through a Bluetooth headset by going to Voicemail and choosing "Bluetooth" as the audio source no longer works (still works as long as phone is not locked or voicemail screen is active).
Security update for iPod Touch users who chose not to upgrade to the previously released iPhone OS 2.0.
iPhone OS 2
Apple announced iPhone OS 2 at the iPhone software roadmap keynote in March 2008, and it was released to the public on July 11, 2008, alongside the iPhone 3G. Apple did not drop support for any devices with this release. iPhone OS 2 was compatible with all devices released up to that time. The release of iPhone OS 2.1.1 brought support for the iPod Touch (2nd generation). iPhone OS 2.2.1 was the final version of iPhone OS 2. It became unsupported on December 3, 2011.
Initial release on iPhone 3G; $9.95 upgrade for iPod touch[17]
Added language support.
Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Polish, Dutch, Korean, and Brazilian Portuguese are now supported on iPhone after having been available on iPod Touch since the v1.1.1 update.
Extra keyboard languages including Chinese, Korean, and Russian.
Support for Traditional and Simplified Chinese handwriting recognition.
Mail, contacts, calendars
Grouped settings.
Mail
Support for Push e-mail.
Ability to select an outgoing email account within Mail application.[18]
Support for blind carbon copy (BCC) in Mail.
Ability to move / delete multiple emails.
Ability to view Microsoft Office attachments.
Ability to view iWork attachments, including Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.[19]
Contacts
Contacts icon on "Home" screen (iPhone only, it was formerly on the iPod Touch).
Ability to search contacts.
Global Address List.
Push contacts.
Ability to import SIM contacts.
Calendar
Multiple calendars supported in Calendar with colour-coding (desktop colours only preserved if using Mobile Me).
September 9, 2008; 12 years ago (2008-09-09)T1 September 12, 2008; 12 years ago (2008-09-12)P1P2
Initial release on iPod Touch (2nd generation) (as 2.1.1); free for iPod Touch users who upgraded to iPhone OS 2.0.'
Bug Fixes and Improvements
Security fix for the double home button exploit.
Fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes for users with many third-party applications.
Faster installation and updating of third-party applications.
Updating applications keeps their icons in place on the home screen.
Improvements to Mail stability.
Improved email reliability, notably fetching email from POP and Exchange accounts.
Faster loading and searching of contacts.
Auto-correct now appears above the text instead of below (fixing a usability problem people were having where auto-correct would appear above the first row of keys).
Smoother browsing in Safari, particularly when scrolling up/down on a web page.
Significantly better battery life for most users.[26]
Decrease in call set-up failures and dropped calls.[26]
Improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display.
Triple-click on the control button of headphones now jumps music to prior track played.
SMS app can alert up to two additional times if the user doesn't acknowledge an incoming text message (will play the alert sound/vibrate again after a period of time as if a new message just came in).[27]
Update supporting languages.
Option to wipe data after ten failed passcode attempts (after 5 attempts, the device will disable itself for 1 minute. After the 6th attempt, it will disable itself for 5 minutes. In the 10th attempt, it will wipe all data).[27]
The camera can now be turned off within the restrictions page.[27]
When taking a screenshot of the phone, there is now the camera shutter noise.
iPhone never gets locked when placed in dock and playing music.
New application features
Genius playlist creation.
More information provided within iPod Music lists (artist and album are now shown below song title when selecting music in addition to remaining time on podcasts).
More information is provided for audiobooks, such as displaying time left in active audiobook.[27]
New podcasts and videos had "filled" blue bubbles next to them to indicate that they were new, now if the user has "half-played" a podcast or video, it will include a half filled blue bubble.[27]
Sound from iPod now fades out if the user starts syncing device with iTunes.[28]
Bookmarked home screen apps open in full screen.[29]
iPod Touch only
Settings for individual speaker sounds. Sounds can no longer be turned off en masse. All sounds must be turned off individually to mute sounds.
Fixed issue where some images saved from Mail do not display correctly in the Camera Roll.
Fixes a security exploit related to the unlocking of the iPhone 3G.
iPod Touch only
Fixed issue that caused some Apple Lossless (ALAC) audio files to skip during playback.
iPhone OS 3
Apple announced iPhone OS 3 on March 17, 2009, and it was released to the public on June 17, 2009, alongside the iPhone 3GS. Apple did not drop support for any devices with this release. iPhone OS 3 was compatible with all devices released up to that time, but not all features were available on the original iPhone. The final release supported on the original iPhone and iPod Touch (1st generation) was iPhone OS 3.1.3. The first iPad was introduced along with iPhone OS 3.2.[37][38] It became unsupported on December 9, 2012.
Features iPhone users got in 2.2 now added for the iPod Touch (e.g. Google Street View, public transit and walking directions, display address of dropped pin, share location via email, and cache of recent locations). Changed behavior when routing directions and showing steps.
Stocks
Landscape mode that enabled viewing detailed price and change information by dragging one or two fingers across the full-screen chart.
Metadata display for detailed information about the symbol, including full company/fund name, market capitalization, price to earning ratio, dividend yield, and statistics about the day and year price range.
Table of news stories from various internet sources related to the selected symbol.
YouTube
Can now log into account.
View subscriptions, Favorites, My Videos, History, and Playlists
Comment on videos, rate videos
Phone
Recent Calls now show more details (call length, etc.).
Ability to change/set "own number" (my number) in the SIM card. Will be displayed in the Contacts list and iTunes, and possibly used for MMS identification.
Contacts are editable via Recent Calls.
Photos
Videos can be trimmed directly from Camera app.
Photos options menu changed (new UI, added copy button).
Camera gets autofocus. To change focus target, users tap on a different object.P3
Thumbnail of the prior photo captured on the camera roll shortcut.
Camera Roll
Categorization by All, Photos and Videos.
App Store
Installs new apps from the second home page on. They can still be moved to the first homepage manually.
Screenshot browsing method has changed.
SMS application renamed to Messages
Application icon was slightly modified, it no longer has the letters "SMS".
Sending progress bar has been moved to the title bar and does not cover up the screen.
Sending queue (compose a new message(s) while sending others).
Select single or multiple messages to forward or delete.
SMS entry text box have unlimited lines (actually limited by the screen).
MMS functionality including sending vCards, pictures, audio files, video (depends on mobile network availability).P2P3
Optional Subject line in the Messages settings.
Photos can be taken/sent directly from the Messages app.
MMS messages are played/viewed in the Messages app.
Mail, contacts, calendars, MobileMe
MobileMe now has a "Find My iPhone" option, allowing MobileMe users (via the online service) to remotely locate device and wipe data.[39]
CalDAV Calendar support.
LDAP Contacts support.
iCalendar Subscription support.
"Load Remote Image" option for mail, to prevent spam.
iWork '09 attachment support.
Mail several photos in the same message.
Mail can now be composed in other apps without leaving the current app (only if the developer allows this).
It's now possible to store IM account information for a contact for the following services: AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, ICQ, and XMPP.
Users can now view or create 'Invitees' on a Calendar event.P3
Safari
Better support for Internet standards and now scores a 97/100 in the Acid3 test.
Renders JavaScript from 3 to 16 times faster depending on circumstances.
Support for HTML5.
New features in Settings such as AutoFill, and Anti phishing.
Pressing and holding a link gives three options: Open, Open in New Page and Copy.
View subscriptions.
The last page is now closable, which will result in a new blank page opening (won't save page info on exit, increases available memory).
Bluetooth
Bluetooth enabled for iPod Touch (2nd generation).[40]
AVRCP: Play/Pause/Stop for iPod app (no Next/Back yet).
Device side audio control still enabled but does not affect audio stream.
PBAP: wireless phone book access (for use with vehicle head units).
PAN: personal networking for tethering and ad hoc connections between mobile devices (multi-player gaming).
iPod
Shake to shuffle songs in iPod app.
Search through iPod.
Scrubbing through tracks can now be done at 4 variable rates as user moves finger down the screen, and the speed is displayed on screen ("Hi-Speed", "Half Speed", "Quarter Speed", "Fine").
(When Bluetooth is enabled and a paired audio device is present) Audio output menu added to "Now Playing" screen and Home button iPod controls.
Location dot while playing video/music now glows while scrubbing the track/video.
Podcasts
More details shown: time remaining, etc.
Can be played at "1⁄2x", 1x, or "2x" speed (actual speeds are 0.8x, 1x, and 1.5x).
30 second rewind button.
Can be emailed.
Improved language support.
Added support for new languages such as Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Malay, Portuguese, Romanian, Thai, and more.
Foreign language keyboards extended to cover additional characters.
New Developer APIs
Push notifications for 3rd party applications.
Support for new Bluetooth services and profiles including A2DP, LDAP, peer-to-peer file sharing, and Bonjour.P2P3T2
New APIs in the Maps application allow developers to build it into software.
Developers can now use the CoreLocation API to create applications with Turn-by-Turn Navigation.
API support for serial I/O through the Dock Connector.
3rd party apps now have access to iPod music library.
Support for outbound audio and video streaming.
In-App Purchase (IAP) API for paid applications (free apps always remain free).
Sign in with iTunes account.
Buy service subscriptions or app add-ons.
Spotlight Search
Saves its last search results and offers options for excluding applications from searches.
Partial search for mail, iPod, contacts, events, notes, apps, and web clips.
Can now sign out of iTunes account and use a different iTunes account.
iTunes account info can be accessed and edited.
Can now read and write reviews for content on iTunes.
Movies, TV shows, audiobooks, and iTunes U content can now be purchased on iTunes Wi-Fi store.
Notes syncing.
Voice memos syncing (audio files added to a "Voice Memos" playlist).
Backups can now be encrypted and password protected.
Tethering over USB and Bluetooth (depends on mobile network ability).P2P3
USB tethering auto activated when connected to USB on iTunes 8.2+ (if tethering is enabled in iPhone settings and by phone's carrier).
iTunes 8.2 now includes a USB driver for iPhone tethering.
Full access to iPhone possible while tethered.
(In Windows) iPhone shows up as a standard ethernet connection.
Accessibility settings (for the visually/aurally impaired) (iPhone 3GS only).[42]
VoiceOver gesture-based screen reader. Touch screen to hear a description of the item under your finger, then double-tap, drag, or flick to control iPhone. Speaks 21 languages and works with all apps.
Zoom, magnifies entire screen on any app up to 5 times normal size. Move left, right, up, and down to view any portion of the screen close-up.
White on Black, changes display to white on black (instead of the normal black on white), works in any app, and alongside Zoom and VoiceOver.
Mono Audio, if users hearing is limited in one ear, routes both right- and left-channel audio into both earbuds, so both channels can be heard in either ear.
Speak Auto-text, works with VoiceOver to automatically speak auto-corrections and auto-capitalizations.
Other
Devices can now connect to Wi-Fi hotspots that use authentication automatically.
Locate Me for the iPod Touch accuracy improved.
Restrictions have been updated and now block "Current Location" and allows setting what content is appropriate for iPod music/videos/TV shows and apps.
11 home screen pages instead of 9. Now can store 180 apps (including native applications. i.e. Phone, iPod, Safari).[43]
Voice control (ability to voice dial and control iPod).P3
Holding the home button will no longer force quit an unresponsive application. To force quit an application in 3.0 hold the sleep/wake button until the red power off slider appears. Then hold down the home button to quit the unresponsive application.
Screen captures are no longer numbered separately from photos taken with the camera application; all new images in the camera roll now use a common numbering sequence.
Initial release on iPod Touch (2nd generation 8 GB) and iPod Touch (3rd generation). Version 3.1.1 on iPod Touch (3rd generation). Free for iPhone OS 3.0 users; $4.95 for iPod Touch users who stayed on iPhone OS 2.0
Improved Wi-Fi for iPhone 3G with Bluetooth turned on.
Ask to Join Networks toggle is hidden unless Wi-Fi is on.
Faster boot up time and various speed improvements.
Trimming video clips on the iPhone 3GS now offers the ability to save the edited version as a copy rather than simply overwriting the original file.
Safari now has a toggle for "Fraud Protection" under its Settings pane.
The Bulgarian keyboard now uses the Bulgarian State/National Standard layout instead of the QWERTY layout.
On iPod Touch (2nd generation) the Voice Memos app now successfully records audio if a microphone is connected after starting the application.
Numbers inside Notes have more options when tap and hold is triggered: Call, Text Message, Create New Contact, Add to Existing Contact.
Voice control over Bluetooth is now available, allowing users to initiate calls and control music playback via Bluetooth headsets (however, voice control while plugged into car audio systems no longer works).
Improves reception.
Fast forward and rewind from headphones.
Improved Exchange calendar syncing.
Home screens can be customized on iTunes 9.
Developer Extras.
Improvements to OpenGL and Quartz.
APIs allow third party apps to access videos and edit them.
Gives programmers their choice of video recording quality.
A pair of new app interface classes that are known to relate to graphics, but which haven't had their functions identified.
New camera APIs.
Calendar event alerts will be shown also with a pop-up, much like push notifications.
Enables connectivity to devices for development purposes wirelessly instead of needing tethering via the dock connector.
Ability to save videos from Mail or MMS.
Ability to copy and paste full quality videos from camera into email.
Anti-phishing in Safari.
Under usage tab in settings, can view data sent and received over tethering.
Instruments over Wi-Fi.
New enhancements to Core Audio in iPhone.
Failover support for HTTP live streaming.
iPod Touch (3rd generation) features:
Voice control
Accessibility features from iPhone 3GS, such as VoiceOver.
Accessibility features can be toggled on or off by triple-clicking the Home button.
Option to practice VoiceOver gestures.
Fixed an issue that caused app icons to display incorrectly.
Genius Mixes.
Genius Recommendations for Apps.
Sync videos to albums.
iTunes U content organization.
Redeem Gift Cards in App Store.
Display available iTunes account credit.
Enhanced iTunes support.
Ability to copy and paste telephone numbers in dialer application.
Includes new frameworks for recognizing custom gestures, custom keyboards, etc.
Allows display output to an externally connected display for compatible 3rd party apps.
Allows user to change home screen background.
Adds Terrain view in Maps application.
Location-based services rely on Apple's own databases instead services of Google and Skyhook Wireless.[48]
Allows transferring files between a computer and the device for a shared (per app) document store that all applications can access (iOS file sharing). Only available for the iPad.
Allows use of Apple Bluetooth keyboard (possibly other keyboards).
Includes a built-in dictionary which can be used in iWork, iBooks, and possibly other apps.
The Dock can now hold up to six icons.
The iPod app allows users to create and name custom playlists.
Safari's new thumbnail view allows users to navigate to up to nine active pages (similar to Top Sites on Safari for OS X).
Places in the Photos app allows the user to view their photos by location (needs iPhoto '09).
Apple announced iOS 4 in March 2010 and it was released to the public on June 21, 2010, alongside the iPhone 4. With this release, Apple dropped support for the original iPhone and the 1st generation iPod Touch, which is the first time Apple had dropped support for any device in an iOS release. The iPhone 3G and the 2nd generation iPod Touch were capable of running iOS 4, but had limited features. For example, both devices lack multitasking capabilities and the ability to set a home screen wallpaper. However, iOS 4 was the first major release that iPod Touch users did not have to pay any money for. The release of iOS 4.2.1 brought compatibility to the original iPad and was the final release supported on the iPhone 3G and 2nd generation iPod Touch due to major performance issues. The release of iOS 4.3 brought iPad 2 compatibility.[50][51] It became unsupported on December 18, 2013.
Security updates to accessibility, FaceTime, ImageIO and WebKit.[56]
Enables FaceTime call connection via email contacts (e.g. for iPod Touch (4th generation) users who won't have a phone number) and through favorites.[57]
Nike + iPod statistics submissions over Wi-Fi.
High dynamic range imaging (HDR) (only available for the iPhone 4).[54]
High-definition video uploads over Wi-Fi; iPhone 4 and iPod Touch (4th generation) only.[53]
iTunes adds iTunes Ping, a social music network and discovery tool (only available in countries with iTunes Store).[54]
TV show rentals (only available for iTunes US Store).[54]
Can move an existing appointment from one calendar to another.
Notes syncing removed from iPhone 3G due to reported performance problems.[58]
Final release supported on iPhone 3G and iPod Touch (2nd generation)
Bug fixes
Birthdays calendar does not display birthdays starting more than 77 years ago.[61]
Fixes glitch that can let a user get into the Phone app while the phone is locked via "Emergency Call" by dialing a random number and quickly pressing the lock button after dialing that call.[62]
Fixes the alarm bug caused by daylight saving time changing, affected on a part of iPhone and iPod Touch owners living in various countries.[63]
Improved iPhone 3G and iPod Touch (2nd generation) performance.[64]
AirPlay (replacement of AirTunes, AirPlay will offer stream video, music, and photos over Wi-Fi).[65]
AirPrint wireless printing with Print Center (select models).[65]
Import .ics calendar files directly for events.
Improved battery performance.
Birthdays icon has been changed in the Calendar app.
iOS 4 features for iPad (multitasking, folders, etc.).
Up to 4,400 icons instead of 220 (20 apps a folder).
Updated carrier signal strength display (3G iPad only).
Increase in the length of the smaller signal bars.
The method in which signal strength is calculated has been enhanced.
Additions to the multitasking tray.
Brightness.
Volume control.
AirPlay controls.
Screen rotation lock switch.
Physical iPad screen rotation lock switch is converted into a sound/silent switch in iOS 4.2 (just like on the iPhones), with a virtual screen rotation lock switch added to the multitasking tray.
More than 30 new keyboards and dictionaries, including Arabic, Greek, and Hebrew.
New animation for Multitasking.
New bookmarks design (iPhone and iPod Touch only).
Additions to multitasking tray.
Volume controls.
AirPlay controls.
New Voice Memos icon.
Ability to initiate FaceTime calls from Voice Control.
FaceTime shortcut from Messages app (iPhone 4 only).[67]
New text tone alerts (New and Original tone lists) (iPhone 4 only).
