Newsroom

UPDATE
September 20, 2021

iOS 15 is available
today
! " # $

iOS 15 introduces Live Text using on-device !

intelligence, redesigned notifications, upgrades
to Maps, and more.

iOS 15 introduces new ways to stay

connected, powerful updates that help
users focus and explore, and intelligent
features to get more done with iPhone.
FaceTime updates provide more natural
video calls, Focus helps users reduce
distraction, new features like Live Text use
on-device intelligence to surface useful
information, upgrades to Maps provide
brand new ways to navigate the world, and
much more. iOS 15 is available today as a
free software update.

Enhancements for More Natural

FaceTime Calls
FaceTime is more essential than ever,
giving users a way to easily connect with
the people who matter most. Powerful
updates to FaceTime audio and video
features make calls feel more natural and
lifelike. With spatial audio, voices in a
Group FaceTime call sound like theyʼre
coming from the direction in which the
person is positioned on the screen.1 Voice
Isolation, a new microphone mode, uses
machine learning to eliminate background
noise and prioritize the userʼs voice, while
Wide Spectrum allows for every bit of
background sound to come through.
Inspired by the stunning portrait photos
taken on iPhone, Portrait mode in
FaceTime blurs a userʼs background and
puts them at the focus.2 Voice Isolation,
Wide Spectrum, and Portrait mode can
also be used with third-party apps, such
as Webex, Zoom, and WhatsApp. Group
FaceTime gives the option to display
participants in same-size tiles in a new
grid view.

With iOS 15, Group FaceTime displays !

participants in same-size tiles in a grid view.

FaceTime calls now extend beyond Apple

devices, so people using an Android or
Windows device can join from their web
browser. FaceTime calls on the web remain
end-to-end encrypted so privacy is not
compromised. To initiate the call, iPhone,
iPad, and Mac users simply create a
FaceTime link and share it through
Messages, Calendar, Mail, or third-party
apps, making it easier than ever to
connect with friends and family.

Later this fall, SharePlay will deliver a new

way for users to share experiences with
friends and family while on a FaceTime
call, such as listening to songs together,
watching a TV show or movie, completing
a workout together, or sharing their screen
to view apps. SharePlay will work with
apps like Apple Music, Apple TV+, and
Apple Fitness+, as well as Disney+,
ESPN+, HBO Max, Hulu, MasterClass,
Paramount+, Pluto TV, SoundCloud,
TikTok, Twitch, and many others.
SharePlay can be accessed through
iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and with shared
playback controls, anyone in a SharePlay
session can play, pause, or jump ahead.
SharePlay even extends to Apple TV, so
users can watch shows or movies on a big
screen.

More Ways to Stay Connected

with Messages
Shared with You is a new section that
appears in Photos, Safari, Apple News,
Music, Apple Podcasts, and the Apple TV
app that displays the photos, articles,
music, and other content shared by
friends and family in Messages. Shared
with You automatically displays shared
photos in the Photos app, news stories in
Apple News, and other relevant content in
the corresponding app. The Shared with
You section shows who sent the content,
and makes it easy to view the associated
message and restart the conversation.

In iOS 15, Memoji brings even more ways

for users to express themselves with
multicolored headwear, more glasses
styles, and new accessibility options
including cochlear implants, oxygen tubes,
and a soft helmet. Memoji stickers can be
customized with more than 40 outfit
options and nine new sticker poses
including a shaka, hand wave, and light
bulb moment.

The Shared with You section in Photos displays !

the photos shared by friends and family in
Messages.

Powerful Tools to Find Focus in

the Day
iOS 15 introduces Focus, a new way to
help users reduce distraction by filtering
notifications based on what a user wants
to focus on in that moment. For example,
the Work Focus can be set during work
hours to only allow notifications from
coworkers and apps that are used for
work, the Personal Focus can be used
when taking a break with friends and
family, or the Fitness Focus can help a
user stay in the zone while completing a
workout. Users can create a custom Focus
or select a provided Focus, which uses
on-device intelligence to suggest which
notifications from people and apps are
allowed. To further extend the ability to
focus, users can create dedicated Home
Screen pages with relevant apps and
widgets to match a specific Focus.

