Apple iOS 10 – OPERATING SYSTEM

Apple iOS 10 is not just a new version of the operating system that powers iPhone and iPads. True, iOS now has a sleeker visual design, interactive notifications, and a far more functional widget screen. But the huge additions to the Messages app overshadow most of the other features, making this more than just another iteration of the operation system. This stalwart communication app now does more than just send text messages: It’s an ecosystem in its own right, with stickers, animations, and third-party app integrations, challenging the likes of Facebook Messengerand WhatsApp. It’s a game-changer that easily outclasses what’s available from the competition. Its first major update, iOS 10.1, adds a new Portrait mode for the dual-camera iPhone 7 Plus, bringing stunning depth-of-field effects to smartphone photos. For all of this, iOS 10 is an Editors’ Choice for mobile operating systems.

When and Where

As with most Apple updates, iOS 10 (including, iOS 10.1, the version reviewed here) is supported by several generations of devices. Every iPhone model from the iPhone 5 to the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus can run iOS 10. All iPad Pros, iPad Air and Air 2 models, 4th-generation iPads, and iPad minis 2 to 4 can also run the new operating system. iPod Touch users are less lucky, as iOS 10 only supports the most recent devices. For this review, I tested iOS 10.1 on both an iPhone 6 and an iPhone 7 Plus.

The deep level of control Apple maintains over its hardware and software means that most people will install this update. The same can’t be said of Android. Even if you’re using a current Android device, you may not get to update it to Android 7.0 Nougat for months, if ever.

To get iOS 10, you have only to wait until your phone informs you that it’s ready to update. If you can’t wait, just open the Settings app, tap General, and then tap Software Update. Be sure to back up your phone and keep an AC adapter handy. For more detailed instructions, you can read How to Get iOS 10. Once the update is installed, take some time to get to know your new OS. Apple has a habit of peppering updates with secret features that often go unnoticed.

From Lock Screen to Notifications

After your iPhone reboots, you’ll immediately notice some differences in iOS, if you’re upgrading from iOS 9. Fonts, for example, are a little larger, bolder, and more readable than in previous versions. From the Lock Screen, you now swipe left to open the camera app, which is much easier than the bottom-corner swipe-up from previous versions. Swipe right and a new page of widgets is revealed.

If you’re only familiar with Android, know that widgets on iOS are very different. Instead of existing as free-floating windows on the desktop as they do on Google-powered devices, widgets in iOS are small cards that live in a customizable, vertically oriented rail. Their function is mostly the same: iOS widgets are shortcuts to app functionality, like placing calls, looking at the latest headlines, or seeing if it will rain today.

iOS 10 also brings a visual redesign to widgets, making them into large, individual cards with rounded corners. It’s a much improved experience. You can choose and arrange the widgets on this screen from an Edit button at the bottom, but that’s it as far as customization goes. The size, appearance, and function of widgets are determined by the developer and Apple’s guidelines. You must also download the core app if you want the widget; these are not standalone features. The iOS 10 widget page can be found by swiping right from the main page or the notification panel; it’s always within easy reach.

If you use Touch ID to open your phone with a thumb or fingerprint, you’ll notice another tweak. Simply resting your digit over the scanner no longer works. You must also click down on the Home button to get access. Having laid hands on the iPhone 7, I can say that this change is because the new phones no longer have physical Home buttons and instead rely on the visceral boing of the Taptic Engine. Though I am glad to see the best feature from the Apple Watch (a thing I will never use) finally come to iPhone (a thing I use every day), it’s a chore to adapt your muscle memory. Thankfully, you can change this from the Settings app. Open it, select General, then Accessibility, and then Home Button to access this option.

Swipe up from the bottom and you see the enlarged and refined Control Center. You can use it to adjust the brightness and quickly toggle on and off such features as Airplane Mode and Wi-Fi. There are also fast links to Flashlight mode, the Timer app, and the camera, all of which are especially handy when the phone is still locked. The big change is that you can no longer control songs from here. Instead, you swipe right to reveal a second card devoted solely to media control.

