Firefox lets you test new features for side-by-side views and customizing colors

For the last couple of years, Mozilla has offered its useful Test Pilot program that lets anyone try out new features it’s thinking about incorporating into its Firefox web browser.

A couple more landed on Tuesday. The first should delight avid multitaskers, while the other will be useful for those who’ve ever felt the need to jazz up the look of their Firefox browser.

Side View lets you open two websites in a single window. This allows you to monitor one page while using another, for example, keeping an eye on a social media feed while watching a YouTube video. Alternatively, you could use it to more easily compare content from two different web pages instead of having to constantly switch between them.

The only way to do this at the current time is to open two separate windows and align them on your display, but Side View offers a quicker and less cumbersome solution. However, at the current time, it offers less control than the old-style method as you can’t drag the second window across to take up more than half of the screen. The original page can be dragged across the screen to obscure part of the second page, but even then, you can’t move the second page around to display the specific part that you want to view.

To launch the feature, you simply click on the Side View button at the top right of your browser and select from a list showing your open websites or ones you were looking at earlier.

Next up is Firefox Colors, which offers the perfect opportunity for a period of serious procrastination before you embark on your web browsing session.

If the current choice of Firefox themes just don’t cut it, Colors may be the answer. It lets you inject a range of colors and background textures into almost any part of your browser — think toolbars, tabs, icons, search bars, and more. Once you’re done, you can save your creation and, if you’re particularly proud of it, share it with others. A range of presets are also available if you’d like a faster route to a new-look Firefox.

To take Side View and Colors for a spin, you’ll need to sign up to Mozilla’s free Test Pilot program. You can do so by hitting this page, entering your email address, and then responding to Mozilla’s email. You’ll then be directed to the Test Pilot hub where you can grab the add-on.

There’s no guarantee Side View and Colors will make it into a future version of Firefox, but any feedback you can offer the team will help it to refine the features, giving them a better chance of making it into an upcoming release.

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How to create, customize, and use Memoji on iOS 12

At its Worldwide Developer Conference, Apple announced a ton of new feature for iOS 12. As part of its Animoji update, users now have the ability to express themselves more accurately — with Memoji. Rather than interacting with just emojis, you can now send a customized Animoji that looks exactly like you. For now, the feature is only available on the iPhone X thanks to its TrueDepth camera but hopefully it will be available on future iOS devices soon.

After downloading the iOS 12 developer beta, we decided to test out the Memoji feature by creating our own. Aside from the extremely simple process, we enjoyed all the different customization options — from pink hair to blue skin, Memoji lets your imagination run wild. Its accuracy wasn’t only apparent in the way it physically looked either, we also enjoyed how quickly and realistically it picked up on our facial expressions. In comparison to other apps that allow you to make your own custom avatar, Memoji was able to do it the right way — by not overcomplicating it.

For those who can get their hands on an iPhone X, here is how to create and use Memoji.

How to create your Memoji

To create your Memoji, you have to head into iMessage and open a new or existing conversation. Once you open your App Drawer and select the Animoji icon, swipe all the way to the right until you reach “New Memoji” and tap the plus sign icon.

You will then be able to customize your Memoji based on a variety of physical features. Apple offers a variety of options to make your avatar as unique as possible — like the ability to add freckles and choose from a wide range of skin tones and hair colors. You can also alter your head shape, eyebrows, nose, lips, ears, and more.

Aside from physical traits, you can also dress up your Memoji. There are plenty of hats, headpieces, and eyewear to choose from that also customizable by color. Under the ear section, you can also choose from a variety of earrings — whether they are hoops or studs.

Once you are done creating your Memoji, all you have to do is tap “Done” in the upper right-hand corner. It will then live in the gallery alongside the other Animojis in the drawer. If you ever want to switch the way your Memoji looks, tap on the icon with the three dots in the lower left-hand corner and choose “Edit.” You will then be brought back to the same customization options as before to make your changes. If you want to have multiple versions of your Memoji available without having to constantly edit it, you can also choose the “Duplicate” option.

