iOS 15 Features, Release Date and Supported Devices

Apple has finally revealed iOS 15, iPadOS 15, watchOS 8, macOS Monterey during its annual WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) event and we cannot wait to share all the details of iOS 15 with you.

Just like Apple’s previous WWDC Events, even this year Apple started off the conference with a keynote where they had a presentation showing iOS 15, iPadOS 15, watchOS 8, macOS 12, tvOS 15, HomePodOS 15. If not all, Apple has shared the most important features and changed they have introduced in iOS 15.

In this article, we will talk about iOS 15 the new features and changes, Release date, the devices it supports, and more.

iOS 15 Supported Devices

Apple has kept supporting a lot of old iPhones until now, and we’ve been asked the same questions a lot of times, “will my iPhone be supported this time?”, “which iPhones will be supported for iOS 15?”, etc.

We are very excited to share that Apple has included all the devices that were supported with iOS 14. So, all iPhones from iPhone 6S up to the latest iPhone 12 are all supported. You can also check the list below.

List of iOS 15 Supported iPhones:

  • 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)

iOS 15 Features

Apple is known to pack in a lot of quality-of-life features in their operating systems, and iOS 15 is no different. iOS 14 was launched with some great features like widgets, app drawer, and more. It makes iPhone/iPad experience much better. Let’s see what Apple has introduced in iOS 15.

Spoiler alert, none of these changes are major, but they are great Quality of Life changes.

Notification Center changes

Notification Center finally got an overhaul. It looks much better now, with larger app icons and contact photos to make it easier for us to identify. Apple is now using Artificial Intelligence to help prioritize and organize our notifications. Not just this, there are a lot of new features and changes in Notification Center.

ios 15 features

Notifications Summary

Now, according to Mack Gurman from Bloomberg who has been pretty accurate in the past, the upcoming iOS 15 is expected to have a menu that allow users to select if they’re driving, sleeping, working or even have custom categories of their choice. The menu will also be shown on an updated lock screen or control center according to him. This is a great feature for everyone, you’re maybe busy working and you get a message from someone, this feature will help you by auto-replying to that person that you’re busy with some work and that you will reply when you finish working.

Control Center

There is a new Focus Mode option in the control center. With focus mode, we can create different types of focuses to receive notifications related to that focus mode only. For example, if we’re at work, we can choose to receive notifications from work related apps only. Just choose Work from the options in the focus mode control center setting. We can create custom focuses as well.

ios 15 features

iMessage changes

The messages app has received a lot of changes with iOS 15.

Shared with You

When a person sends us a bunch of pictures as a message, we will receive them as a collage.

There are a lot of new Memoji stickers with a lot of different options to choose from. We can now represent our look and style with multicolor headwear.

Links, photos and other things that we have received from different people are now integrated with their corresponding apps. Like in photos, if someone shares photos with us, we will see a new Shared with you section in the photos app. The same goes for links, podcasts, TV Shows, Apple Music, etc.

ios 15 features

We can even reply to those things from right within the corresponding app, without going back to the messages app. This saves a lot of time.

Focus Mode

Focus Mode is also integrated with the Messages app, so if we are in a Focus, and we receive irrelevant messages, focus mode helps us by auto-replying to those messages informing them that we are busy with something else and we will get back to them when we are out of that focus.

FaceTime

FaceTime has received a lot of great updates, including the new grid view where we can see the video of all the people participating in that FaceTime call, so that we can see the reaction of others at the same time as someone is speaking. The person who’s speaking will be highlighted, so we always know who’s talking.

Spatial Audio

This is a great feature which makes the sound feel like it is coming from the direction in which the video of a person is positioned on the screen. This will make conversations feel more lifelike and natural.

ios 15 features

New Bar on Top of the Screen

There’s a new bar view which is displayed on the top of the screen during the FaceTime call.

This bar will give us the option to enable screen sharing where we can share the screen of our iPhone with others in the call. This feature is extended to Music and Videos as well. We can now listen to a song, or watch a movie together, in the FaceTime call.

Also, there’s portrait mode video for facetime.

Voice Isolation

Voice Isolation minimizes background noise and prioritizes your voice.

Wide Spectrum

If there’s some music playing in the background and you want the person on the other end to listen to the same music, you can turn on Wide Spectrum and this will stop filtering the Ambient Sound.

FaceTime Links

This feature helps us to schedule a facetime call and make a unique FaceTime web link to easily set up a call for later or share the link with a group. We can share it with our friends in Messages, Mail, or third‑party apps like WhatsApp. We can also generate a link for an event in Calendar, so everyone will know exactly where and when to meet.

Invite anyone to FaceTime

We can now send a link to our friends and family to connect on FaceTime. Even if they’re using Windows or Android. And it’s still end-to-end encrypted, so our call will be as private and secure as any other FaceTime call.

Maps

Maps has received an overhaul as well. There is a lot more detail in the app. Including an all new city experience, where we can see amazing 3D landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge. Yes, this comes in both modes, light and dark.

ios 15 features

New Driving Features

The new Maps in iOS 15 will offer drivers much better road details like turn lanes, crosswalks, and bike lanes; street-level perspectives as we approach complex interchanges; and a new dedicated driving map that will help us see current incidents and traffic conditions at a glance.

Walking Instructions

If we are going somewhere by walk, we can now get step-by-step directions which we can also view in augmented reality.

New transit Features

Apple has now integrated public transit which shows nearby stations and transit times and lets us pin favorite routes to the top. We will receive notifications to get off the public transit vehicle when we have reached the desired stop.