The redesign certainly unclutters the Control Center, but I was hoping for more cards and more control. I should note that more cards may be available if you have smart devices in your home; I do not. In Android Nougat and in Windows 10 Mobile, for instance, you can choose which shortcuts appear in the equivalent quick-action menu. The shortcuts are also more useful on Android, letting you browse and select from available Wi-Fi networks. I would love to see Apple adopt this kind of functionality.

Notifications also have the new iOS 10 look, as individual cards with larger fonts that make them stand out better. If you’re using a newer phone (that is, the iPhone 6, 6s and newer), you can use 3D Touch to force-press notifications and get more options. This is a great feature, and a smart use of the underutilized 3D Touch. Unfortunately, those on older phones can only swipe left to dismiss or view the notification.

In Nougat and Windows 10 Mobile, notifications are bundled together by the app that generated them. They can be expanded with agesture or dismissed en masse. Apple instead groups the notifications by time of arrival, letting you dismiss them one day at a time. I prefer Android’s method, and I especially like that Android doesn’t require special hardware to make the most of its notifications.

Deliver the Message

The most dramatic change in iOS 10 is in the Messages app. This is the traditional home of SMS messages sent via Apple’s exclusive iMessage service. For those unaware, iMessage sends messages between Apple devices, uses end-to-end encryption, and does all this over your data connection. This app has long been able to send images, videos, and short audio recordings, but in iOS 10 it can do much more. It also includes a new marketplace for add-on apps and stickers, making it an ecosystem in its own right. Its capabilities have become so extended that, were it not preinstalled on iPhones, I would be reviewing it separately. In short, it’s massive.

Some of the interactive Message features from the Apple Watch also appear in iOS 10 in the form of Digital Touch. With this, you can use gestures to send animations by, for example, holding two fingers to send a beating heart or tapping to create colorful bursts of light. I don’t really care for their look; they appear as vague, wispy animations inside black squares. I also don’t like that they are sent as soon as you trigger them. Every other new Messages feature requires that you tap the Send button first, giving you a chance to correct mistakes. This is all the more frustrating because Digital Touch effects gestures are difficult to make reliably. Case in point: I accidentally sent a large, pink, “heart break” animation to my partner of six years because I swiped incorrectly. This feature could destroy marriages.

From the Digital Touch menu, you can also write messages with your fingertip that appear as animations on the recipient’s phone. It’s the best-executed Digital Touch feature, and I especially like that the message animations move at the same speed at which you drew them. You can even snap a video or still picture and doodle all over it. It works well for still photos, but the video option needs work. Instead of drawing over a completed video, you draw as the video records. It’s counterintuitive, and I found in my testing that the final product jiggled like I had been poking my camera while I shot. Because I had been.

You can still just tap Send on a message, or you can make an impact or a whisper, using variably sized bubbles that bounce and swell. Custom animations, like balloons, fireworks, and lasers, can be triggered to fill the entire screen. This is similar to Facebook’s response system. A change in 10.1 should allow you to replay these special animations, but I haven’t been able to make it work on my iPhone 6. Invisible Ink hides an image until the recipient swipes it away, making for a big reveal. This last effect is wonderfully animated, as the silvery digital ink responds to your pokes and prods. Tapback lets you respond with one of six canned responses, such as a thumbs-up.

Another important change is how you take photos within the app and attach them to messages. You can now quickly shoot and add photos from within the Messages app, which lets you fire off a barrage of selfies in seconds. Users can also mark up photos with text or draw directly on photos. It’s a little like Snapchat, but with a distinctively Apple look. My favorite tool lets you enlarge a section of a photo, drawing 

the recipient’s attention to one specific area without cropping the image.

Digital Touch and message delivery effects are big, tightly integrated changes to the iOS 10 Messages app, but there are bigger ones. Messages is now a platform for all kinds of third-party content. A new store and interface let you add stickers to spice up your messages, and app integrations mean you can do more without having to jump back and forth between apps. These are two distinct features, but they share the same space, which can be confusing. The cramped environs of the app don’t do it any favors. But altogether, it’s a big and positive change for Apple.