How to use your Memoji

To use your Memoji, open the App Drawer while in the iMessage window, select the Animoji icon, and swipe through to find your Memoji. Since your Memoji mirrors your muscle movements, you want to make sure your face is in view of the camera. Once you’re ready, tap the record button in the lower left-hand corner. As part of the new update, Apple extended the amount of time you have to record your Animoji — rather than 10 seconds, you now have 30 seconds instead.

Once you’re done, you can tap on the record button again to end it — but this will only appear if you haven’t used the full 30 seconds. You will then be able to watch it playback once, and can choose to watch it again by tapping on “Replay” above your Memoji. If you’re not satisfied, you can tap on the garbage can icon to delete it and try again. To send it, simply tap the blue arrow — the recipient will then be able to play it from their iMessage window once it’s delivered, but you can choose to replay it as well by tapping on it in the message window.

You can also add your Memoji into photos you take through the camera in iMessage. Once the front-facing camera is open, you can overlay your Memoji onto your own head, snap the photo, and send it. The same goes for FaceTime — while video chatting with someone else you can apply the Memoji to live video.

How it stacks up against the competition

Even though Memoiji is the first of its kind for Apple, custom avatars aren’t new. In March, Samsung launched AR Emoji — available in the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus — which had mixed reviews. Rather than customizing it from the beginning the way you do with Memoji, AR Emoji creates the foundation for you using your selfie. You’re then able to alter it based on skin tone, hair color, eye color, and outfit. We particularly felt ours looked inaccurate and didn’t allow for much customization in order to help make it look more realistic. It also didn’t capture our facial expressions well either — our mouth and tongue movements seemed a bit off and awkward.

Apple’s new feature can also be compared to Bitmoji — which doesn’t mirror facial expressions but can be used to create an avatar that looks exactly like you. Aside from the fact that you’re able to use it across all platforms and devices (rather than being restricted to the iPhone X or Samsung Galaxy S9), there are also deeper customization options. As part of its update back in February, Bitmoji Deluxe allows alter anything from different hair treatments to minor details like wrinkles on the forehead, cheeks, or eyes — which resulted in us taking hours to create our Bitmoji.

With Memoji, we found the feature had the right amount of customization and enjoyed creating it. The process is not only simple, but there are enough choices to make us feel content with the way it looks (without having to overthink it) and excited to actually send it out to people. We also appreciate the attention to detail in not only accurately capturing our facial expressions, but the way our hair also swayed from side to side when we moved our head even slightly.

Even though the entire Animoji family consists of only talking heads, we do wish Memojis had bodies to go along with it. When using AR Emoji and Bitmoji, we’re able to express a bit more through hand gestures and it makes our avatars look that much more lively and fun. Plus, it would also be nice to have the option to customize outfits in addition to facial features.

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Job listing reveals Blizzard is working on a new game in the Diablo franchise

Six years after Diablo III originally hit Windows and macOS, a new installment in the franchise appears to be in the works. The news arrives by way of a job listing on Blizzard’s website looking for a dungeon artist for an unannounced Diablo project. The minions of hell are growing stronger, Blizzard says, thus it’s now seeking a skilled artist to confine those demons to caves and caverns for your hacking and looting pleasure. 

“We’re working on a new, unannounced Diablo project. Are you a skilled Dungeon Artist? Come work with us, and together we will build something exceptional,” the job listing states. “The ideal candidate works well in an environment of peers who are passionate about working on the dark gothic world of Diablo, making great games, killing millions of monsters and getting loot!” 

You can’t get any clearer than that. The remainder of Blizzard’s job listing talks about modeling and texturing “compelling assets,” and having a real grasp on 2D and 3D imagery regarding color, light, and form. Candidates must obviously work well with others who are just as passionate about the Diablo environment, as they will work directly with the level design team, the lead environment artist, and the art director. 

