22 Apr 2016, 3:01 p.m.
Apple has rolled out many new mobile operating systems. Nine, in fact. Some have gone smoothly, others less so, but each brings new features or ways of doing things. With Apple's hyper focus on usability, that's typically a big win.
iOS 8 had plenty of great features. But iOS 9, despite roll-out hiccups, is currently the best and brightest, and comes pre-installed on new iPhones and iPads. The casual iPhone user probably won't even notice much difference between iOS 8 and 9 (or hell, even iOS 7). There are cosmetic things—iOS 9 uses a new system font (San Francisco) that carries over from Apple Watch, Siri's waveform animation is more colorful, and the keyboard now shows lowercase letters (more on that to follow). Is that enough for most people? As of March 7, 2016—seven months since iOS 9 shipped—more than 79 percent of iOS users had upgraded to iOS 9, according to Apple.
For anyone with the latest iOS devices, the jump to iOS 9—up to version 9.3 as of March—is worth it. While Apple will likely unveil the next version of iOS at WWDC in June, we probably won't get our hands on it until the fall, so here's how to make the most of iOS 9 before iOS 10 (X?) arrives.
This story was originally published on Sept. 23, 2015.
In iOS 9.3, there's a Night Shift Mode you can set to kick in after dark. Go into Settings > Display & Brightness > Night Shift and you can set the timing, or turn it on manually from the Control Center (swipe up from the bottom of the screen). The science behind it: Night Shift reduces the blue wavelength of light in the screen, which can make it harder to sleep. It's perfect for reading, but not so much for looking at pics or video, since the colors aren't exact. But that's the whole point.
With iOS 9.3, all of the major US wireless carriers (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless) support a long overdue feature: Wi-Fi calling. That's right, your call can go out over your own Wi-Fi (or anyone else's). That saves you airtime charges, doesn't eat your data plan, and in theory makes for better calls since Wi-Fi typically has more bandwidth (track your call quality; if calls at home get bad, you may want to turn it off, or stop torrenting episodes of Game of Thrones during calls). If you turn it on at Settings > Phone > Wi-Fi Calling, you should also update and verify your emergency address. That way, if you make a 911 call from home, EMS knows where to find you.
If you have other Apple devices that pair to your phone, like Apple Watch, tap "Allow Calls on Other Devices" and you open those devices up for receiving calls over Wi-Fi as well.
AT&T users get an extra perk: International Wi-Fi calling. Stick with hotspots and hotel Wi-Fi during calls and you'll avoid roaming charges in other countries.
When you set up security on older iPhones, even when you use the Touch ID fingerprint sensor, you still had to have a Passcode. That's a four-digit PIN that works like a backup during those times the iPhone won't read your fingerprint (like when it's wet, sticky, etc.—pretty much every other time you try it). With iOS 9, that passcode has gone to a mandatory six digits. That might seem like more work for you, but it's a lot safer. If someone steals your phone with a four-digit code, they have 10,000 options to guess it. At six digits, the combinations jump to 1 million possibilities.
However, when you upgrade from iOS 8 to 9 and have a pre-existing Passcode, it remains at four digits. To make the change, go into Settings > Touch ID & Passcode > Change Passcode (you'll have to enter your existing Passcode to get this far, then again when you ask to make the change). Enter the new code twice. You can't simply re-enter the existing code—iOS will not allow it.
Going into Settings on iOS is like looking for your keys in the dark. While spelunking. It can be maddening, especially if you have a ton of apps but you only want to change one thing, such as how it uses Notifications. Thankfully, in iOS 9, Apple added a speedy little search box. Search on any keyword or app; it provides a series of links to get you to the setting you want.
The new Live Photos feature—available only in the new iPhone 6s, 6s Plus, and iPhone SE—adds something to the already upgraded 12-megapixel camera. On either side of the snapping of an image, the camera will also record 1.5 seconds of video with sound. It's like making an instant animated GIF (but not in that actual format—Live Photos are much higher res and come with sound). You don't have to do anything special to make one. Hold your finger on the picture when you view it later and you get the full "live" motion—it's like the pictures taken in the Harry Potter-verse come to life. If you like the moving image, turn it into a wallpaper on your Lock screen. iOS 9 supports that, too.
Keep in mind that Live Photos take up about double the space of the single picture you previously took, on the phone and on iCloud. And if you back them up to Google Photos or Dropbox they just go flat.
The iPhone's Achilles' heel for its entire existences has been the battery. It's barely good enough for a full day without a recharge. Thus the intro of a Low Power Mode, though you have to turn it on yourself: Go into Settings > Battery, and it's at the top. When activated, the mode turns off a lot of background functions, like app refresh, automatic downloads, GPS/location services, and many visual effects. It'll check in with you again at 20 percent and 10 percent power. You can tell when it's working because the battery life indicator at the top turns yellowish-orange. Low Power Mode will deactivate when you go back above 80 percent, and thereafter, you need to manually turn it on again if needed.