Safari

With iOS 15, Safari has received a lot of changes as well.

A new tab bar design

We now have a new tab bar design which is reimagined for the way we browse today, the new tab bar gives us more screen space and stays out of the way as we scroll and explore. It’s placed at an easily reachable position at the bottom of the screen, so we can navigate and jump between tabs by just swiping the bottom tab to the left or right.

Tab groups

With this feature, we can now save and organize our tabs in the way that works best for us and we can also switch between the tabs easily. Tab groups also sync across devices so we can access to our tabs from anywhere.

Voice Search

The name explains it all, we can now browse the internet with our voice. This is a very convenient way to search the web hands-free. We just need to tap the microphone in the tab bar and speak.

Extensions

We can now install Safari extensions on our iPhones. And just like on Mac, we can choose which extension to be activated and when.

Wallet

The Wallet app has also received a lot of Quality of Life changes.

ID Cards

We can now add our ID Cards like Driver’s License, National ID Card, etc. to use when we are travelling.

Keys

Just like CarKey, we can now unlock our home, office, garage, hotel room with HomeKey.

Other Improvements

Apple has included a lot of other improvements with iOS 15.

Live text

Photos contain so much rich information from places that we have visited, and now we can make it useful with live text.

ios 15 features

Live Text intelligently unlocks rich and useful information in images, so we can make a call, send an email, or look up directions with just a tap on the highlighted text in a photo.

Live Text also works in the Camera app, so we can point our iPhone camera at text on the go and quickly take action on useful information.

We can use live text for translation as well. Live Text understands seven different languages: English, Chinese, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. And with system-wide translation, we can simply tap and translate.

Visual Look Up

With Visual Look Up, we can now quickly learn more about art, landmarks, nature, books, and pets simply by tapping a photo on our device or on the web.

Spotlight

Spotlight now provides richer results, giving more detailed information in the search results.

Spotlight now shows us more information at a glance with new rich search results for artists, entertainers, TV shows and movies, as well as our contacts. And we can now search our photos in Spotlight and even search based on text in our photos by using Live Text.

Photos

The photos app has received a lot of improvements specifically in the Memories Tab.

Memories introduces a new interactive, immersive interface, along with new Memory mixes that lets us personalize the look and feel of our story with a song and vibe to match.

Apple Music is also integrated with Memories in iOS 15.

Health App

The health app has received updates as well.

Updates to the Health app now provides us with new ways to share data with our loved ones and healthcare team, a metric to assess our risk of falling, and trend analysis to help us understand changes in our health.

Privacy changes

Apple has been known for its strict privacy and Apple continues to keep working on this.

With iOS 15, we have an increased visibility into how apps access our data, protects us from unwanted data collection, and gives us more control over what we choose to share.

App privacy report shows us how apps are using the permissions that we have granted them, which third-party domains they contact, and how they made contact recently.

Now we can send emails with more peace of mind. Mail Privacy Protection hides our IP address, so senders can’t link it to our other online activities or determine our location. And it prevents senders from seeing if and when we have opened their email.

Our conversations with Siri now remain on our device. Siri is loaded with on-device speech recognition, so the audio of our requests is processed on our iPhone or iPad by default. And on-device processing also means Siri can perform many tasks without an internet connection.

Weather

A fresh new look includes graphical displays of weather data and beautifully redesigned animated backgrounds — along with precipitation, air quality, and temperature maps — that make Weather more engaging and powerful than ever.

Notes

Productivity updates in Notes enable you to organize with tags and collaborate in new ways with mentions and an Activity view.

Translate

System-wide translation lets you translate text anywhere on your device. In the app, Auto Translate and face to face view improve conversation flow and make it easier to follow along.

Widgets

Enjoy all-new widgets for Find My, Game Center, App Store Today, Sleep, Mail, and People with Family Sharing integration.

Find My

See your family and friends’ locations with continuous streaming updates. Locate your devices using the Find My network even if they’re powered off or erased.

Apple ID

Account Recovery Contacts makes resetting your password and maintaining access to your account easier than ever. And a new Digital Legacy program lets you designate people as Legacy Contacts so they can access your account in the event of your death.

Siri

You can now ask Siri to share items onscreen like photos, web pages, news, and more. If the item can’t be shared, Siri will offer to send a screenshot instead.

iOS 15 Release Date

As far as when to expect the public release of iOS 15, the developer beta 1 was released as soon as the WWDC event ended.

The public beta 1 is usually released a couple of weeks after releasing the developer beta depending upon its stability because, generally, it is pretty unstable in the beginning.

We will see a final release in September, usually around late September, when the new iPhone is released. It is likely to be released during the third week of September, maybe on Friday, 24th of September. That is probably around the time Apple will release iOS 15 to the public.

You May Also Like – Best Wallpapers for iPhone 12 (Pro) Max

We hope you likes this article and also, let us know what you want to see the most in iOS 15 in the comments below.

More Related Articles:


Topics Covered in this article: iOS 15 Release Date, iOS 15 Features, iOS 15 Expected Features, iOS 15 Supported iPhones, List of iPhones which support iOS 15, iOS 15 Compatible iPhones.


Explore Stories

AUTHOR.

Photo of author

Shaikh Adil

Adil is a writer at ytechb. He started caring about technology after he got his first iPhone. He likes to help others by posting tips & tricks and providing solutions regarding iOS problems. When not at work, he enjoys playing football, watching movies, watching tech videos on YouTube, listening to music and podcasts and playing video games.

Leave a Comment