iOS 12 Practical Review | Digital trends

The iOS 11 update of last year was aimed at adding a little more customization to the iPhone and iPad, as well as a redesign of some parts of the system. operating and key services like the App Store. Things are a bit different with this year's iOS 12 update, though. Yes, many new features improve the productivity of your iPhone, but there is also a big effort to help people manage the time spent in front of the screen, which facilitates disconnection.

The public beta of iOS 12 is now available for download, and we've taken it for a ride. If you want to check out each new feature of the update, we've put all of them together in a handy guide.

Under the hood improvements

With iOS 12, Apple wants to offer a faster and more responsive operating system on all iOS devices, which is why the update works on more iPhone and iPad devices than ever before. This means increasing the performance of the processor to its highest level of performance and reducing it to preserve the life of the battery. Other improvements include smoother and faster animations.

The premise is that you should notice high performance boosts on older iPhones, and we certainly did. We've installed the beta on an iPhone 6S and iPhone 7 Plus, and the performance is fluid and fast.

Unfortunately, we have not seen much improvement in battery life. Our iPhone 7 Plus had a 88% battery efficiency rating – which means we should not have to replace it for the moment – but running iOS 12 has killed our battery quickly. One day of work, we often found ourselves at about 5% before 15:30. after using it only to send text messages and some social media. Applications also tend to hang more often, but it's a beta, so we're not too surprised. Hopefully we'll see an improvement here with the final release, but at this point, we might have to replace the battery on the iPhone 7 Plus anyway.

We had no problem, like apps that crashed on the iPhone X. The application switch was fast and fluid as usual. The battery life was also not taken into account, but we also did not use it as the main phone for a full day. We will do more tests to see if there are perceptible changes in performance or battery life.

Screen Time takes the commitment

In recent years, there have been careful discussions about smartphone addiction. To help users manage the use of their smartphone, iOS 12 adds a new section in the Settings application called Screen Time. It offers a summary of the use of your smartphone and the ability to set time limits for specific applications.

Seeing how much time we have spent on our device and on specific apps, and how often we unlock our phone is interesting, but the novelty will wear out quickly. We did not necessarily feel that looking at these statistics would change our phone habits. We are happy that it is here, however, for those who want to keep an eye – especially the parents.

The features of Screen Time are not as restrictive as we would like. If you set a limit to how long you can use an app, you have the option to override the limit or just add another 15 minutes when the time is up via a pop-up notification. You do not even have to go into the Settings app to disable the limit, which makes it far too easy to just press to skip the limit and keep scrolling. If someone takes the time to configure an Application Limit, it is likely that he would like a more stringent application in order to make sure that he respects his own rules of behavior. 39; screen.

We also want the application boundaries to not be separated into categories, such as social media, entertainment, productivity, and so on. Rather than grouping applications, it would be good to choose individual applications in case we do not want to pause in one of the applications attached to this category.

The "Stop Time" feature, which allows you to schedule a time window where notifications are disabled, is a bit more customizable because there is an "Always Allowed" setting in which you can choose applications. The idea here is to make sure that work-related applications do not bother you when you're at home, for example, and it works pretty well. Like all these Screen Time features, however, Downtime requires personal restraint because otherwise it's easy to continue your old habits.

Screen Time is certainly a nice initiative of Apple to implement in its smartphones, and even Google does the same in the next version of Android. These tools are not going to change the dependence on the smartphone – at least not for soon – but there are at least some methods that people can use to limit their habits.

Siri keeps you on track

Siri is finally a little more useful in iOS 12. With Siri Shortcuts, the voice assistant is capable of a lot more via fast actions that can all be assigned by the new Shortcuts app. Since the feature is still in beta, there is not much you can do to customize a specific order. For example, by telling Siri our home address (or any other expression you want), we can launch the Lyft application immediately.

But one of our favorite improvements to Siri is Siri Suggestions. Since we already use the Spotlight search tool on a daily basis to access certain applications, suggestions appear easily below and are really useful. If we have a conversation with a friend via the text and we have not responded or we tend to send them more often than others, Siri suggests sending a message. When we missed a call from a family member, we received a suggestion to call back. These buttons are one-click actions, so it does not require much effort to follow Siri's suggestions, which is convenient.

