5 of the Greatest iOS 8 Features

iOS 8 is a fantastic update for most iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users with tons of excellent additions, feature enhancements, and great changes. Sure, some users are resistant to change and there may be some annoyances, but for the most part iOS 8 adds so many positives that it’s hard to imagine going backwards.

We’re going to highlight five of the greatest features of the new iOS release that pertain to everyone, none of them require the purchase of a shiny new device to enjoy. If you’re running iOS 8 on anything that supports the release, you’ll find them available to you.

1: Battery Usage Per App

Ever wondered what exactly was eating up your battery life? No more guessing games, iOS 8 will tell you exactly what apps are using your battery, and how much they’ve consumed over the past 24 hours and the past week.

1. Go to “Settings” and then head to “General”
2. Select “Usage” and choose “Battery Usage” to see the list of apps and their battery consumption

Now you know exactly what’s causing your battery problems, no more guessing!

2: The QuickType Keyboard Bar

The QuickType bar sits across the top of your iOS 8 keyboard and uses predictive text and autocorrect to guess what words are to be typed or corrected. Select the word you want to correct to or type out and it appears instantly. It takes a little bit of practice to really get down, but it becomes incredibly useful once you do get the hang of using it.

Get in the swing of things and you’ll soon be wondering how you ever typed on these keyboards without QuickType.

3: Additions to Camera App

If you take a lot of photos with your iPhone (or iPad) then you’ll find the improvements made to Camera app to be both awesome and very welcome. Between the all new time-lapse feature, improved slow-mo, exposure control, the timer, and the huge assortment of tools that allow for direct editing of pictures from Photos app, there is much to be loved with the Camera improvements in iOS 8.

Open the Camera app and explore, the obvious additions are right there, while some of the finer details like photo adjustments are accessed through the Photos app extensions.

4: The Improved Messages App

Messages has a ton of new features and conveniences, ranging from the new Quick-Reply feature accessible from inbound Notifications, to the instant-picture sending feature and the ability to transmit audio messages.

To use either the instant picture sending function, or the audio message tool, just tap and hold on the Camera or Audio icons next to the reply text input box. Super easy.

5: Interactive Notifications Screen

Notification Center of iOS 8 has become interactive, letting you swipe to dismiss specific notifications, archive emails, mark new email as read, end alarms, reschedule reminders, and oh so much more. That means you no longer have to tap on a notification to head to the app to address the alert, you can handle much of it right from the lock screen of your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

Using the new interactive Notificaitons are a piece of cake; just swipe left on a notification item to bring up the options specific to that notification. The available choices vary per app.

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Do you have another favorite feature of iOS 8? Let us know in the comments!