The last release in the Diablo franchise was the Rise of the Necromancer DLC for Diablo III in June 2017. Unlike the first two installments, Diablo III has received a bit more shelf life since its debut in May 2012 due to its expansion and DLC, ongoing updates to the core game, seasons that allow players to start over every few months, the auction house, player versus player combat, and so much more. 

The original Diablo smashed onto the PC on the last day of 1996 followed by the PlayStation version in March 1998 and the MacOS version in May 1998. The Hellfire expansion introduced the monk, barbarian, and bard classes along with the nest and crypt environments at the end of 1998. 

In 2000, Blizzard introduced the next installment, Diablo II, followed by the Lord of Destruction expansion pack in June 2001. Blizzard then began working on Diablo III that same year but didn’t acknowledge the game until three revisions later in 2008. Diablo III finally hit Windows and MacOS in 2012 and has since evolved into a service given the changes it’s endured over the last six years.  

With the Diablo III: Rise of the Necromancer downloadable content, Blizzard brought back the necromancer class from Diablo II along with class-based armor and weapons. The DLC also introduced two new zones in Adventure Mode (the Moors, Temple of the Firstborn), Realms of Fate bounties, challenge rifts, and more. 

Creating a new Diablo installment seems rather likely given the age of Diablo III and the advancement of CPUs and graphics chips since the time Blizzard originally developed Diablo III‘s proprietary engine. The job listing implies that Blizzard may be in the early stages of content development, but hopefully that doesn’t mean Diablo IV will arrive in 2022. 

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To save the Mac, the App Store needs more than just a redesign

The Mac App Store is a ghost town, and it always has been.

The lack of growth is a bad sign for the health of MacOS as a whole. Just a few months ago, even Twitter quietly pulled its Mac desktop client out of the Mac App Store, assuming no one would care.

But at the Worldwide Developers Conference this morning, Apple appeared to have addressed the problem pretty clearly. We’ve got a fully redesigned Mac App Store, complete with helpful discovery tools and redesigned app pages — and it all looks great. Unfortunately, it’s going to take a lot more than visual flair to save the Mac App Store. It’s going to to require the only thing Apple has never been willing to do.

Bringing iOS apps to the Mac

Mojave is a nice update to MacOS, but there’s no question that the pace of innovation in MacOS has nearly stalled to a halt. Compared to the feast of updates Apple cooks up for iOS each year, MacOS fans are left picking through the crumbs on the floor. And yet despite all the rumors pointing to an thriving future for MacOS, Apple made it more clear than ever: MacOS and iOS are not merging.

However, toward the end of its keynote, Apple gave us a sneak peak into how it intends to help developers bring iOS apps to the Mac. And no, it’s not by merging MacOS and iOS or by bringing touchscreens to the Mac. Instead, Apple is updating its API to make porting iOS apps over to Mac a bit simpler.

As it currently stands, iOS and MacOS are built on two entirely different APIs. That means porting an iOS app over to the Mac requires a lot of development work. But by integrating elements of UIKit into MacOS apps, the two platforms now share some more DNA. In particular, things like trackpad and mouse input, window resizing, scroll bars, drag and drop, and copy and paste are all elements this new process could repurpose.

According to Craig Federighi, senior vice president of software engineering, some aspects of app porting will be automated, while some will still require some extra coding.

“Using Xcode, Apple’s app-making software that runs on Macs, a developer will be able to indicate they want to write a variant of their iOS app for macOS,” he said in an interview with Wired. “Certain interaction UIs will happen automatically, like turning a long press on iOS into a two-finger click on a Mac. App makers may have to do some extra coding, though, around things like menus and sidebars in apps, such as making a Mac app sidebar translucent or making share buttons a part of the toolbar.”

For Apple, it’s the bare minimum they can do to help save MacOS. While the API changes will no doubt help incentivize developers, they don’t go far as they need to. 

