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WWDC is Apple’s annual event with a major emphasis on showcasing its software advancements. What this means is every year at WWDC, we get our first glimpse of the new versions of iOS, macOS, watchOS, and all of Apple’s apps and services. In 2021, Apple announced iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 along with macOS Monterey and watchOS 8. This article should give you a comprehensive overview of iOS 15 right from how you can install it on your iPhone to what the features and improvements are on Apple’s 2021 smartphone OS. If you want to learn more about the latest OS version, check out iOS 16 instead.

iOS 15 on iPhone 12 Pro Max

Does my iPhone support iOS 15?

This is the most common question you may have as a consumer. If you have an iPhone and are wondering if your device supports iOS 15 or not, here’s a list of all iPhone devices do:

iOS 15 beta

Apart from the iPhone, the iPod 7 supports iOS 15. As far as the iPad is concerned, here’s the list of supported devices for iPadOS 15, which is an extension of iOS but for iPads:

  • iPad Mini (4 and later)
  • iPad (5 and later)
  • iPad Air (2 and later)
  • iPad Pro (All)
iPad with iOS 15

It’s commendable Apple is providing software support to iPhones that are over 6 years old, something Android OEMs, including Google itself, should learn and implement.

When was iOS 15 released?

After three months of beta testing, Apple finally made iOS 15 available to the public as a stable release on September 20, 2021. If you have a supported iPhone, you should be able to run this version. If your iPhone supports iOS 16, too, then you can update to that instead.

How to install iOS 15 on my iPhone

We've prepared an extensive XDA Guide that will explain the installation process for iOS 15. They're easy-to-follow, bite-sized steps that will get you updating your iPhone in no time!

What’s new with iOS 15?

iOS 15 and features available

Apple announced a few new features with iOS 15 but largely, iOS 15 is more of an iterative update with not a lot of changes or differences. The UI remains identical to iOS 14 in terms of visuals but there are a few nifty additions across the board that improve the overall user experience. As with almost every iOS update, iOS 15 has gotten closer to Android in terms of some features it has to offer and we’ll go over all of it in detail.


iOS 15: All the New Features

Slightly revamped Settings app

iOS 15 Settings app

While there aren’t a lot of visual changes in iOS 15, we noticed a slight change in the way the Settings app looks on the iPhone 12 Pro Max. The entire Settings UI seems to have shrunk slightly and now looks more compact. Apart from that, everything else looks the same as iOS 14. The notifications also look slightly different but we’ll take more in detail about that in a separate section.

All-new FaceTime that even works with Android!

FaceTime Link

One of the biggest changes in iOS 15 is the all-new FaceTime app that brings a lot of new features including the ability to ask Android users to join your FaceTime call. Apple is calling this FaceTime Link. It lets you create a new FaceTime call from your iPhone and share the link with your friends on Android and they can use that link to hop onto the call.

There are some visual changes to FaceTime too like a new grid view during calls along with support for Spatial Audio with a supported pair of headphones like the AirPods Pro or the AirPods Max.

Apple WWDC 2021 Facetime Links

The biggest new feature though (yes, even bigger than Android support in our opinion) is SharePlay — not included in iOS 15.0, but arrived in later updates. This essentially turns your FaceTime call into a watch party with your friends and family. You can share your screen and watch TV shows and movies together, or just chill with synced music playback. This is extremely convenient and eliminates the need for other third-party apps and extensions to perform this task. You can also add a portrait mode effect now to your video on FaceTime.

Different Mic Modes: Voice Isolation and Wide Spectrum

Voice Modes in iOS 15

While this was initially thought to be restricted to FaceTime, going by Apple’s keynote, the feature is present throughout iOS 15 in every app that uses your microphone. You can now choose between three options for the type of audio captured by the mic — Standard, Voice Isolation, and Wide Spectrum.

Standard is, well, standard quality while Voice Isolation cuts out any sort of background noise in your environment and improves the quality of your audio. Wide Spectrum does the exact reverse and allows sounds from your background to be heard better. This is currently not completely functional and glitches out from time to time which is understandable given it’s a beta release. It’s a really interesting feature to look forward to though.

Sharing gets easier through iMessage on iOS 15

Shared with You

When someone sends you multiple pictures via iMessage, you’ll be able to swipe through the different images in a stack or as a collage which makes it more convenient and the message thread also looks cleaner this way. Also, there’s a new Shared with You feature across different first-party apps on iOS that shows you quick access links that someone shared with you via iMessage.

If someone sent you a link, it would show up when you open Safari. If someone sent you a Music track, it would show up when you open Apple Music. This makes accessing those shared constants easier and you can even continue the conversation from there.

Revamped Notifications (sort of)

iOS 15 Notifications

The way iOS displays notifications has always been inferior compared to Android. While it’s still the same, there are some notable improvements like larger app icons for app notifications and larger faces for notifications from people that allow those notifications to stand out.

Notification Summary is also a new feature that can display notifications in a grouped cluster from specific apps that you can set or the iPhone learns during your usage. The notifications will be delivered at a specific time and frequency that the user can choose.

Focus Modes for better Work-life Balance

Focus Modes

Focus Modes are an extended version of the DND feature that has been on iOS for a long time. It gives you different options to choose from depending on what you’re doing and changes a few settings on your phone, notification settings specifically, to match that mode.