I’ll talk about stickers first, because they are the more straightforward of the two features. Stickers are similar to emoji in that they are premade images you add to messages. They’ve been available in many messaging apps for years, but are new to Apple apps. Emoji, however, are Unicode characters that are approved by a central authority and can only be adapted for different platforms. This is why emoji look different on iOS, Android, Twitter, and other platforms. Stickers have no such limitations, and appear the 

Stickers come in sets, basically palettes of images usually of the same theme or style or characters. To add them, tap the icon immediately to the left of the text field. A new screen opens, showing all of the stickers and apps available for Messages. All of this happens in the space normally occupied by the keyboard, so it’s a tight fit. Apple should reconsider how to approach this new experience, perhaps introducing hidden trays you swipe to reveal.

When you add a sticker to a message, you can add text as if it were any other attachment. But the best part of stickers is that you can place them on the screen, just like actual stickers. Just tap and hold on the sticker of your choice and it will appear to lift off the page. Move it to the chat area, and affix to any message. The recipient will see it appear as it does on your screen and receive an alert as if it were a regular text message. It’s a simple but fun and compelling feature. That said, the space to which you can affix stickers is very small, and it’s difficult to place a sticker without covering text.

You might be surprised to discover that some apps you already have include sticker packs that you can now add to messages. The game Dots and Co, for example, added stickers of the game’s main characters.

More sticker packs can be downloaded, for free or for money, through the store embedded in Messages or from the App Store. I am surprised, and a bit disappointed, that most sticker packs cost $1.99, including the Star Wars stickers available at launch. Facebook Messenger boasts an enormous number of stickers featuring distinctive artists and popularcharacters, and nearly all of them are free. The balance of Apple’s store might change as it matures, but for now it feels pricey. Since launch, Apple has greatly improved search and management for stickers, but it still feels awkward inside Messages. That’s especially true on the iPhone 6 and 7.

That kind of control has worked for the App Store, but I wonder how well it will work in the Messages store. Telegram, an app mainly known for its encrypted messaging, supports a vibrant sticker-creating community. It has no centralized store, instead allowing anyone to create “bot” accounts from which users can receive sticker sets. If someone sends you a sticker you like, you can tap it to download the set. This has led me to dozens of sticker sets that would surely not exist on any other platform, including a dozen celebrating Angela Lansbury’s masterful performance onMurder She Wrote.

If someone uses Messages to send you a sticker you’ve never seen before, it’s sometimes accompanied by a link to the sticker set inside the Messages store. From here, you can download (or buy) the stickers. But the links don’t always appear. Apple needs to make sure this works consistently, since it’s near impossible to find a specific sticker inside theMessages store or the App Store, as I mentioned earlier. Not all Messages apps need to have an associated app on your home screen, however. Some exist entirely in Messages.

To my shock, all of the elements I’ve listed—from beating hearts of Digital Touch to animal stickers—are cross platform. My beating hearts didn’t animate, but my friend did receive a still image of them on her Android phone.

In addition to stickers, third-party apps also have a place in the iOS 10 Messages app. These apps are intermixed with the stickers, and accompany many apps you might already have on your phone. When I updated to iOS 10, I discovered that Fandango has a Messages app that is installed along with the main iPhone app, similar to how Apple Watch apps work.

For lack of a better way to describe it, Messages apps let you do stuff inside the Messages app. Take the Fandango app. When I open it in Messages, it uses the space at the bottom of the screen normally occupied by the keyboard to let me search for movies in the area. If I find one I like, I can send a link to the person I’m chatting with. If we decide we want to go, I can select a location, a show time, and buy the tickets all from within Messages. Other Messages apps such as Confide, let you encode your messages (perhaps overkill, considering that iMessage messages are already encrypted) or even play games. I got in a few rounds of chess with my cousin while testing and was pleased with the quality of the experience.

Taken as a whole, these mini-apps are a smart way to expand the functionality of iMessage without muddling the experience, since users can choose which apps they add. Plus, there’s a whole new world for independent iPhone developers to explore. My only complaint is the same as withstickers. The apps are difficult to find, access, and manage, though that seems to be improving.

In iOS 10, Apple also expands the predictive text capabilities in Messages. It now supports multiple languages, so polyglots will no longer see red lines beneath half their words. It also takes emoji usage to new and terrifying levels. As you type, predictive text suggests emoji equivalents to words, similar to the way Google’s Gboard keyboard does. After you finish typing, Messages scans the text after you open the emoji pane. Any word it thinks could be replaced by an emoji is highlighted. Tap, and the emoji is placed. Unfortunately, I found that this feature worked intermittently at best.