True convergence must occur

Apple doesn’t want to merge iOS and MacOS. Various Apple execs have made that abundantly clear. But what they haven’t addressed in either the redesign of the App Store or the new API is the reason why so many people are calling for the two platforms to merge. We all want our laptops to feel more like phones. We want them to be smarter, more contextual, and open to third-party developers. And more importantly, we want the two computers we use every day to feel more connected. That’s the problem Apple needs to solve.

The redesigned Mac App Store and new API are good first steps, but Apple’s insistence against a unified operating system is too hopeful. In order to transform the Mac App Store into a thriving marketplace where hundreds of great mobile apps are being ported over, Apple does need to tie MacOS to the lifeboat of iOS, its popular platform. They need to converge, meaning full API support for touchscreen and ARM processors — neither of which are officially on the table. 

Not only do we need all of those great iOS apps ported over to the Mac — we also need the Mac App Store in particular to become a place of innovation and creativity on its own. But without first being able to piggyback off the success of iOS, that’s no more than a pipe dream. Fixing the divide between mobile and desktop operating systems isn’t going to be solved overnight, but it’s what MacOS needs to stay relevant.

Until then, the Mac App Store and the MacOS platform will continue down the road of irrelevance.

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How to clean your PlayStation 4 console

Keeping your console clean is mandatory for the best gaming experience!

Your PlayStation 4 is a behemoth when it comes to delivering awesome games, movies, and even VR content. However, you may start to notice some slow down if you let dust build up over time, and nobody wants that. To keep your console running as efficiently as possible, you definitely need to keep it clean. Thankfully this is an easy task that should only take about 10 minutes of your time.

Compressed Air

The first thing that you want to do while cleaning your system is to go ahead and grab a can of compressed air. Your PlayStation 4 is covered with vents located at the front, sides, and back of the system, and these have a tendency to get absolutely covered in dust. To take care of this all that you need to do is go ahead and point the nozzle of the can at those vents, and then spray in short measured bursts. You ought to see the dust clear out of all the vents very quickly, and since PlayStation 4 consoles are black it’s easy to see where the dust has evacuated the system.

Now when you’re using compressed air you want to keep the nozzle a fair few inches away from the system so that the dust can escape properly. Likewise, you want to ensure that you hit all the vents on the system so you don’t miss built up dust somewhere. By cleaning out all of the vents, you’re ensuring the system is able to expel excess heat which helps reduce strain on the internal components. Also, make sure to hold the can upright so no moisture comes out when you spray it. Moisture is incredibly bad, especially if it gets into the inner components.

PS4 in need of a good dusting? You can order a two-pack of compressed air for $14 via Amazon.

See at Amazon

Microfiber Cloth

Now if your system frequently turns gray with dust, you might be tempted to hit it with a wet wipe of some kind. Do not, we repeat, do not do that. You never want to introduce any kind of moisture to the system. Instead what you’ll want to use is a microfiber cloth. Using the cloth you’ll want to wipe the entire system down. This includes the top, sides, front, and back. Depending on how you have your console set up, wiping down the bottom isn’t a bad call either. Depending on how much dust you are dealing with you may need to clean the cloth off a few times, but the shiny black of a clean console is very easy to differentiate. You can stock up on microfibre clothes for cheap with this Amazon Basics 24-pack for $13.50.

See at Amazon

Swiffer Duster

Any feather duster will work, but these are best for doing gentle dusting for your PlayStation. With the soft feathers and lock-in ability, this is great to get into vents and indents in your PlayStation 4. You won’t have to worry about dust getting pushed into the PlayStation or any scratches that might arise since it’s so soft. You can get your hands on one of these on Amazon with 24 refills for $23.

See at Amazon

Do NOT clean with your vaccuum

If you try to clean your console with a vacuum, there is a chance that you will mess up the inner components because the static with the vacuum can cause problems. Unless you have an anti-static vacuum specifically for something like this, your household vacuum will be sure to ruin your PlayStation.

