On Sept. 12, Apple announced several upgraded devices that will come preloaded with its latest mobile operating system (OS): iOS 12. With each new iteration of Apple’s mobile OS, new and exciting enhancements provide improved experiences for personal and professional use.

With iOS 12 comes a plethora of fun features, such as Memoji, which allows you to create and customize your own animated avatar, and a few user interface (UI) improvements centered around ease of use in native apps such as Messages and Photos. Other improvements are based around device performance and user-centric enhancements. The most noteworthy features, however, aren’t just for the end user, but the enterprise as well.

More Control, Less Hassle

Over the years, Apple has continuously improved its ability to meet the needs of IT and security leaders. Growing with the ever-changing mobile landscape, iOS has followed the evolution of device management, from mobile device management (MDM) to enterprise mobility management (EMM) to the most current solution, unified endpoint management (UEM). With UEM, IT teams can manage devices, users, apps, content, Internet of Things (IoT) deployments and everything in between under one console.

Each new version of iOS comes with new and improved management capabilities, and this latest iteration is no different. Most features will only apply to devices in Supervised Mode via the Apple Device Enrollment Program (DEP). These new features offer much-needed management capabilities, including:

1. Enhanced performance — Apps will open twice as fast when running multiple processes, such as launching the keyboard and camera to quickly complete the task at hand;
2. USB privacy and security — This new feature will make it more difficult for malicious actors to unlock an iOS device via USB connection;
3. Health records and app development — Health record application programming interfaces (APIs) will allow developers for healthcare facilities to utilize patient records to monitor medications, admissions and history in a secure and encrypted manner;
4. CarPlay enhancements — Third-party navigation apps can now be utilized with UEM solutions showing work-related notifications on screen;
5. Password auto-fill — Users can take advantage of password auto-fill prompts on their devices, enabling authentication via TouchID;
6. Password proximity requests — Devices in range of each other (iOS to macOS, for example) can share a password request, much like the handoff feature;
7. Password sharing — When connecting to a network for the first time, users can share the network password with other iOS devices for faster connectivity;
8. Contact management — Unmanaged users can read corporate-managed contacts within their UEM solution;
9. Critical alerts — Opt-in notifications that bypass Do Not Disturb offer important alerts, including notifications related to medical situations, public safety and home security;
10. Grouped notifications — Rather than having long lists of notifications on the lock screen, iOS 12 now groups notifications by app so users can quickly go through them based on priority;
11. OAuth verification — Open Authentication (OAuth) allows users to verify and connect to third-party apps without releasing their password; and
12. Device support — iOS 12 will be available on older devices, so IT teams can save time and cost by using their existing devices.

In addition to the upgraded devices Apple announced on Sept. 12 that will come preloaded with the new OS, iOS 12 will be available on the following previously released devices:

Are You Ready for the iOS 12 Update?

With all the new features associated with iOS 12, many IT teams are preparing to upgrade user devices. With a UEM solution, IT teams can take advantage of all the management capabilities they need to make sure their users are productive, secure and compliant with corporate policies. IBM MaaS360 with Watson offers day-zero support for iOS 12 and other enterprise integrations with Apple can take the guesswork out of managing devices.

To make sure you’re ready to take advantage of the latest and greatest features iOS 12 has to offer, join us for a live webinar on Sept. 27 at 11 a.m. EST.

Register for the Sept. 27 webinar: iOS 12 in the Enterprise