Predictive text also has more useful functions, beyond placing a pizza emoji in the proper place. If you type out “Max’s phone number is,” the autocomplete phrases include the phone number of every Max in your Contacts app. Start typing when you’re available, and free slots in your calendar are made available. It’s a really smart integration, but I haven’t been able to make it work to my satisfaction. Typing names often pulled up the wrong contact card, and I was never given the option to select a time from my calendar. I hope this promising feature will improve, but it’s still wonky as of iOS 10.1.

It’s worth noting that Apple, not Facebook or WhatsApp or Google, is offering one of the most feature-rich messaging experiences that is encrypted end-to-end. Allo and Facebook Messenger are also secured end-to-end, but not by default. WhatsApp is one of the very few popular messenger services that is also encrypted end-to-end by default without requiring user action, but lacks many of the features now found on other clients. Note that Apple uses a proprietary encryption protocol while the other services mentioned here use the excellent and open-source Signal protocol.

A High-End Smartphone Camera Experience

Apple claims the dual-camera setup in the iPhone 7 Plus gives it a significant edge over other mobile phones, providing better photos and dramatic depth-of-field effects. Those bokeh features haven’t been available until now, with the release of iOS 10.1 update.

To access the new Portrait shooting mode (which is where you’ll find the effect) for the 7 Plus, just open the camera app and swipe sideways to the Portrait setting. In this mode, you’ll be able to focus on an object or person in the foreground while the background blurs intofuzziness. Instagram aficionados and photography nerds will recognize this as a bokeh effect. As you can see in the image below, this is much closer to the experience of shooting with a film camera. It has depth and warmth, instead of the flattened look of most smartphone pictures.

When you activate the Portrait mode for the first time, you’re warned that Apple considers this a beta feature. That’s a bit odd, considering that Apple waited months after the initial OS release to push it to users, but I digress. Once activated, a small box will light up when you can use the effect. If you’re too close or too far away (you need to be within 8 feet) or the room is too dark, the phone alerts you. The photo size is a bit more narrow than the Square setting.

The view through the phone is zoomed in from the normal Photo setting. You can also see the Portrait effect live on the screen. When you finally snap a photo, the phone saves both a standard version and another with the Portrait effect applied.

The results are frequently stunning. Under the studio lighting at PC Labs, I took several Portrait photos that looked as if they had been taken with a film camera. But I quickly saw why this is still labeled a beta feature. In the picture above, for example, the effect cuts off the tip of the glasses that stick out from the rest of the body. In another instance, I found that the Portrait effect blurred different sections of the photo in an unnatural way. That’s a little disappointing, considering that Portrait mode is a tentpole feature for the iPhone 7 Plus. Most of your Portrait photos will probably look stunning, but I hope Apple moves to improve this feature quickly.

Also, you can now edit raw camera files, if that’s your thing. It may not appeal to large numbers of users, but it gives those who use software like Adobe’s Photoshop Lightroom a lot more latitude for adjusting lighting, color, and detail. By adding this ability, Apple is showing its commitment to raising the profile of the iPhone as a photography platform.

First-Party Party

iOS 10 sees not only new features, but also a new look for several of Apple’s first-party apps. The News app, for example, sports a cleaner design with bigger, bolder text and airier spaces. While News may not be the most popular app, the changes here are indicative of a larger visual shift for Apple apps.

That same design is present in the new Home app, which shows all of your connected devices in large buttons that are easy to tap. You can also create different Scenes, which are collections of actions for different smart devices. Tapping Good Morning, for example, might turn on the coffee maker and the lights to the kitchen, while the rest of the house slumbers. It also now features automation options, too.

As is always the case with smart devices, it all sounds good on paper. But HomeKit, as a platform, hasn’t seen widespread adoption yet. That’s too bad, although the security journalist in me is grateful. As we’ve seen, insecure IOT devices can cause huge headaches. Its success continues to depend both on the number of devices released that support it and popular buy-in for the concept of home automation in general.

Apple’s Mail app sports some improvements as well, most notably an unsubscribe button. The app now scans the contents of messages and helps make unsubscribing from pesky emails a breeze. It’s a great feature, but I still prefer the look and utility of Google’s Inbox by Gmail.