Cleaning your Dualshock 4 controllers

Much like your system, if your controllers sit on a rack all day long they are going to accumulate dust. All that you need to do is go ahead and use a cleaning cloth to wipe down the controller. While wet wipes are still a general no-no, they can be used on the controller so long as you are avoiding the headphone jack, and charge port. When wiping down the controller you’ll want to pay special attention to all of the buttons, the analog sticks, and the light bar at the back of the controller.

Specifically, you want to ensure theres no dust or grime blocking that light bar, especially if you are playing PlayStation VR games, since the camera needs to be able to properly see that light bar. Likewise, nobody wants to use a controller with sticky buttons caused by dust or debris. If that’s exactly what you’re dealing with, your best bet is to turn off the controller and then use a wet wipe to clean away the dust and grime. This can also be particularly handy for those times when you can’t actually see what is causing a button of analog stick to get stuck. Just ensure that the controller has plenty of time to dry out before use, and limit the amount of moisture as much as possible to avoid damage.

If you’re still a little anxious using that kind of moisture on a controller, your best bet is to use the compressed air on the buttons and analog sticks. Keeping it at a safe distance where you’re still able to blow out the dust, this will be the easiest way to get the dust out. It’s great for your controllers, and there is less of a chance of any harm to them since it’s much harder to get to the inside of them.

Cleaning your PlayStation Move controllers

The first thing that you want to do is pick your compressed air back up. With controlled bursts, spray all of the ports and crevices on the controller to make sure there isn’t any dust hiding in a sneaky spot. From there, all you need to do is go ahead and wipe down the rest of the controller with a microfiber cloth. If there is any sticky residue, use a slightly damp paper towel or wet wipe while avoiding all ports.

If you have a pair of Move controller that you want to bust out, but that are particularly dusty, there are a few things to remember. The PlayStation camera reads Move controllers by tracking the lights in the bulb of each controller, so you want to ensure that they are as clean of dust and debris as possible. Likewise, cleaning out the ports, and around the button ensures that you won’t get distracted while playing a game.

Tips

It’s basically impossible to keep your system entirely clear of dust, but there are a few things that you can do to help minimize the amount of dust or debris you need to clean. Just keep in mind that the PlayStation 4 console is essentially a dust magnet thanks to that shiny black exterior.

• Keep it away from pets: If you have dogs or cats, try to keep the console as far from the floor as possible so that animal hair isn’t getting stuck on your system.
• Avoid glass entertainment centers: Glass already has a tendency to attract dust, so if you set up your PS4 on a glass entertainment center you can expect your system to need a good cleaning about once a week or so. You can set your system in vertical orientation or invest in a dust cover to help keep the dust to a minimum.
• Don’t store in an enclosed space Not only can this cause the system to overheat, but dust will also gather up in these spaces.
• Don’t smoke in the house: Cigarette smoke causes faster dirt accumulation, and this definitely includes your console.
• Don’t take your PlayStation apart to try to clean the inside: Not only will this completely void your warranty, there is a higher chance of hurting your PlayStation, especially if you’re not a professional.

Keep it clean

PlayStation 4 consoles are going to get dirty; it doesn’t matter if they are sitting up on a shelf or hanging out on the entertainment center. What matters is knowing how to properly clean it up and get it back up and running in tip-top shape after it’s gone gray with dust. Armed with just a microfiber cloth and some compressed air, you can easily dispatch the army of dust bunnies that has taken up residence on your console and its controllers. Do you have a particular tip for cleaning your system? Is there something we missed? Be sure to drop us a comment below and tell us about it!

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Updated June 2018: We’ve updated this guide with all the latest information for keeping your console clean!

Free Trials for All Paid Apps Now Possible Thanks to Updated App Store Guidelines

Apple yesterday introduced updated App Store Guidelines, which bring a much-desired feature that both developers and customers have been wanting for some time — free trial options for all apps.

