iOS 15 features: SharePlay, new Safari, Focus, Weather, more.
While iOS 15 was announced at WWDC 2021 in June, it’s been through significant changes before its official release on September 20. Apple is focusing this update on three aspects – staying connected, finding focus with productivity, and privacy. A release date for iOS 15 was confirmed at the September 14 Apple event at which the company announced the iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro and other devices. Although the public beta went live in June, some features have since been delayed to a future release, such as SharePlay and App Privacy Reporting, while Safari has seen its redesign scaled back. If you want an early look at what’s coming in the full release and beyond, we’ve been going through the public beta releases of iOS 15 to show you what’s coming to your iPhone 6S and above. At the September 14 event, the iPhone 13, Apple Watch Series 7, and the iPad and iPad mini all saw new releases announced, but the release date for iOS 15 wasn’t confirmed. Apple announced that iOS 15 is to be released on September 20, four days before the release of the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro. The public beta arrived ahead of schedule at the end of June, so anyone who has an iOS 15-compatible device can download it now. While the developer betas haven’t been too finicky, the public betas are typically less buggy, and should be a lot more stable for most users to try out on their main devices. Make sure to back up your device just in case before updating to iOS 15, and follow our guide for how to get iOS 15 beta on your phone. Of course, while we’re talking about iOS 15 here, so iPadOS 15 is also coming on September 20 for your iPad. As Apple’s main section on iOS 15 states, the update will work with an iPhone 6S and above. Apple has brought new features to FaceTime in iOS 15, with a focus on making it easier to connect with family and friends, while improving the audio and visual quality. Spatial audio is coming, which means 3D audio gives the impression that your recipients are in the same room as you. Voice isolation now focuses on your voice only, and blocks out any other ambient noise. There’s also Wide Spectrum, which focuses on you and the environment around you. There’s also Grid View, which shows a group call, alongside Portrait Mode coming to the application. The background is now blurred, and focuses on you. There’s also FaceTime links, which can generate a link to help plan a call, similar to how a Google Meet link works. SharePlay is also new in iOS 15, where you can share music, watch TV shows and movies, alongside sharing your screen, so you can show a recipient how you use a certain app. You can also extend SharePlay to an AppleTV, which is helpful especially for a movie. This is also an API, so an app can work with this very soon. Supported services such as Disney+, Twitch, ESPN, TikTok and more are using SharePlay for iOS 15. However, SharePlay won’t arrive when iOS 15 does, with Apple holding it back for a future release of iOS 15, perhaps iOS 15.