You can have a personal mode where all your personal notifications will be delivered, while switching to work mode will ensure only notifications from work-related apps will be delivered to you. There’s also a Focus Mode for sleep and Apple also says iOS 15 will learn the usage patterns of users and suggest Focus Modes based on location or activities, such as when you’re working out.

Live Text is Google Lens but a few years late

Live Text on iOS 15

There’s not much to describe here other than the fact you can now point your iPhone at text and directly copy it to your clipboard, search for it online, or if it’s a phone number, place a call directly from the dialer. All of this was already offered by Google Lens but the difference here is Live Text processes information on-device which means it’s more secure and works even without an internet connection. Not just text, but you can also scan animals or objects and look them up.

Drag and Drop across apps on iOS 15

This is one of the best features in our opinion on iOS 15. Just as the title suggests, you can now drag and drop text or images from one app to the other on iOS 15 seamlessly. This is a handy way to attach images to your messages or emails or if you want to quickly transfer large chunks of text from one app to the other.

This also works with the Live Text feature we mentioned in the previous point.

Rich Results in Spotlight Search

Spotlight Search is one of the core features of both iOS and macOS. It lets you search for just about anything locally as well as online. Spotlight Search on iOS 15 will give you improved results with richer information.

If you search for a contact, it will give you details from all apps on your phone. If you search for a celebrity, it will give you details about them with deeper insights about their work. If you search for a term, it will even find photos related to it apart from searching your phone and online.

Big changes in Safari

Screenshot showing Safari redesigned URL bar and custom website tinting in iOS 15

After FaceTime, Safari is the app that has received the maximum number of changes. For starters, the UI looks entirely different and the address bar has moved from the top to the bottom of the screen. The tab switching interface has also changed quite a bit and has a translucent background now. There’s support for voice search on Safari which is handy.

The biggest change however is the ability to install extensions on Safari which isn’t possible on some other popular mobile browsers like Google Chrome.

Safari Extensions

Apple Wallet can now actually let you leave your wallet at home

Scanning an ID into the Apple Wallet on iOS 15

While the Wallet app on the iPhone could already store a digital key for your car, it can now do much more including unlocking your house door or even storing access cards to unlock your office doors and even your hotel room when you’re on vacation. Apple’s aim is to completely eliminate the need for a separate wallet and allow you to have everything you need on your iPhone.

If you’re a frequent traveler, there’s good news for you too. Apple is working with the TSA to allow storing IDs in the Apple Wallet which can be then scanned at the airport to make the process a lot more seamless and convenient.

New Weather animations: Dark Sky acquisition finally pays off

Weather app on iOS 15

The default Weather app on iOS 15 has undergone a host of new changes. Apple acquired the popular weather information app Dark Sky last year and it looks like they’ve been implementing UI changes from it onto the Weather app.

The way the weather data is displayed has changed and is now accompanied by beautiful, realistic animations in the background. The graphics are more intuitive and accurately display the weather conditions in your location. Weather maps have also been added to represent the temperature, air quality, etc.

Miscellaneous Changes in iOS 15: Photos, Siri, and Privacy Reports

Privacy Reports

The Photos app has gotten a new feature where, if you have similar pictures or pictures shot on a trip or a special occasion, it will automatically create a slideshow for you consisting of those pictures with a music track added to the background. Apple is calling this Memories. As with Siri, most of the processing now happens on-device so there’s better offline functionality and better contextual conversations.

Privacy Reports just emphasize Apple’s inclination towards privacy. It gives you a detailed report about which apps have asked for permission to access the camera, microphone, contacts, etc. on your iPhone.

Full Changelog


Incremental Updates

iOS has received several incremental updates over the months and into 2022, building upon the main iOS 15 release from 2021. Here's what these updates have brought along.

iOS 15.1

The highlight of this update is the addition of SharePlay. The feature was meant to be released later on, and it finally arrived when iOS 15.1 was released to the public. Along with this we also got ProRes video capture on the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max, as well as a setting to switch off the auto-macro for photos and videos on those phones.

iOS 15.2

This update brought a lot of new changes to Apple's mobile operating system. These include Apple Music Voice Plan support, a search field in Apple Music playlists, Communication Safety feature to protect minors from online predators, App Privacy Report, and more.

iOS 15.3

This update to iOS revolves around fixing bugs and patching security exploits. Most notably, it patches the Safari bug that allowed websites to view the database names of other domains. The bug could allow malicious websites to extract Google account data and build a digital profile of the victim.

iOS 15.4

iOS 15.4 introduces plenty of new emoji, adds Face ID support when masked for users with an iPhone 12 or a newer model, and brings EU COVID19 vaccination certificate support to the Health and Wallet apps. It also includes smaller changes and additions, such as filtering options to the Podcasts app, a new Apple Card widget, and tweaks to the TV app.

iOS 15.5

iOS 15.5 includes very minor tweaks, including new send/request money buttons for Apple Cash card users. Additionally, Apple Podcasts now has an auto-deletion option to limit the number of episodes remain stored on your device.

iOS 15.6

iOS 15.6 is a minor update that fixes bugs and adds new options for those watching sports games in the Apple TV app.


What do you think of iOS 15? Are there more features that iOS needs to borrow from Android? Or would you like to see any of these features making their way to Android? Let us know in the comments section below!