iPadOS 14 introduces redesigned apps, new Apple Pencil features, and other improvements.

Redesigned Experience

Small, medium and large widget sizes allow you to pick the amount of information to display

Widget stacks make the most of your Home Screen space and the Smart Stack uses on–device intelligence to surface the right widget at the right time

App sidebars have a new look that deliver more of the app's functionality in the main window

New app Toolbars, Pop–Overs and Pull–Down menus make it easier to get to all of the controls for an app

Compact Design

Siri has a compact design that allows you to refer to information onscreen and seamlessly launch into your next task

Compact Search has a simpler design that works on the Home Screen or over any app

Incoming Phone and FaceTime calls appear as a banner at the top of the screen

Search

One place where you can find everything: search for apps, contacts, files, quick information like weather and stocks, common knowledge questions about people or places, or even quickly start a web search

Top Hit results show the most relevant information including apps, contacts, knowledge, points of interest and websites

Quick Launcher allows you to launch an app or website by typing a few characters

As–you–type search suggestions show more relevant results as soon as you start typing

Web search suggestions to launch Safari and get the most relevant web results

Start a search in apps like Mail, Messages and Files

Scribble

Write in any text field with Apple Pencil and your writing automatically converts to typed text

Scratch to delete a word or space

Circle a word to select it for editing

Press and hold between words to add space for additional writing

Shortcut Palette offers commonly used actions for the app you are using

English, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese are supported as well as mixed Chinese and English

Note–taking with Apple Pencil

Smart selection makes it easy to select text, distinguishing handwriting from drawings

Copy and paste as text converts your handwritten notes into typed text for use in other documents

Make space is a new gesture to create more room for handwritten notes

Data detectors allow you to take action on phone numbers, email addresses and other handwritten information

Shape recognition enables drawing perfect lines, arcs and other shapes

Siri

An all–new compact design surfaces results in the bottom right corner of the screen in a new layout

Expanded knowledge brings 20x more facts than three years ago

Web answers help find answers to a broader set of questions using information from across the internet

Audio messages can be sent with Siri on iOS and CarPlay

Expanded language support for the new Siri voice and Siri translation

Messages

Pinned conversations keep up to nine of your favorite message threads at the top of the list

Mentions let you direct a message to an individual in a group conversation

Inline replies let you reply to a specific message and see all related messages in their own view

Group photos can be customized for a shared group look

Memoji

11 new hairstyles and 19 new headwear styles to customize your Memoji

New Memoji stickers to send a fist bump, hug or blush

Six added age options

Face covering options

Maps

Cycling directions provide routes along bike lanes, bike paths, and bike–friendly roads, taking into consideration elevation or how busy a street is

Guides offer recommendations for places to eat, meet friends, or explore, curated by a selection of trusted brands

Electric vehicle routing helps you plan trips with supported electric vehicles and automatically adds charging stops along your route

Congestion zones help you route around or through active zones in cities like London or Paris

Speed cameras let you know when you're approaching speed and red–light cameras along your route

Refine Location enables a highly accurate location and orientation when in urban areas with a poor GPS signal

Home

Suggested automations help you set up automations with just a tap

A visual status at the top of the Home app gives you a summary of accessories that require your attention

Dynamic suggestions of the most relevant accessories and scenes appear in Home controls in Control Center

Adaptive Lighting automatically adjusts the color of your smart light bulbs throughout the day to maximize comfort and productivity

Face Recognition for video cameras and doorbells uses on–device intelligence to let you know who is there based on the people you've tagged in your Photos app and recent visitors you identify in the Home app

Activity Zones for video cameras and doorbells captures video or sends you a notification only when motion is detected in areas you define

Safari

Improved performance with an even faster JavaScript engine

A Privacy Report shows cross–site trackers that are being blocked by Intelligent Tracking Prevention

Password monitoring securely screens your saved passwords for any that may have been involved in a data breach

Web page translation (beta) translates entire web pages in English, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, French, German, Russian or Brazilian Portuguese

AirPods

Spatial audio with dynamic head tracking on AirPods Pro places sounds anywhere in space, creating an immersive surround sound experience

Automatic device switching transfers audio from your iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, and Mac

Battery notifications let you know if you need to charge your AirPods

Augmented Reality

Depth API provides more precise distance measurements captured by the LiDAR Scanner on iPad Pro to allow more realistic interactions between virtual and real–world objects

Location Anchors in ARKit 4 enables apps to place AR experiences at a specific geographic coordinate

Face Tracking is available to support AR experiences through the front camera on iPad Pro 12.9–inch (3rd generation) and later, iPad Pro 11–inch and later

Video textures in RealityKit enable apps to apply video to any part of a scene or virtual object

App Clips

An App Clip is a small part of an app that developers can create and that is discoverable at the moment you need it, and focused on a specific task

Small by design, App Clips are usable in a few seconds

Discover app clips at the right moment through scanning QR codes, from Messages, Maps, and Safari

Recently used App Clips show up in App Library's Recently Added category, and you can download the full version of the app if you want to keep it around

Privacy

A recording indicator is displayed whenever an app has access to the microphone or camera

Approximate location can now be shared with an app, rather than sharing your precise location

Limited Photos library access gives you the option to share only selected photos with an app whenever an app asks for access

App and web developers can now offer the option for you to upgrade your existing accounts to Sign in with Apple

Accessibility

Headphone accommodations amplify soft sounds and adjust certain frequencies, customized for an individual's hearing

Sign language prominence in FaceTime detects when a participant is using sign language and makes the person prominent in a Group FaceTime call

Sound Recognition uses on–device intelligence to detect and identify important sounds such as alarms, and alerts you to them using notifications

VoiceOver Recognition uses on–device intelligence to recognize elements on your screen to improve VoiceOver support for app and web experiences

Image descriptions read complete–sentence descriptions of images and photos within apps and on the web

Text recognition speaks the text identified within images and photos

Screen Recognition automatically detects interface controls to aid in navigating apps

This release also includes other features and improvements.

