iOS 11 Best Features
Among the exciting announcements Apple made last week about their new phones and their long-awaited features (like wireless charging) you may have noticed the tech giant also gave an update on some newness that you can take part in even if you don't buy one of the new phones, Apple TV, or Apple Watch. After being announced months ago, iOS 11 is finally here, which means if you're happy with your 7 Plus — or are typing away on an iPad Pro — you can take advantage of the new features without shelling out hundreds of dollars. While there are a lot of new features to explore, there were a few that stood out to us over the past week of testing out the iPhone 8 Plus, running iOS 11. Read on for our favorites of the newest features... and then update your phone!
Seconds on the clock
If you're someone who often sets timers, the lack of a seconds option on the iPhone timer has likely been a recurring source of frustration. iOS 11 finally remedies that and gives us all what we've been wanting: a seconds timer for those times when you have to be really exact.
Left-handed or Right-handed typing
For those of us with small hands (and really anyone who prefers using their phone one-handed, the new keyboard functionality is everything. Holding down on the emoji button on your keyboard, lets you choose your settings, including the all-new right- and left-handed typing options. Basically it shifts and squashes your keyboard so that you can reach all of those letters and numbers with just one hand on your iPhone.
Way better Notes
TBH Notes has always been one of our favorite useful apps — we're constantly jotting down recommendations from friends and — but now it's even more streamlined for note-taking. Yes, that sounds intuitive, especially given that there was already a lot you could do Notes, but the iOS 11 upgrade has made all the formatting options easier to access, including headings and tables. Plus, if you're the type who's glued to their iPad during lecture, you can now switch back and forth between typing and your Apple Pencil without having to switch between documents. AND you can actually search those handwritten notes now. Basically our minds are blown.
Live Photos
One of the most annoying things about Live Photos has always been that sometimes, the best frame of the photo isn't the one that's captured in the main image. You might see it in the brief video, but there was no way to actually get that image before. Now, when you go to edit your Live Photos, you can change which frame shows up as the main, and swiping up on a Live Photo will gain you access to features that let you loop and bounce your video into something a little more special.
A completely redesigned Control Panel
It's not like the old control panel wasn't doing it's job, but there's something immensely gratifying about having everything streamlined and in one place when you swipe up on your screen. Now you can see your music, your volume, your wifi status And simply swiping up and down to adjust volume and brightness is weirdly satisfying
Indoor Maps
Yes, Maps have been super helpful to us while navigating city streets and travel destinations, but now you can use them indoors at places like malls and airports. So no more getting lost in the hallway next to Zara when you're looking for the Forever 21.
Screenshots
Nowadays, screenshots are pretty much everything. After all, how else would you catch the spelling blunders of powerful people on Twitter? Luckily, the new iOS makes it easier for you to do things with your screenshots after you take them. You're still holding the lock and home buttons at the same time for the screengrab, but now instead of hopping directly to your Photos, for a moment, the screenshot will appear in the corner of your screen. When you select it, you can choose to crop it or annotate it with a variety of drawing tools. So if you want to point out something specific — like a location on a map or when you want to draw attention to someone inadvertently photobombing your group selfie — you can just draw a circle or highlight and send it off, straight from that screen.
Related: I’ve Had the iPhone 8 Plus for a Week, But TBH I Still Really Want the X
