Apple is preparing to launch iOS 9 this month, the latest operating system for iPhones and iPads. The new OS offers fantastic under-the-hood improvements for a growing list of supported Apple devices, but here are the nine main themes to focus on.
App Transport Security
What it is: Security enhancements make it harder for hackers to attack your apps and potentially damage your brand.
What you need to know: Not taking action could result in connection failures if your backend doesn’t support TLS 1.2. Validate your current app on iOS 9 to be sure that your users will have a seamless transition.
Apple TV Becomes An Experience:
What is it: Apple TV now allows for third party apps through the new tvOS and Siri lives in your remote.
What you need to know: The Siri remote allows you to navigate through your apps, movies and tv shows with incredible simplicity. The new touch surface of the remote handles movements accurately, creating a more natural experience. Brands and game developers will be able to use the Siri remote and the tvOS to their advantage when building out new and unique experiences that, for the first time, can be delivered through the new Apple TV App Store.
3D Touch
What is it: It allows users to make peek and pop gestures to preview content.
What you need to know: The new pressure sensitive screen allows users to press down in order to access menus and shortcuts.
Multitasking
What it is: Three new iPad app views—Slide Over, Split View, and Picture in Picture—that will change the way users interact with your content.
What you need to know: Adhere to class sizes, which were introduced in iOS 8. If you haven’t adopted this approach for managing views, Multitasking is a great reason to do it. Slide Over permits your app to be run as an overlay to another app. Split View allows users with an iPad Air 2 to run two applications simultaneously side by side. Finally, Picture in Picture lets media apps display their content as an overlay to other apps. For example, you can continue to watch video from one app in a small window while checking your email in the outer app.
Beefing up Apple Watch Experiences
What it is: Now you can take full advantage of the device hardware and even hook into the digital crown as a control in your apps.
What you need to know: One of the most exciting features available to third-party apps in watchOS 2 is the ability to create your own complications (If you’re not familiar with the concept of complications yet, think of it as valuable real estate directly in the watch face). These represent a way for your app to provide timely content in the main view that users see when the watch face is activated. You should look to support all the possible complication styles and sizes so users can take advantage no matter which watch face they select.
App Thinning
What it is: A rework of how apps are downloaded to increase download speeds.
What you need to know: If you have a universal app, users only download parts meant for them. This means a better start-up user experience for first-time users. Larger apps can also be downloaded or updated over cellular networks, not just Wi-Fi.
Siri is Smarter
What it is: Siri is better and faster than ever.
What you need to know: In iOS 9, Siri is now contextually aware and, combined with the enhanced Spotlight search features, truly a fully capable digital assistant. What’s great about that is that Apple has also provided us with a number of ways to hook into this so that Siri and Spotlight can help users discover and deep-link directly into the parts of your app that they need most.
Improved Spotlight Search
What it is: A new SDK named Core Spotlight allows apps to provide content indexing directly to the OS.
What you need to know: You can think about this as being similar to SEO for websites, and so the case is clear for why you would want to index your content. Doing so also allows your app to bubble up in searches throughout the OS.
Tighter Personal Data Protection
What it is: Unlocking your device will now default to a 6-digit passcode.
What you need to know: Higher security for personal data is top priority in iOS 9. Upon device activation, you will be prompted to create a 6-digit passcode. Making the passcode just two digits longer means that you now have 1,000,000 possible PIN combinations to choose from. You may choose to continue using the simple 4-digit numeric pin through the “Change Password” menu, but are strongly advised not to.
These are just a few of the biggest changes we’ve noticed while testing iOS 9. Some you should adopt immediately, and others you will want to consider soon thereafter.