Microsoft’s Windows Phone may be struggling to make an impression on its more popular Android and iOS rivals, but don’t count it out just yet. There’s a major new update being downloaded on Nokia Lumia phones across the world today, and it’s quite good.

If there has been one major concern that we’ve had with Windows Phone 8 so far, it would be the lack of a notification centre. As of today, that problem will disappear as the Windows Phone 8.1 update, now known as Lumia Cyan, has begun making its way to Nokia Lumia devices around the world.

The notification centre, which Microsoft is calling the ‘Action Centre’, works in much the same way that it has always done in Android and iOS by pulling down from the top of the screen and can be customised to show only the app notifications that you care about.

The Windows Phone 8.1 update doesn’t just bring the Action Centre to Lumia phones, it also brings Microsoft’s digital assistant Cortana as well as the Guinness World Record holding Word Flow keyboard. The home screens of Windows Phones will also see more customisation options with new backgrounds and  Live Tile layouts forming a large part of the aesthetic update. Those who do not have one of Nokia’s phablets, the Lumia 1520 and Lumia 1320, will now also have an additional column of Live Tiles on the homescreen to look forward to with the Lumia Cyan update.

To get a quick idea of some of the enhancements that Lumia Cyan will give you Microsoft have made a short video that gives a cursory glance at a Lumia 1520 post-Lumia Cyan update:

We managed to get the update on a Nokia Lumia 925 that we had in the office but not the Lumia 1520 that we had lying around. You can however check the status of the software roll out for South Africa, Africa and the rest of the world to see which networks have made the update for your particular Lumia Windows Phone available on Nokia’s website.