If you’re waiting for Apple’s latest flavor of mobile operating system iOS 10, it is currently not expected to arrive until it releases the iPhone 7 in September. And as always everyone is busy talking about what new software it will bring with it. However, if you’re a developer and signed up with Apple it’s likely that your testing iOS 10 right now. And if you’re brave enough to to be part of the public iOS 10 beta testing program, you will have the option to download and install it next month. But, if you’re not wanting to sign up to the beta program and are not a developer, your only option is to wait until September. However, that does not mean you can’t experience some of the features in iOS 10 on your iOS 9 device! Here’s how …
iOS 10 Features on iOS 9 devices
In this article, I am going to break down for you some of what could be the most popular iOS 10 features and show you that there are already iOS 9 alternatives that you can get your hands on.
And here’s some good news, some of these features do not require you to have a jailbroken iPhone, however, some are and this will be clearly mentioned for you. So, let’s not waste any more time and look at the best features that Apple is bringing with iOS 10 and that are available via iOS 9 on an iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.
Bedtime
With iOS 10 Apple is having a good go at tracking how you sleep and making the alarm clock more modern looking. Its new bedtime feature is now the new Stock Clock for iOS 10, so those of you who can’t yet use it should head over to the App Store and take a look at Sleep Cycle.
Sleep Cycle, does almost everything that Bedtime does on iOS 10 including the tracking of the quality of your sleep and wakes a user up when you have asked it to, but it is able to make allowances for waking you up at the correct time during it.
No Jailbreak Required
Raise to Wake
If you’re not aware, iOS 10 has some awesome new features that are gesture orientated. One is that an iPhone’s screen will automatically switch on when the phone is picked up, which is extremely useful.
However, if you want to have Raise to Wake like functionality on your iOS 9 device, you will have to have a jailbroken one. And the tweak you need to look for via Cydia’s BigBoss repo is called FaceOff.
Jailbreak Required
Home App for HomeKit
Ios 10 is getting its own stock version of the HomeKit app called “Home”, at the moment something similar is already available on the App Store created by a third-party developer. So the rather uncreatively named “Home” is what you need if you can’t get iOS 10 yet.
You can get the Home app via the App Store.
No Jailbreak Required
Lock Screen Widgets
One of the biggest upgrades seen on iOS is coming with iOS 10, and that is its ability to have widgets on its lock screen. Fortunately, if you’re into jailbreaking this feature has been available for some time.
With Dopelock, you can have some of that iOS 10 class at the touch of a fingertip, however, you will need to have a jailbroken device to do so. You can find the DopeLock tweak via the BigBoss repo for $0.99.
Jailbreak Required
Memories And Object/Face Recognition In Photos App
Something else getting an upgrade in iOS 10, is its Photo app. Its new app brings some welcome Google-Photo like features to iOS 10 including image recognition. One great feature of this new app is that it can pick out images that it think are going to be important to you.
However, the good news about this one is that you do not have to wait until September to have something similar. And that is because Google Photos is available now in the App Store, and it is free!
No Jailbreak Required
3D Touch In Control Center
Apple has improved upon 3D Touch in iOS 10, by increasing the amount you can do with it and the places that it can be used. Basically, it allows you to interact with toggles in the control center. However, to get this kind of functionality, you will need to have a jailbroken device.
So to get 3D Touch functionality similar to what is available in iOS 10, you will have to download and install the QuickCenter tweak, but it is not free. Its current price is $1.00 on the BigBoss repo.
Jailbreak Required
Parked Car
Thanks to a new and improved maps feature in iOS 10, losing your car / forgetting where you parked it is now a thing of the past. As this new feature will easily guide you back to it, but if you don’t have iOS 10 there is another option.
What you need to do is head over to the App Store and get the TrackBack app, at the moment it is available for $1.99.
No Jailbreak Required
Individual Read Receipts in Messages
Ios 10 has some interesting innovations for iMessage users, one being the ability to choose whether or not to send read receipts to people on a person-by-person basis. As it stands, iOS 9 does not allow this, so future users of iOS 10 must be quite excited about this!
However, as always, if you do not have to wait then you don’t have to. As there is an alternative, but you will need to have a jailbroken device. The tweak you will need to have this functionality is called Selective Reading, and you can get it for £0.99 on the BigBoss Repo.
Jailbreak Required
Home Screen Widgets with 3D Touch Quick Action
Widgets in iOS 10 have been given a whole new lease of life, they are now going to appear on the Home Screen and be able to give extra depth thanks to 3D Touch. Which can be activated by a touch on the Widgets icon.
What this does is add some much needed extra depth, and if you have a jailbroken iPhone, it is possible to have very similar functionality thanks to a tweak called Shortcuts. You can get it for $0.99 via the BigBoss repo.
And that’s that, these are but a few of the options you have available to you if you want something similar to iOS 10 functionality, without having to risk your device with a beta version of the OS.
So if you feel stuck on iOS 9, there’s no need to feel outdated, just take your pick from the options above.
