iOS 8 makes a more powerful business partner.

iPhone and iPad have become the devices of choice at work simply because they’re the devices of choice in daily life. And it all gets better in iOS 8 with new security, productivity and device management features.

Even stronger security.

The enterprise-grade security technologies built into iOS are even more powerful in iOS 8. We’ve expanded data protection to more apps and enabled finer control over mail encryption.

Expanded data protection.

In addition to Mail and third-party apps, the Calendar, Contacts, Reminders, Notes and Messages apps are protected with a passcode until after the device is unlocked following a reboot.

S/MIME controls per message.

S/MIME users can choose to sign and encrypt individual messages for greater control over the security of mail messages.

New productivity features.

You have more ways to get things done quicker and easier with apps like Mail and Calendar.

New time-saving features and more in Mail.

To help manage busy inboxes, you can mark messages as read or unread or flag them for follow-up with a quick swipe left or right. You can designate individual mail threads as VIP so you can easily track updates to the conversation. There’s also a customised mailbox you can show in mailbox view that groups VIP threads together. For added security, you can choose to have external email addresses marked in red. And if you use Exchange, you can set automatic reply messages from your iOS device to be sent, for example, when you’re away from work.

See meeting availability and more in Calendar.

In Calendar, you can see your colleagues’ availability when scheduling a meeting so you can quickly find a time that works for everyone. You can mark events as private. It’s easier to create events that repeat at customised intervals and lengths of time, such as on the first Monday of every month. And you can email meeting attendees from Calendar to let them know you’re running late.

Get easier access to corporate documents.

Third-party document apps can make documents available to other apps more easily than ever — without making unnecessary copies. So if you have an app that can access your corporate file servers, you can get to the document you need straight from the app you want to edit it in. In addition, AirDrop support between iOS and OS X enables users to transfer files to and from a Mac even without an Internet connection.

Better data and device management tools.

IT departments have more ways to manage information securely without burdening employees with complex rules and work personas.

Data management and content filtering.

IT departments can control which apps can open documents downloaded from enterprise domains using Safari. They can also set up rules for controlling which apps can open documents from iCloud Drive. A new networking framework in iOS 8 makes it possible for third-party networking developers to create powerful content-filtering tools.

More powerful device management capabilities.

New MDM tools help IT administrators see and do more with the iOS devices they manage. They can set the device name remotely and prevent users from adding their own restrictions or erasing their devices. New queries let administrators see the last time a device was backed up to iCloud so they know whether it’s safe to perform certain tasks. A new remote management UI makes enrolling and understanding the impact of MDM easier and more transparent for users. MDM also enables IT staff to help users authenticate to enterprise apps using certificate-based single sign-on.

Peer-to-peer AirPlay discovery and playback.

With iOS 8, you can wirelessly connect iPad, iPhone or iPod touch to Apple TV without first connecting to the organisation’s network. Which means you can present or share your work even if you’re offline or the organisation has a complex network.