Apple’s iOS 8 was released to the world Wednesday morning and boasts a slew of new features that won’t be as apparent as last year’s redesign.

Following last year’s major facelift for Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 8 boasts improvements to many of the features you’ve come to know and love.

You can download iOS 8 by going to Settings > General > Software Update. Not seeing it yet? Keep trying until it appears! Be sure to back up your data to iCloud or iTunes before updating, just to be safe.

Here are a few of the biggest improvements you’ll find in Apple’s iOS 8:

1) Predictive typing and customized keyboards

A new tray sits above the keyboard and predicts words you want to type as your thumbs tap the screen. Apple’s built-in prediction software will even read your text messages and offer suggested words based on what was sent to you:

In addition, Apple – like Android has for years – now allows keyboards from third parties. Popular Android keyboards Swype and SwiftKey will be available for iOS beginning today, September 17. Swype will be 99 cents and SwiftKey will be free in the iTunes App Store. These keyboards offer alternative ways to type and should definitely be explored if you’re looking for a new typing experience on iOS.

2) Easily send audio and video messages

Apple is betting that customers want to send audio and video messages back and forth to one another instead of typing – something that’s become more popular thanks to apps like SnapChat. A new feature built into Messages lets you easily send audio or video messages to friends.

Feeling weary about all of the space these videos and audio messages are going to eat up? Apple now lets you decide if you want to automatically delete messages after a certain amount of time (30 days or a year). There’s a separate setting to let you automatically keep – or delete – the audio/video messages.

Speaking of storage, Apple has announced very affordable iCloud storage upgrades. For 99 cents per month your iCloud Drive can be upgraded from 5 GB to 20 GB.

3) Group conversations finally improved

Apple’s taken way too long on this one, but finally it’s here: Group messaging improvements. You can now leave a group conversation, mute a group conversation, or name the group convo. Want to share your location with your friends really easily? With iOS 8 you can do that too.

One last thing about Messages: You can now quickly reply to a text within the notification at the top of the screen. Notifications from other apps can now be interacted with inside the notification too.

4) Continuity

With iOS 8 you can now receive your phone calls on your Mac (once you upgrade to OS X Yosemite) and iPad. While this feature has been available for texting for some time, the ability to pick up calls on your other Apple devices while on the same wifi network means that you no longer need your phone with you at all times while you’re in your home.

Speaking of continuity, Apple’s new Handoff technology allows you to carry work from one Apple device to another. For example, an e-mail you begin working on on your phone can be completed on your Mac with ease.

Apple also took continuity one step further. They now support receiving SMS texts (the ones from Android users) on your Mac and iPad.

5) Find out which app is the battery-drinking culprit

As a mobile device user, it’s always important to know which apps are giving your phone the most problems. That problem is usually the battery.

Just go to General > Usage > Battery Usage to see a break down of which apps are eating up your battery the most. If you see one taking up more battery than you’d like, check its settings to see how you can make it eat up less juice. Most apps will be battery suckers if they’re constantly tracking your location.

… and more

We focused on the features that we thought would be the biggest help to our readers. Check out Apple’s site to learn more about what’s new in iOS 8.