Before, if you wanted to delete a bunch of photos in the Photos app, you had to click Select and then tap each one. If there's a whole page of photos to delete, click select and drag your finger left/right and up/down across the rows and columns of images. They'll all get the blue check mark to indicate selection.
Ready to become the next Peter Jackson? He shot The Hobbit trilogy at 48 frames per second. On iPhone, you can shoot at 60fps!
While you're at it, also drop the frame rate used on slo-mo videos from 240fps down to 120fps to save space. It'll make the basic slo-mo look twice as fast, but is still plenty slow.
We're getting used to a world where our devices listen to us. Apple's iOS 8 had a version of this: saying "Hey Siri" turned on the digital assistant. However, with slightly older iPhones, it only worked when the device was plugged in (and you had to activate it in settings).
In iOS 9 with an iPhone 6s or 6s Plus, you can set the "Hey Siri" feature to work full-time, even if you're not plugged in. Set it up via Settings > General > Siri (or search for Siri). Turn on the Allow "Hey Siri" option and Say "Hey Siri" a few times to train it—that way, other people screaming "Hey Siri" in a crowded room of Apple fanatics won't activate every iPhone 6s present.
The Spotlight Search is back in iOS 9! Well, it didn't really leave—you could always get to this quick method of searching an iPhone's contents by swiping down on the home page (just not from the very top—that brings up the notifications screen). In 9, as it was in versions before iOS 8, Spotlight Search is easily accessed by swiping right when you're on the first page of app icons.
That's all fine, but what's annoying is that Siri—now getting a lot of credit for being smarter—fills the page with suggestions. They may be contacts you prefer, apps you've used recently, maps/links to nearby necessities like parking, gas stations, food, or coffee. It'll also throw headlines from the new Apple News at the bottom. If you hate all those suggestions, hide them. Go into Settings > General > Spotlight Search and turn off Siri Suggestions. From then on, your Spotlight Search page is empty until you type in a search term.
Have you ever been sitting in a movie theater and had Siri go off in your pocket ("I didn't get that")? Well, me neither. But if that voice feedback is a worry, make sure Siri stays quiet whenever you turn the ring switch on the side of the phone to off/mute. Go into Settings > General > Siri > Voice Feedback. Select "Control with Ring Switch." This won't prevent her from speaking if she hears "Hey Siri," however, so make sure you've set that up with your voice-only training, just in case. The hands-free option limits Siri feedback even more.
Apple's support for third-party keyboards is flavored with weak sauce. However, the update to the built-in iOS keyboard in iOS 9 is the greatest thing ever: it finally, FINALLY shows lowercase letters on the keys when the shift button isn't active. I suppose there's a chance you hate that. In which case, you can turn it off at Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard > Show Lowercase Keys. Just to be clear, if you do this, you're a monster.
If you live in Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. (or also London, Berlin, Mexico City, Montreal, Sydney, Toronto, and 300 cities in China), you may be in luck while commuting. Apple Maps—the much maligned but now pretty okay mapping program Apple uses instead of Google Maps (even though that's still available and has a seven-year head start on this feature)—now has transit directions. You can also see what businesses support Apple Pay when you search on Maps for restaurants and shops. Tap the Transit option on the upper right.
If you've got an iPad with iOS 9—like the monstrous iPad Pro—you get a few special functions for big screens.
Two-Finger Text Select: Rather than select a word and drag the selector bar left or right, you can tap and hold with two fingers. The keyboard turns into a grayed-out trackpad. Drag anywhere on it to select the copy.
Picture-in-picture video: When watching video like on YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, etc, click the picture-in-picture icon. The player gets small and you can work with other apps while still watching. Also works with FaceTime calls. Picture in Picture works on iPad Pro, iPad Air or later, and iPad mini 2 or later.
Split View and Slide Over: Swipe in from the right to get the multi-tasking side bar, which provides quick access to things like email or even Slack. Supported apps, meanwhile, can take over one half of the screen with Split View; just pull further to the left and it will snap into place. Slide Over works on iPad Pro, iPad Air or later, and iPad mini 2 or later. Split View is available on iPad Pro, iPad Air 2, and iPad mini 4.
Ready to check out but don't want to fumble to open up Apple Wallet (previously named Passbook) to use Apple Pay to get the hell out of the store? When your phone is locked, do a double push on the home button—Apple Pay should pop right up, with your cards ready to pick. You can turn this off in Settings > Touch ID & Passcode > Wallet.