The Photos app is subtly upgraded and now features a search tool to find faces and places. It also organizes photos of what it deems to be important events into Ken Burns-style videos, complete with accompanying music. While the videos are nice, I couldn’t get the search tool to do much more than find locations, presumably based on GPS data tagged to each image. The revamped Google Photos also adds creative tools for videos and albums, along with powerful (if frequently uneven) search tools similar to the ubiquitous Google Image Search on the Web. Apple seems to be trying to answer Google’s offering, but Google Photos offers more features. Plus, Google stores all of your images for free, forever (if you let it reduce their quality a bit).

The humble Clock app has also been redesigned, and now has a Sleep function. Tell it how many hours you want to snooze, and on which days you need a wake-up call, the app will both wake you at the appointed time and remind you when to go to bed. It even has special tones to help you rise refreshed, instead of terrified. I really like this new approach, partly because the wake tones really are pleasant but also because it eliminated the half dozen alarms I used to use to get up every day. That said, the bedtime reminder function has failed to alert me that it’s time to turn in.

The Music App Is Much Improved

Apple’s Music app, however, sees the most dramatic upgrade. It sports the same large-text and whitespace-heavy design as the Home app, and is the best iteration of this much-maligned app. Your Library of music is now clearly divided into sections, with a customizable table of contents at the top. You can view your music by categories like Artists, Albums, Playlists, Songs, and locally stored music. Ever since Apple introduced streaming musicwith iTunes Match, you’ve been able to choose between seeing all of your available tunes or just the ones that can be listened to offline. It’s a feature that’s always been hidden and difficult to use, and Apple puts it at the forefront in iOS 10, finally.

Albums appear as squares showing off their art, and can be tapped to see their contents. New expandable menus let you add to playlist, play next, create a station, and so on. The same menu appears if you long-press on any individual track. You can also like or dislike a song or album. Apple uses your preferences to construct the For You section of recommendations. As a track plays, its name and playback controls appear at the bottom of the app (and inside the Control Center), so it’s never far from your finger.

A new Browse section shows off featured tracks, videos, and chart-topping songs, as well as curated playlists. This last feature seems to be aimed squarely at the Editors’ Choice winning Slacker Radio, which hangs its hat on human-curated music. The Radio section still features the bewildering Beats 1 24-hour streaming music experience, along with stations created from your preference and created by Apple. The new Search page shows off your recent searches—a simple tool that should have been available at launch—and clearly shows whether you’re searching your library of purchased and streaming songs, or the entirety of Apple’s music library.

I’ve enjoyed using the Apple Music service, but the app has been a pain since day one. The new version is an improvement, but confusionremains. Most of that, I believe, comes from the fundamentally confusing nature of Apple’s current music strategy, and the changing face of, well, music. At a time when digitally purchased, imported, and not-purchased-but-saved-locally-from-a-streaming-service tracks all commingle, the result can’t help but be a bit bewildering.

Delete Me, Bro

To some, one of the best features of iOS 10 is the ability to delete most of the preinstalled apps from Apple. Everything can go, excepting a few critical apps like the App Store, Camera, Clock, Health, Messages, Phone, Photos, Safari, Settings, and Wallet. Minimalists will rejoice. I know I savored finally deleting the Stocks app after eight years of ignoring it.

Though Android devices are often synonymous with customization, bloatware is still a problem for the platform. Phones from Samsung and other major vendors are frequently packed with undeletable apps from both the manufacturer and the carrier. Some even include services that can be disabled, but not fully disentangled, from the device.

The recently released Google Pixel phones, like mostAndroid phones, have several apps that cannot be deleted. Interestingly, however, you can remove carrier-loaded bloatware on these devices.

I’m sure there are some people that would love to get rid of even more apps. Safari and Wallet could probably be allowed to go, in my opinion. But even if Apple isn’t willing to let users part with apps, it would be nice to have the option to hide them from view. My Ignore Me folder to which I relegate apps I never use has gotten smaller, but it still has a place on my phone.