Ringer and alerts on/off switch (Settings > Sounds) for volume buttons (iPhone only).
Assign different text tone alerts to each contact.
Improved Safari performance with the Nitro JavaScript engine.
Redesigned "account" section under the Store menu.
Ability to switch on automatic downloads (for iTunes Music and App Store applications).
Location services have been shifted from General to Settings menu.
New parental controls for use with iTunes Ping.
New menu for scrubbing in videos.
Fine scrubbing: adjust by seconds / frames.
Quarter scrubbing: second.
Half speed scrubbing: adjust by minute(s).
Hi-speed scrubbing: run fast through minutes.
Ability to cancel and delete an app which is currently downloading. Before iOS 4.3, it was only possible to delete an app which had already downloaded.
Stream from an iTunes library to iOS using Home Sharing.
In-app purchases always ask for a password, even if one was entered before.
Internal system clock gets network time updated more often via NITZ (part of the official GSM standard since phase 2+ release 96) and gives a more accurate time for the device, it updates about every five days (iPhone only).
Personal Hotspot feature (Wi-Fi hotspot with up to 5 simultaneous devices (Wi-Fi hotspot iPhone 4 only[73])) on supported carriers.
Ability to set the number of times a text tone repeats (up to 10 times).
In field test mode refresh button has been removed and updated information has been displayed in bottom of the screen (it updates every 4–6 seconds).
Slideshow options moved to Photos app.
New look for taking a picture for a Contact.
When receiving a text message, the iPhone now vibrates 2 times.
Some SMS tones have been shortened (iPod Touch only).
New FaceTime icon (iPod Touch (4th generation) only).
Added FaceTime command in voice control (iPod Touch (4th generation) only).
New look for taking a picture for a Contact (iPod Touch (4th generation) only).
SMS App access through sms:num links is disabled (iPad only).
Ability to choose function of iPad's physical switch between rotation lock or mute.
Fullscreen iAd banner format.
Photo Booth and FaceTime app bug fixes (iPad 2 only).
Fixed issue that prevented controls from being dismissed in some cases.
Addressed issue where the keyboard could not be brought back when highlighting and swiping through search results.
VoiceOver now reads the entire chart in Stocks app while in landscape mode.
Fixed slideshow stop after 15 images when using AirPlay.
Enabled traffic volume indicator for IE (iPhone and iPad Wi-Fi + 3G only).
Fixed canceled recurring calendar events still showing on the event list.
Fixed deleting a recurring event make the alarm go away.
Fixed all-day alarm fired an hour early.
Fixed missing accented letters in European keyboard popups.
Increase font size for China and Pinyin inputs.
Fixed auto-correction issue when switch back from Emoji to English keyboard.
Fixed orientation of mail application not following device orientation under specific conditions.
Fixed mail message view and orientation when quickly selecting a message and hitting edit mode.
Fixed MMS messages with vCard]s scrolling up.
Added Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR).[74]
Added new icon for Wi-Fi tethering for personal hotspot on status bar.
Fixed issue that caused Safari and other apps to crash after loading certain heavy Web sites.
Fixed Personal Hotspot password failure with 22+ characters.
Apple announced iOS 5 on June 6, 2011, at its annual Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) event, and it was released to the public on October 12, 2011, alongside the iPhone 4S.[75] Apple did not drop support for any devices with this release; support for the iPhone 3G and the iPod Touch (2nd generation) had already been dropped with the release of iOS 4.3 seven months earlier due to major performance issues. Therefore, iOS 5 was released for the iPhone 3GS onwards, iPod Touch (3rd generation) onwards, and the iPad (1st generation) and iPad 2.[76] The release of iOS 5.1 brought support for the iPad (3rd generation). iOS 5.1.1 was the final release supported for the original iPad and iPod Touch (3rd generation). It became unsupported on August 12, 2015.
All notifications concentrated to Notification Center: swipe downwards from the status bar to open it. Notification center shows a list of all notifications and widgets (widgets available only on iPhone and iPod Touch).
Notification order can be arranged.
Choose Notification Type: Banner notifications, the classic pop-up notifications, or no notification at all (selectable on an app-by-app basis).
Notification list on lock screen. Swipe an icon to unlock and go to the specific notification.
Notifications announcing earthquakes with 2 minutes (only in Japan).[77][78]
Messages
Messaging between all iOS devices running iOS 5 through Wi-Fi or 3G. Allows to send text, photos, videos, contacts, and locations.
All iMessages and conversations will be synced between all iOS devices linked under a single Apple ID. A conversation can be started on one device and continued on another.
Can message between multiple people simultaneously (group messaging).
Shows when other person(s) is typing.
Delivery receipts.
Optional read receipts (enable in Settings).
Animated GIF image support for iMessage.
Ability to set how many times an alert will be shown when a new message is received (ranges from once to ten times).
The name of the person that responds appears in small light blue text directly above the response when SMS is sent to a group.
Slight redesign for text messages. Font and time-stamp layout.
Hide keyboard; hidden by downwards scrolling in message screen (after being used to type a message). Unhidden again by tapping in text entry field.
Newsstand
A new icon on the Home Screen, which opens to an iBooks-inspired folder which shows all papers and magazines downloaded from the App Store.
Subscriptions to newspapers and magazines available for browsing and downloading in a dedicated section of the App Store, stored in the Newsstand folder.
Reminders
"To-Do list" functionality in Reminders app.
Date-based reminder notifications.
Location-based reminder notifications that can be set to when the user leaves, or arrives at a specified area (P4P4S).
Twitter integration
Tweeting from native applications: Photos, Camera, YouTube, Maps, and Safari using new Tweet Sheet which supports multiple accounts.
Music
iPod app now split and renamed to Music and Videos (iPhone and iPad only; was always split on the iPod Touch).
Video podcasts can only be found in the Videos app.
Ability to play content while the device is synchronizing with iTunes.
Ability to delete songs from device (by swiping over the corresponding song).
Tap and hold on a song to view extended song information (iPhone and iPod Touch only).
Long names scrolling in now playing.
Album artwork now displays in full resolution (Retina Display only) on Now Playing screen.
Broadcast songs information on devices (e.g. car stereo) when connected over Bluetooth.
Improved Sound Check for Music.
"Group by Album Artist" option for Music.
iTunes Store button has been added to the Music app.
Removed ability to view lyrics (on iPad).
Camera
Volume-up key as shutter release button to take photos (also works using headphone remote volume up button). Also works for starting/stopping recording of videos.
Shortcut to Camera app from lock screen, accessed by double-clicking the home button (iPhone 3GS and later and iPod Touch 4th generation only).
Grid composition aide (3x3).
Spread to zoom-in, pinch to zoom-out.
Swipe left to reveal camera roll.
Tap and hold to lock/unlock Auto Exposure and Auto Focus.
Options button added, HDR toggle and Grid composition aide toggle.
New Camera button on Photos app that returns to Camera instead of a "Done" button (was on OS before this) to close the Camera Roll.
Can now create, rename, and delete calendars right on the device.
Tap and hold or double-tap to create a new event.
Tap and hold in "all-day events" to create a new all-day event.
Drag appointments to a new time slot.
Drag handles to change start and end times.
Creating new Event, now an "Invitees" field; takes to screen for multiple email address entry, emails sent to all invitees once event is saved.
Invitee can "Accept"/"Decline"/"Maybe"; reply sent to iCloud servers then reflected for all invitees to see.
Calendar event on device lists those invitees accepting event.
All users on iOS 5.x devices get notification when event is nearing.
Ability to specify a time zone to events.
Ability to add URLs to events.
Current time on Calendar if in landscape mode.
Navigate in day view by swiping.
Event attachments can now be viewed directly in the app.
Share calendars through iCloud with friends and family. Edits made by subscribers to that calendar are updated and pushed to other subscribers of that calendar (can be disabled by the creator of the calendar and locked so others cannot make edits).
Japanese or Buddhist calendars support.
Mail
Rich text formatting (bold, italics, and underline).
Indentation control.
Ability to mark multiple mail items as read.
Ability to flag emails.
Draggable mail address in the recipients field.
Alert if the subject line is blank.
Search now includes body of messages.
Delete mails while in Airplane mode.
Exchange ActiveSync Email can now be deleted offline.
Can create new email folders.
Mail sidebar.
S/MIME support.
Ability to show 1000 recent messages; 25 message option removed.
Ability to create additional @me.com email address within the Mail settings.
Ability to increase quote level in Mail settings.
New and updated tiny icons on Mail for Windows Live Mail, Gmail, Exchange, etc.
Hotmail accounts now have new icons and folders.
While reading an email the user can swipe right to open a list of messages and swipe left to bring back the open email message again.
If the user has multiple email accounts configured in Mail.app, swipe left or right from one's mailboxes folder list, it will take the user to another account's mailboxes.
Support for three popular Chinese email services: Tencent's QQ Mail, and Netease's 163.com and 126.com mail inboxes.[79]
Photos
Built-in basic photo editing: crop, red-eye, auto-enhance and rotate photos.
Ability to create and edit local photo albums folders (only those that aren't synced with iTunes).
Ability to sync pictures taken on one iOS device automatically with other iOS 5 devices using Photo Stream.
Ability to select all when adding pictures to an album.
Slight re-design for video time-line under Photos app.
Safari
Safari Reader: new "Reader" icon appears in address bar if Safari detects a webpage article, removing need to click-through to each page. Scrollable window sheet appears over current webpage showing all article pages together separated by page breaks, removing ads and page clutter.
Ability to change font size in reader mode.
Reading List: a new area of the bookmarks window has been added, purposed for pages the user might want to read later. New pages can be added from a new option in the action menu or when long-pressing on a link.
Items from the Reading List can be synced to iCloud to be pushed to all of the user's other iOS devices.
Safari bookmarks can be synced to iCloud.
Ability to open pages in background or in new page (change in Settings).
Ability to replace a word with a word from a list of similarly spelled words spellings when typing in a text box on a web page.
Private Browsing; interface colours change from blue to black (change in Settings).
Ability to remove custom website data.
CSS fixed position support.
Slight fade out at end of long URLs (instead of ellipses) in the address bar.
HTML5 drawing is faster.
Kinetic scrolling within text fields in Safari.
iCloud
iTunes, iBooks (books and progress), App Store, Photo, Contacts, Calendar, Notes, Reminders, Mail, Safari (Bookmarks and Reading List), Settings, app data, iWork, and backup data; saved in iCloud to automatically or manually download to all linked devices (iOS and Mac/Windows PCs).
All iMessages and conversations will be synced between all iOS devices linked under a single Apple ID. The user can start a conversation on one device and continue it on another.
Backup home screen layout on iCloud.
Document sync.
Ability to buy more storage.
Free upgrade to 256 kbit/s bit rate for iTunes purchased songs if backing up on iCloud.
File names in iCloud Storage are case-sensitive.
Documents/data can now be selected to sync with iCloud account.
Option to disable iCloud Sync via cellular network to save cost, especially if roaming.
Game Center
Photos for Friends.
Ability to make the user's Profile public or private.
Points in Game Center: shows how many points the user has on the home screen of Game Center.
Sort and view Friends on the basis of Points.
Friend recommendations.
Game recommendations.
Games can be purchased from within Game Center.
New Friend requests screen.
Native support for turn based games.
Settings
Help Center: learn more about every option under settings app to explore more about it.
New menu under Location Services, named System Services, where some services can be toggled on or off (such as setting the time-zone, location-based iAds, Diagnostics, etc.).
Hearing Aid Mode.
Ability to rename the device.
Ability to set up an AirPort base station or Time Capsule devices.
Ability to organise Notification Center items "Manually" or "By Time".
Can select which apps can be included in Notification Center.
Can select which type of notification will be used for each app: banner notification, classic pop-up style notification, or no notification.
Ability to turn off app badges.
On the "Ringtone" and "Text Tone" page, instead of showing "new", they are all in one category now.
Custom sounds for New Message, New Voicemail, New Mail, Sent Mail and Reminders alerts.
Ability to purchase text, email, and voicemail alert tones.
Under "Mail, Contacts, Calendars", on the bottom it shows "Reminders" and gives an option to Sync.
In the "Messages" section, the "Alerts", "Show Preview", and "Repeat Alert" options have been removed.
The Usage screen is improved and now shows how much of the memory is consumed by each app.
Storage usage clean up.
Backup to iCloud shortcut added.
Software Update menu added. This allows easier and faster updating of devices independently, without a computer with iTunes installed; the update downloads directly to the iOS device; needs Wi-Fi or cellular network connection.
Photo Stream settings.
New purchases Settings; automatically download new purchases made on other devices (for music, apps, and books). This can also be enabled or disabled for use on cellular when not connected to Wi-Fi.
Twitter sign-in OS-wide with support for multiple Twitter accounts.
Ability to set left or right for mono audio.
Ability to turn on/off sending of iOS diagnostic data to Apple.
Keyboard
Ability to create keyboard shortcuts to replace custom phrases. By default includes "omw" which expands to "On my way!".
Emoji keyboard no longer needs an app to enable it (regarding non-Japanese devices).
Define the user's own words in Offline Dictionary.
New keyboard with prominent # (hash-tag) and @ (mention) buttons for Twitter app similar to the ".com" button when entering an address into the Safari address bar.
New Chinese-Pinyin keyboard spreading.
Quick Chinese input method.
List of associated words show on the top of Chinese input keyboard.
iTunes/USB no longer needed to activate new devices via a computer.
New welcome screen when using the device for the first time (or after resetting a device).
Ability to start fresh with no need to tether it to iTunes. Option to restore all data on a device from an iCloud backup through a simple iCloud sign in.
Ability to wirelessly sync to iTunes over Wi-Fi added (an initial tethered sync is needed to pair them together and the setting must be enabled in iTunes).
OTAdelta updates: from iOS 5 forward, devices can now self-update the system software right on the device itself through Wi-Fi or 3G; no iTunes or computer needed.
YouTube
Ability to play 480p/720p videos over 3G (iPhone only).[80]
Scrolling titles for YouTube videos.
Seek bar fine scrubbing visual notification has been added.
FaceTime
Improved video quality.
Ability to set the FaceTime caller-ID to be the user's email or phone number.
Ability to mirror the FaceTime call on large screen.[81]
iTunes/App Store
iTunes Tone Store.
New Purchased History section.
Genius support for finding songs and apps similar to ones users have purchased formerly.
Ability to completely disable in-app purchases.
iTunes password prompt.
Restrictions with password needed for purchases if enabled.
Shows "Install" instead of the price for formerly purchased apps. Shows "Installed" for installed apps.
Additional "iForgot" button on App Store if a user has forgotten their Apple ID password.
Simultaneous app downloads.
Custom tones for almost everything under "Sounds" with "Buy more tones" button.
Music app now has a "Store" button that goes to the iTunes Store.
Contacts
Add family relations ("related names") to contacts.
Add social media info into contacts.
VoiceOver
VoiceOver item chooser.
VoiceOver action support.
Arabic language support for VoiceOver.
Option to speak text selection.
New voices for VoiceOver.
Bluetooth
AVRCP 1.4 supported (sends track and artist info to supported devices).
Minor improvements/bug fixes
New rounded UI switch graphic.
Ability to use the device while syncing.
Spotlight search now includes Reminders and searches through Messages.
Built-in system-wide dictionary; in the typical Cut/Copy/Paste pop-up when selecting text, there is a new option to "Define". Define brings up a view with definition of the selected word.
Ability to delete app data.
Fixed a bug that caused a song to crash for a second while switching to another application in the multitasking tray.
Apps fade to home screen when they crash, rather than flicking off.
Option to automatically set the time (new for Wi-Fi-only devices).
Switching the ringer switch to "on", the indicator now shows the volume level bar (iPhone and iPad only).
Screenshots are saved using the device's orientation (formerly, all screenshots were saved as if the device was in portrait mode).
Hindi virtual keyboard based on standard InScript layout. (iPhone and iPod Touch only).
Notification Center
Option to display Stock and Weather widgets in Notification Center. Swipe weather left or right to get five-day forecast.
November 10, 2011; 9 years ago (2011-11-10) (9A405) December 12, 2011; 9 years ago (2011-12-12) (9A406)
Bug fixes, security update
Attempted to fix battery drain bug.
Fixes bugs affecting iCloud mail push.
Adds Multitasking Gestures (for original iPad).
Fixes bugs with Documents in the Cloud.
Improves voice recognition for Australian users using dictation.
Contains security improvements.
Activates the LED camera flash, whether the speaker is muted or not, for incoming calls and messages, when activated within the Accessibility sub-menu.
Introduces a new way for developers to specify files that should not be backed up.iPhone 4S only (Build 9A406)
Attempts to fix "Invalid Sim" and "No SIM card installed" issues.
Siri now available on iPad (3rd, 4th generation and Mini) and iPod Touch (5th generation).
Additional country and language support for Canada (English and Canadian French), China (Mandarin), Hong Kong (Cantonese), Italy (Italian), Korea (Korean), Mexico (Spanish), Spain (Spanish), Switzerland (Italian, French, German), Taiwan (Mandarin), US (Spanish).
Siri can provide information on movies like find movie reviews, ask about actors and actresses, play a movie trailer, get showtimes for movies and find a theater/cinema.
Yelp! built-in reviews and launch to open up more information and create reservations with OpenTable.
Restaurants are listed by reviews and nearest with more information.
Apps can be launched by saying "run <app name>" or "open <app name>".
Siri can send Tweets and update Facebook status.
Siri can read items from Notification Center.
"Eyes Free", allowing car companies to build-in Siri integration; with a mic button on steering wheel, and for launching Siri functions, and screen disabling during Eyes Free mode.
Message previews can now be toggled on/off for alerts.
Calendar now shows the current date in the title bar.
Shows ending times for Calendar events.
