The latest iOS betas nearly always reveal a glimpse into what to expect when the rest of us update our iPhones. If you’re into emoji, then iOS 14.2 might be a treat. The new additions, detailed by Emojipedia, should be only a few weeks away, include transgender flags and the trans symbol, bubble tea and a ninja — finally.

Sound familiar? Apple previewed some of its emoji updates back in July, but now we get to see all of them — and decide which will be our new favorites. The update includes gender variations for both the tuxedo and veil emojis, now reclassified as gender-neutral emoji. There’s also bottle feeding emoji across genders, which will exist alongside the breastfeeding icon from 2017. While there are new emoji for flies and cockroaches, I believe this to be the most 2020 emoji.

When Twitter introduced voice tweets earlier this summer as a way to send more personalized messages, it caught a lot of flack for not including accessibility features. Now, the company said it will add transcriptions for voice tweets as part of an initiative to promote accessibility within its products. It’s also expanding the voice tweet feature, which is still only available on iOS, effective immediately.

We’re rolling out voice Tweets to more of you on iOS so we can keep learning about how people use audio.

Since introducing the feature in June, we’ve taken your feedback seriously and are working to have transcription available to make voice Tweets more accessible. (1/2)

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) September 29, 2020

After voice tweets arrived in a testing phase, critics pointed out that it should have had captions from the get-go as required by Federal law. Twitter then surprisingly admitted that it didn’t have a dedicated accessibility team, but instead relied on employees to donate additional time to work on those features. Since then, the company has launched two separate teams dedicated to accessibility, including one for its products.

watchOS 7 and new features

If you’ve used an Apple Watch before, most of the SE’s features will be familiar. The knob is a handy way to scroll through notifications, apps and volume controls, and together with the button it offers several nifty shortcuts. Long pressing the digital crown triggers Siri, while pressing the button below shows the power menu. Double tapping that pulls up your default card on Apple Pay.

Navigating the interface is the same as before, too, and if you’ve already set up your favorite apps in the dock, they’ll carry over when you set up the new device. As an Android user who’s mostly lived with other smartwatches though, I found it jarring that a swipe right doesn’t bring me back a page. I also still prefer Samsung’s Tizen OS for its simpler navigation where my favorite widgets and apps are just a spin away. On Apple’s Watches I have to first pull up all apps or the dock, then find the one I want.

What’s new with the Watch SE are mostly updates from watchOS 7, like the new Fitness app, sleep tracking and automatic hand wash detection and countdown. There are also new shareable watch faces with support for multiple complications from the same app. Having the daily UV index and the weather at the same time on my home screen made it easy to tell when I could skip the sunscreen. 

Cherlynn Low / Engadget

Tapping any of these complications pulls up the respective app, and it was easy to summon my activity rings to see how far I was from closing them. In watchOS 7, you can set individual targets for each of the three circles, as opposed to one overall goal. I spend so much of my day stuck at my desk that a Stand goal of getting up every hour for 10 hours is nearly impossible to achieve, so I tuned that down and bumped up my exercise target instead. 

Apple also added four new workouts you can track with watchOS 7 — dance, core training, functional strength training and cooldown. Dance and cooldown are intriguing additions but, I honestly couldn’t tell the difference in tracking these activities versus a generic “other exercise” session. Apple said it uses the watch’s sensors to figure out how your arms and legs are moving as you dance to predict body movement, then uses that data along with your heart rate in its algorithm to determine your calories burned. It’s nice to have theoretically more accurate information on your calorie expenditure, but at the end of the day, the report you’ll get looks very similar to what you get for other activities. 

I don’t like wearing a watch to bed, but of all the smartwatches I’ve tested lately, the Apple Watch SE is the one I minded the least. Sadly, it also delivers the least insightful data. While Fitbit and Samsung use the heart rate monitor to figure out whether you’re in REM, light, deep or restorative sleep, Apple only takes into account accelerometer data. It does track your heart rate overnight but doesn’t use that to tell what sleep zone you’re in. The Watch SE also wasn’t as accurate at detecting when I fell asleep either. It assumed  I had gone to bed at the time I had set in my Wind Down sleep schedule when in fact I only got in an hour later. 

Cherlynn Low / Engadget

According to the Watch SE, I was restless right after I fell asleep, when really I was just awake and fidgeting. Then, when I woke up and snoozed my alarm a few times, none of those movements registered and Apple decided to take the time I finally stepped out of bed as when I woke up. This is the sort of unreliable tracking that plagued early Fitbits, but they’ve grown much better over the years. If accurate and insightful sleep tracking is important to you, the Apple Watch won’t be your best option.

