Apple first introduced the iOS 14 update in June 2020, and it was released to the public for download on September 16, 2020. Apple has established new security measures, a more interactive home screen that includes widgets and smart stacks as well as a more compact design. Although the iOS 14 update has been released for a few weeks, some students still haven’t made the switch. This may be because they have too little storage to update, haven’t had the time, or simply don’t want to endure the change.

“I just haven’t updated my phone recently,” junior Taylor Hart said.

Apple continues to make its products more user friendly and more importantly, secure. In the update, new privacy settings were introduced. Apple claims to give you more control over the data you share and more transparency into how it’s used. With these new security settings, there is now privacy information on the app store, a recording indicator on the users screen and they can choose what information they want to share with apps. Although there are “cooler” additional features to this update, the privacy and security of the Apple user is ensured.

One of the features most utilized and recognized by Apple users is the new widgets and smart stacks. Widgets are cubes of information that they can add to their home screen, to allow them to be creative.

“I’ve done a couple widgets,” junior Carson Brindle said. “The widgets are nice for visual effect.”

They can stack multiple widgets on top of each other to create a smart stack. This ability to make their homepage unique has become especially popular on TikTok. Thousands of short videos have been posted showing off people’s creative homepages. Some users even base their home screens off movies, such as the Avengers. Some have gone as far as to sell widgets to those who don’t want to spend hours customizing their home screen.

“I have customized my home screen,” sophomore Jake Decker said. “I spent a few hours adding widgets and organizing apps.”

Believe it or not, there are still more intricacies to this update. A fan favorite feature is the “Picture-in-Picture” viewing. They are now able to FaceTime or watch videos while doing something else on the screen. 

“My favorite thing is being able to FaceTime on the side while doing other things on my phone,” Brindle said. 

Other features include a pre-organized app library, compact calls and smarter messaging. There is now an emoji search bar, which allows users to search for a specific emoji much quicker than scrolling through until they find the right one. 

“My favorite thing about the update is the emoji search bar,” Decker said.

Overall, the iOS 14 update has brought a lot of change to the Apple community. It is much more accessible and customizable to one’s preferences.