Added "Do Not Disturb" for Notifications. (See Settings, below, for more information)
Photos
Shared Photo Streams. Photos can be shared with other contacts. Photos shared can be commented on and liked. Notifications are enabled for when a contact shares a photo with the user.
New sharing menu, using new icons.
Constantly shows a button to create new Albums.
Sharing menu has options for Twitter, Facebook, Weibo (when Chinese keyboard is enabled), Copy, Slideshow, AirPlay, Use as Wallpaper, Print.
Videos can be uploaded to Youku and Tudou when Chinese keyboard is enabled.
Music
New streamlined UI with white and black themes.
Late Night Mode equaliser.
Redesigned rewind, play/pause, and fast forward controls (videos kept the same touch controls from prior iOS software.)
Settings
"Bluetooth" moved to top of Settings list.
Added "Do Not Disturb" mode, allowing users to avoid calls and notifications unless calling parties are on the user's Favorites group. A crescent moon icon will appear in the status bar when enabled. Has no effect when the screen is on.
New Privacy Controls. Apps must now ask for permission to access the users photos, calendars, contacts and reminders.
Revised Settings icon, similar to that of the OS X System Preferences app icon.
New gear animation in the Settings app shown whilst downloading an over-the-air update.
In the Usage menu, Time Since Last Full Charge, showing "Usage" and "Standby" time, is now available for all devices.
Enable 3G under Cellular setting (iPhone).
Maps menu for changing voice volume, map label language, label size, and distance units (iPhone 4S and later, iPad 2 and later, and iPod Touch (5th generation)).
Settings categories now separated into groups on iPad.
"Advertising" option added under "About", just above "Diagnostics & Usage" to enable or disable advertising networks from serving "targeted ads".
Phone
Adds phone icon on lock screen for showing additional ignoring options, similar to the camera sliding icon on the lock screen in iOS 5.1.
When ignoring a call, the user can message the caller by sending one of three customizable quick SMS responses or set a Reminder to call them back later.
Phone call doesn't take up the entire lock screen when a call is incoming. (QuietIncomingCallsonLock)
Maps are now Apple-sourced instead of using Google sources.
Turn-by-turn Navigation with Siri Voice powered by TomTom (iPhone 4S and later, iPad 2 and later, and iPod Touch (5th generation)), voice directions (iPhone 4S and later only).
3D overview for maps (iPhone 4S and later, iPad 2 and later, and iPod Touch (5th generation)).
Satellite view.
Flyover view for maps gives 3D satellite view.P4SP5T5S2S2
New Map icon.
Lock Screen integration for turn-by-turn navigation (iPhone 4S and later, and iPad 2 and later), voice directions (iPhone 4S and later only).
Yelp!integration available for businesses provides reviews and information on the business. Allows the user to launch Yelp!app from Maps.
Info cards of businesses.
Traffic crowd sourcing with anonymous data sent from all iPhones, also adds events of traffic slow-down. Re-routing around traffic accidents and road work.
Tapping search bar will automatically give directions from current location to back home, can be changed.
Fullscreen landscape mode (for iPhone and iPod Touch).
iCloud tab syncing across iOS devices and Macs.
Offline Reading List caches the user's Reading List for later use, even when not connected to the Internet (not available for iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch (4th generation)).
Smart App Banners: Banners on mobile webpages prompt users to download the website's native App Store counterpart in the App Store.
Faster JavaScript engine.
Apps in search results.
Support for photo upload via Camera Roll to web forms with <input type="file"> elements.
Support for up to 24 open tabs on iPad (up from prior limit of 9).
Bookmarks window now displays tabs along the bottom of the window to switch between viewing "Bookmarks", "History" and "Reading List"; formerly was listed all in one source list (iPad 2 and later only).
Bookmarks button changes to Reading List icon with a progress bar when updating the Reading List for offline use (iPad 2 and later only).
Long press the "Back" or "Forward" button to reveal the browsing history (for iPhone 3GS and later, iPod Touch (4th generation) and later. formerly only available for iPad since iOS 5.x).
Lost Mode: If an iOS device is lost, Lost Mode triggers an attention grabbing sound, prompting the person who finds the iPhone to call a specific number set by the owner remotely.
Additional features for China (Baidu search engine added, China social network, improved inputting method).
New music controls on lock screen when the home button is double-pressed.
Siri can now purchase movie tickets via Fandango (USA only).
LTE now works with several European, African, Asian and American carriers.
Individual songs can again be downloaded or deleted when using iTunes Match.
An empty Passbook will automatically add a sample pass explaining passbook functionality. The pass text changes slightly for users in British English speaking countries, changing "movie tickets" to "cinema tickets" in the first sentence, and "theaters" to "cinemas" in the last sentence.
Reset Advertising Identifier button now works.
New cellular data option for iTunes (it is available from iOS 6.0).
When setting up an iOS device for the first time with iCloud, it will now ask the user to confirm the Apple ID password for FaceTime and iMessages. It will also ask to confirm how the user would like people to reply, and informs the user that these settings can be changed at any time later on.
Fixed an iPhone 5 bug that prevented the phone from reconnecting to the cellular network when it lost connection for an extended amount of time.
"Accessory attached" splashscreen removed. Bi-directional control now possible.
Fixed a Bluetooth A2DP trigger delay – the beginning of the audio stream cut off (e.g. when navigating turn-by-turn, the user heard "HT in .5 miles" instead of "TURN RIGHT in .5 miles" in the A2DP headset/speakers)[90]
Fix CVE-2014-1266, a bug in Secure Transport that can cause it to fail to properly authenticate a SSL/TLS connection. This bug also occurred in iOS 7, and was caused by a duplicate goto fail; statement in the source code that caused critical parts of the certificate verification code to become unreachable code. This bug is informally known as the goto fail bug as a result.
iOS 7
Apple announced iOS 7 on June 10, 2013, at its annual Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) event, and it was released to the public on September 18, 2013, alongside the iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S. With this release, Apple dropped support for the iPhone 3GS due to hardware limitations and the iPod Touch (4th generation) due to performance issues. iOS 7 has limited support on the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4 since they do not support Siri. However, other devices from the iPhone 4S onwards, iPod Touch (5th generation) onwards, the iPad (3rd generation) onwards, and the iPad Mini (1st generation) onwards were fully supported. The release of iOS 7.0.3 brought support for the iPad Air and iPad Mini 2. iOS 7.1.2 was the final release on the iPhone 4. It became unsupported on November 23, 2018.
Flat design and move away from skeuomorphism in general (exceptions exist – for a move towards more skeuomorphism, see for example the Countdown with a new skeuomorphic 3D animation of a spinning wheel).
Full Screen apps that make use of the system status bar and navigation bar.
Translucent design in tab bar, navigation bar, status bar, system keyboard, Control Center, and Notification Center (some translucent layers not on the iPhone 4, the iPad 2 and the iPad 3 due to hardware constraints).
Opaque design in Alert view, Action Sheet and Share Sheet.
Borderless buttons in general.
Back navigation gesture by swiping from left edge of the screen.
New UI for arranging tab-bar icons.
System-wide dynamic font size, configurable in Settings.
Enhance the viewing experience of non-iPad apps on iPad 2 and iPad Mini, remove the 1x and 2x toggle, apps are opened in '2x' mode by default on iPad 2 and Mini.
Home Screen
Spotlight Search is now accessible on each screen by pulling it down.
"New" banner on newly installed apps have been replaced with blue dots.
Brand new icons for built-in apps.
Newsstand is now a dedicated app instead of a folder.
Control Center
A unified screen to quickly access toggles and controls for system settings and services, and for using AirDrop and AirPlay.
System wide, accessible by swiping upward from the bottom of the screen.
Accessible in the lock screen.
Flashlight (device-specific features that come with physical camera) toggle button.
Integrates Apple's ad hoc Wi-Fi sharing feature AirDrop (iPhone 5 and later, iPod Touch (5th generation) and later, iPad (4th generation) and later, and iPad Mini (1st generation) and later).
Alert view, for receive invitation from other devices, option to accept/cancel.
Options to set discoverable: Off/Contacts only/Everyone.
Inter-app Audio
Register audio streams to share with other apps.
Provides for MIDI control of audio rendering, remotely launching other registered Inter-App Audio apps.
Notification Center
Accessible in the lock screen.
Today tab, for previewing the events calendar, stocks, and tomorrow's events; provides traffic info on oft-visited places.
Missed filter: can filter list to see notifications that occurred when phone was not actively in use.
Bounces when swiped down quickly.
Folders
Unlimited number of apps via folder subpages.
Newsstand app can now be moved inside any folder.
Transparent background.
Folders change color when apps are downloading and clock-like animated progress graphic is superimposed over folders that have actively downloading apps.
Alert
A countdown for snooze.
Calculator
New feedback when pressing a key.
Toggle landscape mode button.
Spotlight
Accessible on every page of the Home screen by swiping downward from anywhere.
New animation.
Multitasking
Redesigned switcher, with horizontal scrolling for previewing all running apps, and swipe upward gesture to stop any running apps.
Can close multiple apps simultaneously by swiping with multiple fingers.
Landscape switcher.
Background App Refresh; fetches data in the background based on network connectivity and user habits.
Bookmarked website thumbnail icons appear when text field is activated.
Top-hit, Google suggest, Bookmarks, and History appear on the unified text field while typing.
Preview tabs on iPhone and iPod Touch are no longer limited to 8.
Preview tabs use new 3D vertical animation for previewing the opened tabs; long press to edit positions, swipe to remove.
Reading List shows website thumbnails on the right.
Scrolls articles one-by-one vertically from Reading List, as per OS X Mavericks.
Swipe gestures for back/prior history, as per OS X.
Parental controls.
Private button: enables "Do not track me" feature per website within the app; formerly, configuration appeared in Settings for every website.
Recent links: a reading list of all user's friends on Facebook or Twitter post.
Reading List button: new round glasses icon pays tribute to Steve Jobs.
The .com button removed and replaced with a simple period button. The .com, .net, and .org domain extensions can be accessed by holding down on the button.
Updated voices, and a new male voice (in select regions/languages). English (US), French, and German will be available with the launch of iOS 7 (additional languages will be added over time).
Controls certain system settings, such as turning on/off Bluetooth, and changing display brightness.
Activation Lock: re-activation with iCloud account if the device have been wiped remotely using Find My iPhone service, to prevent unauthorized usage of the lost device.
No longer included in the AssistiveTouch, they appear on the layer of the image.
Trusted Devices
User is warned when plugging their iOS device into their Mac/PC, "Trust the currently connected computer? Trusting this computer will allow it to have full access to your device and all of its data."
Voice Memo
New design.
Save to iCloud.
Share using AirDrop.
Status bar
Translucent design.
1xRTT icon on CDMA iPhones changed from "o" icon to "1x" icon.
GPRS icon on GSM iPhones changed from "o" icon to "GPRS" icon.
Dots representations for cellular signal strength.
Icon size slightly increased for better readability on the lock screen.
Lock screen
Charging the battery: rather than battery image on the lock screen, x% charged briefly appears under the clock, then reverts to the date.
Access to Notification Center and Control Center.
When playing music, the lock screen will now display the time.
iPad has Camera control on the lock screen, like the prior version on iPhone and iPod Touch.
Timer counting down is shown when the device is locked.
Scrubbing bar is now displayed on the lock screen.
Wi-Fi
New Wi-Fi diagnostics mode.
Wi-Fi Hotspot 2.0.
Other
New first-time setup menus.
The unlock sound from prior iOS releases up to iOS 6 is no longer present. From now on, whenever one either correctly inputs a passcode or simply slide to unlock on the lock screen, no sound will play when unlocking a device's lock screen.
Photos and Camera tab in iOS Settings has a new "Upload Burst Photos" option.
The Parallax effect can be disabled independently of other animations when setting up wallpaper.
Notification Center now displays "No Notifications" and "No Missed Notifications" for the "All" and "Missed" sections respectively when there are no notifications.
Caller ID photos: no longer full screen, instead small circle portrait for incoming/outgoing calls.[95]
New Yahoo logo, in both Notification Center and the Weather and Stocks apps.
A new dialogue "Touch ID requires your passcode when iPhone restarts" when restarting.P5S
New iPad wallpapers.
"Touch ID and Passcode" has been moved-up to the main menu in Settings.
Animations and transitions are noticeably faster.
Keyboard has new Shift/Backspace key highlights.
Control Center has a new "spring" animation upon opening.
Control Center sliders – volume and brightness – have momentum.
Icons for Phone, Messages and FaceTime apps have less vibrant colors.
Music app: Albums now in descending order when browsing by Artist.
The buttons are circular in shape and do not show the word of what the icon means.
The Phone and FaceTime apps have a new-look dialer and "end call" button.
The slide-to-power-off UI has been redesigned; the shape of the slider is circular and the thing that says "slide to power off" is oval in shape. Same with the "slide to answer" slider in the Phone and FaceTime apps.
Bug fixes/improvements
Fixes a home screen crash bug.
Fixes display of Mail unread badge for numbers greater than 10,000.
Patches 41 security exploits, including those used by the Evasi0n 7 jailbreak. This firmware, along with iOS 7.1.1 and 7.1.2 can be jailbroken via the Pangu jailbreak.[97]
Reduce Motion function in Settings app is introduced. This function reduces the motion of the UI and disables the parallax effects.
First update to iOS that enables beta versions to update over-the-air to the final release.
Issues
Touch ID fingerprint recognition is disabled when rebooting, turning Touch ID on and off; even restoring or resetting the device does not solve the problem.P5S
Apple announced iOS 8 on June 2, 2014, at its annual Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) event, and it was released to the public on September 17, 2014, alongside the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. With this release, Apple dropped support for one device, the iPhone 4. iOS 8 has limited support on the iPad 2, iPhone 4S, iPad (3rd generation), iPad Mini (1st generation), and the iPod Touch (5th generation),[citation needed] as Apple received widespread complaints of extremely poor/slow performance from owners of these devices. All other devices from the iPhone 5 onwards, iPod Touch (6th generation) onwards, the iPad (4th generation) onwards, and the iPad Mini 2 onwards were fully supported. The release of iOS 8.1 brought support for the iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3, and the release of iOS 8.4 brought support for the iPod Touch (6th generation). iOS 8.3 was the first version of iOS to have public beta testing available, where users could test the beta for upcoming releases of iOS and send feedback to Apple about bugs or issues. The final version of iOS 8 was iOS 8.4.1.
Photo Library – all photos and videos are automatically available in the iCloud Photo Library, and is consistent on all the linked devices automatically.
iCloud Drive – various files that are being written or worked on are automatically saved in iCloud Drive and is consistent on all linked devices automatically, including a Mac or PC.
iCloud settings now display account information, payment information and security settings.
Ability to send voice messages instantly by using a new "microphone" button to the right of the text entry field.
Pressing and holding on the microphone button lets you record your voice and then swipe up to send it.
Messages can be listened to by either pressing play or raise to listen. Messages can also be listened and responded to on the Lock Screen by raising to listen and raising to respond.
Ability to send photo and video messages instantly by using the "camera" button to the left of the text entry field.
Pressing and holding on the camera button lets you take a photo or record a video and instantly send it.
Tapping the camera button shows the most recent photos in your camera roll. Options are also present for taking a new photo or video and to view your entire photo library. Multiple photos and videos can be selected to send at once.
A new details menu is available for each conversation which contains many new functions:
You can now title group message threads.
A list of everyone participating in a message thread is listed with buttons to call, FaceTime and view their full contact card.
Ability to drop or add people to groups.
Ability to leave groups.
Send current location.
Can share location with an individual or group for one hour, until the end of the day or indefinitely until you choose to stop.
Do Not Disturb option per group.
A collection of all photos that have been sent in a message thread.
Batch save/delete all images in a message thread.
Message threads are now synced between all of your devices.
Images in conversations are now much larger.
Scrolling to the top of a message will now automatically cause older messages to load.
Can mark all texts as read.
Added options to automatically delete standard messages after 1 year, 30 days or never.
Added options to automatically delete video/audio messages after 2 minutes or never.
Faces of contacts display next to contact name on select iPhones.P6P
Music
Left swipe to delete albums.
Can add music to a playlist from another playlist.
Updated Icon.
Multitasking UI
The faces of recently conversed people now appear above the open applications, and with a swipe to the right one can also access their favorites.
The animation speed when entering and leaving the app switcher is now much faster.
Share sheets
Share sheet action icons are now redesigned.
Share sheet icons can now be rearranged and hidden.
UI
Improved animation system. Gestures such as bringing down Notification Center won't be blocked by an animation, such as the home screen icons flying in.
Can swipe to the left for options to flag it for follow-up, move it to a folder or delete.
Can swipe all the way across the screen to the left to delete immediately.
Can swipe all the way across the screen to the right to mark as read/unread.
Ability to swipe mail compose sheet down allowing access to the rest of ones mailbox to gather the information needed in order to compose the message.
When Mail recognizes a reservation, flight confirmation, or phone number in an email, a notification appears at the top of the message. In order to add it to the calendar or contacts, one needs to tap the notification(s).
Mail conversations are now threads.
Individual threads can be set as VIP so that the user will receive a notification when a reply is received.
Per thread S/MIME.
Automatic reply messages.
Can delete attachments.
New mailboxes: Unread, To or CC, Attachments, Thread Notifications, Today.
Interactive notifications – one can take action on texts, email, calendar invitations, reminders, and messages from apps like Facebook and other third-party apps.
Can be performed from within Notification Center by swiping a notification to the left to reveal actions available.
Can be performed directly within an apps notification banner/alert all without having to leave the app one is in.
Notifications in Notification Center can be individually dismissed.
Indoor Mapping – iOS 8 adds the M7 and M8 processor's and iPhone motion sensors to the CoreLocation API, allowing venue owners to create indoor positioning systems.
Camera Roll and My Photo Stream removed and replaced by "Recently Added, Videos, Recently Deleted" albums.
Search Photos by location and more.
Date, time and location information displayed.
