All the little extra features
There’s lots more, from delegating Reminders to sending audio messages with Siri
The built-in apps in iPadOS 14 are full of improvements and new features. Reminders has been overhauled, we’ve already shown you some great new additions in Mail, and Safari has been greatly improved, too. Shortcuts is now installed by default and much more powerful. And both Siri and Voice Control are much improved.
1 Assign a reminder
In addition to sharing lists in Reminders, you can now assign individual reminders to people you share the list with. Tap a reminder in a shared list, then the people icon and choose a contact to assign the reminder to.
2 Enhance Voice Memos
Voice Memos is a great app for recording everything from short voice notes to podcasts or narration for videos. Until now, your options for editing them within the Voice Memos app was limited to trimming the start and finish. But now you can enhance a recording. Open the memo in Voice Memos and tap the magic wand icon at the top of the screen. If you don’t like the sound of the enhancement, tap it again to remove it.
3 Send an audio message with Siri
Siri can now send audio messages. To send one, invoke Siri by saying “Hey Siri”, or by pressing and holding the Home or top button, depending on which iPad you have. Say “Send an audio message to” followed by the name of the contact you want to send the message to. When you’re finished recording pause and wait for Siri to display a preview. You can listen to the preview by tapping the play button, or say “Send” to send the message.
4 Dismiss calls without rejecting them
We’ve all been there. You’re working or
focused on something and a FaceTime call comes in. You don’t want to reject it because then the caller will know you’ve rejected it, but you don’t want it to keep ringing either. Now you can have the best of both worlds. When a call comes in, swipe up over the notification to dismiss it. The notification will disappear, but the caller will be none the wiser.
5 Search apps in iPad storage
If you go to Settings > General > iPad Storage, you can see how much of the storage on your iPad is occupied and the capacity occupied by each app you have installed. Now, you can also search for a specific app. Just tap the magnifying glass at the top right of the screen and type the name of the app.
6 Adjust the opacity of a screenshot
The screenshot Markup toolbar has a new addition in iPadOS 14. You can now change the opacity of screenshots to make your markup standout more. Take the screenshot in the usual way, then tap it when the thumbnail appears to see it in a larger view. You’ll then be able to use the slider to adjust the opacity.
7 Watch YouTube in 4K
iPads don’t have 4K screens. But you can still watch 4K videos in the YouTube app if 1080p HD videos aren’t high enough quality for you. You’ll need to find videos on the YouTube app that are available in 4K – try The HDR Channel. Choose a video and play it in full screen, then tap the three vertical dots at the top right. Choose 2160p for the 4K version.