iOS 15 is now available to all users with new Focus Mode, improved Siri, Spotlight, and more

Apple has released iOS 15 to all iPhone and iPod touch users. iOS 15 is a major new update and adds new features like Focus Mode, revamped notifications, iCloud+, Live Text, improvements to Siri and Spotlight search, and numerous enhancements to built-in apps like Weather, FaceTime, Messages, Maps, Health, and more.

What’s new in iOS 15?

iOS 15 was originally announced at WWDC 2021. During the beta testing phase, there were 8 beta updates for developers and public testers, followed up with one release candidate.

The update features many improvements to FaceTime such as spatial audio, voice isolation, wide spectrum, and portrait mode. Users can also initiate FaceTime calls with users on other platforms such as Windows or Android devices. Messages has also seen many improvements including new Memoji customization options and interface enhancements for browsing through photo albums. A new Shared with You feature also brings up content shared in Messages in other apps like Safari, Apple News, and more.

For productivity-related improvements, Apple has also created a new Focus mode, which lets you create different ‘Do not Disturb’ profiles for work and other purposes. These profiles can also auto-respond to your Messages so that people can know when you are unavailable.

Other features such as Safari and Notifications have also seen a number of user interface enhancements. Safari even supports web extensions, similar to Safari on Mac. Look forward to tons of new extensions to land in the App Store today!

iOS 15 release notes

Here are the complete release notes from Apple for iOS 15:

iOS 15

FaceTime

Spatial audio makes people’s voices sound like they’re coming from the direction in which they’re positioned on the screen on Group FaceTime calls (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)

Voice Isolation blocks background noises so your voice is crystal clear (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)

Wide Spectrum brings all background noises into your call (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)

Portrait mode blurs your background and puts the focus on you (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)

Grid view displays up to six people at a time in Group FaceTime calls in the same-size tiles and highlights the current speaker

FaceTime links allow you to invite your friends into a FaceTime call, even friends on Android or Windows devices can join from their browser

Messages and Memoji

Shared with You shows content sent to you by friends in Messages conversations in a new section in Photos, Safari, Apple News, Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, or the Apple TV app

Pinned content elevates the shared content you choose and makes it more prominent in Shared with You, Messages search, and the Details view of the conversation

Multiple photos sent in Messages are displayed as a glanceable collage or a swipeable stack

Over 40 Memoji outfit choices and up to three different colors to customize your Memoji stickers’s clothing and headwear

Focus

Focus lets you automatically filter notifications based on what you’re currently doing, such as fitness, sleep, gaming, reading, driving, work, or personal time

Focus uses on-device intelligence during set up to suggest apps and people you want to allow notifications from in a Focus

Home Screen pages can be customized to match your apps and widgets to a specific Focus

Contextual suggestions intelligently suggest a Focus based on your context, using signals like location or time of day

Status appears to your contacts in Messages conversations, indicating your notifications are silenced with Focus

Notifications

A new look displays contact photos for people and larger icons for apps

Notification summary delivers a helpful collection of your notifications daily, based on a schedule you set

Notifications can be muted from any app or messaging thread for the next hour or for the day

Maps

Detailed city maps display elevation, trees, buildings, landmarks, crosswalks and turn lanes, and 3D views to navigate complex interchanges, and more in San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York, and London, with more cities coming in the future (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)

New driving features include a new map that highlights details like traffic and incidents, and a route planner that lets you view your upcoming journey by choosing a future departure or arrival time

Immersive walking directions show step-by-step directions in augmented reality (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)

Updated transit experience provides one-tap access to departures near you, makes it easy to see and interact with your route using one hand, and notifies you when approaching your stop

Interactive 3D globe shows enhanced details for mountain ranges, deserts, forests, oceans, and more (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)

Redesigned place cards make it easy to learn about and interact with places, and a new home for Guides editorially curates the best recommendations for places you’ll love

Safari

Bottom tab bar is easier to reach and helps you move between tabs by swiping left or right

Tab Groups help you save and organize your tabs and easily access them across devices

Tab overview grid view displays your open tabs

Start page can be customized with a background image and new sections like Privacy Report, Siri Suggestions, and Shared With You

Web extensions on iOS help you personalize your browsing and can be downloaded through the App Store

Voice search lets you search the web using your voice

Wallet

Home keys let you tap to unlock a supported home or apartment door lock (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)

Hotel keys allow you to tap to unlock your room at participating hotels

Office keys allow you to tap to unlock your office doors for participating corporate offices

Car keys with Ultra Wideband help you unlock, lock, and start your supported car without having to take your iPhone out of your bag or pocket (iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 models)

Remote keyless entry functions on your car keys allow you to lock, unlock, honk your horn, preheat your car, or open your trunk on your supported vehicle

Live Text

Live Text makes text interactive in your photos so you can copy and paste, look up, and translate in Photos, Screenshot, Quick Look, Safari, and live previews with Camera (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)

Data detectors for Live Text recognize phone numbers, emails, dates, street addresses, and more in photos so you can take action on them

Live Text is available from the keyboard letting you insert text directly from the camera viewfinder into any text field

Spotlight

Rich results brings together all the information you’re looking for on contacts, actors, musicians, movies, and TV shows

Photos can be searched from your photo library by locations, people, scenes, text in the photos or other things in the photos, like a dog or a car

Web image search allows you to search for images of people, animals, monuments, and more

Photos

New look for Memories with a new interactive interface, animated cards with smart, adaptive titles, new animation and transition styles, and multiple image collages

