We’ve had around a week to play with the finished version of iOS 9 and whilst there are a ton of tweaks and improvements on offer, we wanted to bring light to a handful that you might have missed.
Wallet & Apple Pay shortcut
If like us you’re a fan of Apple Pay you’ll appreciate the new shortcut ability, which lets you jump straight into the Wallet app (formerly Passbook) without unlocking your iPhone.
It’s an evolution of holding your print against the reader whilst the screen’s off. By the time you’ve double-tapped the home button, your default payment card has been authenticated, making it faster and more convenient than ever before.
Tip: You can toggle this feature on and off from the Wallet & Apple Pay section of your phone’s settings menu too.
Notifications and battery usage organised by time
Notifications Centre served as a useful way to keep tabs on what was going on within the myriad of apps you kept on your iPhone, but grouping events by app made it harder to get a clear picture of what had happened when.
With iOS 9 notifications now appear chronologically by default and the same goes for the battery usage data that was introduced in iOS 8. As well as seeing consumption by percentage, you can tap a clock to see how long apps were being used, both on-screen and in the background.
WiFi Assist
Long-time iPhone owners might have noticed that iOS tends to hang onto WiFi connections even when signal strength has diminished beyond any remote level of usefulness. Thankfully WiFi Assist is now here to remedy this quirk.
For those who tend to stream music or videos on-the-go this buried-away feature is a must as it seamlessly handles moving from known WiFi networks to a mobile data connection without interruption.
Oddly it isn’t found under WiFi in the settings menu, but rather at the bottom of the mobile data/cellular menu. Scroll down passed all the apps asking to use your device’s mobile data connection and you’ll find a toggle for WiFi Assist.
Drag to select photos
Selecting multiple photos is typically a tedious process no matter what smartphone you’re using, but thankfully iOS 9 makes it that little bit easier.
Head into the Photos app and tap ‘select’ as you would normally. The update lets you tap individual snaps as you could previously, or hold and drag across numerous photos to select a whole bunch in one move. It’s a simple but effective tweak that feels long overdue.
App shortcuts with headphones
If you’re a music lover you’ll appreciate this little tweak to iOS 9. Inserting headphones into the 3.5mm jack whilst the screen is locked will light it up and offer up a shortcut in the bottom left to the app you typically use headphones for.
For me that’s Snapchat, but it could just as easily be YouTube or Apple Music depending on your usage habits.
Any iOS 9 gems we might’ve missed? Let us know in the comments below.
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