Apple introduces a major software update every year. For 2021, the software update is iOS 15.

Here are all the features Apple coming to your iPhone with iOS 15. 

iOS 15 release date

  • Previewed June 2021
  • 20 September 2021

The iOS 15 update will be available to download over-the-air from 20 September 2021, which is the same date the latest iPhone models are available to pre-order, shipping from 24 September.

A developer beta of iOS 15 was made available from 7 June and the public beta has been available since July in order to try and iron out bugs and glitches.

iOS 15 features

Here are all the features Apple announced that are coming to iOS 15.

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Apple

FaceTime

FaceTime gets some big improvements with iOS 15. Apple's Spatial Audio has been added the iOS video messaging service, with the aim to make calls more natural.

There are also a couple of other new features to help make calls better, including Voice Isolation that will block out the ambient noise to place more focus on your voice, offering clearer audio, and Wide Spectrum, which includes the ambient noise. You can switch between the two at the tap of a button.

Additionally, Apple added a Grid view and Portrait mode to FaceTime, along with FaceTime Links. FaceTime Links allow you to create a link and share it through Messages, Calendar, Mail or third party apps to allow anyone to join a FaceTime call from the web browser on an Android or Windows device.

There will also be a feature called SharePlay that will enable users to share experiences, such as listening to songs together through Apple Music, watching a TV show or movie in sync or sharing their screens to see apps together. This isn't available at launch though.

Find My

The Find My app gets some new capabilities in iOS 15, including users being able to locate a device that has been turned off or erased, along with Separation Alerts that notify you if you leave an AirTag, Apple device or Find My network accessory behind in an unfamiliar location. AirPods Pro and AirPods Max also get Find My network support and there is a new Find My widget too.

Additionally, iOS 15 brings live-streaming locations for family and friends that share their location with each other.

Translate

For Translate, iOS 15 brings a Live Translate feature, enabling conversation to flow between two languages. The software also brings systemwide translation to text anywhere on iPhone.

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Apple

Focus

A new feature for iOS 15 called Focus has been designed to reduce distraction by filtering notifications and apps based on what you tell your iPhone you are focusing on. There are four standard options: Do Not Disturb, Personal, Work and Sleep.

The four standard options use on-device intelligence - like your working hours - to suggest which apps and people you might want to allow you to notify you, as well allow you to create Home Screen pages with only particular apps and widgets. If you chose a Focus on one of your Apple devices, it will be set on any other Apple devices you have.

You can also create a custom focus to filter notifications, automatically let friends know you're not available (like Do Not Disturb While Driving does) and hide distractions without missing key notifications. For example, the Work Focus option, you could set to only have messages from work collegues come through, along with emails, while setting all other notifications to off until you change to the Personal Focus.

Shared with You

A new Shared with You feature - mentioned breifly in the Photos section above - works across the system in iOS 15 to find any articles, music, TV shows, photos and anything else shared with you through Message conversations.

These will then appear in a Shared with You section in apps like Photos, Safari, Apple News, Music, Podcasts and the Apple TV app to help you quickly access the information shared in context. 

Siri

Changes to Siri include the ability for the assistant to not only announce messages and incoming callers when wearing AirPods, but notifications too. You can ask Siri to share what is on your screen when wearing the wireless headphones.

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Apple

Notifications

Notifications were redesigned for iOS 15, with the introduction of a Notifications Summary that collects non-time-critical notifications and organises them by priority with the most relevant at the top. This summary is then delivered at a better time, like the morning or the evening rather than in the middle of your working day.

The Notifications Summary uses artificial intelligence to organise the notifications based on your interactions with apps, while urgent messages, missed calls and so forth, are delivered immediately so you don't miss them. 

Notifications also have contact photos for people in iOS 15 and larger icons for apps to make them easier to identify.

Photos

Updates to the Photos app includes the introduction of a Shared With You section, along with a big update to the Memories feature. Apple Music is integrated into Memories in iOS 15, and there is a more interactive interface too.

The integration with Apple Music uses on-device intelligence to personalise song suggestions too that aim to bring the memories to life and the memory reels sees the music adjust to the tone and beat.

iCloud+

iOS 15 brings some new features to iCloud, including Hide My Email, expanded HomeKit Secure Video support and a new internet privacy service called iCloud Private Relay

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Apple

Live Text

iOS 15 brings a feature called Live Text that uses on-device intelligence to recognise text in a photo. It allows you to take a photo of a phone number on a picture for example, and then call the number, or a snap a shot of the Wi-Fi password in a cafe and copy it directly into the box when requested.

There's also a visual look up feature that lets you take a photo of a flower and look up what kind it is, or a dog and discover what breed it is, for example.

Spotlight Search was also enhanced in iOS 15, using intelligence to search photos by location, people, scenes, or objects. It also uses the Live Text feature to find text and handwriting in photos, whilst also offering web image search and better results for actors, muscians, TV shows and movies.