Apple also introduced a Wind Down and Wake Up feature that helps you prepare for bed and your work day. I set my bedtime to 1am, and at midnight, the Watch SE went on Do Not Disturb and stopped bothering me, which was nice. But I continued to while away on my phone anyway, despite Do Not Disturb being enabled there too. 

When my morning alarm went off, it was a gentle tune rather than a jarring cacophony, which was nice, but not much different from simply picking a better sound for my phone. These sounds were already available for iOS, anyway. What is better is that you can use the watch’s haptic engine for a vibration-based alarm on your wrist to rouse you without bothering others. Also, if you wake up and move in the 30 minutes before your set time, the Watch will ask if you want to turn off the alarm, which is a nice touch.

Cherlynn Low / Engadget

Another new watchOS 7 feature is hand-wash detection, which is particularly relevant during the pandemic. The Watch will automatically recognize, based on the way your hands are moving, if you’ve started to wash them. Then, it’ll turn on the microphone to listen for sounds of water and soap suds to confirm, and launch a 20-second timer to make sure you’re scrubbing for the recommended duration. 

This is helpful when I’m getting my first wash in after returning home, but kind of annoying subsequently because I don’t always need to wash my hands for 20 whole seconds. Sometimes I just need to get some grease off my palm and ten seconds is enough. Thankfully, all you get if you stop washing before the time’s up is a gentle admonishment that you can skip, so it’s only a minor annoyance. The Watch SE was almost always able to detect when I’d started washing my hands, missing only one very quick session. But it also thought I was cleaning my hands when I was actually washing some grapes. Again, it was easy enough to just ignore the timer and go on with my day.

They released a free browser app called Stadium, which you can download directly from the App Store. Once you enter a few settings and authenticate the browser with your Google account, the app brings up the Stadia landing page whenever you open it. Knox wrote that the app doesn’t have ads or tracking code.

Another user named /u/GrayBayPlay laid the groundwork to use an external controller in a full-screen iOS browser app. As such, you can play Stadia games on your iPhone with an Xbox One controller or Sony’s DualShock 4.

Based on some limited testing, Stadium works well enough. I played a multiplayer mission in Marvel’s Avengers and it ran smoothly with no noticeable controller lag. Downloading the app from the App Store means you sidestep some of the fiddlier aspects of other Stadia workarounds.

There’s a chance that Apple could pull Stadium from the App Store. However, the app isn’t explicitly designed to use Stadia — the App Store listing doesn’t mention the service at all.

It’s not clear if or when Stadia and xCloud will arrive on iOS devices in any official capacity. Microsoft said that Apple’s unwieldy game streaming rules would give xCloud players a “bad experience” on iPhone. However, the company recently started beta testing its remote play function on iOS. That feature allows people to play games from their Xbox One (and soon, Xbox Series X/S) remotely on their iPhone.

Amazon seems to have found a way around Apple’s rules, though. Its upcoming streaming service Luna will run on iOS as a progressive web app.

Meanwhile, Apple’s Safari browser added support for the Stadia controller last week in beta, but only for the macOS version of the browser.

Just a few days after opening up Xbox remote play to Android users, Microsoft has confirmed it’s testing the feature on iOS devices as well. The Verge’s Tom Warren got a look at the new Xbox app in beta, and it works just like you’d expect: It connects directly to your Xbox One (or upcoming consoles), and lets you play anything that’s already on your system. To be clear, this is different from Microsoft’s xCloud service because it’s running off of your own console, something Sony is already doing with its Remote Play app.

So what does this mean for the rest of us? The new iOS Xbox app looks pretty stable, and Warren says that he expects it to arrive on the App Store soon. Microsoft isn’t being specific on availability either, but hopefully it arrives in time for Xbox Series X and S owners to play some games on the go.

Messenger probably isn’t the greatest option for your main messaging app, but being able to reset the default could let you choose apps that offer a better experience than Messenger or Apple’s Messages.

Android’s mobile OS already lets users choose their preferred messaging app. Sadly, Apple is probably not going to give users that choice. Apple’s Messages app is still one reason that people buy Apple hardware, and Apple uses the encrypted messages to brag about its privacy practices. 

But not allowing users to choose their default messaging app could add to the argument that Apple practices “monopolist behaviors.” The company is facing increased criticism over its App Store fees, and it is the target of multiple antitrust investigations. Today, Epic Games, Spotify and others announced the Coalition for App Fairness, an alliance to pressure both Apple and Google to change their app store rules and other restrictive policies. 

Even though I’ve used several Android handsets over the years, I’ve always stuck with an iPhone. For one thing, I’m so invested in the ecosystem at this point (I’ve purchased many apps, several of which are iOS-only) that switching to another platform would be too painful. 