Photos can now be favorited.
Photos and videos can be hidden from Moments.
Hidden photos and videos get added to the "Hidden" album.
New Albums added for Bursts, Slo-Mo Videos, and Time-Lapse Videos.
Option to auto optimise storage on device by removing local copies of pictures and videos.
Improved editing.
Smart composition tools.
Smart adjustments.
Extension support.
Voice Memos
Play/Pause button next to the record button in Voice Memos.
Lock Screen
App shortcuts for Handoff on the Lock Screen.
App shortcuts on the Lock Screen based on device location.
Audio iMessages received while the phone is locked can be listened to by raising to listen and responded to by raising to respond.
iTunes Radio "buy" song button on Lock Screen.
iTunes Radio skips remaining displayed on Lock Screen.
New animation when opening apps from the Lock Screen.
Access to Medical ID from emergency dialer.
New "Slide to Unlock" text in certain languages.
Keyboard
QuickType – as one types, they see choices of words or phrases one would probably type next, based on their past conversations and writing style, using a more formal language for mail, and a casual one for Messages. The system also adjusts the system based on the person one converses with, and the region of the user (currently available in 14 countries).
QuickType can be hidden by swiping down.
QuickType can be toggled on or off from within the keyboard switcher.
Extra functions added to the keyboard on select iPhones.P6P6P
Smiley icon for when emoji keyboard is the only alternate keyboard set up. Becomes a globe icon when multiple keyboards are set up.
Streaming voice recognition for Speech to Text.
iOS 6 keyboard no longer appears in apps that are not optimized or updated to a version optimized for iOS 7 or higher.
New keyboards (Indian language and Indian English keyboards, Tagalog, Irish Gaelic, and Slovenian).
Family Sharing – a service of sharing purchases from iTunes between up to 6 people.
All group members must pay for family purchases with the same credit/debit card.
Ask To Buy – a parent can approve youngsters' spending right from a parent's device.
Coincides with iCloud Photo Library – automatically sets up a family photo stream where the user can share photos, videos, and comments, and all the family photos are available from any device within the family.
Offers shared calendar and Reminders.
Family Sharing can automatically share the user's location with the family members, or keep their location hidden.
With the Find My iPhone app, family members can use their devices to locate one that's lost and have it play a sound.
Apple IDs for youngsters under age of 13 years are now possible due to Family Sharing.
Health app –shows a dashboard of all the fitness and health data of the user (iPhone and iPod Touch only).[105]
Shows the heart rate, calories burned, blood sugar, cholesterol, etc. of the user.
One can create an Emergency card with medicinal details, from within either the application or the lock screen.
Natively tracks steps taken and other movement activity within the Health app.
Export health data.
Continuity – iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and Mac communication.[106]
Handoff – start writing an email or surfing a website on one device, then continue on another device, for devices connected to the same iCloud account.P5P5CP5SP6P6PT5S4S5M1M2
Answer a phone call, receive and send SMS/MMS from an iPhone on an iPad or a Mac (all devices must run iOS 8 or OS X Yosemite, and be connected to the same Wi-Fi network or to the device's hotspot).
Intelligent hotspot – intelligently discover when an iPhone is nearby and automatically list the device under Wi-Fi networks in Settings.
Spotlight
Spotlight now also searches Wikipedia, iBooks, iTunes, App Store, nearby places, news, Suggested Websites, and Movie showtimes.
Shutter Mode (timer can be set to 3 or 10 seconds).
Burst photos can now be taken with the FaceTime camera in addition to the iSight camera.P5SP6P6P[109]
Settings
Every app installed now has its own settings panel, regardless of whether the app specifies its settings to appear in the Settings app (e.g. Notifications, Privacy, Background App Refresh, and Cellular Data usage).
Option to Enable/Disable dictation in keyboard settings.
iBooks icon and Reader view icon in Safari have been redesigned.
Settings app for third-party apps has been tweaked.
Apple Pay support for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus (in physical store, online, or in app) P6P6P, Apple Watch-compatible devices (in physical store) P5P5CP5SP6P6P, for Touch ID devices (online or in app). P5SP6P6PP6PS6M3
Photos
Adds iCloud Photo Library as a beta service.
Adds Camera Roll and My Photo Stream albums back to Photos app after disappearing in iOS 8.0.x.
Removes Recently Added album.
Camera
Provides alerts when running low on space before capturing Time Lapse videos.
Messages
Adds the ability for iPhone users to send and receive SMS and MMS text messages to/from an iPad, iPod Touch and OS X Yosemite.P5P5CP5SP6P6P[116]
Fixes an issue where searching messages would sometimes not display results.
Fixes a bug that caused read messages not to be marked as read.
Fixes issues with group messaging.
Fixes issues with Wi-Fi performance that could occur when connected to some base stations, like the FIFA 15 Ultimate Team servers.
Fixes an issue that could prevent connections to Bluetooth hands-free devices.
Fixes bugs that could cause screen rotation to stop working.
Fixes an issue in Safari where videos would sometimes not play.
Adds an option to select between 2G, 3G, 4G, or LTE networks for cellular data on certain carriers (iPhone and iPad (Wi-Fi + Cellular) only).[117]
Fixes an issue with VoiceOver where tone dialing would get stuck on tone until dialing another number.
Improves reliability when using handwriting, Bluetooth keyboards, and Braille displays with VoiceOver.
Fixes an issue that was preventing the use of OS X Caching Server for iOS updates.
Fixes an issue that allowed launching applications with expired developer certificates by setting the date and time to prior the certificate's expiration.
This firmware can be jailbroken via the Pangu8 jailbreak.
Fixes an issue where the user could be continuously prompted for login credentials
Fixes an issue where some devices disconnect intermittently from Wi-Fi networks
Fixes an issue where hands-free phone calls could become disconnected
Fixes an issue where audio playback could stop working with some Bluetooth speakers
Orientation and rotation fixes
Fixes an issue that sometimes prevented rotating back to portrait after having rotated to landscape
Improves performance and stability issues that occurred when rotating the device between portrait and landscape
Fixes an issue where device orientation appeared upside down after pulling the iPhone 6 Plus from your pocket
Fixes an issue that sometimes prevented apps from rotating to correct orientation after switching apps in multitasking
Messages fixes
Fixes issues that caused group messages to sometimes split
Fixes an issue that sometimes removed the ability to forward or delete individual messages
Fixes an issue that sometimes prevented a preview from appearing when taking a photo in Messages
Adds the ability to report junk messages directly from the Messages app
Adds the ability to filter out iMessages that are not sent by the user's contacts
Family Sharing fixes
Fixes a bug where certain apps would not launch or update on family members' devices
Fixes a bug that prevented family members from downloading certain free apps
Increased reliability for 'Ask to Buy' notifications
CarPlay fixes
Fixes an issue where Maps could come up as a black screen
Fixes an issue where the UI could be incorrectly rotated
Fixes an issue where the keyboard could appear on the CarPlay screen when it shouldn't
Enterprise fixes
Improves reliability of installing and updating enterprise apps
Corrects the time zone of Calendar events created in IBM Notes
Fixes a problem that could cause web clip icons to become generic after restarting
Improves reliability of saving the password for a web proxy
Exchange out-of-office messages can now be edited separately for external replies
Improves recovery of Exchange accounts from temporary connection problems
Improves compatibility of VPN and Web proxy solutions
Allows use of physical keyboards to log into Safari Web sheets, such as for joining a public Wi-Fi network
Fixes an issue that caused Exchange meetings with long notes to be truncated
Accessibility fixes
Fixes an issue where using the back button in Safari causes VoiceOver gestures to not respond
Fixes an issue where VoiceOver focus becomes unreliable in draft Mail messages
Fixes an issue where Braille Screen Input cannot be used to type text in forms on webpages
Fixes an issue where toggling Quick Nav on a Braille Display announces that Quick Nav is off
Fixes an issue keeping app icons from being moveable on home screen when VoiceOver is enabled
Fixes an issue in Speak Screen where speech will not start again after pausing
Other improvements and bug fixes
Introduces a redesigned Emoji keyboard with over 300 new characters
iCloud Photo Library has been optimized to work with the new Photos app on OS X 10.10.3 and is now out of beta
Improves the pronunciation of street names during turn-by-turn navigation in Maps
Includes support for Baum VarioUltra 20 and VarioUltra 40 Braille displays
Improves the display of Spotlight results when Reduce Transparency is turned on
Adds Italic and Underline format options for iPhone 6 Plus landscape keyboard
Adds the ability to remove shipping and billing addresses used with Apple Pay
Additional language and country support for Siri: English (India, New Zealand), Danish (Denmark), Dutch (Netherlands), Portuguese (Brazil), Russian (Russia), Swedish (Sweden), Thai (Thailand), Turkish (Turkey)
Additional dictation languages: Arabic (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates) and Hebrew (Israel)
Improves stability for Phone, Mail, Bluetooth connectivity, Photos, Safari tabs, Settings, Weather, and Genius Playlists in Music
Fixes an issue where Slide to Unlock could fail to work on certain devices
Fixes an issue that sometimes prevented swiping to answer a phone call on the Lock screen
Fixes an issue that prevented opening links in Safari PDFs
Fixes an issue where selecting Clear History and Website Data in Safari Settings did not clear all data
Fixes an issue that prevented autocorrecting "FYI"
Fixes an issue where contextual predictions did not appear in Quick Reply
Fixes an issue where Maps did not enter night mode from hybrid mode
Fixes an issue that prevented initiating FaceTime calls from a browser or third-party app using FaceTime URLs
Fixes an issue that sometimes prevented photos from properly exporting to Digital Camera Image folders on Windows
Fixes an issue that sometimes prevented an iPad backup from completing with iTunes
Fixes an issue that could cause Podcast downloads to stall when switching from Wi-Fi to cellular networks
Fixes an issue where remaining time on timer would sometimes incorrectly display as 00:00 on Lock screen
Fixes an issue that sometimes prevented adjusting call volume
Fixes an issue that caused the status bar to sometimes appear when it shouldn't
Attempt to fix problems with custom keyboards crashing, not appearing, or being replaced with the default keyboard
Adds support for the new Apple Music streaming service which is available in 100 countries starting on June 30, 2015.
New features including personalized music discovery and recommendation based on the user's favorite genres or artists. Adds support for 24/7 online radio service named Beats 1 and new Connect tab in which all artists can communicate with their listeners.
Apple Music costs $9.99/month for 1 person and $14.99/mo. for up to 6 people and a free trial will be given to users for 3 months.
Apple Radio, Beats One, and Connect feature are still available for users not choosing to subscribe to Apple Music
Redesigned Music Application
Streamlined design
Recently Added tab makes it easier to discover music that was recently added
MiniPlayer makes it easier to see what's currently playing and to control music playback
Up Next section lets the user see and control what is going to play next
Enables search from anywhere in the music application with a new unified magnifying glass icon at the top. Trending Search was added which shows which music within Apple Music is being searched for most by users.
Adds support for offline music playback including a toggle and icon to show which songs are available offline.
iBooks improvements and fixes
Browse, listen, and download audiobooks inside iBooks
Enjoy the all-new Now Playing feature, designed specifically for audiobooks
Books that are made for iBooks now work on iPhone and iPad
Improves accessibility of widgets, glossary, and navigation in books made with iBooks Author
New default Chinese font.
New setting to turn off Auto-Night theme in the library
Fixes an issue that may have prevented Hide Purchases from working
Fixes an issue that may have prevented downloading books from iCloud.
Bug fixes and stability improvements
Fixes an issue where receiving a specific series of Unicode characters causes device to reboot.
Fixes an issue that prevented GPS accessories from providing location data
Fixes an issue where deleted Apple Watch apps would re-install
Apple announced iOS 9 on June 8, 2015, at its annual Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) event, and it was released to the public on September 16, 2015, alongside the iPhone 6S, iPhone 6S Plus and iPad Mini 4. With this release, Apple did not drop support for any iOS devices. Therefore, iOS 9 was supported on the iPhone 4S onwards, iPod Touch (5th generation) onwards, the iPad 2 onwards, and the iPad Mini (1st generation) onwards. However, iOS 9 has limited support on devices with an Apple A5 or A5X processor: the iPhone 4S, iPad 2, iPad (3rd generation), iPad Mini (1st generation), and iPod Touch (5th generation).[citation needed] This release made the iPad 2 the first device to support six major releases of iOS, supporting iOS 4 thru iOS 9. Despite Apple's promise of better performance on these devices, there were still widespread complaints that the issue had not been fixed. iOS 9.3.5 is the final release on the iPod Touch (5th generation), the Wi-Fi-only iPad 2, the Wi-Fi-only iPad (3rd generation), and the Wi-Fi-only iPad Mini (1st generation); iOS 9.3.6 is the final release on the iPhone 4S, the Wi-Fi + cellular iPad 2, the Wi-Fi + cellular iPad (3rd generation), and the Wi-Fi + cellular iPad Mini (1st generation).
Attachments received can now be saved and attachments can be added to messages from iCloud Drive or other document providers while composing a new message.
Support for public transit lines, station details with exits and entrances, schedules and directions in select major cities. Also, popular places such as restaurants, stores, and points of interests will be highlighted and presented to the user in a central location.
Apple Pay support is indicated on place cards at participating retail locations.
Adds support for "Follow up by Email" that allows Apple to email users about issues reported.
Browse for places nearby by category, including Food, Drinks, Shopping, Fun and more.
Place cards include Wikipedia information for landmarks and cities.
Adds a new app named News which provides curated lists of personalized news content for iOS users, offering content from popular websites and newspapers and displaying it in an iOS-friendly layout. This app replaces the Newsstand app.[122]
Add photos to notes with the built-in camera or from the Photo Library.
Support for hand-drawn sketches, checklists, and inserting photos from the internet or the Camera Roll.
Adds different fonts for headings, body, and titles.
Recently deleted folder.
Share Sheet extension that allows a user to input text, pictures, or other attachments from anywhere in the system via an extension in the share sheet.
There are now video recording settings to change the quality of recorded videos.
There is a new iCloud Drive app which can be enabled in the iCloud Settings.
Battery moved to the top level.
Updated Notifications icon.
Additional options for Auto-Lock.
Wallpapers
Adds 15 new wallpapers to iOS which replaces most of the wallpaper present in iOS 8.
When changing wallpapers, there is a new "Still" option which keeps the wallpaper still.
Wallet
Replaces the Passbook app with a new app named Wallet and enhances the features of Apple Pay with support for Discover credit/debit card, store loyalty card, and Apple Pay in the UK.[124]
To check out even faster, upcoming payments can be prepared by double-clicking the Home button from the Lock Screen and keeping the finger on Touch ID.
Watch
Renamed from Apple Watch.
Updated haptic feedback icons.
Battery improvements
Up to one hour of additional time before the battery needs to be charged.
Facedown detection for turning display off when not in use
New Low Power Mode (iPhone only) disables Background App Refresh, Mail Fetch, Motion Effects, and Animated Wallpapers. It also extends device's battery life by up to three hours.P4SP5P5CP5SP6P6PP6SP6SP[121]
Low Power Mode turns off when device is connected to a power source.
Notification Center Widget (when paired with Apple Watch).
Presents relevant information even before the user starts typing.
Notifies the user when the user needs to leave for appointments using traffic conditions.
Learns what the user listens to in a certain location or at a particular time of day and can automatically display playback controls for preferred music and audio apps.
Suggested events and contact details are added to apps based on information found in Mail.
Siri has a new colorful interface, similar to that of the Apple Watch.
Removed sound from Siri activation.
Updated Siri icon in Settings.
Search personal photos and videos based on dates, locations and album names.
Ask Siri to remind about things being looked at in apps, including Safari, Mail, Notes and Messages.
Request directions via public transit.
Siri can now use an accent (same language) which differs from the input language.
Siri no longer asks for confirmation of reminders that are created.
Spotlight Search.
A more intelligent Spotlight search provides info such as Weather, News, Stocks, nearby places, and recent/favorite contacts based on the user's preference. Spotlight search can be activated by swiping to the right on the first page of the home screen or swiping down on any page of the home screen.P5P5CP5SP6P6PT6S4S5S6M2M3
Perform tasks such as currency conversions and calculations.
Get sports scores, weather conditions and stock prices.
Initiate messages, phone calls and FaceTime calls from contact search results.
Redesigned notification center view when in landscape.
Keyboard improvements
New keyboard now displays whether the letters are upper-case or lower-case depending on whether the Shift key has been toggled or not.
Cut/Copy functions on the keyboard have been replaced with an Undo/Redo button. The Cut/Copy buttons still appear when text is selected.
Over 50 new flag emojis.
A "deep press" (3D touch) on the keyboard will convert the keyboard to a track pad to move the cursor and make it easier to manipulate text. (6S and 6S Plus only)
Ability to disable character preview.
Performance and stability improvements.
Extends the battery life of iOS devices by an extra hour.
Minimizes iOS update file size to 1.3 GB.
Improves performance on iOS devices by utilising Metal API throughout iOS to deliver faster scrolling, smoother animation, and better overall performance.
Reduced touch latency from sixty milliseconds to less than thirty milliseconds.[126]
Security improvements
Touch ID devices now use a 6-digit passcode by default, though a 4-digit option is still available alongside options for a passcode with a custom number of digits and an alphanumeric passcode.P5SP6P6PS6M3[127]
Adds 2-factor authentication for iCloud on iOS.
Adds support for add an IKEv2VPN directly in Settings without need for third-party app.[128][129]
Other improvements
Print preview screen. Allows the user to view all pages, select which pages to print, and print in black and white.
Leave a message option if recipient isn't available for a FaceTime call.
Share voicemails from the Phone app using the share sheet.
Added confirmation dialog when an app attempts to open another app.
Support for right-to-left languages.
Flight and package tracking for data detectors[130]
iCloud Drive app.
Easily search for a file or browse in the new iCloud Drive app by date, name, or tags added on associated Mac.