When searching for a contact, you'll see recent conversations, shared photos and even their location if you share on Find My.

Wallet

Support for additional types of keys comes to Apple Wallet, joining digital car keys, with iOS 15. Users in participating states in the US will be able to add their driver's license or state IDs to the Wallet app, and there is also support for your iPhone to be able to unlock your home, office and hotel room.

The Transportation Security Administration is working to enable airport security checkpoints as the first place that will accept a digital ID card, while Hyatt is the first hotel group to be working on their customers being able to use their iPhone to unlock their rooms.

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Apple

Maps

Maps had an overhaul in iOS 15 too, with enhanced details in cities for neighbourhoods, commercial districts, elevation, buildings and custom-designed landmarks. There is a night-time mode with a "moonlit glow" and there are also new road colours and labels.

Additionally, iOS 15 brings a three-dimensional city-driving experience when you're navigating using your iPhone or CarPlay, with more road details, like bus lanes and pedistrian crossings. There's also augmented reality on board Maps in iOS 15 when you hold up your iPhone, offering a highly acurate position and detailed walking instructions.

Those using Apple Maps for public transit will be able to follow a selected train route, getting notifications when it is time to get off. 

Safari

Safari gets a new tab bar in iOS 15 that appears at the bottom of the screen so you can switch between tabs - though there will be the choice to keep it at the top. There's also Tab Groups that let you save tabs and access them across iPhone, iPad and Mac.

Other features on Safari with iOS 15 include a customisable start page and web extentions on iOS.

Weather

The Weather app has been redesigned for iOS 15, highlighting a much deeper integration with Dark Sky. The weather app sees more graphical displays of weather data, along with full-screen maps, dynamic layouts that change based on the weather and redesigned animated background that reflect the conditions. 

You are also alerted with notifications when rain or snow starts and stops.

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Apple

Privacy

iOS 15 brings more privacy controls. There's on-device speech recognition to allow audio of Siri requests to be entirely processed on your iPhone by default. 

Mail Privacy Protection stops senders being able to tell if you have opened their email, whilst also hiding an IP address so senders aren't able to learn your location or use it to build a profile on you.

Additionally, an App Privacy Report gives you an overview of how apps use the access granted to your location, photos, camera, microphone and contacts in the previous seven days and which other domains have been contacted during that time by the app.

Health

The Health app gets a few new features with iOS 15, including a sharing tab that allows users to share their health data with family, carers or a care team. It's also introduced Trends to give you a focus on meaningful changes to your health metrics, like a higher resting heart rate for example.

A health metric called Walking Steadiness is also coming with the new software, helping you manage your fall risk.

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Apple

Notes

The Notes app sees user-created tags added in iOS 15, allowing you to categorise notes quickly. You'll can also mention members of shared notes to notify each other of important updates. There is also an Activity view that shows the recent history of the changes to a shared note.

Apple TV

A small update here, but an update nonetheless. The Apple TV app sees a new row called "For All of You" in iOS 15, offering up a collection of shows and movies based on everyone in the household.

Easier setup

A couple of new setup options appear with iOS 15, including the option for existing iPhone users to temporarily back up data to iCloud, even without a subscription. For those moving to iPhone for the first time, there's an improved "Move to iOS" option for easy transfer of photo albums, files, folders, and Accessibility settings.

Accessibility 

In terms of Accessibility, iOS 15 offers new features for VoiceOver, along with new background sounds to help minimise distractions, and Made for iPhone support for bidirectional hearing aids.

You'll can also customise display and text size on an app-by-app basis, and there is support for recognising imported audiograms in Headphone Accommodations. 

iOS 15 what else we want to see

Sometimes with software, you don't know what you want or need until you get it and then you wonder how you ever lived without it. 

There are a few things haven't arrived as yet that we would still like to see on iOS 15:

  • Ability to edit App Library categories
  • Choice to have App Library as default view
  • Enhancements to lock screen
  • Always on display
  • Apple Watch to unlock iPhone without mask (Touch ID users)
  • Third party app stores
  • Better support for third party smartwatches (unlikely, we know)

iOS 15 compatibility: Will my iPhone support iOS 15?

iOS 15 is supported on the iPhone 6S and later. The list of iPhones that support the new software are therefore as follows:

  • iPhone 13 mini
  • iPhone 13
  • iPhone 13 Pro
  • iPhone 13 Pro Max
  • iPhone 12 Pro Max
  • iPhone 12 Pro
  • iPhone 12 
  • iPhone 12 Mini 
  • iPhone SE (2020)
  • iPhone 11 Pro Max
  • iPhone 11 Pro
  • iPhone 11
  • iPhone XR
  • iPhone XS Max
  • iPhone XS
  • iPhone X
  • iPhone 8 Plus
  • iPhone 8
  • iPhone 7 Plus
  • iPhone 7
  • iPhone SE (2016)
  • iPhone 6S Plus
  • iPhone 6S