Changelog: The 200 New Features Of iOS 5
by Matthew Sims
October 12, 2011
If you haven't been lucky enough to get your hands on a beta or gold master version of iOS 5, today is the day. Like most of you, I've spent plenty of time on Apple's iOS 5 page looking at the features and watching those famous Apple walk through videos. While the bullet point features are great, we've been unable to see exactly what we're getting.
Well, that is until now. Below you will find a list we've compiled of the over 200 new features included in iOS 5, sorted by app/section. So whether you've updated already or are counting down the minutes, scroll down for some in depth goodness. Also make sure you stay tuned to AppAdvice.com for all of your iOS 5 and iPhone 4S launch needs.The 200 New Features of iOS 5 iMessage
- Free instant messages
- Facebook button
- Turn on or off in settings
- Read receipts
- Configure to use SMS when not connected to Internet
- Group messaging
- Ability to send photos and videos
- Blue message bubble indicates it’s an iMessage
- See if other person is typing a message
- Location-based reminders
- Google Calendar and Microsoft Exchange integration
- Support for iCal and Outlook
- Dedicated area for news publications
- Download more via the App Store
- Background downloading
- Changeable application icon
- Add, rename or delete calendars
- View attachments from within the app
- Landscape mode gives weekly view
- Default alert times
- Year view (iPad only)
- Switch days by swiping
- Japanese calendar support
- Buddhist calendar support
- Page turning
- Notification Center
- Displays missed notifications
- Touching a notification takes you to the app
- Clear notifications
- Widgets: Weather and Stocks
- Weather: Week view
- New notification system
- Toggle Notification Center
- Choose how many recent items
- View in lock screen
- Banner style notification
- Choose which notification for specific apps
- Toggle app icons on or off
- Custom vibrations
- LED flash alerts
- Sort notifications manually or by date
- Enable or disable badge alerts
- Slide specific notifications to go directly to its respective app
- Displays Calendar tasks
- Split keyboard
- Emoji keyboard
- Twitter keyboard, with @ and # buttons
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Hide keyboard icon
- Wireless activation
- Wi-Fi sync
- Automatic downloads
- Use a device while it syncs with iTunes
- Over-the-air software updates
- Create a free @me email account
- Everything in-sync
- Photo Stream
- Find My iPhone
- Online backup
- iTunes in the cloud
- iTunes Match
- iCloud section of the Settings app
- Purchase History
- Buy more storage
- Documents/Data Sync
- Multitasking gestures
- AirPlay Mirroring
- Tone Store
- Tones for individual contacts
- Music app with new icon
- New Videos app
- Information on tracks
- Send song details over Bluetooth
- Delete individual tracks
- New icons for Hotmail, Google Mail and Microsoft Exchange
- Enhancements to the Mail app
- Enhancements to the Notes app
- Rounded toggle buttons
- New welcome screen
- Application data can be deleted
- Traffic in Maps can be hidden
- Game Center improvements
- New color for SMS bubbles
- Ability to rename a device in the Settings app
- Disable Voice Control
- Speak selection option
- Assistive touch settings
- Custom gestures
- Native 1080p playback on iPad 2
- Set left and right audio
- Edit number in Settings
- Personal Hotspot moved to Network section of Settings app
- Remove custom website data
- FaceTime section in Settings app
- Pick message alert length
- Separate settings for music and video
- Learn More Links
- Configure message alert length
- Choose default account for Notes
- Turn automatic downloads on or off
- Unsecured calls warning notification
- Multiple Apple IDs for different services
- Access applications from the Lock screen
- Make FaceTime calls without a SIM card
- Define your own words in the built-in dictionary
- App fades when crashing
- Snooze alarms from the Lock screen
- Sort friends using “points”
- VoiceOver item chooser
- Speak selected text
- Multiple downloads
- New voice in Voice Control
- New maximum for downloaded emails: 1,000
- Double-tapping the Home button in YouTube shows author
- Configure AirPort
- Support for Arabic
- Native support for turn-based games
- Updated Lock screen
- Create and delete photo albums
- Access camera from lock screen
- Crop, rotate, enhance, and remove red-eye in Photos app
- Camera Grid
- Lock Auto Exposure & Auto Focus
- Font and time-stamp layout changes in Messages app
- Cards app: Compose, Send, Print cards
- Find Friends & Family app
- Profile pictures for Game Center
- Friend recommendations for Game Center
- App Store in Game Center
- S/MIME Security
- Change device name via Settings app
- Improved FaceTime video quality
- FaceTime over 3G
- More equalizer presets
- New voices for Voice-Over
- Help center
- Application Updates in background
- Voice roaming can be turned on or off
- ‘Tell a Friend’ via AppStore
- Advanced assisted touch gestures
- Re-design for video time-line under Photos app
- AirPlay FaceTime calls
- Siri Voice AI (iPhone 4s exclusive)
- Rich text formatting
- Search through entire mail messages
- Quote level control in Mail settings
- S/MIME support
- Flag emails
- Mark multiple emails as read
- Maximum recent email messages limit to 1,000 instead of 200
- Swipe left or right from your mailboxes folder list to navigate to other mail accounts
- Private Browsing
- Read Later
- Reader View
- Open link in background
- Tabbed browsing (iPad only)
- Single sign-on
- Tweet from Safari
- Tweet from Photos
- Multiple Twitter accounts
- Tweet picture from the camera roll
- Tweet website URL from Safari
- Tweet video from YouTube
- Alternative route
- Sponsored links
- Contacts
- Social network integration
- Flickr
- Myspace
- Weather
