The latest major release of Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 15, is finally here. It was rolled out on September 20, 2021, and it’s already received two smaller updates, 15.0.1 and 15.0.2.
But what makes iOS 15 stand apart from its predecessors? To answer this question, let’s break down the major changes.
Game-changing new features
There’s a total of 300+ changes and tweaks coming to iPhone. Some are minor security updates, bug fixes, and tiny refinements. Others can be a real game-changer.
Automatically recognizes text in photos
‘Live Text’ is a powerful Optical character recognition (OCR). If you take photos of handwritten notes, posters, computer screen or any texts in images, it will be handy.
Let’s say you’re a student who saw a poster advertising write my research paper services. You can now snap a photo of the poster to look it up later. With ‘Live Text’, you don’t have to retype anything into the search bar: you can select the text and copy it or use the ‘Lookup’ feature.
Also ‘Live Text’ it’s available right in your viewfinder.
iOS 15 also introduced ‘Visual Look Up’. This is Apple’s take on the search by image. The new feature lets you do it in one tap.
Do not disturb is out, focus is in
If you frequently use the Do Not Disturb button in your control center, you’ll notice it’s missing after updating. Instead, prepare to see the Focus button. It replaces the Do Not Disturb While Driving and the Sleep Mode, too, essentially expanding the concept to more situations.
The way it works remains essentially the same. You can choose to:
- Limit which notifications you see to stay productive during the day;
- Create custom home screens for each context, removing certain apps from your screen;
- Share your Focus status with others to avoid getting disturbed;
- Filter which contacts you’ll get notifications and calls from (don’t worry, there’s the Notify Anyway option for emergencies).
You can also generate background noises, like ocean or rain sounds to help with concentration.
Notification summary declutters your lock screen
Before iOS 15, you could just mute all of them coming from one app. But then you’d be missing out on something not-as-urgent but still interesting, like new contents, messages, or social notifications.
Notification summaries can help you find the middle ground between too many notifications and missing out on something not urgent—but still interesting.
They sum up all of the notifications you got and serve you the summary when you choose to. You can select the time and their quantity per day.
FaceTime got a major upgrade
FaceTime was already great as it is, but there’s always room for improvement. Here’s what’s new in the revamped FaceTime:
Spatial audio. The audio stream now adapts to the position of the speaker on the screen. That creates a more immersive experience—which is especially important when FaceTime serves as a replacement for face-to-face conversations.
Portrait mode. Now you can choose to have your background blurred while your camera is on. The portrait mode takes it one step further in terms of quality.
Meetings. Users can now schedule FaceTime calls and generate links for them. Besides, Apple wants to allow Android and Windows users to join such meetings using Chrome or Edge browsers, too—which would be unheard of just several years ago.
The platform is constantly updated, so, if you’re eager for change and can’t wait to try out the new features, get in!
