Apple Rolls Out iOS 8.3 OTA Update For iPhone, iPad And iPod Touch; Top 6 Upgrades

Apple has started rolling out iOS 8.3 for all iPhones and iPads via traditional the OTA route and is available for download. After months of testing, the tech giant has finally brought the third major iOS update to its users bundled with massive changes, new features, improvements and more.

Apple was found testing the iOS 8.3 Beta with participating developers and consumers last month. The beta software usually comes with bugs and is subject to improvement, based on users' feedback. Apple appears to have successfully completed its experiment and the iOS 8.3 is pushed out as a stable upgrade.

Apple has worked extremely hard on the new update, complete with improvements to existing apps, new features, bug fixes and performance boosters. The tech giant listed the entire change-log on its support page and here are the top six improvements seen in iOS 8.3.

Emoji

Apple mainly focused on improving the emojis by arranging them into categories. The emojis are diverse with the new iOS update, offering users different skin tone modifiers and expanded family options. There are also new additions that depict the iPhone, iMac, Apple Watch as well as new country flags.

CarPlay

Apple's iOS 8.3 brings seamless wireless connection between iPhones and CarPlay systems without the need for a lightening cable. Several bugs have also been addressed in the CarPlay, where a black screen appeared on Maps, keyboard popping up at unnecessary times and UI rotation when it is not needed.

Siri

Siri is more advanced and responds to precise functions such as calling a person and activating the speaker mode. In addition, new languages have been added to expand Siri's presence around the world. According to Apple, Siri now supports new languages linked to respective countries such as English in India and New Zealand, Danish, Dutch, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Arabic and Hebrew.

iMessages

With iOS 8.3, users can filter messages that are not sent by their contacts. To do so, users must go to Settings > Messages and turn on Filter Unknown Senders. Also, users can report junk messages from within iMessage app using a blue "Report Junk" link at the bottom of the message.

App Downloads Without Password

Apple users may find entering passwords every time they try to download new apps, even for free apps. The secure authentication method is helpful in preventing accidental app purchases but free apps are harmless. To end users' misery, there's a new option in the iOS 8.3 to let users disable password authentication for free app downloads.

Keyboard

Apple has made several changes to its keyboard, making it easier for users to type without errors. The space bar has slightly been elongated to prevent users from punching the period while searching something using Safari. Also, users of iPhone 6 Plus will find new bold/italics/underline key for formatting text in landscape mode, which was previously limited for bolding, MacRumors pointed.

Apple has several other improvements in place with its iOS 8.3 update, including fixes to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, orientation and rotation, Passbook, Photos, Apple Pay and more.