A modified 3.1.1 rule in the guidelines says that apps are now able to offer a free time-based trial period using no-cost in-app purchase options that will temporarily unlock app functionality.

So, for example, you will be able to make a $0.00 in-app purchase in an app to unlock a free trial period that lasts for a set period of time, usually a few days to a week or two.

With this change, all apps in the App Store will be able to free trials to customers should the developers choose to implement the feature.

Prior to the guideline update, free trial periods for App Store apps were available only for subscription-based apps, where you had to agree to make a monthly or weekly payment to get access to a free trial.

A lack of free trials for apps has been a major complaint for both the iOS and Mac App Stores, and especially so on the Mac App Store, where apps are often more expensive and offer more extensive functionality that customers may want to test before making a high-dollar purchase.

Apple implemented several other changes to its guidelines, including restrictions on subscription apps that attempt to scam people out of money and new rules for remote mirroring apps like Steam Link.

Related Roundup: iOS 12Tag: App Store
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Safari Gains Favicon Support in iOS 12 and macOS Mojave

Apple at its WWDC keynote on Monday previewed iOS 12 and macOS Mojave, both of which feature Safari 12.

The latest version of Apple’s web browser adds long-awaited support for favicons, which are the tiny icons that appear to the left of website page titles in tabs and bookmark bars. In many cases, a favicon is a website’s or brand’s logo.

Microsoft was first to support favicons with Internet Explorer in 1999, and Chrome and Firefox have displayed favicons for many years as well, so this was a long time coming for Safari. Apple confirmed the feature on the What’s New in Safari page of its website, alongside a handful of other improvements.

Favicons may seem like a trivial new feature in Safari 12, but as John Gruber noted last year, many people used Chrome or other alternatives explicitly because Apple’s web browser lacked support for the tiny icons.

I really can’t say this strongly enough: I think Safari’s lack of favicons in tabs, combined with its corresponding crumminess when displaying a dozen or more tabs in a window, is the single biggest reason why so many Mac users use Chrome.

Favicons are useful because they make tabs more visually distinguishable, especially for users with several tabs open at once. And, in bookmark bars, it is possible to simply display favicons instead of having lengthier website names, allowing for many more bookmarks to fit within the viewable area.

Favicons are not displayed by default, so the feature must be enabled in the browser’s preferences on Mac or via the Settings app on iOS devices.

Mac:

• Open Safari.
• Click on Safari > Preferences in the Menu bar.
• Click on Tabs.
• Check the box beside “show website icons in tabs.”

iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch:

• Open the Settings app.
• Tap on Safari.
• Toggle on Show Icons in Tabs.

Safari 12 is preinstalled on iOS 12 and macOS Mojave, available now in beta for registered Apple developers. It will also be available to download on the latest versions of macOS High Sierra and macOS Sierra in the fall.

Related Roundups: macOS Mojave, iOS 12Tag: Safari
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Apple Podcasts Tops 555,000 Different Active Shows

Apple’s Podcasts service now hosts more than 18.5 million episodes across 555,000 different “active” shows, according to a report from TechCrunch.

The podcast stats, which appears to have been sent directly to TechCrunch by Apple, include other data as well. Apple’s hosted podcasts come in more than 100 languages, from 155 countries.

The podcast total is up from 525,000 back in April, and a total of fifty billion episodes have been streamed or downloaded since Podcasts launched back in 2005 (when the service had a mere 3,000 shows).

Last year, some 13.7 billion episodes were consumed, up from 10 billion in 2016. The Stuff You Should Know podcast is the most consumed, passing 500 million downloads.

TechCrunch also reports that Apple will be tightening up the rules around what podcasts can access the Podcasts Analytics service it offers, mainly around things like including Cover Art on shows and adding metadata like publication date.

Yesterday, Apple announced that a Podcasts app would be added to the Apple Watch with watchOS 5, expanding the universe of Apple devices which can consume podcasts.