Making Connections

I’ll also note briefly that an ongoing effort at Apple has been to increase the connectivity between iOS and desktops and laptops. One of the big features in iOS 10 and macOS Sierra is a shared clipboard so you can cut text and images from one device and paste them on another. It’s a brilliant idea, but like a lot of these features, it requires new iPhones and Macs, meaning it’s very hard to test or even experience in day-to-day life. While it’s often (and unfairly!) ignored, Windows 10 has a phenomenal multi-platform approach that provides the same experience on every device, and thanks to the Display Dock, even lets you use a mobile device as you would adesktop.

An even more significant example is the excellent line of Microsoft Surface devices. I’ve used several different mobile devices while covering tradeshows, and the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 is one of the best. Lightweight and sturdy, it brilliantly bridges the gap between laptop and tablet without losing any functionality. The iPad, iPad Pro, and MacBook Air lines are excellent on their own merits, but they are still separate devices with separate use cases. Apple has yet to provide a comparable cross-platform experience.

Previously, Siri was limited to basic tasks such as placing calls, taking dictation for text messages, and retrieving facts from the Internet. It handled all these with aplomb, but, aside from placing Tweets on your behalf, it did little with other apps. In iOS 10, Siri works with a variety of apps, letting you carry out intricate activities with just your voice.

In my testing, I successfully sent a full dollar via Venmo to my friend Sarah. I summoned Siri with the Hey Siri command, and instructed the assistant to send a $1 to Sarah (three cents added as a surcharge). Siri obliged within seconds, asking my permission before the transaction completed. It was a totally seamless experience, and one that finally delivers on the fast and hands-free experience Apple promised with Siri.

The only trouble is that Venmo was the only app I was able to successfully use with Siri. I tried to summon a Lyft car, but Siri pointed out the app wasn’t installed. I tried to book a movie ticket, and was able to get nearby theaters and movie times, but purchasing the tickets eluded me.

Because I have an iPhone 6, Siri only responds to the Hey Siri trigger phrase while connected to a power source, whereas the Google Assistant’s “OK, Google” and Windows 10’s “Hey, Cortana” activation phrases work without hands or wires. And despite my initial distaste for the Assistant’s voice operation, I find myself turning to it more often than to Siri when I need information quickly.

Google has made some very aggressive moves in the personal assistant space, with the introduction of the Google Assistant in the Google Allo chat app and the Google Assistant’s tight integration with the Pixel phones. Like Cortana on Windows, the Assistant has the edge on Siri, since it can passively observe your actions and make suggestions. That said, I still find Siri to be better at providing relevant and actionable options, even if I have to ask for them first.

While Siri has come to macOS, I wonder if the voice assistant needs another new home. Amazon, for example, has done quite well by introducing its Alexa assistant not as a software service but as the brains of the Amazon Echo home appliance. Google announced plans to follow suit with its Google Home. And of course, Windows 10’s Cortana digital assistant works on PCs, tablets, and phones. Apple, meanwhile, has made noises suggesting that it isn’t interested in staking a place in this growing space.

X Marks the Spot

The 10th iteration of the Macintosh operating system was an enormous change for Apple’s desktop computers. So much so that it took over 15 years for the company to rebrand the operating system as macOS. I had expected the same from iOS when it reached it’s tenth version. But on the surface, iOS 10 and its accompanying updates look comparatively minor, with lots of little tweaks across the board. Those visual and functional changes do, however, create a more cohesive experience, one in which you can stay focused and take more actions without leaving an app.

Nowhere is this truer than in Messages, where a deluge of functionality is now at your fingertips. Here, Apple has found a smart way to play to what has always been the real strength behind iPhone: providing a curated platform where talented developers can show off their work. The addition of apps to Messages delivers on the new bot-centric experience promised by Microsoft (in Skype), Google, and Facebook; one where the commerce and creativity tools we’ve come to love are close at hand and work nearly seamlessly. The new Portrait mode continues to make Apple an attractive choice for selfie-takers and photographers alike, despite the improvements seen with the Pixel’s camera.

iOS 10 provides an excellent mobile experience, is available for free, and is availalbe for nearly every iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. It joins the recently updated Android 7.0 Nougat as an Editors’ Choice winner, but takes a slightly higher score based on the excellent additions to Messages and the continued fragmentation of the Android platform.