When Apple unveiled iOS 5 last Monday, Steve Jobs mentioned that their new OS for mobile devices included 200 new features. 10 of them were demo’d on stage, but what happens to the 190 remaining features?
Apple didn’t give us a list of these 200 features, so it was left to beta testers to find them out by themselves. After spending almost a week with iOS 5, we’ve compiled the most comprehensive list of new iOS 5 features to date. This list counts 121+ new iOS 5 features, both documented and undocumented…
The way Apple counts “new features” can be a little redundant. For example, Twitter integration is not just 1 feature but it covers several of them (ie. Twitter for maps, Twitter for Safari, etc…), so technically, there aren’t really 200 new features.
Notifications (full details)
- Notification center
- Lockscreen notifications
- Slide lockscreen notifications to open their app
- In app notifications
- Select what notifications appear
- Select where notifications appear
- Sort notifications manually or by time
Twitter Integration (full details)
- Single sign on
- Install Twitter from Settings app
- Tweet a location in Maps
- Tweet a picture from the camera roll
- Tweet a link from Safari
- Tweet a video from YouTube
- Apply your friends’ Twitter usernames and pictures to contact
- Special keyboard when using the Twitter integration
PC Free and iCloud
- New welcome screen when you first turn on your device
- Activate device without a computer
- Update device OTA
- Backup settings
- Backup photos
- Backup purchased music, apps, and books
- Backup app data
- Backup homescreen and app organization
- Backup Text Messages and MMS
- Backup ringtones
- Restore from iCloud
- Automatic downloads
- Past purchases
- Sync bookmarks, highlights, etc in iBooks across devices
- Sync documents (ie Pages, Keynote, etc) across devices and machines
- Check app usage
- Option to buy more storage
Messages
- iMessage
- Set specific SMS ringtones to contacts
- Text Messages show a green bubble
- iMessages show a blue bubble
- Send pictures and videos with iMessage
- See when people are typing an iMessage
- Enable Read Receipts for iMessage in Settings
- Repeat alerts up to 10 times
- Use Apple ID to activate Facetime and iMessages on iPhone
Camera and Photos
- Photo Stream
- Access camera from lockscreen
- Turn on grid lines
- Take a picture with Volume Up button
- Take a picture with Volume Up button of your headphones
- Touch and hold to lock focus and exposure
- Pinch to zoom
- Crop pictures
- Auto-enhance pictures
- Remove red eyes
- Create and delete photo albums
- Swipe from camera to camera roll
Safari
- Reader
- Reading List
- Tab browsing (iPad only)
- Private browsing
- Option to open links in the background
- Remove website data
- URL bar fades out to the right
- Improved performance
- “Find on Page” from the iPad keyboard
- Drag to rearrange recipients
- Text formatting (bold, italic, underlined, indent)
- Flag emails
- Mark several emails as read at the same time
- Add and delete mailbox folders
- Search full message
- Warning if you forget to add a subject
- Easy Hotmail set up
- Select tone for Email Sent in Settings app
- Select tone for Email Received in Settings app
Weather
- Local weather
- Weather hour by hour
- Swipe the weather widget in Notification Center to see 5 day forecast
Phone & Contacts
- Select tone for new voicemail in Settings app
- Unsecured Calls warnings
- Edit your number in Phone settings
- Delete individual calls
- When receiving a call from a non-contact, area or country displays on your screen
- Add “Related People” to a contact
- Add social media services info to your contacts
Calendar
- Year view on iPad in landscape mode
- Week view on iPhone in landscape mode
- Tap to create a new event
- Tap and drag to adjust time and duration of an event
- Add, rename, and delete calendars from the device
- View event attachments
- In day view, swipe left or right to go to next or previous day
- In month view, tap and hold a day to add a new event
- Select tone for calendar alerts in Settings app
Game Center
- Add a profile picture
- Make your profile private or public
- Friends recommendations
- New games suggestions
- New games downloads
- New achievements scores
- New notification sound
Music App
- New
iPodMusic icon - Slide to delete a song
- Tap song to display info in Music app
- New Genius presentation
- Swipe left or right on the album cover to skip between tracks (iPad only)
Maps
New Apple Apps
Accessibility
- LED flash on calls and alerts
- Custom vibrations
- Larger text option
- New speak selection
- New assistive touch settings
- Set Mono Audio left or right
Multitasking Gestures (iPad Only)
- Swipe up with 4 fingers to show the app switcher
- Pinch to return to home screen
- Swipe left and right to switch between apps
AirPlay Mirroring
User Interface
- New rounded toggles
- Widgets (Stocks and Weather)
- New Videos app and icon
Other Features
- Shortcuts
- Dictionary
- Emoji icons
- Rename your device from the Settings app
- See app data usage in the settings
- Voice Memos app rotates upside down
- Split keyboard on iPad
- Use your phone while it’s syncing
- Buy new tones from the new Tone Store
- High quality YouTube playback over 3G
- FaceTime over 3G?
- Bluetooth wireless tethering for the iPhone 3GS
- Simultaneous app download
We need your help. If we missed something, please leave a comment below and we will add your findings to the list.