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Share your experiences on exploring iOS 8 with us..

Whether you found hidden or little-known feature of iOS 8 or can explain how a big feature makes a difference, we're looking for objective reports of how the new OS affects your workflow.

Also provide details on how to achieve that feature, and if possible, include a relevant image too (hold Home and Lock for a screenshot on your iOS device).

Please post one tip per answer. Please also check to see if your answer has already been posted - duplicate answers will be deleted in favour of the original answer on any given topic. To search answers for this question use inquestion:145371 (or inquestion:this, directly from the question page) in addition to your search terms in the search box in the upper right hand corner of this page.

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  • I like how there is now a "Tips" app which Apple will keep updating - providing details on iOS features.
    – Josh Newman
    Commented Sep 18, 2014 at 14:02

12 Answers 12

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Third-party app extensions in the Share menu

And the ability to show/hide/reorder them to your preference:

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Medical ID in the Health app

It creates a summary of all your medical details (age, blood type, allergies, known conditions, etc.) as well as a list of emergency contacts, and can be accessed from the lock screen. Once there's enough uptake that medical professionals know to look for it, it could be a life saver.

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    Well, at least I'll know about it when I become an EMT!
    – L.B.
    Commented Sep 18, 2014 at 14:47
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Battery usage

iOS8 finally allows us to see what app is sucking up all out battery - it even shows stock apps!

General > Usage > Battery Usage

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  • I still don't understand how to reduce the usage of my Home & Lock Screen though. It drains my battery so fast after iOS 8.1.2.
    – Enrico Susatyo
    Commented Dec 16, 2014 at 6:56
  • Additionally, it will show if any apps are straining the radio (and using more battery) due to Low Signal.
    – Michael Innes
    Commented Dec 27, 2014 at 0:56
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Request desktop sites in Safari

screenshot

"Tap on the URL / search bar (as though you were leaving the current website) and then drag down to expose the "request desktop site" option."

via: http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/17/6237271/best-ios-8-features-you-may-not-know-about

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Find My iPhone will display the last 'known' location of your iPhone for 24 hours from the last update it receives. Which is handy if you lose your phone and the battery dies.

Find My iPhone

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See every attachment from every conversation

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"The new "details" section of Messages...you can now review all of the attachments that have been exchanged in each of your conversations on a single screen. You'll see both images and videos you've sent as well as those received. And the archive goes back a long way — assuming you haven't previously deleted your message history. But if you do need to free up space, the details view makes it even easier because you can just tap and hold on any attachment to erase it from your device (and iCloud backups, where all those meme photos can eat up storage space.)"

via: http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/17/6237271/best-ios-8-features-you-may-not-know-about

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    This is huge. I had over 1gb of iMessage videos clogging up my iCloud backups - the only way previously to delete was to delete entire conversation or search through long message thread.
    – Josh Newman
    Commented Sep 18, 2014 at 13:49
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Web browser within apps now have access to the same JavaScript 'nitro' engine which means sites loaded within apps now load as fast as they do natively within Safari.app

In iOS7 and prior in-app browsers were noticeably much slower.

source: http://9to5mac.com/2014/06/03/ios-8-webkit-changes-finally-allow-all-apps-to-have-the-same-performance-as-safari/

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Select a word with the keyboard suggestion box active. Tap shift and it will suggest title case. Hold down shift and it will capitalize the entire word.

via: https://i.sstatic.net/xNzNn.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/oZRqvkD.png

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Deleted Photos

I don't know about you, but I'm very careless when looking for free space for a new app, or something, and I can go on a deleting rampage! It's nice to know iOS8 has the deleted pictures album until 30 days later in case I need it:

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Photos > Albums > Recently Deleted

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  • Not only that; but, it keeps a countdown so you know how many more days to "reconsider" the deletion of a particular picture.
    – Kent
    Commented Sep 24, 2014 at 4:41
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Being able to swipe right-to-left on a message on the lock screen and reply to it is proving useful for me as is tapping on them to reply when the notification slides down when using the phone.

I'm also liking being able to do a long swipe right-to-left to delete an e-mail.

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Handoff and airdrop between devices is a game-changer for me. Both of these combine to let me be more efficient whether I'm working on an iPhone or an iPad. Both will become incredibly more powerful when Yosemite ships for Macintosh.

Now I can ditch complexity in many of the instances when I previously used a clipboard sharing service or bookmarking service so I could get a link or a document to the correct device to finish the task at hand.

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Swipe down on the top of a new email and you can view your mailbox while keeping the new/draft email open. You can actually do this for multiple messages and Mail presents a safari-tab-like window to choose between open windows. Game changer for multi-tasking between in-progress email messages.

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