Knowledge base

iOS 7

Posted in Apple Downloads

This update features a beautiful new design and also contains hundreds of new features, including the following:

  • New design
    • Redesigned interface updates the entire system and every built-in app
    • Subtle motion and animation; layers and translucency provide depth
    • Elegant new color palette and refined typography 
    • Updated system sounds and ringtones
  • Control Center
    • Quick access to commonly used controls and apps with a swipe up from the bottom of the screen
    • Turn on & off Airplane Mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb; adjust screen brightness; access media controls; turn on AirPlay and AirDrop
    • Quickly access flashlight, timer, calculator, camera and music controls
  • Notification Center improvements
    • New Today view gives you an overview of your day, including weather, calendar, and stocks 
    • Notifications dismissed on one device dismisses across all your devices
  • Multitasking improvements
    • Preview screens of open apps when you switch between them
    • Permits any app to keep content up to date in the background
  • Camera improvements
    • Swipe through different camera modes – video, still photo, square aspect, and panorama
    • Real-time photo filters with iPhone 4S or later, and iPod touch (5th generation)
  • Photos improvements
    • Automatically organizes your photos and videos based on time and location into Moments
    • iCloud Photo Sharing supports multiple contributors and videos, plus a new Activity view
    • Add photo filter effects
    • Flickr and Vimeo support
  • AirDrop
    • Quickly and easily share content with people nearby
    • Securely encrypted transfers with no network or setup required
    • Supported on iPhone 5, iPad (4th generation), iPad mini, and iPod touch (5th generation) and requires an iCloud account
  • Safari improvements
    • New iPhone tab view that lets you easily switch between open web pages 
    • Unified smart search field for both search terms and web addresses
    • Shared Links shows web pages shared by people you follow on Twitter
  • iTunes Radio
    • Streaming radio service
    • Pick from over 250 featured and genre-focused stations
    • Start your own station from your favorite artist or song
  • Siri improvements
    • New, more natural sounding male and female voices for US English, French and German
    • Integrated Wikipedia, Twitter search, and Bing web search results
    • Change settings including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and brightness
    • Supported on iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad with Retina display, iPad mini, and iPod touch (5th generation)
  • App Store improvements
    • See apps relevant to your current location with Popular Near Me
    • Discover age-appropriate apps in the Kids category
    • Keep your apps up to date automatically
  • Find My iPhone Activation Lock
    • Turning off Find My iPhone, erasing your device, reactivation, and signing out of iCloud requires your Apple ID password 
    • A custom message can be displayed on your device even after a remote erase
  • iTunes Store improvements
    • Preview and buy songs you've heard on iTunes Radio while inside the iTunes Store
    • Add to, and shop from, your iTunes Wish List
    • Scan code with camera to redeem iTunes Gift Cards 
  • Music improvements
    • Play music purchases from iCloud 
    • Rotate your iPhone or iPod touch to browse your music with the Album Wall
  • Videos improvements
    • Play movie and TV show purchases from iCloud 
    • View similar movies and TV shows from Related
  • Maps improvements
    • Turn-by-turn walking directions
    • Automatic night mode 
    • Bookmarks shared across devices via iCloud
  • Mail improvements
    • New Smart Mailboxes, including Unread, Attachments, All Drafts and To or CC
    • Improved search
    • View PDF annotations
  • FaceTime audio calling
  • Block unwanted Phone, Messages and FaceTime callers
  • Support for sending long MMS messages
  • Pull down on any Home Screen to reveal Spotlight search
  • Scan to acquire Passbook passes
  • New ringtones, alarms, alerts and system sounds
  • Definitions of a selected word for additional languages: Italian, Korean, and Dutch
  • Inclinometer in the Compass app
  • Wi-Fi HotSpot 2.0 support
  • Accessibility features
    • Individuals with limited physical motor skills can now control their device using Switch Control
    • Customize closed caption style
    • Handwriting input support in VoiceOver
    • Math input support using Nemeth Braille in VoiceOver
    • Select from multiple premium voices for speak selection and VoiceOver 
    • Support for Made for iPhone Hearing Aids and stereo audio for iPhone 5 and iPod touch (5th generation)
  • Enterprise features
    • Manage which apps and accounts are used to open documents and attachments
    • Per App VPN
    • App Store license management
    • Enterprise single sign-on
    • Remote configuration of managed apps
    • Automatic data protection for third-party apps
    • Exchange Notes syncing
    • Install custom fonts
    • New management queries and restrictions
  • Education features
    • Mobile device management for Apple TV
    • Request AirPlay Mirroring from a student device to Apple TV
    • Pre-configure AirPlay destinations and AirPrint printers
    • Streamlined MDM enrollment
    • Ability to restrict changes to accounts
    • Web content filtering
    • Authorized apps can initiate single app mode
    • Configure accessibility settings for single app mode
  • Features for China
    • Tencent Weibo integration
    • Chinese-English bilingual dictionary
    • Improved handwriting input with improved accuracy, stroke order independence and support for simultaneous multiple character input
  • Bug fixes

Some features may not be available for all countries or all areas.

For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

Available via iTunes