Image via Apple // 

Gonna make life just a little bit easier…

Ushering in a new era, Apple is releasing its latest iOS 14 update today, which will be available for the iPhone 6 and above. The update brings with it plenty of new features on both an aesthetic and functional level.

From the revamping of home screen widgets to the boosting of Siri, it seems like the new update is set to totally change the way we use our iPhones. Now, Siri will only pop up on the side of your screen instead of occupying it fully, and will be able to access info from the web and send audio messages for you now in the Messages app.

Doubling down on Messenger, you’ll now be able to pin important conversations on the top of your screen, and for group messages you’ll see circular images of everyone in a group at the top of the screen. On the group-chat side, you’ll now be able to reply to specific messages and view them as a separate thread, as well as now being able to mention someone in a conversation, much like using the @ function on Facebook messenger.

The Maps feature for the new iOS will also see cycling navigation introduced, taking account elevation into consideration for hills and bumpy terrain (so far this specific feature is only available in the U.S, however, fingers crossed we get it soon too).

Other updates include a new Translate app (supporting 11 languages) and an on-device mode which keeps text and voice translations private. Picture-in-Picture mode allows you to continue watching a video or film while doing other tasks on your phone. Thus, you’ll be able to minimise the video screen (much like YouTube does with the miniplayer) and drag it around your phone screen while doing other tasks.

Those are all the main features, for the full list of improvements you can head here to check it out. You can also check out a full breakdown of new features by tech-guru Marques Brownlee below.