Over the years Apple has been constantly making improvements to their mobile OS and it has definitely come a long way since 2007 when the first version of iOS was released. iOS 9 is no different and some of the new features you will probably have come across before such as the new commands introduced for Siri. There are honestly countless new features available that you may not have heard about however. Therefore without further ado, here are 7 features you may not know about in iOS 9.
1. Send Huge Files With Mail Drop
Mail Drop allows for the sending of large files through iCloud. Attachments up to 5GB can be sent using this awesome feature. Within, the mail app, you will see a prompt much like the one below if the attachment you are trying to send is too large. Note: It goes without saying that attachments larger than 5GB cannot be sent. Additionally, if an uncompressed folder is attached to the email it won’t be sent. Also, if you send too many messages or send out a message to too many recipients your message won’t be sent. Finally Maildrop allows you 1TB of storage over a 30 day period. Attachments expire after 30 days. Therefore if your storage is exceeded within 30 days you won’t be able to send attachments using this feature until after the 30 days have passed. You can view the full description of limitations on Apple’s website.
2. Save an Attachment to a Note
The Notes App has taken a step into the future with iOS 9. Specifically, you can now spice up your notes with attachments. Notes can be added from within any app which allows you to share content. Simply hit the Share button and you will see an option to share the content to the Notes app as is demonstrated with Safari below. When you touch the Notes icon, the link will be copied into the app and you will have the option of adding it to an already existing note or a new note will be created. You can also add photos or videos to notes from directly within the notes app which is quite convenient. You can choose to either snap a photo/video on the fly or to use already existing media from your library. The ability to add attachments to notes greatly enhances the ability of users to construct detailed, content rich notes and also makes the process quite easy.
3. Transform iPad Keyboard Into A Touchpad
Another golden feature in iOS 9 is the ability to use the onscreen keyboard as a touchpad. Simply press 2 fingers to the keyboard and will be able to quickly zip back and forth between any text that you are editing. This is quite the convenient feature for quick and effective text editing.
4. Get Directions For Public Transportation
Our friends in Baltimore, Beijing, Berlin, Chicago, London, Mexico City, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Toronto and Washington should be thrilled with the transit directions built directly into maps. Detailed information about the routes and schedules of trains, ferries, and buses is built right into maps for these cities, making it easy for persons to plan a route. Hopefully this feature is extended to more cities around the world in the future.
5. Remove Apps From Deep Spotlight Searching
iOS9 makes it easy to discover information associated with apps through Spotlight. However, with a large number of apps supporting spotlight searching, the speed of results can be negatively affected. Users therefore have the choice of disabling apps that they do not need to be included in searches so that search times aren’t negatively affected.
Conclusion
As iOS progresses, more and more features are being added in order to streamline the mobile OS. Increased functionality has also been provided to users out of the box, making their lives easier since the installation of third-party apps for things like Notes due to a lack of out of the box features in iOS 9 isn’t really necessary any more. There will always be Android vs. iOS rivalry but Apple has without a doubt added several useful features to their latest OS as we can see. So what do you think? Are these features a hit or a miss with you? Please leave a comment and let us know. The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.