Glad you read our article about iOS 10, which is the most recent version of Apple’s OS for iPhone, iPad and iPad touch. Here we’ll be analyzing the characteristics, interface and system requirements. At the end of this review, I hope you will be able to decide if the iOS 10 is good for you.

I must add here that just as other software updates, iOS 10 has some bugs.

Design

First, I must mention that the most impressive changes in design had iOS 7 but still iOS 10 has something to offer to iPhone users. This time Apple did a good job on the lock screen, moving the screen from left to get to the notification/search page and notification center.

Raise To Wake

This feature is called Raise to wake, just like in the Apple watch, and it lights up and displays the iPhone’s lock screen when you carry the phone. This prevents the accidental crashing into the unlocked home screen thanks to the super-efficient second-gen Touch 1D. However, iPads do not have this feature.

3D Touch

I guess, many people would have noticed that Apple is expanding on a strategy of emboldening the 3D touch feature throughout the system. Results show users, trying to use iOS on obsolete iPads and iPhones that they are running into trouble.

Presently, we have two productions of iPhone on the market using the 3D Touch and likely the third will be released in autumn. Also, we will be seeing an iPad with a 3D capability on the market soon.

Notifications & lock screen

Notifications seem to be more engaging with each production of iOS 10. Majority of them are 3D Touched to allow a quick view of important information. Also, iOS 10 allows live updates within notifications themselves. It follows that you can engage in a chat on iMessage notification with live replies without the need for the message app.

Widgets are now working in a bigger format, utilizing their usefulness in other apps.

One exciting change to the lock screen I really admire is the opening of the camera app from here, just by swiping in from the right. A natural development of the previous system.

Messages

Messaging happens to be one of the frequently used apps on iOS and gets lots of reactions and appreciation in iOS 10.

A number of the modifications are visual and trivial; with most of them including emoji.

There are loads of visual effects and you can choose to use them with your messages, especially sarcastic ones. To mention one that stands out is the “invisible ink”, it scrambles the image or text in your iMessage until the person swipes across it.

Also, you can allow and disallow read receipts, where you can change it per group or contact. As a separate new feature one can now send low-grade images via the message app.

Emoji

Emoji now seems to have three times size increment in messages, with suggestions (when necessary) by QuickType predictive text. If you are away from typing a message and hit the icon for emoji keyboard, iOS will automatically check your message to see if it can find any word with an emoji equivalent. Then it turns them to orange-gold, left for you to pick the ones you want to apply the emoji too.

Apple also changed old emoji and replenish them with new ones. Most noticeable is the gun emoji which now shows as a water pistol, reasons for the change still lies in speculations, as some claim it has a political background, but Apple has yet to release any statement on the subject.

Relevant to note that code-wise emoji still remains the same and if you send this emoji(gun) to someone using an Android phone it will still show as a gun on their device, while if they send you what appears to be a gun from their device you will get a display of a water pistol. In my opinion, I see it as being odd when Apple could have simply created a new toy gun emoji and erase the gun from the default tray without barring it from showing if someone sends it to you.

This way no misunderstanding will ensue. We, however, appreciate the wide range of emoji and anticipate seeing more in the nearest future.

Deleting preinstalled apps

Hurray!!!!! Apple now lets its users delete Tips, Stocks and some other preinstalled apps from our iPhones and iPads. However, we are removing only the user data while the app itself remains not visible and occupying a little amount of space.

Music

The music app in Apple was updated with new visual redesign and lyrics added. Guess most users will appreciate the fact they could be taking pictures while listening to music at the same time. We like what Apple has done so far with this app but we think they can still do more.

Siri

Third-party developers can now have access to Siri. Means you can use Siri in non-Apple apps. Now, this approach opens the platform thereby allowing a greater number of apps to be voice controlled. An interesting approach by Apple, I must add.

Images

Raw footages can now be taken on iOS devices with Apple stating its support for the iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone SE, 9.7-inch iPad Pro and later devices. It is a very great feature for users who want full resolution images from their iPads and iPhones.

Note, that images will be large but RAW images will be available just on the rear camera without the possibility of using image stabilization. Ohh! Now live photos have image stabilization.

There is an update to the photos app in iOS 10 which is the addition of artificial intelligence. Apple announced that photo app will be able to put together videos and photos and time where it automatically creates a highlight reel.

Home

Relatively, brand new app: a place where you can control all HomeKit-compatible smart-home devices. Opening up your home, you will find all HomeKit-compatible accessories, irrespective of the company that created them. Now, you can control all of them from just one point. Most of them will have 3D Touch shortcuts; for instance, you can tap and slide on a dimmer app to adjust the light levels.

The scene is a nice feature that collects frequently used settings for different appliances under a single button. So, pressing down the “Goodnight” button will turn down the lights, lock the door, and turn down the thermostat and so on.

QuickType

Predictive emojis was mentioned earlier in this article, but there is something that is getting smarter and that is QuickType. If for instance, someone asks for friends contact details and iOS thinks it recognizes this information, it will dig out the appropriate phone number from the contact list and offer it as a suggestion. When your location is asked it will present your accurate location. QuickType supports the use of more than one language at a time but we are not sure if this works in cases.

iOS keyboard

The Beta version has some modifications to its default iOS keyboards, with Apple returning the changes they made in the previous betas. Now, the iOS keyboards have a new sound, with the backspace, return and space keys having a little different sound from the default keys. Some people see this change as cool but others certainly miss the old stock sounds.

Unlocking

The way we unlock the iPhone or iPad may come as a change to some people. The slide to unlock feature has been dropped and replaced with Press Home. Relatively, this makes more sense as those who could install iOS 10 now have Touch ID and can put a fingertip on the Home button. In most cases, this is used to unlock the device. You can simply rest your fingertip on the Home button to unlock rather than actually have to press the button. This you can set the Accessibility settings.

Compatible devices

The following older devices can upgrade to iOS 10:

• iPad 4, iPad Pro 12.9in (2015), iPad Air 2, iPad Air 1, iPad Pro 9.7in
• iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3, iPad mini 4
• iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone SE
• 6th-gen iPod touch

The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, and the iPad 9.7in (2017), iPad Pro 10.5in (2017) and iPad Pro 12.9in (2017), all come with iOS 10 pre-installed.

Our Opinion

Absolutely, it is a great innovation and everyone must have one or two things they find interesting in the iOS 10 new features.

I, personally, think the Raise To Wake is a fascinating idea. Having the ability to hide pre-installed apps is great. The changes to the Messaging app are user targeted and not everyone will find it cool. The reality is that there are so many nice, useful changes throughout the rest of the OS and we only mentioned a few here. There have been the issues of bugs and teething which have been successfully taken care of. Then there is the view of the third party partners and we will see how long this union can survive.

If you are having a recent iPhone or iPad, go-ahead, get this updated version of iOS 10, it’s free and worth it. Note, if you installed the update, you can’t revert back to iOS 9 as Apple stopped signing the later.