Apple Music can be added to your Memories for Apple Music subscribers, and personalized song suggestions combine expert recommendations with your music tastes and what’s in your photos and videos

Memory mixes let you set the mood by selecting from different songs and a Memory look to match

New memory types include additional international holidays, child-focused memories, trends over time, and improved pet memories

Info pane now displays rich information about the photo like which camera and lens, shutter speed, file size, and more

Visual Look Up recognizes art, landmarks around the world, plants and flowers, books, and dog and cat breeds in your photos so you can learn more about them

Health

Sharing lets you choose health data, alerts, and trends to share with people important to you or those who are caring for you, including your healthcare provider

Trends lets you see how a given health metric is progressing over time and can notify you when a new trend has been detected

Walking Steadiness is a new metric that can assess your risk of falling and notify you if your walking steadiness is low (iPhone 8 and later)

Verifiable health records enable you to download and store verifiable versions of COVID-19 vaccines and lab results

Lab results can now be pinned for quick access and include highlights that show how your labs have changed over time

Weather

A new design shows the most important weather information for that location and includes new maps modules

Weather maps can be viewed in full-screen and show precipitation, temperature and air quality in supported countries

Next-hour precipitation notifications alert you when rain or snow is about to start or stop in Ireland, U.K., and US

New animated backgrounds more accurately represent the sun position, clouds, and precipitation (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)

Siri

On-device processing means audio of your requests does not leave your device by default, and means Siri is able to process many requests while offline (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)

Share items with Siri lets you send on screen items like photos, web pages and Maps locations to any of your contacts

Onscreen context can be used by Siri to refer to contacts on screen to send them a message or place a call

On-device personalization allows Siri speech recognition and understanding to improve privately (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)

Privacy

Mail Privacy Protection protects your privacy by preventing email senders from learning about your Mail activity, your IP address or whether you’ve opened their email

Safari Intelligent Tracking Prevention now also prevents known trackers from profiling you using your IP address

iCloud+

iCloud+ is a cloud subscription service that gives you premium features and additional iCloud storage

iCloud Private Relay (beta) sends your requests through two separate internet relays and encrypts the internet traffic leaving your device so you can browse Safari in a more secure and private way

Hide My Email lets you create unique, random email addresses that forward to your personal inbox so you can send and receive email without having to share your real email address

HomeKit Secure Video supports connecting more security cameras without using your iCloud storage quota

Custom email domain personalizes your iCloud Mail address and allows you to invite family members to use the same domain

Accessibility

Image exploration with VoiceOver allows you to get even more details about people and objects, and learn about text and table data in photos

VoiceOver image descriptions in Markup let you add your own image descriptions that can be read by VoiceOver

Per-app settings allow you to customize display and text size settings only for the apps you want

Background sounds play balanced, bright, or dark noise, ocean, rain, and stream sounds continuously in the background to mask unwanted environmental or external noise

Sound actions for Switch Control enable you to control your iPhone with simple mouth sounds

Audiograms can be imported in Settings so you can customize Headphone Accommodations based on your hearing test results

New Voice Control languages include Mandarin Chinese (China mainland), Cantonese (Hong Kong), French (France), and German (Germany)

Memoji options including a cochlear implant, oxygen tubes, or a soft helmet

This release also includes other features and improvements:

Tags in Notes and Reminders help you quickly categorize your items to make them easy to find, and you can use custom Smart Folders and Smart Lists to automatically collect your notes and reminders based on rules you can define

Mentions in Notes enable you to notify others of important updates in shared notes, and an all-new Activity view displays all the recent changes in a note in a single list

Spatial audio with dynamic head tracking in Apple Music brings an even more immersive experience to Dolby Atmos music with AirPods Pro and AirPods Max

System-wide translation lets you select text throughout the system and translate it with a tap, even in photos

New widgets include Find My, Contacts, App Store, Sleep, Game Center, and Mail

Cross-app drag and drop function lets you pick up images, documents, and files from one app to another

Keyboard magnification loupe magnifies the text when moving the cursor

Apple ID Account Recovery Contacts lets you to choose one or more people you trust to help you reset your password and regain access to your account

Temporary iCloud storage grants you as much iCloud storage as you need to create a temporary backup of your data, free of charge, for up to three weeks when you buy a new device

Find My separation alerts notify you if you leave a supported device or item behind and Find My will give you directions to your item

Game highlights of up to the last 15 seconds of gameplay can be saved using game controllers like the Xbox Series X|S Wireless Controller or Sony PS5 DualSense™ Wireless Controller

App Store in-app events help you discover timely events within apps and games such as a game competition, a new movie premiere, or a livestreamed experience

Check out our detailed coverage of these new features below:

Is your iPhone compatible with iOS 15?

iOS 15 is compatible with the following iPhone models:

iPhone 6s and later
iPad Pro (all models)
iPad Air 2 and later
iPad 5th generation and later
iPad mini 4 and later
iPod touch (7th generation)

How to upgrade your iPhone to iOS 15?

If you already have automatic updates enabled on your iPhone, you should get the update automatically. To manually download the update, go to Settings > General > Software Update. Make sure that your iPhone or iPod touch has at least 50% battery charge and is connected to a stable Wi-Fi network.

Alternatively, you can download the iOS 15 IPSW firmware file for your iPhone or iPod touch, and restore it to your device using a Mac or Windows PC. This is useful if you want to go for a clean installation experience.

What’s new in iOS 15?

iOS 15 release notes

Is your iPhone compatible with iOS 15?

How to upgrade your iPhone to iOS 15?

Imran Hussain

41 comments