Yesterday, Apple took the wraps off iOS 8 at its WWDC keynote. Considering the paucity of leaks before the event, no one really had any high hopes from the update as far as new features were concerned, which is why everyone was pleasantly surprised when Apple started firing one great new feature after another during the event that would have made even users of other platforms sit up and take notice.

Today, we are compiling some of the truly great new features that Apple introduced with iOS 8. Note, when I say “new”, some of these may not be new in general but just new to iOS. Still, for current users of iOS, this is the kind of stuff that will keep them interested in the platform and for those on the fence or looking to switch over, these are the features that could serve as the final push.

Extensions

I’m just going to start with what I think is the best new addition to iOS. One feature in Android that a lot of iOS users have been clamoring for was ability to apps to interact with each other instead of residing in their respective silos. This allows apps to talk to each other, thereby letting you share content from one app to another.

This is what Extensions brings to iOS. In iOS 8, apps can place an extension in the share sheet, that will allow you to share, say, a web page to any app that supports this functionality, whereas previously you’d be limited to the few built-in apps along with Twitter and Facebook. Or apps can provide specific functionality in other apps, such as the Bing Translate action Apple demonstrated during the keynote in Safari.