Full list of new features in the Windows 10 Mobile Anniversary Update

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Windows 10 Mobile

Microsoft has been working on its newest major upgrade to Windows 10 Mobile, and with the first release of Redstone (rs1_release), we can welcome the addition of many new capabilities and features. Thanks to ChangeWindows, here is the full list of the new features that are available with the Anniversary Update for Windows 10 Mobile (build 14393.x).

Start and Action Center

  • Live tiles now update all at once on Start instead of one-by-one if there are updates for their content
  • Live tiles now can update badges and content at the same time
  • The app icon is no longer repeated in the Action Center, instead, it is shown only in the header
  • The header for each app is now smaller to make more room for notifications
  • Notifications can now have hero images
  • Notifications in both banners and Action Center now follow the “Text Scaling” setting
  • The size of notification icons has been decreased from 64×64 to 48×48
  • The default wallpaper for a new device has been changed
  • If a Quick Action turns a certain functionality in your device on or off (Bluetooth, Flashlight, etc.) it will now show On/Off for a short period

Cortana and search

  • Cortana is now available in Spanish (Mexico), Portuguese (Brazil) and French (Canada)
  • Cortana will now show a button on the top to search for music
  • Cortana can now provide turn-by-turn directions with the new Maps app
  • Cortana can now sync across devices
    • You’ll now get a notification whenever your mobile device is running out of battery
    • Find my phone/Ring my phone is now available through Cortana
    • You can now share map directions between your devices
  • Cortana can now show new notifications in the Action Center
  • Cortana can now automatically fetch the required speech language for you
  • Cortana can now give reminder suggestions
  • You can now change Cortana’s language
  • Cortana’s Settings have been moved outside the Notebook
  • You can now create reminders with photos or shared info from apps
  • Improved share UI for reminders
  • Cortana can now search in your Office 365 account
  • You can now send a picture from your phone to your PC through Cortana
  • Notifications on your phone will now be synced to your PC with Cortana
  • Cortana’s listening animation has been updated
  • Cortana should now listen more reliably after tapping the mic button
  • Cortana’s home UI no longer shows your cards but hints and a button to show the cards

User Interface

  • The back-button on the lock screen has been replaced with a camera button
  • The lock screen now shows media controls directly on the UI
  • The Bing logo on the Bing lock screen has been updated, appears smaller and no longer has the text “Bing”
  • The data migration process now uses a larger font
  • The “Goodbye” message will now stay visible until the device has been shut down completely

Microsoft Edge

  • Edge has been updated from version 25.10586 to 38.14393
    • You can now swipe to go back and forward
    • The X-button to close tabs is now larger
    • Word Flow now works in the Edge address bar
    • The InPrivate browsing icon is now placed next to the “New tab” button in the tab overview
    • A prompt pops up before a download starts
    • Edge now shows a “Go forward” item in the ellipses menu
    • When an app opens a new tab, pressing back will now close it
    • When typing in a text box, you can now use the pase button above the keyboard
    • Download notificaions in Edge now include filenames, download status and site domain on separate lines
  • EdgeHTML has been updated from version 13.10586 to 14.14393
    • Default parameters
    • Async/await
    • Object.values and Object.entries
    • Opus audio format
    • Date and time element
    • Output element
    • Color input type
    • Canvas Path2D objects
    • Improved accessibility features
    • Support for Beacon
    • Beacon, Fetch, Web Notification, Web Speech APIs
    • The User Agent String has been updated
  • The following flags have been added
    • Foundational work for Web Notifications has been implemented (but not functional)
    • You can now set a flag for “Compose scrollbar thumbs independently”
    • You can now set a flag for DirectX settings “Use Windows.UI.Composition”
    • A flag for WebRTC 1.0 is available but not functional and will be removed in a later version
    • You can now set a flag to enable VP9 support
    • ES6 Regex symbols
    • Web Payments
    • TCP Fast Open is disabled by default but can be enabled
    • A flag has been added to enable Standard Fullscreen API

