Apple today released iOS 8.3, the
third major update to iOS 8. Seeded to developers in February and to public
beta testers in mid-March, iOS 8.3 brings several new features and design
tweaks to the operating system.
iOS 8.3 is available immediately
as an over-the-air download. Xcode 6.3 is also available, as is a 7.2 update
for the Apple TV and a 1.2 update for Swift, Apple's programming language.
iOS 8.3 has a heavy focus on
emoji improvements, bringing an updated emoji picker that organizes emoji into
categories in an easily scrollable list, new diversified emoji with expanded
family options, and emoji skin tone modifiers for changing the look of people
emoji. There are also several new flags and updated phone, computer, and watch
emoji that now resemble the iPhone, iMac, and Apple Watch
Other iOS 8.3 changes include
wireless CarPlay, letting users connect their iPhones to their CarPlay systems
sans Lightning cable, support for Google two-factor authentication that makes
it possible to add Google accounts without the need for app specific passwords,
and Apple Pay support for the China UnionPay network. On the iPhone 6 Plus, in
landscape mode, there's now a bold/italics/underline key for formatting text.
Previously, the key only allowed for bolding.
There are also minor changes to
Passbook (dividing Apple Pay and Passes) and the Photos app (icon overlays for
albums). Siri has gained new languages plus the ability to make calls using the
iPhone's speakerphone, and in Messages, there's now an option to enable
filtering to separate iMessages from friends from iMessages from Unknown
Senders.
One of smaller but most notable
UI changes includes an update to the space bar, which has been elongated to
prevent users from hitting the period key in Safari when attempting to make a
space. It's also now possible to turn on a setting to allow you to download
free apps without the need to enter your password. We have a full list of the
changes in iOS 8.3 in our iOS 8 Features Roundup.
iOS 8.3 also has a very long list
of bug fixes, which we've added in below. There are multiple fixes to Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth, orientation, messages, and more.
Improved performance for:
- App launch
- App responsiveness
- Messages
- Wi-Fi
- Control Center
- Safari tabs
- 3rd-party keyboards
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Simplified Chinese keyboard
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth fixes
- Fixes an issue where you could
be continuously prompted for login credentials
- Addresses an issue where some
devices disconnect intermittently from Wi-Fi networks
- Fixes an issue where hands-free
phone calls could become disconnected
- Fixes an issue where audio
playback could stop working with some bluetooth speakers
Orientation and rotation fixes
- Addresses an issue that
sometimes prevented rotating back to portrait after having rotated to landscape
- Improves performance and
stability issues that occurred when rotating the device between portrait and
landscape
- Fixes an issue where device
orientation appeared upside down after pulling the iPhone 6 Plus from your
pocket
- Resolves an issue that
sometimes prevented apps from rotating to correct orientation after switching
apps in multitasking
Messages fixes
- Addresses issues that caused
group messages to sometimes split
- Fixes an issue that sometimes
removed the ability to forward or delete individual messages
- Resolves an issue that
sometimes prevented a preview from appearing when taking a photo in Messages
- Adds the ability to report junk
messages directly from the Messages app
- Adds the ability to filter out
iMessages that are not sent by your contacts
Family Sharing fixes
- Fixes a bug where certain apps
would not launch or update on family members' devices
- Fixes a bug that prevented
family members from downloading certain free apps
- Increased reliability for Ask
to Buy notifications
CarPlay fixes
- Fixes an issue where Maps could
come up as a black screen
- Fixes an issue where the UI could
be incorrectly rotated
- Fixes an issue where the
keyboard could appear on the CarPlay screen when it shouldn't
Enterprise fixes
- Improves reliability of
installing and updating enterprise apps
- Corrects the time zone of
Calendar events created in IBM Notes
- Fixes a problem that could
cause web clip icons to become generic after restarting
- Improves reliability of saving
the password for a web proxy
- Exchange out-of-office message
can now be edited separately for external replies
- Improves recovery of Exchange
accounts from temporary connection problems
- Improves compatibility of VPN
and web proxy solutions
- Allows use of physical
keyboards to log into Safari web sheets, such as for joining a public Wi-Fi
network
- Fixes an issue that caused
Exchange meetings with long notes to be truncated
Accessibility fixes
- Fixes an issue where using the
back button in Safari causes VoiceOver gestures to not respond
- Fixes an issue where VoiceOver
focus becomes unreliable in draft Mail messages
- Fixes an issue where Braille
Screen Input cannot be used to type text in forms on webpages
- Fixes an issue where toggling
Quick Nav on a Braille Display announces that Quick Nav is off
- Fixes an issue keeping app
icons from being moveable on home screen when VoiceOver is enabled
- Fixes an issue in Speak Screen
where speech will not start again after pausing
Other improvements and bug fixes
- Introduces a redesigned Emoji
keyboard with over 300 new characters
- iCloud Photo Library has been
optimized to work with the new Photos app on OS X 10.10.3 and is now out of
beta
- Improves the pronunciation of
street names during turn-by-turn navigation in Maps
- Includes support for Baum
VarioUltra 20 and VarioUltra 40 braille displays
- Improves the display of
Spotlight results when Reduce Transparency is turned on
- Adds Italic and Underline
format options for iPhone 6 Plus landscape keyboard
- Adds the ability to remove
shipping and billing addresses used with Apple Pay
- Additional language and country
support for Siri: English (India, New Zealand), Danish (Denmark), Dutch
(Netherlands), Portuguese (Brazil), Russian (Russia), Swedish (Sweden), Thai
(Thailand), Turkish (Turkey)
- Additional dictation languages:
Arabic (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates) and Hebrew (Israel)
- Improves stability for Phone,
Mail, Bluetooth connectivity, Photos, Safari tabs, Settings, Weather and Genius
Playlists in Music
- Addresses an issue where Slide
to Unlock could fail to work on certain devices
- Addresses an issue that
sometimes prevented swiping to answer a phone call on the Lock screen
- Addresses an issue that
prevented opening links in Safari PDFs
- Fixes an issue where selecting
Clear History and Website Data in Safari Settings did not clear all data
- Fixes an issue that prevented
autocorrecting "FYI"
- Addresses an issue where
contextual predictions did not appear in Quick Reply
- Fixes an issue where Maps did
not enter night mode from hybrid mode
- Resolves an issue that
prevented initiating FaceTime calls from a browser or 3rd-party app using
FaceTime URLs
- Fixes an issue that sometimes
prevented photos from properly exporting to Digital Camera Image folders on
Windows
- Fixes an issue that sometimes
prevented an iPad backup from completing with iTunes
- Fixes an issue that could cause
Podcast downloads to stall when switching from Wi-Fi to cellular networks
- Fixes an issue where remaining
time on timer would sometimes incorrectly display as 00:00 on Lock screen
- Fixes an issue that sometimes
prevented adjusting call volume
- Fixes an issue that caused the
status bar to sometimes appear when it shouldn't
Previous iOS updates have
included iOS 8.1 and iOS 8.2, with the former introducing support for Apple Pay
in October and the latter bringing support for the Apple Watch in March, plus
several minor updates. Apple is already working on the next big update to iOS
8, iOS 8.4, which may include the company's upcoming revamped streaming music service.
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