Although Siri 's ability to transcribe has not improved in iOS 12, we are happy to see that she is able to make herself useful in one way or another.

Some redesigned applications

In iOS 12, Apple launched Measure – an application that uses ARKit to measure objects and spaces in the real world with the phone's camera. While the application still recommends using a tape measure or a measuring stick for precise measurements, we found that it is quite accurate if you need a rough estimate . This is one of those applications that you will only use for specific instances.

The Photos application has also received some updates. With a new "For You" tab, the photos are all organized according to the highlights – be it a concert in Philadelphia or a trip to Spain, the tab carefully places them in albums to watch. With a much more refined search, we were able to search for specific places or places to easily find pictures.

Some other apps have a bit of love in this update. The Stocks application, which most people probably uninstall, now integrates Apple News, and the Voice Memo app has been reorganized to look more contemporary. You can see all our impressions on most of the applications that have been redesigned here.

Less notification fatigue

One of the biggest changes in iOS 12 is in the notification center, especially with notifications. Notifications are a necessity when it comes to staying on top of important alerts, but it has always been a bit crowded on iOS. That's why Apple steals an Android feature. The bulk notifications are here, and they greatly enhance the iOS experience for the better.

Now, when you receive multiple notifications from Twitter, for example, notifications are grouped into a single balloon. Tap to expand them all, which also allows you to interact with them individually. This may seem small, but now when you visit your notification center, you will not only see an infinite flow of notifications from a single application. It is much more manageable and easier to choose the stack of notifications that we want to look at first according to the importance.

If you do not want specific applications to be grouped together, you can choose to disable them in your settings, but we like bundled notifications enough so we never come back.

Do not disturb during bedtime is not yet effective

When the Do not disturb option has been introduced for the first time, no other customization option than the option to enable or disable the application has been set. With iOS 12, it is now possible to set specific deadlines for it to go off automatically and shut down without having to worry about doing it manually.

The feature we were most eager to try was not to disturb during bedtime mode, which prevents notifications from displaying on the lock screen during the scheduled hours. When enabled, a notification will appear on your lock screen to inform you that the message is enabled and all notifications and calls are disabled.

We are disappointed to learn that it is far too easy to see notifications by simply switching on the lockscreen. Just like Screen Time, the feature is not strict enough to help us get in the habit of waking up in the middle of the night and checking notifications, as we unconsciously slipped. Apple should have asked you to enter a password.

Again, trying to make sure that you respect Do Not Disturb will take some personal will. It will take a little while until we are satisfied that we will not find some way to check our notifications in the middle of the night. When bedtime does not end, we like the "hello" greeting that appears on the lock screen as well as the weather of the day.

Inject more fun into iMessage and FaceTime

Following the abundance of iMessage features that Apple released with iOS 10, we were disappointed that iOS 11 failed to include some fun features. Fortunately, iOS 12 is redeemed with new features. Not only can you create a Memoji for yourself through a quick and easy process, but you can also use them as stickers in the camera app on iMessage. Surely you still need an iPhone X.

A minor setting that we are not yet used to is the Photos application, which is now in the application drawer in iMessage. Rather than having to send photos via iMessage by pressing the camera button and then on your photo album, iOS 12 facilitates access in one easy step.

Another feature that has taken far too long for Apple is the FaceTime group, which allows you to chat on video with up to 32 people in one session. You can also make video conversations more fun by adding the same stickers, emojis and Memojis. Although we have not tried the new FaceTime feature yet, we will make sure to update this story when we do it.

Conclusion

As with almost all iOS updates, iOS 12 provides a more seamless user experience on the iPhone and the iPad. Whether it's staying more organized with group notifications or Siri shortcuts, the update makes it easy to accomplish simple tasks by allowing the device to adapt. to your behavior over time, through machine learning.

While its biggest initiative – Screen Time – offers a variety of ways to help reduce the dependence of your smartphone, the user must participate fully. This is understandable, although we think that Apple could be a little stricter with restrictions.

We are happy with iOS 12, because it made us think "finally" to many features introduced, such as the Facetime group and grouped notifications. These changes may seem small, but they have a big impact on the daily experience. We think it is worthwhile to download the beta if you are on an iPhone X, but suggest waiting for the release of the final version in the fall for those on an older device like the iPhone. iPhone 7 Plus or older.