Apple has officially unveiled iOS 15, There’s also new system-wide special importance on sharing and communication, more privacy-related features, and new ways to leverage on-device intelligence.
iOS 15 will roll out to iPhone 6s and later devices in fall this year.
While Developer previews begin immediately, and a public beta will arrive next month.
iOS 15 Features
FaceTime
FaceTime calls feel more comfortable and natural, users can now leverage spatial audio.
New FaceTime is said to make people sound like they’re sitting in the same room and speaking face to face.
Voices will be spread out in group chats to sound as though they’re coming from speakers’ positions on screen.
Voice isolation uses on-device machine learning to block out ambient noise and prioritise voices.
And if you want every bit of sound to come you can switch to a Wide Spectrum mode.
In group FaceTime calls, you will be able to see every face in a grid view.
Same-size tiles will make it easy to identify who’s speaking while seeing everyone else’s reactions.
Portrait mode blurs your background and puts the focus on you.
FaceTime users can now generate links to invite others.
This links can be share anywhere and even use by Android and PC users in a browser, with end-to-end encryption for privacy.
You can plan for calls, and send invitation links in messages or emails, or even create a shared calendar event.
Screen sharing will let participants share information in any app for group research or even showing off your gaming skills.
A new experience sharing feature called SharePlay let you synchronise watching videos or listening to music with everyone in a FaceTime call.
You can just press play in Apple Music, Apple TV, or any third party app that implements this feature. media will immediately be share, and participants can all control playback or queue up a shared playlist.
Picture-in-picture functionality you can see friends’ reactions and even carry out text conversations as media plays.
Media can even be play on an Apple TV while you continue your FaceTime chats on your iPhone.
Third-party apps that are already working to implement SharePlay include Disney+and many others.
iMessage
iMessage in iOS 15 will let you quickly find articles, photos, and many more that are share in chats and group chats.
There are new collage and stack designs for photos which users swipe through them, tap to see full screen, and react.
Share With You sections will appear in Apple News, Apple Music, Photos, Safari, Podcasts, and many other apps to conveniently surface links or media sent by friends.
Users can tap their name at the top of the screen to pick up the conversation while checking that media later.
Apple Music will let you save a shared playlist and Photos will show share media in the featured photos section and memories.
Share photos can be automatically brought over to the library and filtering for screenshots and memes that you don’t want to save.
Share media can be pin for easier retrieval will also surface in systemwide search.
Notifications | Focus Mode
Notifications get a fresh new look with contact photos for people and larger icons for apps to make them easier to identify.
Notification Summary can be customise and schedule to appear at any time you choose, letting you deal with unimportant notifications all in one go.
You won’t miss messages from people as this is intend for apps that send periodic updates.
DND mode can now be use to show an away status in the Messages app.
Users sending an iMessage will see that you won’t immediately be notify, but will be able to override to get through if they need to urgently.
You can also define periods in the day when you want to be totally focused on work, and enable one of several Focus modes.
Every Focus mode can be associate with a dedicate home screen page that shows only relevant widgets and app icons to reduce distraction.
Location and time of day can be use to suggest when to trigger a Focus mode, such as one for work, and custom ones can be define.
It will apply to all others you want as well when set on one Apple device.
Photos
AI will allow for Live Text to be detected and extracted from photos.
You can capture information on a whiteboard, or even handwritten notes.
Information such as names and phone numbers on shop signs, or instructions in recipes can just be selecte and copy to another app, or sent to search or translate.
Photos already in your library will also be scan automatically.
Live Text will understands seven languages including Chinese when it rolls out with iOS 15.
AI can also recognise objects and scenes such as the breed of a dog, type of flower, books, pets, landmarks etc.
Photo Memories can capture moments into heartfelt movies.
Users will be able to set their memories to their own music from Apple Music.
Personalised songs are suggeste and users can choose their own as well.
Memories videos are create and are interactive as well as editable.
Transitions, filters, and pacing will be coordinate with the mood of the select background track, and you can keep trying different variations.
Search
Photos as well as text in photos are now searchable by Spotlight in iOS 15.
Photos can be reference by people, scenes, location, or elements.
Users can use it to find a photo of a specific receipt, handwritten note, recipe, or screenshot.
New results for contacts in search, showing call, text, FaceTime, and email shortcuts, their location if share by Find My, tag calendar events, notes, and files.
Also new results for actors, musicians, tv shows, and movies.
Wallet | Maps | Weather
Apple Wallet will support Ultra Wideband position-aware location to let users unlock and drive their car without taking their iPhone out of a pocket.
Users also will be able to unlock your house, and tap to enter hotels or offices, with a range of partners for locks and access systems already on board.
Apple Maps is getting an interactive globe that invites users to tap and explore.
A few major global cities are getting much more detailed maps for commercial districts, marinas, and important buildings.
There is now added elevation representation, road colours ,and many of custom-designed landmarks.
A new nighttime mode will show areas with a moonlit glow.
More granular road details will help drivers better see and understand turn lanes, medians, crosswalks, etc.
Maps will also render complex interchanges and intersections in 3D.
Transit directions will help people find nearby stations and notify users when it’s time to step off a train or bus.
Maps can help you with AR positioning and directions.
The Weather app is getting an update with new data and layouts that change base on conditions such as rain, or air quality, with thousands of variations in the graphics.
New graphics will help users understand wind, UV, and barometric pressure data.
Full-screen high-resolution weather maps will show temperatures, precipitation, and air quality.
iPadOS 15 Features
iPadOS 15 gets a many other improvements that take advantage of its big screen.
In iPadOS 15 Widgets can now be place among app icons on all home screens.
There are new widgets for Find My and Contacts, plus a larger format for Game Centre, Apple TV, Photos, Files, and many others.
App Library iPad with a quick access button in the dock.
You can reorder or hide home screens you don’t need.
A new control appears at top of apps to easily trigger a split screen or slide-over view.
Windows can be minimised to a new area call the Shelf making it easy to see and manage multiple open windows for an app.
The app switcher can now be use to create split views by dragging one app over another.
Notes in iPadOS 15 will let users tag other people with @ mentions and see what’s change in share notes with a new activity view.
Hashtags can be use anywhere, and reference to help quickly find notes.
Systemwide Quick Notes can be create by swiping in from a corner of the iPad screen, and can capture information from an app that’s in use such as a Safari URL.
Quick Notes will be save the Notes app and can be create on iPads or Macs, but can also seen on iPhones.
iPadOS 15 now also gets a Translate app that lets people practise handwriting with Apple Pencil and work in Split View.
Auto translate detects when you’re speaking and in which language.
Systemwide translation can work on text from anywhere, even in photos.
You can download languages to use all features on-device.
Swift Playgrounds will now let users actually build iOS apps right on an iPad.
Users can run them fullscreen to try them out, and submit them directly to the App Store.
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