Open files in any compatible app.
Organize folders and files.
Get the iCloud Drive app in Settings > iCloud > iCloud Drive and select Show on Home Screen.
Wi-Fi Assist to automatically use cellular data when Wi-Fi connectivity is poor.
It is possible to go directly back to a formerly used app if a link opens another app.
Recent Contacts have been removed from the multitasking UI. They have now been placed in the new Proactive Menu.
Handoff is now displayed as a pull up menu in the app switcher.
Redesigned Voice Control audio waveform.
Redesigned audio dictation audio waveform.
Expanded language support
New PingFang Chinese system font.
Improved predictions, learning and autocorrection for Chinese in QuickType.
Redesigned punctuation input on 10-key Chinese keyboard.
Redesigned User Interface for right-to-left languages.
Added Siri support for Austria, Belgium (French and Dutch), and Norway.
Added Spotlight search support for Mexico.
New display languages for German (Germany), German (Austria), German (Switzerland), English (Canada), French (France), French (Switzerland), Italian (Italy), Italian (Switzerland), and Traditional Chinese (Taiwan).
New keyboards for French (Belgium), German (Austria), Gujarati, Hindi (Transliteration), Hinglish, Punjabi, Spanish (Mexico), and Telugu.
Predictive input for French (Belgium), German (Austria), Korean, Russian, Spanish (Mexico), and Turkish.
Dictation support for Dutch (Belgium), English (Ireland, Philippines, South Africa), French (Belgium), German (Austria), and Spanish (Chile, Colombia).
Spell check for Finnish and Korean.
Definition dictionary for Hindi, Norwegian and Swedish.
Bilingual dictionary for French-English and German-English.
New Japanese autocorrection, improved predictions, and learning in QuickType.
Option to switch between number systems for Arabic and Hindi.
Enterprise and Education
DEP (Device Enrolment Program) Support added for 26 countries.
Assign apps directly to iOS devices without needing to have an iTunes Store account configured.
Improved calendar reliability for customers using Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync v16.
Expanded Per App VPN support for the built-in IPSec and IKEv2 VPN clients.
New networking controls for managed apps to help limit international data roaming costs.
New restrictions to prevent changes to passcodes, device names and wallpapers, and to disable AirDrop on managed devices.
Third party app extension support for VPN, advanced content filtering, and captive Wi-Fi networks.
Accessibility
Touch Accommodations provides additional touch control for those with physical motor limitations.
Speak Selection and Speak Screen can now use Siri voice.
Fixed issues with VoiceOver when using Camera face detection.
Added support for VoiceOver to wake up the screen.
Added support for VoiceOver to invoke app switcher with 3D Touch gesture.
Fixed an issue with Guided Access when trying to end phone calls.
Improved functionality for Switch Control users when using 3D Touch.
Fixed an issue with speech rate of Speak Screen.
SFSafariViewController now supports 3rd party Action Extensions. Any Action Extension that works in Safari will also work in SFSafariViewController.
Long tapping the Reload button in Safari View Controller now gives options to Reload Without Content Blockers and Request Desktop Site, like in Safari.
Fixed an issue where WebApps saved to the home screen would not respect the apple-mobile-web-app-status-bar-style meta tag.
Adds support for a new feature named Night Shift which, manually or automatically (based on user preference), makes the display color warmer so it is easier to view at night. Users can adjust the color temperature in the Settings app.
Control Center
Adds toggle for Night Shift mode on supported devices.
Night Shift toggle redesign in Beta 4.
Notes
Adds support for protecting notes inside the Notes app with a passcode or Touch ID.
News
News delivers stories that are better curated to a user's tastes.
News suggests editors' and top picks to users at the top.
When checking for updates, News refreshes much faster.
If a story contains video, it is possible to view it directly from your feed.
Support for pairing multiple Apple Watches to your iPhone.
Health
Easier app discovery with the Health app.
Health now includes data from the Apple Watch and Activity app.
Photos
When removing a photo from an album, users are given a choice to remove the photo or to delete it.
CarPlay
Adds support for the For You and New tabs in the Music section of CarPlay
Adds the Nearby feature in Maps which quickly lets you discover points-of-interest nearby.
Classroom Enhancements
Adds support for multi-user logons in schools so any student can log in (with a passcode) to an iPad issued by the school.
Adds a new Classroom app for those devices registered with schools which allows teachers to guide students through a lesson, see their progress, keep them on track, present quizzes and tests, and wirelessly display their work with AirPlay and Apple TV.
Adds support for a device manager in which school administrators can set up multiple Apple IDs, change passwords, enroll students in iTunes U courses, etc.
Dolby Digital Plus
Adds support for playing video encoded with Dolby Digital Plus audio streams. (iPhone 5s and newer, iPod Touch 6th gen and newer, iPad Mini 2 and newer, iPad Air series, iPad Pro series)
Multichannel output is supported using the Apple Lightning Digital AV Adapter.
New 3D Touch shortcuts added for Health, App Store, iTunes, Settings, Weather, Stocks, and Compass apps.
Support for Spanish (Latin America) display language.
Siri support for Finnish, Hebrew, and Malay.
Improvements to stability and performance.
Fixes an issue where manually changing the date to May 1970 or earlier could prevent 64-bit devices from turning on after a restart.[136]
Fix CVE-2016-1788, a security vulnerability that allowed an attacker to decrypt iMessage attachments, by rejecting replay attempts.
Build 13E236 and 13E237 were issued to devices that were affected by the Activation Lock bug. These re-issued builds helped correct the issue after the prior builds were withdrawn.
9.3.1
13E238
March 31, 2016; 4 years ago (2016-03-31)
Fixes an issue that caused apps to be unresponsive after tapping on links in Safari or other apps.
Fixes an issue where connecting to a fake Apple time server which sets system time to January 1, 1970 can cause 64-bit devices to overheat and become unresponsive after a restart.[137]
Fixes three zero-day vulnerabilities.[139] These vulnerabilities were chained together by the NSO Group into the Trident exploit chain.[139] Trident is composed of CVE-2016–4657, CVE-2016–4655 and CVE-2016–4656 and uses them in that order.[139] First, Trident's first stage uses CVE-2016–4657 to exploit WebKit, iOS's built-in web browser engine, via malicious JavaScript to cause WebKit to execute arbitrary Trident's second stage malware.[139] Trident's second stage then downloads the Pegasus spyware package, uses CVE-2016–4655 to locate the kernel, and uses CVE-2016–4656 to disable signature verification in order to allow unsigned code like Pegasus to execute.[139] The second stage malware then uses the previously discovered location of the kernel to install and load Pegasus with kernel privileges, allowing the attacker to steal all data on the phone and spy on the victim's conversations live.[139]
EOL updates
9.3.6
13G37
July 22, 2019; 19 months ago (2019-07-22)
iPhone 4s, iPad mini (1st generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad 2 Wi-Fi + Cellular and iPad (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular only
Fixes an issue that would prevent cellular devices from maintaining an accurate GPS position after November 3, 2019.[140]
iOS 10
Apple announced iOS 10 on June 13, 2016, at its annual Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) event, and it was released to the public on September 13, 2016, alongside the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. With this release, Apple dropped support for devices using an A5 or A5X processor: the iPhone 4S, the iPad 2, iPad (3rd generation), iPad Mini (1st generation), and iPod Touch (5th generation). iOS 10 has limited support on devices with 32-bit processors: the iPhone 5, iPhone 5C, and iPad (4th generation).[citation needed] However, the iPhone 5S onwards, iPod Touch (6th generation), iPad Air onwards, and the iPad Mini 2 onwards are fully supported. The release of iOS 10.2.1 brought support for the iPad (5th generation), and iOS 10.3.2 brought support for the iPad Pro (10.5-inch) and the iPad Pro (12.9-inch, 2nd generation). iOS 10.3.3 is the final supported release for the iPhone 5C and the Wi-Fi-only iPad (4th generation). iOS 10.3.4 is the final supported release for the iPhone 5 and the Wi-Fi + cellular iPad (4th generation). iOS 10 is the last iOS version to run on 32-bit processors and also the last to run 32-bit apps.
Bubble effects allows sending messages loudly, gently, with a slam or with invisible ink.
Full-screen effects.
Tapback for quick replies to messages, links and photos.
Handwritten messages animate like ink on paper.
Digital Touch allows sending of sketches, taps and heartbeats.
Tap to replace can emojify text with just a tap.
Rich links show a preview of shared web pages.
iMessage apps
New App Store for iMessage.
Use the power of apps in Messages to share and collaborate with friends.
Download stickers to send and place on text bubbles and photos.
Siri
Siri now works with the following types of apps.
Messaging apps to send, search and read back text messages.
VoIP apps to make phone calls.
Photos apps to search for images and photos.
Ride service apps to book rides.
Payment apps to make personal payments.
Fitness apps to start, stop and pause workouts.
CarPlay carmaker apps to adjust climate, radio, seat and personal settings.
Maps
All-new look.
Proactive suggestions for places user is likely to go next, based on routine or appointments in Calendar.
Improved search with new callout design, clustered results and category filters.
Home, work, favourite locations and locations from upcoming Calendar events are displayed on the map.
Displays where the users car is parked via CarPlay or Bluetooth.
Weather for the currently viewed area.
Extensions
Make a reservation within Maps using extensions from participating reservations apps.
Book a ride to a destination within Maps using extensions from participating ride service apps.
Turn-by-turn navigation improvements.
Search along route for petrol stations, food and coffee shops.
Automatic view adjustment of the road ahead.
Use pan and zoom during navigation.
Option to avoid tolls and motorways.
Photos
Advanced face recognition designed with deep learning to automatically group similar faces together.
Object and scene recognition to intelligently search for photos by what's in them using computer vision that scans the photo library locally on the device.
Places album to see all photos, videos and Live Photos on a map.
Memories
Intelligently highlights forgotten events, trips and people, and presents them in a collection.
Memory movies automatically edited with theme music, titles and cinematic transitions.
Related memories to rediscover photos, based on location, time, people, scenes and objects.
Easily share with family and friends.
Brilliance control applies region-specific adjustments to brightness, highlights and contrast.
Home
New Home app to securely manage and control HomeKit-enabled accessories.
Scenes to control groups of accessories with just a tap.
Rich notifications with quick actions to control accessories.
Optionally share home access with family and friends.
Remote access and automation of accessories with Apple TV or iPad.
Apple Music
An all-new design.
Navigate Library with modified menu and see all the Downloaded Music that can play on device while offline.
See recommendations in For You that highlight mixes, playlists, albums and Connect posts – selected based on their music and artist preferences.
Browse to see exclusive releases, find curated playlists and discover the most important new releases – picked by editors.
Modified Radio interface – clearly see what's live on Beats 1, hear favourite shows on demand or choose a curated station for any genre of music.
Modified Now Playing interface – swipe up to view available lyrics and quickly see or edit songs that are coming up next.
Apple News
All-new design in For You adds bold typography, vibrant colour and distinct sections to find stories on specific topics.
Important stories of the day within Top Stories – updated by editors throughout the day.
Find most popular stories right now within Trending Stories – selected based on what others are reading.
User can see all stories grouped into sections based on the topics they follow or read.
Featured Stories – selected by editors.
Share stories – tap the icon on any story to send it to a friend from For You.
Receive breaking news notifications from users trusted sources.
Subscribe to favourite magazines and newspapers directly in News.
New personalised Today View widget lets user keep up with the latest stories throughout the day.
Experience
Raise to Wake automatically wakes the screen as iPhone is raised.P6SP6SPPSEP7P7P
Rich notifications that support real-time information, audio, photos and videos.
Today view is redesigned and supports all-new widgets for apps like Weather, Up Next, Maps, Stocks and more.
Control Center is redesigned including dedicated cards for music playback and Home.
Expanded use of 3D Touch.
Lock screen notifications to support an expanded view and access to quick actions.
New quick actions for built-in apps like Weather, Stocks, Reminders, Health, Home, FaceTime, iCloud Drive and Settings.
Home screen widgets.
Control Center for access to quick actions for Torch, Timer, Calculator and Camera.
Clear all in Notification Center.
QuickType
New emoji, including gender-diverse options to existing characters, single-parent family variations, rainbow flag and redesigns of popular emoji.
Contextual predictions for current location, recent addresses, contact information and calendar availability using deep neural network technology.
Emoji predictions.
Calendar events are intelligently populated using deep learning technology with information from conversations in Mail and Messages.
Multilingual typing now lets user type in two languages at once without having to switch keyboards.
Rest & Type on iPad intelligently adapts to users unique typing patterns.
Predictive typing now uses deep neural network technology for greater prediction accuracy.
Phone
Voicemail transcription (beta).
Spam call alerts with spam call identification apps.
Support for third-party VoIP apps receiving calls on the Lock screen, including support for Call Waiting, Mute and Do Not Disturb.
Contacts
Emergency bypass allows call and text notifications to sound aloud regardless of silent or Do Not Disturb mode.
View two pages at once using Split View in Safari on iPad.
Notes collaboration lets user invite people to work on notes together.
Markup support in Messages, Photos and PDFs stored in Notes.
Bedtime Alarm in the Clock app lets user set a regular sleep schedule and receive bedtime reminders.
Health adds support for health records and organ donation (US only).
Stabilisation support for Live Photos for improved camera capture.
Live Filters support when capturing Live Photos.
iCloud Drive now supports Desktop and Documents folders from macOS.
Live search results in Spotlight for Chinese and Japanese.
Siri support for Spanish (Chile), Chinese (Cantonese – China), English (Ireland), English (South Africa).
Ling Wai and Kaiti Black document fonts for Chinese.
Yu Kyokasho and Toppan Bunkyu fonts for Japanese.
New definition dictionaries in Traditional Chinese and Danish and bilingual dictionaries in Dutch and Italian.
New keyboard for Spanish (Latin America).
New display languages and locales for English (Ireland), English (New Zealand), English (Singapore), English (South Africa), Spanish (Argentina), Spanish (Chile), Spanish (Colombia), Spanish (Costa Rica), Spanish (Ecuador), Spanish (United States), Spanish (El Salvador), Spanish (Guatemala), Spanish (Honduras), Spanish (Nicaragua), Spanish (Panama), Spanish (Paraguay), Spanish (Peru), Spanish (Puerto Rico), Spanish (Dominican Republic), Spanish (Uruguay), Spanish (Venezuela), French (Belgium), Dutch (Belgium), Dutch (Netherlands), and Traditional Chinese (Macau).
Accessibility
Magnifier now uses the camera on iPhone or iPad like a digital magnifying glass for real-life objects.
New range of display colour filters to support different forms of colour blindness or other vision challenges.
VoiceOver adds a Pronunciation Editor to customise the way words are pronounced, additional voices and support for multiple audio sources.
Additional text highlighting options in Speak Screen and Speak Selection, as well as the ability to speak keyboard letters and predictive typing suggestions to support multi-modal learning.
Switch control now lets user control iOS, macOS and tvOS all from the same iPhone or iPad, so user doesn't need to configure switches for the secondary device.
Software textphone allows user to make and receive textphone calls without the need for traditional hardware teleprinter accessories.
Bug Fixes from 10.0 (iPhone 7/Plus changelog)
Fixes an issue that could prevent recognizing "Hey Siri" requests.
Fixes issues that could affect audio quality for calls made over VoLTE.
Fixes issues that could impact Bluetooth connectivity and pairing with Apple Watch.
Improves stability of the Camera and Contacts apps.
10.0.2
14A456
September 23, 2016; 4 years ago (2016-09-23)
Fixes an issue that could temporarily prevent headphone audio controls from working.
Fixes an issue that caused Photos to quit for some users when turning on iCloud Photo Library.
Fixes an issue that prevented enabling some app extensions.
Introduces Portrait Camera for iPhone 7 Plus that creates a depth effect that keeps your subject sharp while creating a beautifully blurred background (beta).
People names in the Photos app are saved in iCloud backups.
Improved the display of wide color gamut photos in the grid views of the Photos app.
Fixes an issue where opening the Camera app would show a blurred or flashing screen for some users.
Fixes an issue that caused Photos to quit for some users when turning on iCloud Photo Library.
Maps
Transit support for every major train, subway, ferry, and national bus line, as well as local bus systems for Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya.
Sign-based transit navigation including layouts of all underground structures and walkways that connect large transit stations.
Transit fare comparison when viewing alternative transit routes.
Messages
New option to replay bubble and full screen effects.
Messages effects can play with Reduce Motion enabled.
Fixes an issue that could lead to contact names appearing incorrectly in Messages.
Fixes an issue where Messages could open to a white screen.
Fixes an issue that could prevent the report junk option from displaying with unknown senders.
Fixes an issue where videos captured and sent in the Messages app could be missing audio.
Apple Watch
Adds distance and average pace to workout summaries in the Activity app for outdoor wheelchair run pace and outdoor wheelchair walk pace.
Fixes issues that may have prevented Music playlists from syncing to Apple Watch.
Fixes an issue that was preventing invitations and data from appearing in Activity Sharing.
Fixes an issue that was allowing Activity Sharing to update over cellular when manually disabled.
Fixes an issue that was causing some third-party apps to crash when inputting text.
Other improvements and fixes
Improves Bluetooth connectivity with third party accessories.
Improves AirPlay Mirroring performance when waking a device from sleep.
Fixes an issue where playback would not work for iTunes purchased content when the "Show iTunes Purchases" setting is turned off.
Fixes an issue where certain selfie apps and face filters used with the FaceTime HD camera on iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus did not display a live preview.
Fixes an issue in Health where individual strokes are converted to separate characters when using the Chinese handwriting keyboard.
Improves performance of sharing websites from Safari to Messages.
Fixes an issue in Safari that caused web previews in tab view to not display correctly.
Fixes an issue that caused certain Mail messages to be reformatted with very small text.
Fixes an issue that caused some HTML email to be formatted incorrectly.
Fixes an issue that in some cases caused the search field to disappear in Mail.
