Paul Morris on March 11, 2020, 9:02 pm

iOS 14 Tidbits: New Accessibility Features, Third-Party Integration With Wallpapers, Alipay Support, More

With iOS/iPadOS 14, iPhone and iPad owners are expecting Apple to once again try and push its mobile OS to the next level via the integration of new features and functionality. We’d normally get our first official reveal during WWDC but there has already been a number of discoveries made about what Apple has planned for the future of iOS/iPadOS.

At this moment in time, conferences and large-scale gatherings are falling by the wayside quicker than you can imagine due to the global outbreak of COVID-19.

There has been no official word on WWDC yet but the smart money is on Apple canceling the conference for 2020. That means we may have to get our iOS 14 gossip elsewhere for the time being.

With iOS 14/iPadOS 14, Apple is expected to bring better organization and more power to the Wallpapers section of the platform. This will likely include deeper category structures, such as “Earth & Moon,” as highlighted by 9To5Mac, and will also allow third-party developers to tie directly into the Wallpapers section. Rather than having to provide standalone wallpapers apps in the App Store, it seems like those developers could integrate directly into the Settings app to push their wallpapers and collections into that area.

We’re expecting some fairly significant Accessibility improvements with iOS 14, also. Early findings suggest that the future firmware will be capable of hearing a particular sound – such as a knock on the door, a doorbell, or even a fire alarm – and then do something with that sound that would directly benefit a user with a visual or hearing impairment. Like some features built into watchOS and the Apple Watch, this could literally be life-saving for some people.

Apple will also look to allow the built-in camera system to detect hand gestures and will make significant audio improvements for people that are suffering from hearing loss. Additionally, and very interestingly, it’s also being suggested that Apple will integrate the #ShotoniPhone challenge directly in the Photos app within iOS 14, allowing users to submit photos and see uploads by others.

One big feature addition is possibly the support of Alipay within Apple Pay, but we don’t have more details on this right now.

There will, of course, be plenty of other features that we currently know nothing about but iOS 14 is shaping up to be an exciting release at this time.