What’s new in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15?

The new operating systems iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 were released for the iPhone and iPad on Monday, September 20, 2021. The latter is largely based on iOS 15 and also has additional adjustments that are useful for the larger iPad screen. In this article, we’ll go through some changes. This article contains the most eye-catching news. For a complete overview of the changes, go to iOS 15 and iPad OS 15 to Apple’s website. Would you like to know whether iOS 15 or iPadOS 15 is available for your device before reading? Then first look at the last two steps of this article.

Notifications on the phone can be quite distracting at times when you want to be able to concentrate. With the Focus feature, the iPhone summarizes the app notifications at a set time. Thanks to the bundling, you will no longer be frequently disturbed by beeps and pop-ups. Indicate to what extent you can be disturbed during a job, driving a car or during a relaxed movie night.

FaceTime has always been exclusive to Apple users. This is different from iOS 15: by sharing a link you can also make video calls with users of other devices via this service. The other opens the link in the internet program and there is immediately a video connection.

With the new SharePlay feature, you can watch the same movie or listen to the same music together, while the other person’s reaction is on the screen. A nice digital alternative if you want to watch a movie with someone on the couch, while the other person is elsewhere.

Apple has also addressed the image and sound for FaceTime. The ‘Portrait mode’ that you may know from the camera app is now also in FaceTime. The face gets more attention as the background fades out. And those who suffer from ambient noise can easily filter this out with ‘Voice Isolation’ so that the voice is emphasized during video calling. The ‘Broad spectrum’ option is available for moments when the ambient noise is important. Handy if you want to let someone enjoy all the sounds of nature during your walk in the woods.

Do you also enjoy seeing the occasional flashback in the Photos app? You know, the short videos that consist of photos of, for example, a day or location. From now on it is possible to edit the music and appearance of such an automatically generated Memory with Retrospect mixes.

The Photos app now includes photos and videos that others have shared with you through the Messages app. So clear! In addition, photos contain more information about the place where they were taken and the objects and people in the photos.

In iOS 15, more overview has been created in the open tabs in the Internet browser Safari. The tabs are now at the bottom. This makes it easy to swipe through to bring a previously opened web page back into view. You can also group tabs; thus bring more order to the Internet pages that you always want to have within reach.

The internet program of the iPhone and iPad now also supports extensions. Those are utilities. Think of an extension that checks spelling or saves passwords.

The Maps app has been expanded considerably. For example, the app now contains a 3D globe that shows the earth nicely via the satellite map. And if you zoom in on major cities such as London or New York, you can use the binoculars icon to visualize photos of the area.

The app also contains a special car map with more information about the current traffic situation and a public transport map with departure times and routes from an entered train station. The app can even notify you when you are almost at your terminal and need to get off.

Anyone who opens the Weather app (IOS 15 only) is immediately surprised by the new appearance. The weather information has been shown more clearly. From the Weather app to the Maps app? Then a rainfall radar appears.

With the newer models of iPhones and iPads (which have a so-called A12 Bionic chip) it is now possible to digitize written or printed text with the handy Live Text function. Select text on a photo or point the camera at a piece of text and copy it, for example, to the Notes app.

Live text can also translate text, but because the function is not yet officially supported for Dutch, it is a bonus that copying works in many cases. Once there is more support, the results will also get better. Live text must first be enabled via Institutions > General > Language and Region.

After the introduction of the privacy report for Safari In iOS 14, there is now also a privacy report for apps. Follow an app and after a while see how the app uses the collected information and who sees this data. This way you can consider whether you want to continue to give permission or withdraw it.

Work has also been done on better privacy for the Mail app. With ‘Privacy Protection in Mail’, senders of, for example, newsletters can no longer track whether or not you open the sent newsletter.

And ‘Hide my email address’ from iCloud+ (an update to the iCloud plan) makes it possible to create unique email addresses for newsletters, for example. The e-mail arrives in the normal inbox, without your e-mail address being disclosed. This saves spam and possibly other digital abuse.

What was already possible on the iPhone with iOS 14, is now also possible on the iPad: widgets such as Weather, Calendar, Mail or ‘frequently used apps’ can now also be placed between the apps on the Home screen. The iPad screen is ideal for displaying information in a small window between the app icons.

The app library can now also be found on the iPad. Here, the apps on the device are automatically divided into useful categories.

iPadOS 15 makes working with multiple apps at the same time or different windows from one app a lot easier.

The SplitView option (where two apps are next to each other) can be reached via three gray dots at the top of the screen: the multitasking menu. Immediately choose a second app to display next to the current app. And swipe the app down to turn one of the two apps into SplitView.

The Appstrip also makes multitasking easier. Allows you to switch between the open windows of a single app. This is useful, for example, if you want to use multiple windows in Safari, or have multiple emails open in the Mail app.

Apple has announced that the Digital Legacy program will be available in a software update to iOS 15. This allows people to be designated as an inheritance contact so that they can access the Apple ID after a death.

Wondering if you already have iOS 15 or iPadOS15 after reading this article? To check which operating system is currently on the device, follow these steps:

• Tap on Institutions.
• Tap on General.
• Tap on software update.

In bold you will see ‘iOS [cijfers van de laatste update]’. Does it say ‘14.8’ and do you want to upgrade to iOS 15 or iPadOS 15 as a result of this article? Then follow the steps in the tip ‘Update iPad or iPhone’.

If version 15 is not available on your device, you may have an older model. You will not be able to use the new operating system, but will continue to receive security updates for iOS 14.

The following iPhones work with iOS 15:

iPhone 13, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max
iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max
iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max
iPhone Xs, iPhone Xs Max, iPhone Xr, and iPhone X
iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus
iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus
iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus
iPhone SE

If you have an iPad, the following will work with iPadOS 15:

iPad Pro (all models)
iPad (5th to 9th generation)
iPad mini (5th and 6th generation)
iPad mini 4
iPad Air (3rd and 4th generation)
iPad Air 2