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iOS 8’s four most surprisingly useful features

Published Jul 18th, 2014 10:54AM EDT
iOS 8 Features
Image: Zach Epstein, BGR

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We still have about two months to go before Apple’s new iOS 8 software is released to the public, but developers — and anyone else with a $99 developer account — have already spent more than a month with the new operating system. Visually, iOS 8 isn’t anything like the dramatic update we saw went Apple updated its mobile software from iOS 6 to iOS 7. Behind the scenes, however, iOS 8 is probably Apple’s most massive update in years.

Of course, not all the action takes place behind the scenes; there are plenty of awesome new user-facing features in iOS 8 that iPhone and iPad users will love, come September. We covered many of them in our iOS 8 preview back in June, but a newly published list looks to isolate the four most surprisingly useful new features in iOS 8.

FROM EARLIER: Check out these 12 hidden iOS 8 tricks

Fast Company recently pared down the dozens of great new iOS 8 features to create a list of four that it has dubbed “surprisingly useful.” In nearly all cases, we completely agree — these features looked nifty when Apple unveiled them back in June, but we appreciate them much more after having spent some time with iOS 8.

Included on the list are iOS 8’s new audio messaging feature, which is basically a next-generation walkie-talkie system; and Apple’s new QuickType predictive text input system.

Want to see the full list along with details on each item? Head over to Fast Company’s list, which is linked below in our source section.

Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 10 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.