But the main reason that I still have an iPhone, despite the many advantages of Android, is simply force of habit. Its interface, design language and keyboard feel so much like second nature that I can’t get used to anything else. This is a huge reason why Android’s widgets and home screens simply don’t appeal to me: I just never saw the need for them. Even now, after I’ve installed iOS 14, I haven’t bothered adding a widget or cleaning up my home screen, because I just like it the way it is. I suspect many other iOS users feel the same. 

Chesnot via Getty Images

For me, the main benefit that Android has over iOS has never been its design or its interface or anything like that. The main advantages with Android, in my view, are the features. Specifically, its compatibility with Google’s apps and services. That’s because, as much as I like iOS, Google is the world in which I live. I use Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Maps, Google Photos and Chrome literally every day. I find Google services easier and more pleasant to use, and I like that it all syncs together. The fact that Android comes with Gmail, Chrome and all the usual Google services by default, working seamlessly with a single sign-on, is great.

That hasn’t been the case with iOS, and one can certainly understand why. Apple obviously wants you to use its own apps and services over the competition. Sure, third-party apps like Gmail and Chrome have been around for a few years now but there were always certain restrictions. The biggest hassle is that tapping on an email link in an app or in Safari would often kick me over the default Apple Mail app rather than Gmail (If you tapped on an email link in the Chrome app, it does let you go to Gmail however). Now, thanks to iOS 14, this is no longer a problem. 

Of course, it’s likely that Apple isn’t allowing this in iOS 14 out of the goodness of its heart. Instead, it could be a tactical move. The company is already facing serious antitrust scrutiny as well as accusations that it holds an App Store monopoly, partially due to the 30 percent commission it charges developers (This is the basis of Epic’s recent legal battle with Apple). Perhaps, by ceding ground on default iOS apps, Apple could be heading off concerns that it holds a monopoly over that at the very least. It is not unlike when Microsoft was forced to unbundle Internet Explorer from Windows in 2009 due to European regulations. 

Be that as it may, this could be a sign of greater things to come. It’s given me a glimmer of hope that other Google apps, like Calendar and Maps for example, could be given the default treatment too. Of course, there are many things that Android still does better than iOS, such as managing notifications, app permission handling, Live Transcribe, the ability to sideload apps not from an App Store, and more. But if all I get is greater access to Google’s apps and services while still keeping the phone I like, I’d be happy.

Google has already released a number of COVID-related features on its Maps app, including noting potential transit delays due to the outbreak, the relative busyness of local businesses and tagging the locations of nearby COVID testing sites. On Wednesday, Google announced yet another new feature which will inform users as to whether new cases of the virus are on the rise in the area they want to travel to.

Google

Specifically, the company has released a new layer for Maps which displays the seven-day average of new COVID cases per 100,000 people as well as notes whether that infection rate is increasing or decreasing. This layer pulls its data from a variety of sources including Johns Hopkins University, the New York Times, and Wikipedia which in turn get their data from the likes of the World Health Organization, national governments and area hospitals.

Microsoft is also working to bring other features that exist on other versions of Outlook (i.e. desktop) to iOS and Android. These include workspace booking, text prediction, weather data in your calendar and adding emoji reactions to your emails. That last one will start to roll out around the New Year, the company said.

Microsoft

To make it easier for people who use Outlook on their desktops to get the mobile apps, Microsoft also introduced a tool that makes it easier to sign into the service on your phone if you’re already logged in on your laptop. From Outlook on your desktop or browser, you’ll get a prompt to send yourself a text message to download the app on your phone. When you’re setting up the mobile app, you can scan a QR code on your laptop’s screen and Microsoft says it will securely transfer your credentials from your desktop to your phone.

Most of these new features will begin rolling out over the next few weeks, Microsoft said, with some slated to arrive further down the line.

The company further objected to Apple’s view that its in-app purchasing was essential to the App Store, noting that purchases for real-world products (like Amazon and Uber) didn’t have to use the same system. It refused Apple’s assertion that Epic “created the current situation,” maintaining that it was simply exercising its Supreme Court-backed power to reject “anti-competitive contractual conditions.”

There’s no guarantee the court will see things Epic’s way and force Apple to restore Fortnite until there’s a verdict in the lawsuit. However, the player numbers not only change the story, but give an idea as to how well Fortnite was faring on iOS. Epic appears to have made its risky move despite a surge of iOS gamers, not to spark a surge. Mind you, that also makes this more of a gamble. The longer Fortnite stays off the App Store, the greater the chance Epic loses that earlier momentum and the money that came with it.