iCloud gets a makeover with a revamped look and quality-of-life upgrades

Following updates to iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, it’s now iCloud’s turn as Apple is redesigning the website as well as introducing a variety of new features.

It’s not a complete overhaul for iCloud mind you, as the quick-glance widgets from last year’s update are still here. The difference this time is users will be able to do more with them. You can now “customize what you see in Tiles”, from choosing a specific folder from the Notes app on your iPhone to picking out your favorite photographs. It’s even possible to have multiple layouts of the same tile displayed on the front page.

(Image credit: Future)

Quality-of-life changes

Next, Quick Actions are being added, allowing you mark reminders as complete or flag a particular email among other things. You can perform these by hovering over your files on iCloud then selecting the three dots that appear to reveal the menu. Apple states “on a touch device” just swipe left. Also, if you’re a PC user, you’re now able to receive Mail and Calendar notifications for incoming emails or event invitations.

Everything described so far has been for the homepage. You see more once you start delving into each of iCloud’s tools.

Most of the changes are nice quality-of-life upgrades that make your life a bit easier. For iCloud Mail, you’re now able to attach files to messages directly from your storage and you can unsend recently sent emails before they reach the recipient’s inbox.

The Calendar isn’t changing much, but it is getting Identity Control for hiding the email addresses “others see in event invitations”. Additionally, Apple is letting people use their Custom Email Domain to combine their “Calendar and Mail identities” into one.

New image tools

For Photos, you get two new ways to enjoy your pictures. There’s the Memories tool that’ll go through your images in a full-screen view, similar to what Google Photos has on its platform. And you have Slideshow, which, as the name suggests, lets you view a selection of images in a slideshow format.

Finally, Notes is receiving several changes. The more notable two are Shared Folder for collaborating with others on a specific file of notes and Enhanced Search. The latter lets you narrow search results “against categories like shared notes” or tags.

That’s pretty much it for the major upgrades. The update is currently live. All you have to do is sign in, and iCloud will then take you through a brief tour of the revamped layout.

If you’re looking for another service to save important files, we recommend checking out TechRadar’s list of the best cloud storage for 2023.

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