App Store

Important details about each app are displayed in a glanceable, scrollable view, including a way to see the games your friends are playing

Apple Arcade

Coming Soon gives you a sneak peek at upcoming Apple Arcade games and you can automatically download them as soon as they're released

See All Games is improved with sorting and filtering by release date, updates, category, controller support and more

Achievements are browsable right from within the Apple Arcade tab

Continue Playing makes it easy to resume recently played games across devices

Game Center dashboard showcases your profile, friends, achievements, leaderboards and more, all from within your game

Apple Cash Family

Apple Cash can be enabled for up to five family members under 18

Send money to your child through Messages or by asking Siri

Notifications for purchases or person to person payments as they occur

Parental controls to limit who your children can send money to

Option to turn off Apple Cash for family members under 18

Shared oversight with another adult in your Family Sharing group

Camera

Quick toggles in Video mode to change video resolution and frame rate from the Camera app

Mirror front camera lets you capture selfies that match the front camera preview

Improved QR code reading to scan codes, even if they are small or wrapped around objects

FaceTime

Improved video quality with up to 1080p resolution on iPad Pro 10.5–inch, iPad Pro 11–inch (1st generation) and later, and iPad Pro 12.9–inch (2nd generation) and later

New eye contact feature uses machine learning to subtly adjust the position of your eyes and face to make video calling more natural even when you're looking at the screen instead of the camera

Files

New sidebar and toolbar consolidate controls for quicker access to files and functions

APFS encryption support for external drives

Keyboard and International

On–device dictation helps protect your privacy by performing all processing completely offline. Dictation in search uses server–based dictation in order to recognize terms you may be searching for from across the Internet.

Search within the Emoji keyboard using a word or phrase

Keyboard displays AutoFill suggestions from Contacts for email addresses, phone numbers, and more in apps

New dictionaries for French–German, Indonesian–English, Japanese–Simplified Chinese, and Polish–English

Wubi input method for Simplified Chinese

Autocorrection support for Irish Gaelic and Norwegian Nynorsk

Redesigned Japanese Kana keyboard with easier input for numbers

Mail supports email addresses using non‑Latin languages

Music

A new Listen Now tab for playing and discovering your favorite music, artists, playlists and mixes

Autoplay keeps music playing when you reach the end of a song or playlist by finding similar songs to play

Search now showcases music for your favorite genres and activities, and shows helpful suggestions as you type

Library filtering helps you find artists, albums, playlists and other items in your library even faster

Notes

Enhanced actions menu provides easy access to locking, scanning, pinning and deleting

Top Hits in search surfaces your most relevant search results

Pinned Notes list can be collapsed or expanded

Enhanced scanning captures sharper scans and more precise auto–cropping

Photos

New sidebar gives you quick access to Albums, Search and Media Types, and makes it easy to edit the order of albums under the My Albums view

Filter and sort your collection to more easily locate and organize your photos and videos

Pinch and zoom to quickly find your photos and videos in more places, like Favorites and Shared Albums

Photos and videos caption support

Live Photos taken using iOS 14 or iPadOS 14 will autoplay with improved stabilization in Years, Months and Days View

Memories enhancements provide a more relevant selection of photos and videos and a larger music selection for Memory movies

Redesigned image picker in apps uses the same smart search from the Photos app to help you easily find content to share

Podcasts

Listen Now is smarter and includes your personal episode queue and new episodes picked for you

Reminders

Assign reminders to people you share lists with

New reminders can be created from the lists screen without having to enter a specific list

Smart suggestions let you add dates, times and locations with a tap

Personalized lists with emoji and newly added symbols

Rearrange or hide smart lists

Settings

Option to set your default email and web browser

Shortcuts

Starter Shortcuts let you get started with a built–in folder of shortcuts, tailored for you

Shortcuts automations are suggested based on your usage patterns

Folders let you organize your shortcuts and can be added as widgets to the Home Screen

New compact design for running shortcuts keeps you in context while you use another app

New Automation triggers can run shortcuts based on receiving an email or message, your battery level, closing an app and more

Wind Down Shortcuts provide a collection of relaxing shortcuts to help you get ready for a good night's sleep

Voice Memos

Folders help organize your Voice Memos recordings

Favorites lets you mark your best recordings and quickly access them later

Smart Folders automatically group together Apple Watch recordings, recently deleted recordings and recordings you marked as Favorites

Enhance Recording reduces background noise and room reverberation

Some features may not be available for all regions or on all Apple devices. For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222