10 Reasons Why I Am Excited About the Release of iOS 15
What's new in iOS 15? Focus Mode, Share Play, and more…
I have been a Symbian user for Six years, and an Android user for almost Eight years, I have been using Apple products for quite a long, but this time I chose iPhone as my primary mobile phone. It was a well-thought decision, and I have no hesitation to say that I am really happy with this decision. I believe that Apple products are well thought of and are really focused on User Experience. The way all their apps works in synchronization with the OS and the way all the devices are so well connected with each other, I don’t think I could ever get this experience in an Android Phone.
Anyways, this article is not about comparing platforms. It’s about why I am specifically excited about the release of iOS 15.
Whenever we talk about Apple products, there are 2 things that come to our mind — Great User Experience and Privacy. And lately, I take these 2 things very seriously. I remember the days when I used to unlock my previous phone in the morning and there would be around more than 50 notifications suddenly pop up from various applications and none of them were actually of any use. Or many many services spamming me on an hourly basis. This time I am very much concerned about my privacy and peace of mind.
Also since last year, 2020, with the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, we are locked in our homes. Most of us in the I.T. domain are working remotely. Some of our friends are working from their native places. I see a very important role of collaborative tools here, tools like Zoom, Meet, and IMs have really helped us to bridge that gap.
Keeping all these things in mind, let see what we got in iOS 15.
If you go by the website of iOS 15 preview, there are tons of new features and enhancements. But let’s see which feature I am most excited about and why.
1. Share Play
Yes, I know that Share Play is delayed and won’t be part of the initial public release. But it’s gonna be there for sure, probably in the future minor releases. With all of us in lockdown mode right now, our friends and loved ones being distant from us, I think Share Play is the need of the hour.
How cool is it that you and your friends who have not met for months can now all connect, watch a movie together while you can chat? It’s almost like watching a show/ movie/ sports (whatever you like) on a day out with friends, no matter wherever you are.
I and my friends are super excited about this feature.
2. Improved FaceTime
First of all how the new FaceTime is the game-changer? Again as all of us are in lockdown mode right now, we are all dependent on Video Conference tools like Zoom or Google Meet to communicate virtually. This has introduced a new set of challenges for people working from home. They have kids running all across the house, there are neighbors who are drilling and grinding every now and then, there is a Football match going on and people are going crazy all over the house, right?
The new FaceTime features like Voice Isolation so that you can filter out the background noise and the Portrait mode so you can filter the background image are the lifesavers.
I live in India and a majority of the people here use an Android phone. What do I do with FaceTime when none of my friends are using it? — Well not anymore. You can share a FaceTime link with everyone now. No matter Android, Windows, or whatever, you just need a web browser to connect. You can even create a Calendar invite and attach a FaceTime link to it so that everyone knows where to connect.
Apple has now entered the game.
3. Focus Mode
As I told above that I really want my phone to respect my peace of mind. On a busy day or while in a meeting, the phone bombarding you with irrelevant stuff is an utter nightmare. Moreover, sometimes you just don’t want any distractions. Watching a suspense thriller on Netflix and me getting 100 messages because my friends in my friend’s group are going bizarre over something stupid, is not what I want at that movement. Or imagine you are concentrating on something important and getting buzzed by promotional messages every 15 minutes is not what I want. But yes, I may want some urgent messages, calls, or certain services to interrupt and notify me.
The focus mode lets you focus on what’s important at the moment. You can choose which apps and widgets appear on the home screen and which apps to send you the notifications. It is an advance Do Not Disturb mode basically.
You can create several Focus mode profiles, like Driving, Yoga, In a Meeting, etc whatever you want and how to want it to work.
That’s is a pretty cool and powerful feature which will help you to be more productive.
4. Improved Notifications
With the Focus mode discussed above, you will surely miss the Notifications which might have been not relevant during the work hours but you don’t mind getting those later that day. For example, Money Heist season 5 is now available on Netflix. Apple has a smart solution for it — Notification Summary.
Receive a helpful summary of your notifications delivered daily, in the morning and evening, or scheduled at a time you choose. Your summary is personalized and helps you quickly catch up on what you missed while away focusing.
This is really cool and will contribute towards Productivity.
Moreover, if you just want a particular app or message thread to not send you any notifications, and Focus or Do not Disturb is overkill here, you can just simply Mute an app or message thread temporarily.
5. Web Extensions on iOS Safari
Web extensions can add functionality and features to Safari. Just like your Mac, now you will get Extensions (Plugins) on iOS Safari as well. I am obsessed with Dark themes everywhere. Almost all apps these days support Dark Theme these days. But what about the Websites? Not every website comes with a Dark Theme, browsing in the dark ambiance for hours can almost burn your eyes.
I use an Extension called Dark Reader of my MacBook Safari. It colors every website Dark and you can fully customize the appearance with various options and filters that it provides.
I am really excited that plugins like these can be applied on my phone’s Safari as well.
6. Live Text and Visual Lookup
Text is now completely interactive in all your photos, so you can use functions like copy and paste, lookup, and translate. Live Text works in Photos, Screenshot, Quick Look, and Safari and in live previews with Camera. Which is very cool, right?
Every now and then, I find myself in situations where I have to copy a text from the photo and end up typing it manually. Or say if I have to lookup an object in the photo, I have to ask a friend about it. Well, now my Photos app can do that by default. Amazing!
7. Improved Spotlight search
Spotlight Search is really smart and handy for finding anything you need on your iPhone. Well, Spotlight search can now show richer search results from the web, it can search your photos as well for that keyword, you can easily search People, Monuments, Animals, or objects.
Additionally, now you can simply pull down Spotlight search from your lock screen as well.
8. App Privacy Report
App Privacy Report is a section in Settings that lets you see how often apps have accessed your location, photos, camera, microphone, and contacts during the last seven days. It also shows you which apps have contacted other domains and how recently they have contacted them.
This will give you a transparent picture of which app is doing what, and how often.
I think it is a big step towards transparency and will let you decide that It’s time to taken action against which app.
9. Siri with Offline support
There are times when we summon Siri to do something and after taking a while, Siri says that it needs an active Internet connection to process your request, making you like a fool. Siri can now process many types of requests offline without an internet connection, including Timers & Alarms, Phone, Messaging, Sharing, App Launch, Control Audio Playback, and Settings. Also, Processing on the device means that Siri is incredibly fast. There are other improvements in Siri as well which makes Siri smarter than before.
10. iCloud+ Privacy features
Everyone is eyeing the new iCloud features like Private Rely and Hide My Email.
According to Apple, iCloud Private Relay is a service that lets you connect to virtually any network and browse with Safari in an even more secure and private way. It ensures that the traffic leaving your device is encrypted so no one can intercept and read it. Then all your requests are sent through two separate internet relays. It’s designed so that no one — including Apple — can use your IP address, location, and browsing activity to create a detailed profile about you.
How cool is that!
That’s all!
Although there are many more enhancements in the OS and the apps as well, these were the top features/enhancements that I am really excited about. Worth mentioning that with new Memojis you can now choose new outfits and accessories. :)
Read a list of all the upcoming features in iOS 15 from Apple’s iOS 15 official website.
I am very excited about the Apple event on 14th September 2021 and expecting iOS 15 to start rollout after a week, or two, following the event.
Which feature are you most excited about? Write down in the comments.
Cheers !!