Fixes an issue that could prevent Today View Widgets from updating when launched.
Fixes an issue where Weather widget sometimes failed to load data.
Fixes an issue on iPhone 7 where Home Button click settings would not appear in search results.
Fixes an issue that prevented spam alert extensions from blocking calls.
Fixes an issue that could prevent alarm sounds from going off.
Fixes an issue where audio playback via Bluetooth would cause the Taptic engine to stop providing feedback for some users.
Fixes an issue preventing some users from restoring from iCloud Backup.
Use Up Next to see the movies and shows you're currently watching and pick up where you left off.
Get recommendations for new movies and TV shows in Watch Now.
Discover new apps and the latest iTunes releases in the Store.
Access the Library for your iTunes purchases and rentals.
New Widget for TV and Videos app.
Videos
Removed from iOS completely, as the TV app replaces it (US only, as of this update).
Emoji
Redesigned emoji that reveal even more detail.
Over 100 new emoji including new faces, food, animals, sports, and professions. Unicode 9.0 support.
Photos
Improves stabilization and delivers faster frame rate for Live Photos.
Improves accuracy of groupings of similar photos of the same person in the People album.
Fixes an issue where Memories might generate a memory from photos of screenshots, whiteboards or receipts.
Fixes an issue where the camera would stay zoomed in after switching back from the Camera Roll on iPhone 7 Plus.
Additional support for RAW digital cameras.
Messages
Adds new love and celebration full screen effects in Messages.
Fixes an issue that sometimes prevented the keyboard from displaying in Messages.
Music
Swipe up the Now Playing screen to more easily access Shuffle, Repeat and Up Next.
Choose how to sort Playlists, Albums, and Songs in Library.
'Show Star Ratings' option under Music Settings.
News
Stories you've saved for later now appear the new Saved section.
The best paid stories from channels you subscribe to will now appear in a dedicated section in For You.
It's now easier than ever to get to the next story, just swipe left or tap Next Story while reading.
Mail
Fixes an issue that caused the Move sheet to persist after filing a Mail message.
Fixes an issue with long press activating copy and paste in Mail.
Fixes an issue in which the wrong message would be selected after deleting a Mail conversation.
Settings
New wallpapers for iPhone 7 and 7 Plus – These include the ones Apple showed off at their iPhone 7 press event.
New 'Preserve Settings' menu under Camera Settings.
New 'Press and Hold to Speak' menu under Home Button Accessibility settings.
New TV app section
New TV Provider section for Single-Sign-On.
SOS
iPhone calls emergency services if power button is pressed five times (India only).
Siri
New introduction screen for Siri.
Accessibility
Adds BraillePen14 support to VoiceOver.
Fixes an issue where the braille table could switch unexpectedly with VoiceOver.
Fixes an issue where sometimes Siri enhanced voices were unavailable to VoiceOver.
Fixes an issue where VoiceOver users could not re-order items in lists.
Fixes an issue where Switch Control was sometimes unable to delete Voicemails.
Other improvements and fixes
Adds notification support for HomeKit accessories including window coverings, occupancy, motion, door/window, smoke, carbon monoxide, and water leak sensors.
Adds notification support for HomeKit accessories when software updates are available to HomeKit accessories.
Improves Bluetooth performance and connectivity with third party accessories.
Fixes an issue that could cause FaceTime participants to appear out of focus.
Fixes an issue that could cause FaceTime calls to appear with incorrect aspect ratio and orientation.
Fixes an issue that prevented some Visual Voicemail from completing playback.
Fixes a Safari Reader issue that could cause articles to open as empty pages.
Fixes an issue that could cause Safari to quit unexpectedly after marking an item as read in Reading List.
There's a new "Find My AirPods" tool in Find My iPhone to help users locate lost AirPods.
The Location and Play Sound is now supported for AirPods.
This sound emits a noise from the AirPods that reaches a high volume after a few seconds. Users should remove their AirPods from their ears before playing the sound.
Siri can now display cricket scores from the Indian Premier League and the International Cricket Council.
Siri updated to be able to pay bills, check on the status of payments, and schedule future rides via Uber and Lyft and other apps that support the function.
Siri now has breadcrumb support. For example, users can say "Hey Siri, open the App Store" and a back arrow (or left arrow) will appear in the left of the iOS status bar to jump back to the Siri interface.
Safari
Safari now supports the Reduced Motion accessibility preference for web apps.
Maps
The weather icon in the Maps app includes 3D Touch to show hourly forecasts.
Removed 3D globe, replaces it with a flat 2D look.
Calendar
Shows an alert below the "Event Details" page, for event invitations sent from an unknown senders, and allows users to report event invites sent from unknown senders as junk.
CarPlay
CarPlay includes new shortcuts for launching recently used apps.
There is now an option to 'show disliked' channels on the bottom of the "Favorites" page.
An option has been introduced to where users can now quickly favorite or dislike news channels from the "Explore" section or the news channel that is currently open.
Home
There is now support in Home which allows users to trigger scenes which use accessories that contain switches and buttons.
There is now support in Home which allows users to see the remaining charge of the batteries in their HomeKit accessories.
Mail
Conversation View in the Mail app features navigation improvements.
When an email is open in Mail app, the "back" button in the left corner of the screen shows the number of unread emails in the mailbox you opened the email in (Similar to the Messages app).
Animations
Slightly refined opening animation for apps to where rounded edges are now visible when opening applications (more noticeable on applications that load slowly).
Field Test
Now updated for iPhone 7 and 7 Plus devices which contain modems from Intel.
Podcasts
Support for 3D Touch and a Today widget has been added which allows users to access recently updated podcasts.
Podcast shows or episodes can now be shared in the Messages app and they feature full playback support.
Settings
Notifications
Users can now get notifications for settings other than software updates such as for two-factor authentication.
Restrictions
Users can now restrict certain TV providers.
iTunes and App Store
New system level way for developers to request app ratings, opt out option in Settings.
iCloud
The iCloud tab has moved to the top of Settings instead of being at the bottom, and also now displays the user's name and picture along with the email address(es) associated with their Apple ID(s).
Underneath this new tab is where settings notifications appear.
The amount of storage users have and how much storage users have used is now shown.
iCloud Drive cellular data usage settings have been moved to the cellular tab.
"Backup" has been renamed to 'iCloud Backup".
General
"Diagnostics and Usage" is now labeled "Analytics", corresponding changes included in menu.
There is a new button to toggle iCloud data over cellular networks.
Touch ID and Passcode
When choosing an alphanumeric code with numbers only, passcodes can no longer be shorter than 4 characters in length. An error displays saying that "this passcode must be longer".
Calling
Calls on Other Devices even when not nearby is now enabled for Verizon's Integrated Calling feature.
News
An option was added where users can disable the Next Up button from appearing while in a news article.
"Show Disliked" section under Favourites, this shows the channels that you have disliked.
Keyboards and IME
Facemarks have been shuffled around in the Chinese and Japanese keyboard layouts.
The icon of the emoji button on the keyboard is now filled in and no longer outlined like it was in previous versions of iOS.
Music
It is now possible to rearrange songs while repeat mode is turned on.
App Store
Developers can now respond to reviews on the App Store.
Developers will now be able to update the icons for their apps at any time, with an app update no longer required to push out new icon artwork for their apps.
App Store reviews now include the publish date of when the review was published.
When a user uses 3D Touch on an app review, they can rate the review as Helpful, Not Helpful, or Report a Concern with the review.
Users no longer have to enter their Apple ID password when writing a review.
Spotlight
Spotlight Search Suggestions now have a border, floating text no longer appears.
Other improvements, bug fixes, and enhancements
Users can now rent a movie once and they can watch their iTunes movies across their various devices.
Fixes the 30% battery bug that was present in previous versions of iOS 10 for IPhone 6 and iPhone 6S devices.
An alert is now displayed to indicate that 32-bit apps on 10.3 need to be updated and will no longer work in future versions of iOS. An "App Compatibility" list of 32-bit apps can be accessed by going to General > About > tapping on "Applications".
Improves performance across the system and the responsiveness of the operating system has been improved.
The file system has been updated to the Apple File System (APFS), which replaces HFS Plus, and is designed for Flash/SSD storage. APFS also features improved security and encryption, and improves system performance.
Fixes an issue related to the Messages app where the app would freeze and crash upon receiving a long text message.
Fixes an issue on the iPad Pro where the Apple Pencil's battery wouldn't charge above 5%.
Fixes an issue where the Telephoto lens on the iPhone 7 Plus would not activate while in the 2x zoom mode.
Fixes an issue in Notification Center where tapping the search bar in between the Today view and Notification Center would cause the Springboard to crash and reload.
The passcode menu UIs have been updated to show dots instead of dashes.
VoiceOver stability improvements for the Phone, Safari, and Mail apps
Fixes an issue that could prevent Maps from displaying a user's current location after resetting Location & Privacy settings.
Security
Fixes over 100 security vulnerabilities in various aspects of iOS such as Audio, the Core libraries, and WebKit.
Fixes a Wi-Fi-related vulnerability through improved input validation where an attacker within range may be able to execute arbitrary code on the Wi-Fi chipsets of iPhone 5 and later.
Includes bug fixes and improves the security of your iPhone or iPad.
One of the bugs that is fixed is in the Broadcom Wi-Fi chipset formally known as CVE-2017–9417 and is nicknamed "Broadpwn".[145] Broadpwn allows a worm to propagate among affected Broadcom Wi-Fi chipsets just by having the Wi-Fi chipset turned on even if it is not connected to any networks, and can be used to force a remote code execution on the main CPU of an affected smartphone.[146]
Fixes an issue that would prevent cellular devices from maintaining an accurate GPS position after November 3, 2019.[140]
For iPhone 5, fixes issue that would prevent device from using functions relying on correct date, including App Store, iCloud, email, web browsing, OTA update and iCloud backup.
iOS 11
Apple announced iOS 11 on June 5, 2017, at its annual Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) event, and it was released to the public on September 19, 2017, alongside the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus. With this release, Apple dropped support for the 32-bit iPhone 5, iPhone 5C, and iPad (4th generation), and also dropped support for 32-bit applications, making iOS a 64-bit-only OS that only runs 64-bit apps. iOS 11 has limited support on devices with the Apple A7 or A8 processors: the iPhone 5S, iPhone 6/6 Plus, iPod Touch (6th generation), iPad Air, iPad Air 2, iPad Mini 2, 3, and 4.[citation needed] However, all other devices from the iPhone 6S/6S Plus onwards, iPhone SE (1st generation), iPad Pro, and iPad (5th generation) onwards are fully supported. iOS 11.0.1 brought support for the iPhone X and iOS 11.3 brought support for the iPad (6th generation). The final version of iOS 11 to be released was iOS 11.4.1.
Redesigns the App Store to make the discovery of new apps and games easier.
Introduces the Today tab, a curated portal with stories, how-to guides, and more to help users discover new apps and games.
Dedicated Games and Apps tabs, allowing easier access and better curation of both app categories.
Redesigned app pages putting more of a focus on video previews, nicer display of Editors' Choice badges, easier access of user ratings and reviews, and more information about the In-App Purchases for an app.
Apple Music
Support for user profiles, allowing users to follow other users and see what they are listening to as well as see their playlists (if they have been made public).
Camera
Adds HDR, Optical Image Stabilization, and True Tone Flash to Portrait Mode.
Photos and Videos now use the HEIF / HEVC image and video formats by default, with the ability to use the JPEG / H.264 formats instead via an option in Camera Settings.
HEVC supports 8-bit and 10-bit with hardware decoding supported on devices containing an Apple A9 chip or newer while software-level decoding is supported on devices that have an Apple A8 chip and older.
Introduces a redesigned set of filters, optimized for natural skin tones. There are 9 filters in total.
Adds a QR code scanner allowing users to scan QR codes.
Photos
Several new Live Photo effects have been added: Loop, Bounce, and Long Exposure.
The ability to mute, trim, or choose a new Key Photo for a Live Photo has been added.
Memory Movies now automatically adapt the given content for Landscape and Portrait orientations.
More than a dozen new types of memories have been added including the following: Pets, Babies, Weddings, Sporting Events, and more.
The "People" album has been made more accurate and now stays synchronized across devices with iCloud Photo Library.
Support for animated GIFs has been added.
Maps
Indoor maps for places such as Airports and Shopping Centers has been introduced.
Lane guidance and speed limit information is now available for Turn-by-turn directions / navigation.
Support for one-handed zoom by double tapping and swiping has been added.
Flyover: View renderings of places and cities in 3D.
Do Not Disturb while Driving
Notifications are automatically silenced while driving and puts the iPhone in silent mode while keeping the display turned off to avoid distractions.
Users can turn on iMessage auto-reply to alert any chosen contacts when they send a message and the user is driving.
Control Center
Redesigns the Control Center to be a customizable one page layout, replacing the previous 3 page system previously in place.
Introduces several new Control Center widgets: Accessibility, Guided Access, Screen Recording, and Wallet.
iPad-specific Features
Dock
The Dock has been redesigned, allowing access to apps that have been pinned to the dock as well as access to Recently Used / Continuity apps via the right portion of the Dock.
The Dock can automatically resize itself, allowing the user to pin more than 4 apps.
The Dock can now be accessed when a user is in an app by swiping up from the bottom of the display.
Slide Over and Split View
Apps can now be placed into Slide Over / Split View by touching and holding an app from the Dock and then dragging.
Apps in Split View and apps running in the background can now run simultaneously.
Apps in Slide Over / Split View now have the ability to be placed on the left side of the display.
Drag and Drop
Users can now move text, images, and files between apps.
Users can take advantage of Multi-Touch capabilities to move multiple items at the same time.
Markup
Markup allows users to markup webpages, documents, PDFs, screenshots, photos, and more.
Users can optionally use an Apple-Pencil
Notes
Notes can now be created even with the screen off by tapping the Lock Screen with an Apple Pencil.
Drawing in a note can be instantly activated by placing an Apple Pencil in the note's body.
Users now have the ability to search for handwritten text within notes.
The document scanner has been enhanced with the ability to autocorrect for skewing and now removes shadows with the use of image filters.
Notes can now contain tables to organize information into rows and columns.
Notes can now be pinned to the top of a folder for easy access.
Files (also available on iPhone and iPod Touch)
Allows users to search, browse, and organize files.
Supports iCloud Drive as well as third-party file storage providers.
Includes a Recents view allowing users to see and access recently accessed files across apps and cloud services.
Supports the ability to create folders as well as sort files by various parameters such as name, date, size, and tags.
QuickType
The ability to flick down on letter keys to easily enter symbols, numbers, and punctuation marks without having to hold down on a letter key has been added.
A keyboard layout designed for one-handed use is now supported on iPhone.
Several new keyboard types have been added: Armenian, Azerbaijani, Belarusian, Georgian, Irish, Kannada, Malayalam, Maori, Odia, Swahili, and Welsh.
Support for English input is now available on the 10-key Pinyin and Japanese Romaji keyboard layouts.
HomeKit
Support for various new accessory types have been added including AirPlay 2 speakers, sprinklers, and faucets.
Occupancy, Time, and accessory-based triggers have been expanded.
The ability to pair an accessory by scanning a QR code has been added.
Accessibility
Support for image descriptions in VoiceOver.
Support for tables and lists in PDF files in VoiceOver.
Support for Type to Siri, allowing users to manually type Siri queries.
Spoken and braille captions are now supported for videos.
Dynamic Type has been enhanced, adding support for more text styles and reworked to work better across the iOS system.
Invert Colors has been redesigned, making media such as photos and videos easier to see.
Improvements have been made to Highlight Colors in Speak Selection and Speak Screen.
Typing in Switch Control can now scan and type whole words at a time.
Features and APIs targeted at Developers
ARKit — Allows app developers to create augmented reality experiences.
Core ML — Allows app developers to implement machine learning in their apps using the same APIs that power technologies and apps like Siri, the QuickType keyboard, and the Camera app.
Core NFC — Allows app developers to tap into the NFC chips of iPhones and scan nearby environments and possibly provide users with more information.
MusicKit — Allows app developers to implement support for various Apple Music features into their apps such as playback, search, playback queues, recommendations and more.
Architectural Changes
Support for 32-bit ARM architectures has been removed. Apps designed for 32-bit architectures will no longer work until updated by the respective app developer to support 64-bit architectures.
Other Changes and Features
Redesigns the Apple Podcasts app and introduces several new capabilities, such as the ability to display seasons, trailers and bonus episodes of a podcast. Also introduces a Listen Now tab granting easy access to new Podcast episodes and episodes currently in the playback queue.
Support for annotating PDF files in iBooks.
Support for several new features in the Apple News app including Top Stories For You, Siri recommendations, Videos of the Day, and editor curated stories via a new tab called Spotlight.
Automatic Setup
Automatically signs a user into essential Apple services, including iCloud, Keychain, iTunes, the App Store, iMessage, and FaceTime with the given Apple ID.
Restores device settings including Language, Region, Network Settings, Keyboard Preferences, Frequently Visited Places, Siri preferences, as well as Home and Health data.
Introduces the ability for a user to easily share access to a given Wi-Fi network.
A new section in Settings dedicated to storage management. Storage optimization notifications are also now available.
Introduces Emergency SOS, allowing users to quickly call emergency services based on their current location while automatically notifying emergency contacts, sharing the user's location, and displaying the Medical ID profile of the user.
Users can check flight status via Spotlight Search and Safari.
Definitions, conversions, and math calculations are now supported by Safari.
Bilingual dictionaries have been added for Russian – English and Portuguese – English.
Arabic fonts are now supported by the system.
Removed Functionality
The iCloud Drive app has been removed in favor of the redesigned and more capable Files app.
The native iOS system integrations for Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and Vimeo have been removed.
Users can setup and automatically transfer their Apple ID, Apple Music, Siri and Wi-Fi settings to their HomePod.