No one shakes to undo something on their phone. It's a hold-over action that maybe Steve Jobs liked, but no one else did—like the lack of a stylus! Well, the Jobs era is over, it's Tim Cook's time now, and finally we can rid ourselves of the tyranny of accidentally shaking to undo! Go into Settings > General > Accessibility > Shake to Undo and turn it off.
This is a weird name for a great feature, but look at it from the cellular side. Until now, if your Wi-Fi was screwy, you got nothing. The only fix was to turn off Wi-Fi to go to the cellular connection. With Wi-Fi Assist, when an iPhone is in a spot where the Wi-Fi should be strong and clear and wonderful—but isn't—the iPhone automatically falls back to using the cellular data connection, so you'll always get a connection.
You can find it in Settings > Cellular (scroll all the way to the bottom). It's probably on by default. Wi-Fi Assist is especially great if you have unlimited data plan and some spotty Wi-Fi at home; if you've got terrible Wi-Fi and a very limited data plan, tread carefully. It could eat up your plan pretty fast.
The Health App from Apple didn't change much but did add one very important missing area in iOS 9: reproductive help. Now you can track things like sexual activity, spotting, menstruation, ovulation tests, and basal body temperature.
When you look at any one photo in the Photos app, the latest redesign allows you to scroll through the whole photo collection at the bottom. Swipe down on the image to close and go back to the grid display.
Apple said it would build in the ability to make third-party ad blocking a possibility, and it has delivered. For a time, the top paid apps were ad blockers. The developer behind one of those apps, Peace, actually bowed out of the job, saying, "ad blocking is a kind of war—a first-world, low-stakes, both-sides-are-fortunate-to-have-this-kind-of-problem war, but a war nonetheless, with damage hitting both sides."
Nevertheless, other apps, like Purify and Crystal, are still available. The ad blockers work in Safari and any app that uses the Safari engine to show Web pages.
If you have a reason to turn a website—mobile or desktop—into a PDF, now you can, from within Safari on iOS. Hit the share button, and on the top row on the Share Sheet you'll see Save PDF to iBooks. Once finished, go into the iBooks app to share the PDF.
There are few apps Apple forces on iOS users that are more useless than Notes (well, okay, maybe Tips, and Watch, and Stocks...) At least that used to be the case, but Notes got an overhaul with iOS 9. It now integrates better with other apps like Mail, Photos, Safari, and Maps—you can insert pictures and maps into a note, for example, then share it with others. More important, it's now capable of making actual checklists, changing font sizes, and maybe best of all, supporting hand-written notes. There's even an option to lock notes using a password and/or your fingerprint using Touch ID.
Existing notes stored with iOS 8 will get an upgrade the first time you open Notes in iOS 9. The tools are pretty rudimentary, and don't even let you mark up an image like you can in email—though the ruler tool for help drawing straight lines in ingenious and should be spread to other drawing apps ASAP! All in all, however, for hand-written notes get the Paper app from FiftyThree.com.
In the built-in iOS email app, attaching images to messages is simple—hold a finger down in the message and when you get the pop-up menu, select Insert Photo or Video. In iOS 9, you don't even have the five-image limit anymore.
Better yet, it now includes the ability to annotate or mark up images. With the image inserted, hold your finger on top of it until the pop-up menu appears, then select Markup. Draw on the image with a number of colors, turn the drawings into recognized shapes, zoom in, add some text, or even throw in your signature. It's a little rudimentary—it would be nice if you could change the background on the annotations so they'd pop out more—but a nice option.
Now your friends are in for it. The visual voicemail area of the Phone app now has a share button! You can send the audio of the message to a ton of apps—Email, Notes, Messages or Facebook Messenger (to send to others!), Voice Memos (to edit), even biz apps like Basecamp and Slack. Or shoot it to Dropbox to save in the cloud and on your desktop as an .m4a (MPEG 4) audio file—we call that a "forever blackmail." It's also a quick way to make voice memos to yourself when you can't access your phone; simply transfer your own message to other apps.
On the iPhone 6/6 Plus (and 6s/6s Plus), with iOS 9, the Messages app—the one you use not only for sending SMS/MMs texts, but also iMessage messages—got a new feature. Pics from your iPhone Contacts list show up next to the person who sent the message. Very nice—unless you hate it. iOS 9.1 added an option in Settings > Messages to turn off Show Contact Photos.
Not surprisingly, Apple's first app for Android is all about getting people off the Android platform and on a device running iOS 9. Called Move to iOS, it helps current Android phone users move all their important data—contacts, photos, mail settings, calendars, even their SMS message history—into iCloud, so it can be easily sucked down to an iPhone.