Tag: Podcasts
Discuss this article in our forums

This bird-inspired morphing drone can slim down to fit through tight spaces

The big tradeoff with quadcopter drones is that in order to make them as stable as possible, their fixed design makes it difficult for them to fit through tight spaces. This doesn’t matter so much when they’re out in the open. However, if quadcopters are going to be relied on for inspection tasks in cluttered indoor environments or used for search and rescue missions that is a pretty big compromise to make.

That is where a new drone designed by researchers at France’s Étienne Jules Marey Institute of Movement Sciences comes into play. Their Quad-Morphing drone is able to rotate its arms to allow it to reduce its wingspan by 48 percent, and fly through some impressively small gaps as a result. To do so, it borrows from a movement more often seen in the bird world.

“Our inspiration comes from studies on budgerigar and also from a BBC movie on birds of prey able to morph their wings,” Stéphane Viollet, France’s National Center for Scientific Research research director and head of the Biorobotics research group, told Digital Trends.

CNRS

Using this model, the team set about developing its innovative drone. During normal flight, the drone’s two horizontal arms, with upward-facing propellers at each end, sits perpendicular to the drone’s central axis. That is the basic form of a typical quadcopter. However, in the event that the drone needs to maneuver through a tight gap a series of wires rotate the arms so that they are instead parallel to the drone’s central axis.

In order to work out when this action should be performed, the drone relies on cameras to determine how large a gap is and whether the drone will need to rotate its arms to travel through it. At present, it uses an array of 17 stationary cameras and an onboard high-speed camera, although this setup would not necessarily work outside of test conditions due to the challenge of installing the stationary cameras.

Nonetheless, if the researchers are able to further develop this project so that it can do all of this using onboard cameras we can totally see how this would be an impressive addition to a quadcopter drone’s everyday capabilities.

A paper describing the work, “Agile Robotic Fliers: A Morphing-Based Approach,” was recently published in the journal Soft Robotics.

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iPhone notifications are no longer a nuisance with iOS 12

While Apple’s annual World Wide Developers Conference is usually a pretty flashy affair where the tech giant shows all of its latest software, this year’s event was a little more subdued. Instead of adding tons of new software features this year, Apple opted to focus on feature and performance improvements to make the overall user experience better.

One of the most exciting feature updates you find on iOS 12 is rather basic. Apple has completely changed the way the iPhone and iPad manage Notification updates. The messy clutter of cards that once filled your Notification Center screen has been replaced by something much more refined and easy to use. That’s right, Apple has finally embraced group notifications in iOS 12.

Reading and deleting notifications

• 1.
  Notifications in iOS 12
• 2.
  Notifications in iOS 11

While Notifications continue to appear as individual cards in iOS 12, they’re not categorized and stacked by app. For example, if you have a dozen Twitter notifications, instead of seeing each notification individually as you would on iOS 11, you’ll now see a stack of them with the most recent sitting on top. If you want to review all of your notifications, just tap on the top card.

Deleting notifications is also much quicker on iOS 12. Instead of closing each notification individually, you can now opt to delete all notifications for a specific app. And if you still find the number of notifications overwhelming, iOS 12 allows you to delete every notification in the Notification Center with a single tap.

Managing notifications

iOS 12 is doing more than simply changing the way you read and delete notifications, however. You now have several quick and simple ways to manage notifications directly from the Notification Center.

The easiest way to manage notifications in iOS 12 is simply by long-tapping on the card in question and tapping the three-dot menu icon. From here you’ll see three options: You can either have notifications quietly bypass the lock screen and appear only in the Notifications Center, or you can turn off notifications for a particular app altogether. On the same screen, there’s also an option to open the Settings menu to make changes to notifications for multiple apps.

But you may not need to make any adjustments to your notifications at all since Siri now can now provide contextual recommendations based on how you use your phone. For example, Siri may recommend turning off notifications for rarely used apps, or suggest apps that send frequent notifications be directly to the lock screen.

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