Siri News (US, UK and AU regions only)
Siri now has the ability to read the news. Users can say "Hey Siri, play the news" to begin news playback. Users can also ask for news from specific categories including: Sports, Business, Music, and more.
Bug Fixes and Improvements
Fixes an issue where the Phone app had the chance of displaying incorrect information in the call list.
Fixes an issue where notifications sent to the Mail app from Exchange accounts had the chance of disappearing from the Lock Screen when using Face ID to unlock the iPhone X.
Fixes an issue where conversations in Messages could end up being temporarily listed out of order.
Fixes an issue in CarPlay where the Now Playing controls had the chance of becoming unresponsive after multiple track changes have been made.
Adds ability for VoiceOver to announce playback destinations and the battery level of AirPods.
Introduces ARKit 1.5, granting developers the ability to place virtual objects on vertical surfaces such as walls or doors in addition to horizontal surfaces.
Adds the ability to detect and implement images such as movie posters or artwork into Augmented Reality experiences.
A higher resolution real world camera view is now supported when in an AR experience.
iPhone Battery Health (Beta)
Displays information about an iPhone's battery, such as its current maximum capacity and if the battery is still supporting peak performance capabilities.
Indicates if the iPhone Performance Management feature is turned on, while including the option to disable the feature if desired.
This feature dynamically monitors performance to try and prevent automatic and unexpected shutdowns by reducing performance if necessary.
Gives a recommendation if the battery inside of the given iPhone should be replaced.
iPad Charge Management
Maintains the health of the battery when it has been connected to power for extended periods of time, such as when the device is being stored in kiosks, Point of sale (POS) systems, or charging carts.
Animoji
Introduces four new Animoji characters: Lion, Bear, Dragon, and a Skull.
Privacy
A link to more information explaining how a user's data is used / protected appears when an Apple-provided feature asks to use their personal information.
Business Chat (Beta) – US only
Communicate with companies / businesses directly from the Messages app on iPHone / iPad.
Health Records (Beta) – US only
Access health records using the Health app.
Apple Music
The music video experience has been revamped and redesigned, with an updated music videos section featuring playlists containing exclusive videos.
Genre suggestions have been revamped, allowing users to more easily find new friends who share similar tastes in music as well as displaying mutual friends.
Apple News
Top Stories has been moved to the top of the For You tab.
New Top Videos, curated by Apple News editors.
App Store
Adds the ability to sort customer reviews on app pages by the following filters: Most Helpful, Most Favorable, Most Critical, and Most Recent.
Improves the Updates tab information for an update by now showing the update's version number as well as the update's file size.
Safari
Usernames and passwords are now only automatically AutoFilled after selecting the respective field in web forms.
Warnings are now shown when accessing unencrypted webpages.
Autofill in web views are now supported by apps for username and password information.
When articles are shared to Mail from Safari, they are now formatted with Reader Mode by default if Reader Mode is available for the given article.
Icons added for bookmarks within favorites folders.
Keyboards
Introduces two new Shuangpin keyboard layouts.
Connected hardware keyboards are now supported when using the Turkish F keyboard layout.
Improves the Japanese and Chinese keyboards on 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch devices.
Users can now switch back to the keyboard from dictation mode with one tap.
Accessibility
The App Store now supports bold and large text when customizing display appearance.
Images on webpages and Mail Messages are now supported by Smart Invert.
Improvements have been made to the RTT experience and is now supported by T-Mobile.
App Switching on iPad for VoiceOver and Switch Control users has been improved.
Bug Fixes and Improvements
Keyboards
Fixes an issue where auto-correct had the chance of incorrectly capitalizing some words.
Fixes an issue where on iPad Pro the iPad Smart Keyboard wouldn't work when connected to a Wi-Fi network using Captive Login.
Fixes an issue where the Thai keyboard when in landscape view.
Accessibility
Fixes an issue with VoiceOver giving incorrect descriptions and failing to present an End Call button or an in-app app rating.
Fixes an issue where audio playback could be distorted when using Live Listen.
Other Fixes and Improvements
Support for the AML standard has been introduced granting the ability for more accurate location data to be provided to emergency responders when the Emergency SOS feature has been triggered.
Software authentication support has been added to HomeKit, allowing developers to create new accessories supporting the platform without relying on hardware authentication.
Episodes in the Podcasts app can now be played with a single tap, and users can tap the Details button to learn more about a given podcast episode.
Improves the performance of Search for users with long notes in the Contacts app.
Improves the performance of Handoff and Universal Clipboard when both devices are located on the same Wi-Fi network.
Fixes an issue where incoming calls could prevent a device's display from waking up from sleep.
Fixes an issue where playback of voicemails in the Visual Voicemail tab in the Phone app could be prevented or delayed.
Fixes an issue where web links could be prevented from opening in the Messages app.
Fixes an issue where users could be prevented from returning to the Mail app after opening a message attachment.
Fixes an issue where Mail notifications could reappear on the Lock Screen after they have already been cleared.
Fixes an issue where time and notifications could disappear from the Lock Screen.
Fixes an issue that could prevent Ask to Buy requests from being able to be authorized with Face ID.
Fixes an issue in the Weather app where the current weather conditions may not have been updated.
Fixes an issue with syncing with a vehicle's phonebook when connected over Bluetooth.
Fixes an issue where audio apps could be prevented from playing in vehicles if the app was running in the background.
Fixes an issue where on some iPhone 8 devices touch input could be unresponsive due to the displays being serviced with non-genuine replacement displays.
AirPlay 2 allows the user to control their home audio system.
Allows users to broadcast music via multiple AirPlay 2-enabled speakers.
Users can control AirPlay 2-enabled speakers via Control Center, the Lock Screen, or via AirPlay controls within apps on their iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.
Voice control of AirPlay 2-enabled speakers using Siri from their iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, HomePod, or Apple TV.
Users can take calls or play games on their iPhone or iPad without having to interrupt playback on their AirPlay 2-enabled speakers.
HomePod Stereo Pairing
When pairing, the HomePod balances the sound based on the location of the speakers.
HomePod provides Advanced Beamforming, a technology that provides a wider sound stage than a traditional stereo pair.
HomePod automatically updates, unless updates are disables in the Home app.
Messages in iCloud
Stores a user's content in iCloud and free ups space on their device(s).
All of the user's messages appear when they sign into a different device.
Deleted content is removed from all of the user's devices.
Messages in iCloud can be enabled by going to Settings > Apple ID > iCloud and turning on Messages under the "Apps Using iCloud" section.
Bug Fixes and Improvements
Adds the ability for teachers to assign reading activities to their students in iBooks with the Schoolwork app.
Fixes an issue where the Messages app could crash when certain character sequences are encountered.
Fixes an issue where some messages could appear out of order in the Messages app.
Fixes an issue with logging in or accessing files in Safari on certain sites such as Gmail and Google Drive.
Fixes an issue that could prevent Health data from syncing.
Fixes an issue that could prevent users from being able to change what apps have the ability to access Health data.
Fixes an issue where audio playback had the chance of being distorted in CarPlay.
Fixes an issue with the Bluetooth connection on some vehicles.
iBooks has been renamed to Apple Books. A continuation of Apple's phasing out of the "i" prefix for its services. Rebranding also includes a redesign, featuring a new introduction, a Reading Now screen that's like Apple Music and the App Store in being more editorialized, and new cards for individual books.
Apple Books settings preferences have been updated. More options and a change of layout when looking at Books under the Settings app.
Compass
Leveler has been removed and the function moved to the Measure app as one of its features, still working the same way as previous versions.
Measure
The new app built using ARKit 2.0, which allows users to measure the dimensions of real-world objects viewed through the iOS device's camera.
Measure app only works with A9 devices and later.
News
Redesigned to have three tabs at the bottom of the iPhone version including Spotlight section. A new tab was added, named Channels, which provides a browsable list of followed topics and outlets.
Stocks
Redesigned for easier-to-view stocks on a new welcome screen, as well as interactive charts. One of a number of first-party iOS apps that have also been ported to macOS Mojave, using new tools still under development.
Apple News integration, this allows you to see news in a panel at the bottom of the app. Expanding the news panel shows stocks in a ticker at the top of the app.
Now available on iPad.
Voice Memos
Redesigned immediately shows a clear list of existing recordings when opening the app, with new recordings produced in a compact pop-up panel at the bottom of the app, complete with repositioned waveform graphic.
Now available on iPad.
Weather
Air quality settings preferences to tracks air quality. Scrolling to the bottom of the day's weather shows a general "Air Quality" category ("Good" etc.) for the location.
Weather app now tracks the air quality index. As with the general air quality feature, the "Air Quality Index" figure for the detected location is provided at the bottom of the day's weather report.
Phone
Field test mode now supports landscape view.
Settings
Redesigned app notifications
New wallpaper; removed older wallpapers
Screen Time added
Automatic updates toggle added in Software Update tab
Bedtime Feature in Do Not Disturb
Stocks section added
New Measure section
New app limits page
New Battery Statistics Chart
More battery information: Battery Health out of Beta for more accurate battery capacity readings
Improved Safari privacy
12.0.1
16A404/16A405
October 8, 2018; 2 years ago (2018-10-08)
Fixes Lightning charging issue with iPhone XS
Fixes iPhone XS rejoining Wi-Fi networks at 2.4 GHz rather than 5 GHz
Puts the ".?123" key back to its original position on the iPad keyboard
November 7, 2018; 2 years ago (2018-11-07) on iPad Pro (3rd generation (12.9-inch)) and iPad Pro (11-inch)
Initial release on iPad Pro (3rd generation, 12.9-inch) and iPad Pro (11-inch)
Group FaceTime
Adds support for video and audio calls with up to 32 participants simultaneously
Encrypted end-to-end so your conversations remain private
Start Group FaceTime directly from a group Messages conversation or join an active call at any time
Emoji
Over 70 new emoji, including new characters with red hair, grey hair and curly hair, new emoji for bald people, more emotive smiley faces and additional emoji representing animals, sport and food
Dual SIM support
Introduces Dual SIM with eSIM, which allows two numbers in one device for iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR
Other improvements and fixes
Introduces Depth Control in Camera preview for iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR
Improves mobile connectivity for iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR
Adds the ability to change or reset your child's Screen Time passcode using Face ID or Touch ID
Fixes an issue where the sharpest reference frame was not always selected in front-facing photos for iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR
Fixes an issue that caused messages to be merged into one thread when two users were signed in with the same Apple ID on multiple iPhones
Fixes an issue that prevented some voicemails from appearing in the Phone app
Fixes an issue in the Phone app that could cause phone numbers to appear without their corresponding contact name
Fixes an issue that could prevent Screen Time from reporting specific websites in the activity report
Fixes an issue that could prevent adding or removing family members from Family Sharing
Improves reliability of VoiceOver in Camera, Siri and Safari
Fixes an issue that could cause MDM Device Enrolment to report an Invalid Profile error for some enterprise users
Fixes an issue that could prevent making or receiving VoLTE calls
Fixes issues in Messages that could cause messages from unknown senders to appear in your conversation list even though Filter Unknown Senders is enabled
Fixes an issue that could prevent the Report Junk link from appearing in Messages threads from unknown senders
12.3.2
16F250
June 10, 2019; 20 months ago (2019-06-10)
iPhone 8 Plus only
Fixes an issue with taking pictures in portrait mode
Support for wirelessly transferring data between iPhone during initial setup
Important security fix for Apple Watch Walkie-Talkie app concerning eavesdropping[148][149]
HomePod support in Japan and Taiwan
Other bug fixes and improvements
12.4.1
16G102
August 26, 2019; 18 months ago (2019-08-26)
Security update: patches a vulnerability that was accidentally unpatched in the previous update, allowing jailbreaks and hacking attempts to take place.[150]
Security update: patches a vulnerability that permitted an attacker to access a user's phone and terminate running applications and potentially execute an arbitrary code execution attack.[151]
12.4.3
16G130
October 28, 2019; 16 months ago (2019-10-28)
Security update: Corrected an issue where AirDrop file transfers could be unexpectedly accepted while the user has permitted AirDrop file transfer requests from everyone.[152]
12.4.4
16G140
December 10, 2019; 14 months ago (2019-12-10)
Security update: patches a vulnerability that permitted an attacker to access a user's phone and execute arbitrary code with a malicious FaceTime video.[153]
Fixes an issue where Exposure Notifications could incorrectly display logging profile language.
iOS 13 / iPadOS 13
Apple announced iOS 13 on June 3, 2019, at its annual Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) event, and it was released to the public on September 19, 2019 alongside the iPhone 11 series (11, 11 Pro, 11 Pro Max). The principal features include dark mode and Memoji support for A9+ devices. The NFC framework now supports reading several types of contactless smartcards and tags.[160] The iPad gains several tablet-oriented features, and its operating system has been rebranded as iPadOS; iPadOS 13 was announced at the 2019 WWDC as well. With this release, Apple dropped support for all devices with less than 2 GB of RAM, which included the iPhone 5S and iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, iPod Touch (6th generation), iPad Mini 2, iPad Mini 3, and iPad Air. iOS 13/iPadOS 13 has limited support on devices with the A8/A8X.[161] However, all other devices from the iPhone 6s/6s Plus onwards, iPod Touch (7th generation), iPad Pro (1st generation), iPad (5th generation), and iPad Mini (5th generation) onwards are fully supported (A9 and A10 devices having almost full support, A11 and on having full support). iOS 13 brought support for the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro / Pro Max, second-generation iPhone SE, and iPadOS 13 brought support for the iPad (7th generation), the iPad Pro (12.9-inch, 4th generation) and the iPad Pro (11-inch, 2nd generation).
Initial release on iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro / iPhone 11 Pro Max
The OS on the iPad 2017, 2018, Air 2, Air 3, Mini 4, Mini 5, and Pro line has been renamed to iPadOS. It is similar to iOS 13, but has some features exclusively for iPad.[162]
When enabled, the UI, native apps, and supported third-party apps undergo a basic light-on-dark color scheme, and the iOS 13 wallpapers have a darker color scheme. The user can also set a schedule for what time Dark Mode comes on, and what time Light Mode comes back on.
Siri's voice is now done by software called "Neural TTS" instead of human voice clips, making Siri sound much more natural.
Siri can now play audio, including music, podcasts, audio books, and radio, with third-party apps.
There is now an option for an Indian-English voice.
Siri now offers personalized suggestions in Apple Podcasts, Safari, and Maps. Siri can also now detect reminders in messages and events in third-party apps.
Siri can now tune into radio shows on command.
Keyboard
The QuickType keyboard now includes QuickPath, which allows the user to type in a word by sliding a finger between the letters without moving it up. QuickPath supports English, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, German, French, Italian, and Portuguese.
Swiping or tapping to type works interchangeably, even mid-sentence.
Alternate word options now appear in the predictive bar.
Dictation will automatically detect what language a user is speaking. This language will be chosen from up to four keyboard languages enabled on the device.
Camera
After taking a picture in Portrait Mode, the user can adjust the position and intensity of each Portrait lighting effect.
A new Portrait Lighting effect, called High-Key Mono, "creates a beautiful, classic look with a monochromatic subject on a white background."
Portrait Segmentation API now has skin, hair, and teeth segmentation.
All-new Camera app on the iPhone 11 series
App Store
Apple Arcade: A new subscription service with over 100 new games, with no ads or additional purchases.
The Updates tab found in iOS 12 and earlier has been removed and merged into the Account bottom sheet.
The App Store now has support for Arabic and Hebrew in stories, collections and lists, product pages, and searches.
Apps with large sizes (especially games) can now be downloaded over a cellular connection, but the user will be warned if the file size exceeds a certain threshold.
Maps
The map itself has been redone from the ground up. According to Apple, it features "significantly improved and more realistic details" for areas like roads, beaches, parks, buildings, and more.
The user can now explore the area they are going to before they arrive with a 3D, 360-degree experience.
Collections of favorite locations can be built and shared with others.
The user can now make a list of places they visit often to access them quickly.
A feature called Junction View helps drivers in China eliminate wrong turns and directional misses by lining them up in the correct lane before they need to turn or enter an elevated road.
The process of submitting customer feedback has been redesigned to be faster.
Siri's navigation uses more natural language. For example, instead of saying "in x feet turn left," it says "turn left at the next traffic light". Navigation is also more accurate.
The user can now see departure times live, the location of their bus or train on its route, and a more detailed schedule of transit stops.
Flight details now include info about a terminal, gate locations, departure times, and more.
Place cards have more improved info, such as Today @ Apple sessions at Apple Store locations, and movie theater time listings.
MapKit now has vector overlays, point-of-interest filtering, camera zoom and pan limits, and Dark Mode support.
CarPlay now has easier route planning, search, and navigation. It also includes Junction View (China only), Favorites, and Collections.
Introduces support for lyrics synchronized to the song a user is currently listening to. Not all songs support this feature.
Redesigns the Now Playing bottom sheet, moving the Up Next queue to a dedicated action, while moving the Shuffle and Repeat actions to the Up Next view.
Adds over 100,000 live radio stations to the service.
Performance
Apps can now launch up to twice as fast as on iOS 12.
Unlocking the iPhone X, XS, XS Max, and XR using Face ID is up to 30% faster compared to iOS 12.
Apps from the App Store are packaged in a new way, making them as small as half the size compared to iOS 12, which makes them download faster and take up less storage.
App updates are on average 60% smaller compared to iOS 12, allowing for faster downloads.
Other Changes
Introduces support for pinch to zoom in the Voice Memos app when editing voice recordings.
Communication Limits: In the Screen Time app, time limits can now be set for phone calls, messages, and FaceTime calls. Individual limits can be set for each contact.
Apple News
There is a new layout for Apple News+ stories from some "leading newspapers" such as the Wall Street Journal.
There is now a quick option to like or dislike a story from the main page.
Stocks
Stories from Apple News have been made available in Canada in English and French.
There is a new "continue reading" option with links to more stories that are related or from the same publisher.
