iOS 15 is now available for download: here are the new features

Apple announced iOS 15and iPadOS 15, watchOS 8, and macOS 12 Monterey in June. Since then, all kinds of beta versions have appeared. Official updates for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch have been available for regular users since 7pm.

The update to iOS 15 is available for all iPhones with iOS 14, from iPhone 6S to iPhone 13. IPadOS 15 update coming to iPad mini 4 and later, iPad Air 2 and later, iPad (5th generation) and later, and all iPad Pro devices. WatchOS 8 is available for Apple Watch Series 3 and later. The release date of the Monterey update for macOS is still unknown.

In our opinion, these are the most important innovations.

time of confrontation

FaceTime video calling is getting all kinds of new features. For example, Windows and Android users can also participate in Internet video calls. The Android app wasn’t a luxury, but Apple only does it for payment services like Apple Music. Users who want FaceTime without an Apple device rely on a FaceTime link shared by someone else.

FaceTime will also receive support for: spatial sound, which broadens the group discussion; Someone to the left of your photo is also looking from the left. Soundproofing should improve sound in environments with a lot of background noise.

The SharePlay feature announced in FaceTime has been postponed for now. With SharePlay, you can watch movies and series together, listen to music, add songs to your playlist, or share your screen. This feature will come later in the iOS 15 update.

messages

You might be aware of the situation when looking for that photo someone has shared with you. Another conversation? Searching by images is not possible, only by text. iMessage should make it easier for you soon. Apple makes sure that the content people share with you through Messages can be found directly in relevant apps. The photos therefore have a part in common with you. But also in Safari and Apple Music Apple-podcast And in the Apple TV app. QuickPath finally supports Dutch in messages, so you can pass letters together to spell words.

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iOS 15 lists notifications. Unwanted app notifications appear in a daily overview, and you can set the time yourself. You still receive notifications from people. You can also create notification filters for different situations: work, home, sleep, driving or sports. This function is called focus. You will then only receive notifications that are required or relevant in this case. You can also temporarily turn off notifications from an app, such as WhatsApp.

Tabs in Safari

The Apple Safari browser gets a makeover. The tab bar rises to make more room for web pages. You can create groups for the tabs. Trackers can prevent you from using your IP address for profiling. And fixed functions like sharing or translating are now under one button.

live text

Did you take a photo of an advertisement in the supermarket? You can then select and copy the text from the photo, and if it has a phone number, you can call it right away. It works with photos and screenshots, in Safari, and with live previews in the Camera app.

find

The functionality of the Find My app has been extended. So you can locate your iPhone even if a thief turns off your device. You might also soon receive a warning if your AirPods or AirTags are too far away from you. You can also AirPods Pro And search for AirPods Max with your Apple Watch. Support for Find My AirPods is coming in iOS 15, but has been delayed by Apple until “later this fall.”

spatial sound

AirPods Pro or AirPods Max will soon receive support for listening on tvOS and macOS spatial sound, also known as spatial sound. Spatial audio tracks the movement of your head relative to the audio source, iPhone or iPad that you are watching or listening to. Small but big effect, it will soon be possible with Apple TV and Mac as audio source.

iCloud +

If you have a paid iCloud subscription, it automatically becomes iCloud + with additional privacy features. One is to hide my email. Apple has previously provided the option to use a randomly generated email address, which forwards messages to your email address. Soon you will be able to generate a new random email address at any time. In the settings you will find all the addresses that belong to your email. Another feature is Private Relay, which completely encrypts all outgoing internet traffic, although this feature is initially disabled and can only be used on a trial basis. This is useful, for example, if you need to use a public Wi-Fi hotspot. The upgrade costs nothing more.

weather

Last year, Apple bought the US weather app Dark Sky, known for its smart design and high-resolution weather animations. These can now be found in Apple’s own Weather app, which was extended in iOS 15 to include additional graphics and information. It is not yet known when it will be available in the Netherlands. For example, accurate minute-by-minute rain forecasts are lacking in the Netherlands, which are already available in the United States, among others.

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