Announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 22, 2020 as the successor to iOS 13, it was released to the public on September 16, 2020.

Route management in Apple Maps was extended with features alerting the user to available stops, such as parking and food ordering.

Voice calling interfaces, including Phone, or other third-party apps such as Skype, are made substantially thinner,[10] taking approximately as much space as a notification.

Picture-in-picture allows users to continue watching video playback (or take voice calls, such as with FaceTime) in a thumbnail-sized view after leaving the app.

Picture-in-picture is currently supported by Safari and FaceTime, along with several third-party apps, including Disney+, ESPN, Max, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video.

[11] Ultimately, this feature was delayed until July 2022, when it was made available for all users with devices running iOS 15 or higher.

[17] Facebook has notably opposed such privacy measures, arguing that small businesses need to access user data for targeted advertising.

One of the major changes in iOS 14 is the introduction of a new, tightly sandboxed 'BlastDoor' service which is now responsible for almost all parsing of untrusted data in iMessages.

[22] A specially-crafted message sent to a target can no longer interact with the file system or perform network operations.

ARKit 4 also introduced Location Anchor, which uses data from Apple Maps and enables augmented reality experiences to be placed on geographical coordinates[24] and other smaller improvements.

Users with devices that do not automatically read NFC tags may add a shortcut on the Control Center to do so.

iOS 14 introduces support for the VP9 codec, allowing playback of YouTube videos in 4K resolution.

[29] The Weather app now shows an air quality index and minute-by-minute forecasts for the next hour in the United States.

This way an iPhone can detect fire, various sirens, animals, multiple household noises, and a baby that is crying or someone that's shouting.

Unlocking an iPhone equipped with Face ID while wearing a mask, using a paired Apple Watch, was added on iOS 14.5 and watchOS 7.4.

[38] Double tapping on the FaceTime window allows for the size to be changed to small, medium, or large.

[39] The Home app received design changes to emphasize suggested accessories alongside those marked as favorite.

As the presence of blue light is a major zeitgeber – a factor which influences the perception of time with regards to circadian rhythm – this feature is designed to encourage activity in the day and calmness in the morning and evening.

Apple Maps will now give users access to cycling routes, providing information including elevation and stairs.

Cycling directions will be available at launch in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Shanghai, and Beijing.

[42] Safari, the default web browser in iOS, gained the ability to monitor passwords for data breaches and generate privacy reports for trackers on websites.

[9] A web page translation tool has been added to Safari in seven languages: English, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, French, German, Russian and Brazilian Portuguese.

[43] Introduced in iOS 14, the stock Translate app allows users to translate voice and text between 11 languages: English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, German, French, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, and Arabic.

When rotated to landscape view, the app features an "attention mode", making it easier for someone to read a translation.