New "Breaking" and "Developing" labels for Top Stories
Patches CVE-2020-9859, a memory consumption vulnerability that can be used by an application to perform arbitrary code execution with kernel privileges.[166] This vulnerability was used by the unc0ver jailbreak.
Allows users to unlock, lock, and start compatible cars with an iPhone.
Uses NFC to communicate with compatible vehicles.
Can be found in the Wallet app.
Features
iCloud integration: Allows the removal of digital keys from devices that have been lost.
iMessage: Share digital keys with contacts using iMessage, potentially with restrictions.
Power Reserve: Allows users to unlock / start their car up to five hours after their iPhone has run out of battery.
Health
New 'Symptoms' section in the Health app.
News
Apple News+ Audio: Allows the user to listen to news stories as opposed to reading them, if subscribed to Apple News+.
Bug Fixes & Other Improvements
Settings Improvements
Automatic Updates
Renamed to "Customize Automatic Updates" from "Automatic Updates".
The "Automatic Updates" toggle was renamed to "Download iOS Updates".
If this toggle is enabled, an additional toggle labelled "Install iOS Updates" becomes visible, allowing users to automatically install new updates.
COVID-19 Exposure Logging
Enabled in more regions and states.
If not available in a given user's region, a notice letting the user know that the feature is "not currently available in their region" as well as a description of what the feature does is now visible.
Bug Fixes
An issue has been fixed that could cause apps to become unresponsive while syncing from iCloud Drive.
Fixes an issue that could cause calls originating from Saskatchewan to appear as originating from the United States.
Allows to opt-in to COVID-19 exposure notifications without the need to download an app
Depends on local health authority
An app is still required to report positivity to COVID-19
iOS 14 / iPadOS 14
Apple announced iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 on June 22, 2020 at its annual WWDC 2020 event, with a developer beta released on the same day and a public beta released on July 9, 2020.[168] iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 were released on September 16, 2020. All devices that supported iOS 13 also support iOS 14. This makes the iPad Air 2 the first device to support seven versions of iOS and iPadOS, from iOS 8 to iPadOS 14. Some new features introduced in iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 include redesigned widgets that can now be placed directly on the homescreen, along with the App Library, which automatically categorizes apps into one page, Picture in Picture in iPhone and iPod touch, and the CarKey technology to unlock and start a car with NFC. iOS and iPadOS 14 also allow the user to have incoming calls shown in banners rather than taking up the whole screen (the latter view is still available as an optional function).[169]
Initial release on iPad (8th generation) and iPad Air (4th generation)
All-new widgets
Redesigned widgets can be placed right on the Home Screen
Small, medium and large widget sizes allow you to pick the amount of information to display
Widget stacks make the most of your Home Screen space and the Smart Stack uses on-device intelligence to surface the right widget at the right time
Widget gallery includes all available widgets to browse and choose from
Redesigned Apple widgets for Weather, Clock, Calendar, News, Maps, Fitness, Photos, Reminders, Stocks, Music, TV, Tips, Notes, Shortcuts, Battery, Screen Time, Files, Podcasts, and Siri Suggestions
App Library
The App Library automatically organizes all of your apps into categories
The Suggestions category uses on-device intelligence to show apps you're likely to be looking for based on factors like time of day or location
The Recently Added category shows apps that were recently downloaded from the App Store, as well as App Clips that were recently launched
Ability to hide Home Screen pages to get to the App Library even faster by tapping on the dots at the bottom of the screen while in jiggle mode
Compact design
Incoming Phone and FaceTime calls appear as a banner at the top of the screen
Siri has a compact design that allows you to refer to information onscreen and seamlessly launch into your next task
Picture in Picture enables watching a video or taking a FaceTime call while you use another app
Messages
Pinned conversations keep up to nine of your favorite message threads at the top of the list
Mentions let you direct a message to an individual in a group conversation
Inline replies let you reply to a specific message and see all related messages in their own view
Group photos can be customized for a shared group look
Memoji
11 new hairstyles and 19 new headwear styles to customize your Memoji
New Memoji stickers to send a fist bump, hug or blush
Six added age options
Face covering options
Maps
Cycling directions provide routes along bike lanes, bike paths, and bike-friendly roads, taking into consideration elevation or how busy a street is
Guides offer recommendations for places to eat, meet friends, or explore, curated by a selection of trusted brands
Electric vehicle routing helps you plan trips with supported electric vehicles and automatically adds charging stops along your route
Congestion zones help you route around or through active zones in cities like London or Paris
Speed cameras let you know when you're approaching speed and red-light cameras along your route
Refine Location enables a highly accurate location and orientation when in urban areas with a poor GPS signal
App Clips
An App Clip is a small part of an app that developers can create and that is discoverable at the moment you need it, and focused on a specific task
Small by design, App Clips are usable in a few seconds
Discover App Clips through tapping NFC tags or scanning QR codes, from Messages, Maps, and Safari
Recently used App Clips show up in App Library's Recently Added category, and you can download the full version of the app if you want to keep it around
Translate
The new Translate app is designed for conversations and can work completely offline so your conversations stay private
A split-screen design in conversation mode has a single microphone button that automatically detects which of the selected languages is being spoken and transcribes the original and translated text on the correct sides of the screen
Attention mode shows translations in larger text so you can capture someone's attention
Voice and text translations are supported for any combination of 11 languages
Siri
A new compact design allows you to refer to information onscreen and seamlessly launch into your next task
Expanded knowledge brings 20x more facts than three years ago
Web answers help find answers to a broader set of questions using information from across the internet
Audio messages can be sent with Siri on iOS and CarPlay
Expanded language support for the new Siri voice and Siri translation
Search
One place where you can find everything: search for apps, contacts, files, quick information like weather and stocks, common knowledge questions about people or places, or even quickly start a web search
Top Hit results show the most relevant information including apps, contacts, knowledge, points of interest and websites
Quick Launcher allows you to launch an app or website by typing a few characters
As-you-type search suggestions show more relevant results as soon as you start typing
Web search suggestions to launch Safari and get the most relevant web results
Start a search in apps like Mail, Messages and Files
Home
Suggested automations help you set up automations with just a tap
A visual status at the top of the Home app gives you a summary of accessories that require your attention
Dynamic suggestions of the most relevant accessories and scenes appear in Home controls in Control Center
Adaptive Lighting automatically adjusts the color of your smart light bulbs throughout the day to maximize comfort and productivity
Face Recognition for video cameras and doorbells uses on-device intelligence to let you know who is there based on the people you’ve tagged in your Photos app and recent visitors you identify in the Home app
Activity Zones for video cameras and doorbells captures video or sends you a notification only when motion is detected in areas you define
Safari
Improved performance with an even faster JavaScript engine
A Privacy Report shows cross-site trackers that are being blocked by Intelligent Tracking Prevention
Password monitoring securely screens your saved passwords for any that may have been involved in a data breach
Web page translation (beta) translates entire web pages in English, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, French, German, Russian or Brazilian Portuguese
Weather
Next-hour precipitation chart shows a minute-by-minute forecast of the intensity of rain or snow over the coming hour for the U.S.
Severe weather information displays government-issued alerts about certain severe weather events including tornados, winter storms, flash floods and more, for the U.S., Europe, Japan, Canada, and Australia
AirPods
Spatial audio with dynamic head tracking on AirPods Pro places sounds anywhere in space, creating an immersive surround sound experience
Automatic device switching transfers audio from your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac
Battery notifications let you know if you need to charge your AirPods
Privacy
A recording indicator is displayed whenever an app has access to the microphone or camera
Approximate location can now be shared with an app, rather than sharing your precise location
Limited Photos library access gives you the option to share only selected photos with an app whenever an app asks for access
App and web developers can now offer the option for you to upgrade your existing accounts to Sign in with Apple
Accessibility
Back Tap is a quick way to trigger accessibility features by tapping on the back of your iPhone
Headphone accommodations amplify soft sounds and adjust certain frequencies, customized for an individual's hearing
Sign language prominence in FaceTime detects when a participant is using sign language and makes the person prominent in a Group FaceTime call
Sound Recognition uses on-device intelligence to detect and identify important sounds such as alarms, and alerts you to them using notifications
VoiceOver Recognition uses on-device intelligence to recognize elements on your screen to improve VoiceOver support for app and web experiences
Image descriptions read complete-sentence descriptions of images and photos within apps and on the web
Text recognition speaks the text identified within images and photos
Screen Recognition automatically detects interface controls to aid in navigating apps
App Store
Important details about each app are displayed in a glanceable, scrollable view, including a way to see the games your friends are playing
Apple Arcade
Coming Soon gives you a sneak peek at upcoming Apple Arcade games and you can automatically download them as soon as they're released
See All Games is improved with sorting and filtering by release date, updates, category, controller support and more
Achievements are browsable right from within the Apple Arcade tab
Continue Playing makes it easy to resume recently played games across devices
Game Center dashboard showcases your profile, friends, achievements, leaderboards and more, all from within your game
Apple Cash Family
Apple Cash can be enabled for up to five family members under 18
Send money to your child through Messages or by asking Siri
Notifications for purchases or person to person payments as they occur
Parental controls to limit who your children can send money to
Option to turn off Apple Cash for family members under 18
Shared oversight with another adult in your Family Sharing group
Augmented Reality
Location Anchors in ARKit 4 enables apps to place AR experiences at a specific geographic coordinate
Extended face tracking support is extended to the new iPhone SE
Video textures in RealityKit enable apps to apply video to any part of a scene or virtual object
Camera
Improved shot-to-shot performance speeds up the time to first shot and makes shooting photos even faster
QuickTake video can now also be captured on iPhone XS and iPhone XR when in Photo mode
Quick toggles in Video mode to change video resolution and frame rate from the Camera app
Updated Night mode capture experience on iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro provides guidance to help you stay steady throughout the capture, as well as an option to cancel the shot mid-capture
Exposure compensation control lets you lock an exposure value for an entire camera session
Mirror front camera lets you capture selfies that match the front camera preview
Improved QR code reading to scan codes, even if they are small or wrapped around objects
CarPlay
New categories of supported apps for parking, EV charging, and quick food-ordering
Wallpaper options
Share ETA and send audio messages with Siri
Horizontal status bar support for cars with portrait screens
Chinese and Japanese keyboard support gives users an additional option to search for points of interest
FaceTime
Improved video quality with up to 1080p resolution on iPhone X and later
New eye contact feature uses machine learning to subtly adjust the position of your eyes and face to make video calling more natural even when you're looking at the screen instead of the camera
Files
APFS encryption support for external drives
Health
Wind Down helps you create a pre-bedtime routine with apps and shortcuts, like listening to a relaxing playlist
Custom sleep schedules help you meet your sleep goals with bedtime reminders and wakeup alarms
Sleep mode minimizes distractions during Wind Down and Bedtime by turning on Do Not Disturb and simplifying your Lock screen
Health Checklist helps you track and manage health and safety features in one place
New Mobility category in the Health app, including metrics like walking speed, double support time, step length, and walking asymmetry
Keyboard and International
On-device dictation helps protect your privacy by performing all processing completely offline. Dictation in search uses server-based dictation in order to recognize terms you may be searching for from across the Internet.
Search within the Emoji keyboard using a word or phrase
Keyboard displays AutoFill suggestions from Contacts for email addresses, phone numbers, and more in apps
New dictionaries for French-German, Indonesian-English, Japanese-Simplified Chinese, and Polish‑English
Wubi input method for Simplified Chinese
Autocorrection support for Irish Gaelic and Norwegian Nynorsk
Redesigned Japanese Kana keyboard with easier input for numbers
Mail supports email addresses using non‑Latin languages
Music
A new Listen Now tab for playing and discovering your favorite music, artists, playlists and mixes
Autoplay keeps music playing when you reach the end of a song or playlist by finding similar songs to play
Search now showcases music for your favorite genres and activities, and shows helpful suggestions as you type
Library filtering helps you find artists, albums, playlists and other items in your library even faster
Notes
Enhanced actions menu provides easy access to locking, scanning, pinning and deleting
Top Hits in search surfaces your most relevant search results
Pinned Notes list can be collapsed or expanded
Shape recognition enables drawing perfect lines, arcs and other shapes
Enhanced scanning captures sharper scans and more precise auto-cropping
Photos
Filter and sort your collection to more easily locate and organize your photos and videos
Pinch and zoom to quickly find your photos and videos in more places, like Favorites and Shared Albums
Photos and videos caption support
Live Photos taken using iOS 14 or iPadOS 14 will autoplay with improved stabilization in Years, Months and Days View
Memories enhancements provide a more relevant selection of photos and videos and a larger music selection for Memory movies
Redesigned image picker in apps uses the same smart search from the Photos app to help you easily find content to share
Podcasts
Listen Now is smarter and includes your personal episode queue and new episodes picked for you
Reminders
Assign reminders to people you share lists with
New reminders can be created from the lists screen without having to enter a specific list
Smart suggestions let you add dates, times and locations with a tap
Personalized lists with emoji and newly added symbols
Rearrange or hide smart lists
Settings
Option to set your default email and web browser
Shortcuts
Starter Shortcuts let you get started with a built-in folder of shortcuts, tailored for you
Shortcuts automations are suggested based on your usage patterns
Folders let you organize your shortcuts and can be added as widgets to the Home Screen
New compact design for running shortcuts keeps you in context while you use another app
New Automation triggers can run shortcuts based on receiving an email or message, your battery level, closing an app and more
Wind Down Shortcuts provide a collection of relaxing shortcuts to help you get ready for a good night's sleep
Voice Memos
Folders help organize your Voice Memos recordings
Favorites lets you mark your best recordings and quickly access them later
Smart Folders automatically group together Apple Watch recordings, recently deleted recordings and recordings you marked as Favorites
Enhance Recording reduces background noise and room reverberation
Support for HomePod Mini and MagSafe certified accessories
Adds support for 10-bit HDR video playback and edit in Photos for iPhone 8 and later
Addresses an issue where some widgets, folders, and icons were showing up in reduced size on the Home Screen
Addresses an issue where dragging widgets on the Home Screen could remove apps from folders
Fixes an issue where some messages in Mail were sent from an incorrect alias
Fixes an issue that could prevent incoming calls from displaying region information
Fixes an issue on some devices where selecting zoomed display mode and an alphanumeric passcode could result in the Lock Screen emergency call button overlapping with the text input box
Addresses an issue where some users were occasionally unable to download or add songs to their library while viewing an album or playlist
Fixes an issue that could prevent zeroes from appearing in Calculator
Resolves an issue where streaming video resolution could temporarily be reduced at the start of playback
Fixes an issue that prevented setting up a family member's Apple Watch for some users
Resolves an issue where the Apple Watch case material was displayed incorrectly in the Apple Watch app
Addresses an issue in the Files app that could cause some MDM-managed cloud service providers to incorrectly display content as unavailable
Improves compatibility with Ubiquiti wireless access points
New Fitness app on iPhone, iPad and Apple TV to browse Fitness+ workouts, trainers and personalised recommendations
A new fitness experience powered by Apple Watch with studio-style workouts available on your iPhone, iPad and Apple TV
Video workouts added each week in ten popular workout types: High Intensity Interval Training, Indoor Cycling, Yoga, Core, Strength, Dance, Rowing, Treadmill Walking, Treadmill Running and Mindful Cooldown
Playlists curated by Fitness+ trainers to complement your workout
Fitness+ subscription available in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom and United States
AirPods Max
Complete support for AirPods Max
Photos
Apple ProRAW support on iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max
Apple ProRAW photos can be edited in the Photos app
Option to record video at 25 fps (PAL format)
Mirror the front-facing camera for still photos on iPhone 8, iPhone X and earlier
Privacy
New privacy information section on App Store pages that includes a developer-reported summary of the app's privacy practices
TV app
Apple TV+ tab for Apple Original shows and movies
Enhanced search to browse by category such as genre and see recent searches and suggestions
Top search results shown with the most relevant matches across movies, TV shows, cast, channels and sports
App Clips
Support for launching App Clips by scanning QR codes
Health
Ability to indicate pregnancy, lactation or contraceptive use in Cycle Tracking in order to better manage period and fertile window predictions
Weather
Air quality data is now available in Weather, Maps and Siri for locations in mainland China
Air quality health recommendations are provided in Weather and Siri for the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, India and Mexico at certain air quality levels
Safari
Ecosia search engine option in Safari
Bug fixes
Some MMS messages may not be received
Some Messages notifications may not be received
Contact groups failed to display members when composing a message
Some videos would not appear correctly when shared from the Photos app
App folders may fail to open
Spotlight search results and opening apps from Spotlight may not work
Bluetooth could be unavailable in Settings
Devices could be prevented from charging wirelessly
MagSafe Duo Charger could wirelessly charge at less than the maximum power
Wireless accessories and peripherals using the WAC protocol could fail to complete setup
The keyboard would dismiss when adding a list in Reminders while using VoiceOver
Option to classify Bluetooth device type in Settings for correct identification of headphones for audio notifications
Notifications for when the camera on your iPhone is unable to be verified as a new, genuine Apple camera in iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max
This release also fixes the following issues:
Image artifacts could appear in HDR photos taken with iPhone 12 Pro
Fitness widget may not display updated Activity data
Typing may be delayed and word suggestions may not appear in the keyboard
The keyboard may not come up in the correct language in Messages
Audio stories from the News app in CarPlay may not resume after being paused for spoken directions or Siri
Enabling Switch Control in Accessibility may prevent phone calls from being answered from the Lock Screen
^"Apple Introduces the New iPhone 3G". Apple Inc. (Press release). June 9, 2008. iPhone 2.0 software will be available on July 11 as a free software update via iTunes 7.7 or later for all iPhone customers
^"iPad Programming Guide: Introduction". March 24, 2010. Archived from the original on June 17, 2010. Because it runs iPhone OS, an iPad is capable of running all of the same applications already being written for iPhone and iPod touch.