The 15 Best Features of iOS 8

On the surface, Apple's new mobile operating system iOS 8 looks strikingly similar to iOS 7, but beneath the surface, it's brimming with new features to vastly improve the mobile experience (iOS 8 is hardly perfect, though; as with any new software, there are certainly kinks).

Here's a look at our favorite features of iOS 8.

• 1. Interactive Notifications

  

  Interactive notifications is one of the best parts about iOS 8. You can respond to texts, email, calendar invitations, reminders and messages within apps such as Facebook from the notification banners that pops up at the top of the screen. It's a good way to reply to incoming messages without leaving the app you're in or stopping what you're doing all together.

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• 2. Battery Monitoring

  

  You can find out which apps are sucking away your battery life, thanks to a handy tool that gives a percentage breakdown of what's zapping it most. To identify which apps you should close when not in use, visit General > Usage > Battery Usage. This small step could add a few hours of extra battery life to your day.

  IMAGE: MASHABLE

• 3. Keyboards

  

  For the first time, you're no longer restricted to the keyboard Apple gives you and can pick better options from third-party developers, like Swype. Available for $0.99 in the Apple App Store, there's a reason why Swype is the number one paid app right now: instead of tapping letters, you can swipe your fingers across the keys. There are Here are some other keyboard alternatives to try out with your keyboard on iOS 8, such as SwiftKey and Fleksy, but if you don't want to download an app, Apple made improvements to its own. The built-in keyboard now offers predictive text, giving you word suggestions before you even type anything.

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• 4. Camera Timer

  

  Selfies are much easier to take with iOS 8. Apple added a timer to its Camera app, allowing you either 3 or 10 seconds to get the shot exactly how you want it. You can also prop up the device before setting the timer, so you don't even need your hands to take a picture.

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• 5. Landscaped Homescreen

  

  While iOS 7 users could read content in landscape mode, the home screen never changed. Now, iPhone 6 Plus owners can now turn the device 90 degrees and see apps displayed on the home screen in either format.

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• 6. Key People Shortcut

  

  If you press the Home button twice, you'll not only see the webpages you have open but the faces of people you've recently talked to. This makes it easy to call or text your favorite contacts right away. The down side, however, is that it highlights contacts you might not want others to know about, too. For example, if you've deleted a conversation you recently had with an ex (and you don't want to broadcast this to anyone looking over your shoulder), their name will still display on the top. To remove this feature, visit Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Show in App Switcher and switch it of Off.

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• 7. Enhanced Photo/Video Sharing

  

  You're now able to send several photos to friends at one time via the Messages apps. It's quicker to send videos. too; film a video directly within a text message conversation, instead of sending an already-shot video from your camera roll.

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• 8. Swipe to Delete

  

  Instead of hitting the small trash can icon for each email, you can now save time by swiping left to get rid of individual messages. Just be careful when testing this feature; it's so easy to remove emails that sometimes it happens when want to do other tasks. Meanwhile, dragging your finger slowly on a message (displayed in the Mail app) will let you flag or archive it. Swiping to the right will reveal the feature to mark a message as unread.

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• 9. Contact Info Up Top

  

  iOS 8 pulls the contact information for those you're emailing with and places it at the top of the message. This is helpful when you need to give someone a call and don't want to scroll through lengthy text to find their details within an email signature. It also populates with addresses where you might be meeting up with people, too.

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• 10. Multitasking Email

  

  At long last, emails are now windows, so you don't have to close one to open another. Users just swipe downward to minimize the email and it's possible to open up a few at once, if you want to look at them in carousel form and pick which one you want accordingly.

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• 11. Smarter Spotlight

  

  Spotlight — which is still accessed by dragging the top of the screen downward — is a significantly smarter search tool than ever before. In addition for looking for stuff on your own device, it now searches Wikipedia, knows what topics are trending online in real time, shows you restaurants nearby and tells you movie showtimes.

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• 12. Share Location

  

  If you're planning to meet up with friends, you can now share your exact location with them. iOS 8 lets you set up a window for when you want whereabouts shared, too — for example, if you're be at the beach from noon to 4:00 p.m. ET, you can share your location with a group of friends until you're ready to head home.

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• 13. Audio Messages

  

  For times when you want to send a quick voice message, but don't really want to get into a conversation over the phone, you can now record and send audio snippets via text message. Use case scenarios: singing Happy Birthday or wishing someone good luck for a big meeting.

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• 14. Photo Adjustments

  

  There's no need to fret if you haphazardly snap a photo. You can straighten horizons and adjust the angles.

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Show As Gallery

15. Time-lapse/Slow-Mo

iOS 8 users now have way more control over videos. What typically can cost thousands of dollars in camera equipment to speed up or slow down footage is now available for free within the Camera app, giving you the opportunity to get creative with your clips.

IMAGE: MASHABLE, ASHLEY NAWN

What are your favorite new iOS 8 features?