Settings

  • New panels, settings and options
    • You can now choose which app’s notifications are more important to you
    • You can now choose how many notifications an app can have in the Action Center
    • You can now manage on a per-app base if an app can run in the background or not, or if this has to be hanled by Windows
    • Windows Update now allows you to set the time you’re most active in so that it can avoid updating at that point
    • You can now manage the order of Quick Actions in the Action Center for all slots
    • It is now possible to hide Quick Actions you don’t use
    • The is now a toggle for the VPN Quick Action button
    • You can now override Active Hours with the Restart Options
    • The Windows Update notification after installing an update now takes you to the device’s update history
    • Navigation Bar settings now have their own page
    • Dual-SIM devices now support Visual Voicemail
    • You can now manage your Insider settings from the Settings app
    • You can now set how long it takes before Windows Hello requires you to sign in again
    • Apps for websites has been added under System
    • Sharing a network with your contacts in Wi-Fi Sense is no longer possible
    • The Mobile Hotstpot page now gives clearer errors when setting up a hotspot fails due to the lack of a SIM being connected
    • The refresh rate for Wi-Fi data usage is now faster
    • Active hours can now be set to a range of up to 12 hours instead of 10
    • As of build 14361, your DPI settings will be backed up in the cloud and restored after your device is refreshed
    • Kids Corner is no longer available
  • Visual updates and others
    • Every page in Settings now has its own icon
    • Glance has been moved from Extras to Personalization
    • Improved performance when opening Settings > Update & security > For developers
    • The background of the category overview and sub-category overview is now black instead of dark grey
    • A selected sub-category now has a Groove-like select state
    • The icons under Update & Security have been updated to be more reflective of their meaning
    • Improved performance for loading the app list under Storage settings

System

  • Continuum now supports USB Ethernet
  • The Bluetooth AVRCP profile has been updated to version 1.5
  • Windows now has a one-handed Japanese kana keyboard
  • You can now run up to 16 apps in the background
  • Improved logic for refreshing the Live tiles on the start screen
  • Improved reliability for keyboards with large dictionaries
  • The thumbnail logic has been altered to only create a small thumbnail after making a photo, and making the larger thumbnail when required to save storage
  • During the final preparations, Windows will only go through 8 to 10 migration steps
  • The Word Flow keyboard has an improved recognition of longer words
  • You can now abort an autocorrection by tapping on the bolded word
  • The call in-progress banner is now shown above notifications so you no longer need to dismiss that notification to end the call
  • The emoji set has been completely revamped
  • The default emoji’s are no longer grey, but yellow
  • The text prediction engine has bene improved to show candidates based on the current keyboard language, instead of the language that was used when the word was written
  • 5-inch devices like the Lumia 640 and 830 can now also use the one-handed keyboard
  • Improve reliability of Bluetooth in cars
  • The back-up format is changed, causing back-ups to take less from your OneDrive space, however, back-ups are incompatible with older versions of Windows 10 Mobile
  • Improved battery performance for people that often turn the screen on and off again to look at the lock screen

Apps

  • You can now swipe a conversation to delete it in Messaging
  • The phone app now show an indicator for missed calls and voicemails
  • You can now cycle through pages in the phone app infinitely
  • Option to use the Camera app to take a photo and send it with Skype
  • The alarm will now go louder faster when using your music
  • FM Radio is no longer installed as a default app
  • Improved reliability for navigating between camera roll and the Camera app
  • The Insider Hub and Windows Feedback apps have been merged to Feedback Hub
    • You can now react on feedback in the Feedback Hub
    • The Feedback Hub now suggest a category when you’ve typed in your feedback
    • The “Alerts” page in the Feedback Hub has been removed

And further

  • Windows now identifies itself as version 1607

Are you excited for the Anniversary Update for Windows 10 Mobile? Tell us in the comments.

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