Apple iOS 15 features, supported devices

Apple recently announced a major update of its operating system packed with new features such as SharePlay in FaceTime, Live Text using on-device intelligence, redesigned Notifications, and more— the iOS 15. 

Here are the new features of the iOS 15:

• SharePlay in FaceTime – iOS 15 introduces SharePlay for FaceTime. It enables users access new ways to manage notifications, and brings more intelligence to photos and search to quickly access information. They can watch together, listen together, and share their screen. It also supports other new features such as grid view, portait mode, mic modes, as well as FaceTime links for scheduling and sharing FaceTime calls. Additionally, FaceTime calls also go beyond Apple devices with the ability to create a link from iPhone, iPad, or Mac, and share it through Messages, Calendar, Mail, or third-party apps, allowing anyone to join a FaceTime call from their web browser on Android and Windows devices.

• Find Focus – iOS 15 provides new tools to help users focus and reduce distraction. Focus is a new feature that filters notifications and apps based on what a user wants to focus on. Customers can create a custom Focus or select a suggested Focus, which uses on-device intelligence to suggest which people and apps are allowed to notify them. According to Apple, Focus suggestions are based on users’ context, like during their work hours or while they’re winding down for bed, and when Focus is set on one Apple device, it automatically applies to their other Apple devices. Users can also create Home Screen pages with apps and widgets that apply to moments of focus to only display relevant apps.

• Redesigned Notifications – Notifications have been redesigned, adding contact photos for people and larger icons for apps. A new notification summary collects non-time-critical notifications for delivery at a more opportune time, such as in the morning and evening. Using on-device intelligence, notifications are arranged by priority, with the most relevant notifications rising to the top, and based on a user’s interactions with apps.

• Messages and Memoji – The links, images, and other content shared with you in Messages are featured in a new Shared with You section in the corresponding app. Shared with You is built into Photos, Safari, Apple News, Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, and the Apple TV app. It also features new Memoji with added accessibility customization, including cochlear implants, oxygen tubes, and soft helmets. What’s more multiple photos in Messages now appear as a collage or a stack of images that users can swipe through.

• New Privacy Features – iOS 15 introduces more privacy controls to help protect user information. With on-device speech recognition, audio of Siri requests is now processed entirely on iPhone by default, and performance improves significantly. App Privacy Report offers an overview of how apps use the access that has been granted to location, photos, camera, microphone, and contacts in the last seven days, and which other domains are contacted.

• Redesigned Weather and Notes Apps – Weather includes more graphical displays of weather data, full-screen maps, and dynamic layouts that change based on conditions.

• Redesigned Safari – Safari gets a new design that makes controls easier to reach. The new tab bar is compact and lightweight, and floats at the bottom of the screen, enabling users to easily swipe between tabs. However, Tab Groups allow users to save tabs and easily access them at any time across iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

• New Maps features – Apple Maps now features enhanced details in cities for neighborhoods, commercial districts, elevation, and buildings, new road colors and labels, custom-designed landmarks, and a new night-time mode with a moonlit glow.

• New Keys and State IDs in Apple Wallet – Apple Wallet adds support for additional types of keys, making it possible to access everyday places with just a tap. Later this year, customers in participating states in the US will be able to add their driver’s license or state IDs to Wallet.

• Spotlight – Spotlight now uses intelligence to search photos by location, people, scenes, or objects, and using Live Text, Spotlight can find text and handwriting in photos. Plus, Spotlight now offers web image search and all-new rich results for actors, musicians, TV shows, and movies.

• Siri – adds Announce Notifications on AirPods, the ability for users to share what’s on their screen just by asking, and more.

• Shared with You – works across the system to find the articles, music, TV shows, photos, and more that are shared in Messages conversations, and conveniently surfaces them in apps like Photos, Safari, Apple News, Music, Podcasts, and the Apple TV app, making it easy to quickly access the information in context.

• iCloud+ – iCloud comes with new premium features, including Hide My Email, expanded HomeKit Secure Video support, and an innovative new internet privacy service, iCloud Private Relay, at no additional cost. Current iCloud subscribers will be upgraded to iCloud+ automatically this fall. All iCloud+ plans can be shared with people in the same Family Sharing group, so everyone can enjoy the new features, storage, and elevated experience that comes with the service.

• The Health app – it gets a new sharing tab that lets users share their health data with family, caregivers, or a care team, Trends gives users a way to focus attention on meaningful changes in personal health metrics, and Walking Steadiness is a new metric that empowers people to proactively manage their fall risk.

• HomeKit – HomeKit accessory makers can now enable “Hey Siri” in their products, allowing customers to talk to and get responses from Siri on third-party devices. “Hey Siri”-enabled accessories will relay requests through HomePod or HomePod mini and will support features such as Personal Requests, Intercom, timers, and alarms. Starting today, smart home device manufacturers can begin working with Apple to integrate Siri into their accessories.

• Find My – Find My introduces new capabilities to help locate a device that has been turned off or erased, as well as live-streaming locations for family and friends who choose to share their location. Separation Alerts notify a user if they leave an AirTag, Apple device, or Find My network accessory behind in an unfamiliar location, and the Find My network now supports AirPods Pro and AirPods Max. A new Find My widget offers an at-a-glance view directly from the Home Screen.

• Translate – Translate adds a new Live Translate feature that makes conversation flow naturally across languages. Systemwide translation allows users to translate text anywhere on iPhone.

• The Apple TV – The app now features a new row titled “For All of You” — showcasing a collection of shows and movies based on the interests of selected people or an entire household — perfect for movie nights.

• New iPhone setup – Existing iPhone users can temporarily back up data to iCloud — even without a subscription — to easily transfer their data to a new iPhone. For those moving to iPhone for the first time, an improved “Move to iOS” experience easily transfers photo albums, files, folders, and Accessibility settings, so iPhone feels personal right from the start.

• Accessibility – Accessibility across iPhone expands with new features for VoiceOver that enable users to explore even more details about the people, text, table data, and other objects within images. In support of neurodiversity, new background sounds help minimize distractions, and for those who are deaf or hard of hearing, Made for iPhone supports new bidirectional hearing aids. Sound Actions customizes Switch Control to work with mouth sounds, and users can now customize display and text size on an app-by-app basis. Apple also brings support for recognizing imported audiograms — charts that show the results of a hearing test — to Headphone Accommodations.

Here’s the list of devices that will support iOS 15:
• iPhone 12
• iPhone 12 mini
• iPhone 12 Pro
• iPhone 12 Pro Max
• iPhone 11
• iPhone 11 Pro
• iPhone 11 Pro Max
• iPhone XS
• iPhone XS Max
• iPhone XR
• iPhone X
• iPhone 8
• iPhone 8 Plus
• iPhone 7
• iPhone 7 Plus
• iPhone 6s
• iPhone 6s Plus
• iPhone SE (1st generation)
• iPhone SE (2nd generation)
• iPod touch (7th generation)

The iOS 15 developer beta is now available, while the iOS 15 public beta will be released next month.