iCloud Drive and Photo Library. With iOS 8 and OS X 10.10, iCloud is growing up into a real cloud-storage solution. The new iCloud Drive service gives you access to all of your files on all of your devices, even Windows PCs. Files uploaded from a Mac computer are instantly available on an iOS device, and iOS 8 will let you browse the files stored in your iCloud Drive account. Yes, that’s right, iOS 8 will include a file browser for items stored in the cloud. iCloud Drive is Apple’s first real attempt at making iCloud a competitor to Google Drive and Dropbox, and it’s a welcome addition to the ecosystem.

Apple is also upgrading the Photos app in iOS 8, which now supports syncing of every photo and edit across devices, automatically. You can now search your Photo Library for date, time, location, or album name, and a host of new editing tools let you do more without the need for third-party apps. Edits you make on your iPhone are visible on your iPad, and you can always reverse an edit after the fact. Plus, third-party developers will be able to embed their editing tools directly into the Photos app, making them easier to access when browsing your photos. The iPhone’s camera app has also been upgraded with a new time-lapse video feature.

QuickType. Apple’s virtual keyboard has remained largely the same since iOS was first introduced in 2007, with the vast majority of improvements coming under the hood; they've been visible mainly in the form of more accurate typing. That changes drastically with iOS 8’s new QuickType feature, a text-prediction system that guesses what the next word you’re going to type will be. Android users are very familiar with this kind of word prediction — it’s almost exactly like what the Google Keyboard and SwiftKey do already — but it’s completely new and entirely welcome on iOS. Of course, if QuickType doesn’t impress, iOS 8 will let you install third-party keyboards, a new trick for the platform.

iOS 8 finally supports third party keyboards

HealthKit. Apple introduced a way to collect all of your flight passes and loyalty cards with iOS 6’s Passbook, and now iOS 8 is going to do the same with all of your fitness data. HealthKit provides hooks to pull in data from third-party fitness trackers so you can keep track of everything all in one place. Apple is partnering with the Mayo Clinic and other providers to allow them to update data after checkups, and the company claims it has strict privacy protections in place to keep a patient’s data secure. Apple of course hasn’t released its own wearable device yet, but if it ever does, it’s highly likely that HealthKit will play a large role in its functionality.

HomeKit. Home automation systems have been growing in popularity in recent years, and Google’s massive $3.2 billion purchase of Nest threw them into the spotlight back in January. With iOS 8, Apple is making its first tiptoes into the home automation world. HomeKit is a way for your iPhone to act as a remote control for your entire home, and thanks to a new certification process and partnerships, it will work with a large number of home automation products already on the market (but not the Nest thermostat or Protect). Home automation devices have been difficult to set up and difficult to integrate into a complete system, so with Apple acting as the glue between them, they might just become something everyone will have in their houses.

Siri upgrades. Siri is now in its third year of existence, and with iOS 8, it’s getting even smarter. iOS 8 will allow users to activate Siri with a voice command, much like how Google Now works on the Moto X, Nexus 5, and other Android devices. iTunes purchases can be made right from Siri’s interface, and it now has song recognition powered by Shazam. Of course, Siri will play a key role in HealthKit and a number of other new iOS 8 features, as Apple’s vision of a complete virtual assistant comes closer to reality.

Family Sharing. With iOS 8, Apple is making it easier for families with multiple iOS devices to share everything from photos and calendars to purchases from iTunes. (It also makes it easier for Apple to sell everyone in your family an iPhone.) Family Sharing allows iTunes purchases, including apps, TV shows, songs, and movies, to be shared among six different accounts, provided they are all linked by the same credit card. Parents will be able to approve or deny purchases on their children’s devices remotely, and families will be able to easily keep in touch with group messages.