During its opening keynote for WWDC 2021, Apple took the wraps off of iOS 15. iOS 15 is the next major software update for the iPhone, and while it may seem a lot less exciting compared to iOS 14 at first glance, there's still a lot for users to sink their teeth into. Whether it be updates to Apple applications or a complete rethinking of notifications, iOS 15 has quite a lot to offer.
It's safe to say that last year's iOS 14 update was one of the most exciting Apple has released in some time. Between the App Library, home screen widgets, picture-in-picture, and plenty of other features, it made the iPhone feel legitimately exciting again. Naturally, that put a lot of pressure on Apple to deliver another substantial update with iOS 15. Although there aren't as many drastic UI changes this time around, iOS 15 is still jam-packed with plenty of goodies to keep people busy for another year.
Let's get started with one of the biggest updates — notifications. Notifications on iOS have long been one of its biggest pain points, and with iOS 15, Apple thinks it's finally solved this problem. Notifications now feature larger app icons, contact pictures for messages, and are automatically sorted by priority using "on-device intelligence." In addition to individual notifications, iOS 15 also introduces the Notification Summary. This combines less important notifications into a large bundle, allowing users to quickly triage alerts from apps that don't require immediate attention. Another major update is 'Focus.' In addition to housing Do Not Disturb and Sleep features present in iOS 14, Focus also introduces Personal and Work modes that allow users to switch between different home screen setups based on which mode is enabled. For example, in the Work mode, someone could limit themselves to one home screen that shows all of their necessary work applications/widgets. Comparatively, the Home mode could be created to hide work-related applications and show ones that are frequently used around the house (grocery list app, streaming apps, etc.) Users can also create custom Focus modes for the gym, grocery store, or anything else to fit their lifestyle.
iOS 15 Upgrades FaceTime, Apple Maps, Safari, And More
As with every iOS update, iOS 15 also introduces a heap of updates for Apple applications. FaceTime has received the most attention out of the bunch, including spatial audio support, new microphone modes, portrait mode, scheduled FaceTime calls, and the ability to host a FaceTime call via a URL — thus allowing Android and Windows users to join a call. FaceTime also gains the new SharePlay API, allowing members of a FaceTime call to simultaneously watch a movie/TV show or listen to a song together. Safari users also have a lot to look forward to, with Apple completely redesigned the app for iOS 15. The URL is now found on the bottom of the screen, users can move between tabs by swiping on the tab bar, there are tab groups, Safari extensions, and users can customize the start page to create a more personalized browsing experience. Use Apple Maps for navigation? There's good news there, too. iOS 15 adds substantially more detail to select cities, 3D roads during city-driving make it easier to spot lanes/medians/crosswalks, and iPhone owners can use the camera viewfinder to get AR directions while walking. Apple Wallet is getting important updates, too. As part of iOS 15, the app will support driver's licenses/personal ID cards, hotel room keys, home keys for smart locks, and employee IDs/cards. Apple has also redesigned the Weather app, added mentions and user-created tags to Apple Notes, Apple Photos has a new Memories interface, and the Apple Health app gains sharing + Trends.
Then there are all of the miscellaneous updates scattered throughout iOS 15. Like Google Lens on Android, Live Text in iOS 15 enables the iPhone to recognize text in photos. Once text is identified, users can take instant action on it — such as copying/pasting an old recipe to an iMessage conversation or tapping a phone number on a handwritten note to call it. Similarly, Visual Look Up allows users to scan art, landmarks, plants, and other notable items with the camera app to learn more about them. For folks that use Spotlight, they'll notice that it can now search web images, get improved results for things like conversations, and see text identified in photos. Certain search items, such as movies and actors, also get improved result pages that are more visually interesting. Rounding out iOS 15 includes on-device speech recognition for faster Siri performance, an App Privacy Report to see a quick overview of how apps are using certain permissions, and a feature called 'Mail Privacy Protection' that will hide users' IP addresses and "stop senders from learning whether an email has been opened."
In other words, iOS 15 is a massive update. It may be as immediately exciting as iOS 14 was, but there's no denying that Apple crammed this latest update with a heap of features for every type of user. iOS 15 is rolling out to all compatible iPhones later this fall, with a public beta launching in July.
Source: Apple