While using Focus, a status is

automatically displayed to contacts in
Messages and supported third-party
communication apps like Slack, so they
know not to interrupt. Users will even
receive suggestions to turn on a Focus
based on factors like time of day or
location, and when Focus is set on one
Apple device, it automatically applies to all
of a userʼs Apple devices.

Focus helps users filter notifications to reduce !

distractions, using a custom Focus or a
suggested Focus like Work or Fitness.

A Fresh New Look for

Notifications
Notifications have been redesigned,
adding contact photos for people and
larger icons for apps that make them even
easier to identify. The notification
summary is a collection of notifications
delivered each day at scheduled times
determined by the user. Using on-device
intelligence, the summary is arranged by
priority, with the most relevant
notifications rising to the top based on
how a user interacts with apps. Time-
sensitive notifications, messages, and
phone calls will be delivered immediately,
so users wonʼt miss timely alerts, and itʼs
easy to temporarily mute any app or
messaging thread for an hour or for the
day.

iOS 15 introduces the notification summary, a !

collection of notifications delivered each day at
the times selected by the user.

On-Device Intelligence Delivers

Live Text, Advanced Spotlight
Search, and Memories
Live Text makes text in photos interactive.
Using on-device intelligence, Live Text
recognizes text in photos across the entire
system including the web, and allows
users to take action, such as copy and
paste, look up information, and translate.
Users can even tap the image of a phone
number to make a call, or the image of a
web address to open a page in Safari. With
the power of the Neural Engine, the
Camera app can also quickly recognize
and copy text in the moment, such as the
Wi-Fi password displayed at a local coffee
shop. With Visual Look Up, users can learn
more about popular art, landmarks, and
books, plants and flowers found in nature,
and breeds of pets.

Spotlight is the universal way to start

searches on iPhone and now it can be
accessed directly from the Lock Screen,
and includes the ability to search photos
by location, people, scenes, or objects.
Using Live Text, Spotlight can find text and
handwriting in photos.

iOS 15 delivers the biggest update ever to

Memories. With a fresh new look,
interactive interface, and integration with
Apple Music that uses on-device
intelligence to suggest music tracks, new
cinematic Memories makes it easier to
relive favorite or forgotten moments.

Live Text uses on-device intelligence to identify !

text and enhance the photos experience.

Redesigned Browsing with Safari

Safari introduces a newly designed
browsing experience that makes controls
easier to reach. By default, the new tab
bar is positioned at the bottom of the
screen, so users can easily swipe between
tabs with one hand. Tab Groups allow
users to organize tabs and easily access
them at any time across iPhone, iPad, or
Mac, and a customizable start page and
web extensions on iOS make Safari more
powerful and personal than ever.

Safari is redesigned with a new tab bar and Tab !

Groups for an even better browsing experience.

Navigate and Explore with Apple

Maps
Maps in iOS 15 introduces a whole new
way of looking at the world. A visually
stunning map offers unprecedented levels
of detail for neighborhoods, commercial
districts, buildings, as well as custom-
designed landmarks, and a new night-time
mode with a moonlit glow. Navigation
features a new three-dimensional driving
view with road details that help users more
easily identify turn lanes, medians,
crosswalks, and sidewalks. The enhanced
map is available in Los Angeles, New York,
and San Francisco, with more to come. A
beautifully designed interactive globe
provides rich detail for mountain ranges,
deserts, rainforests, and bodies of water.

Transit riders can get one-tap access to all

departures near them and pin their favorite
lines. Maps automatically follows along
with a selected transit route, notifying
users when itʼs nearly time to disembark,
and riders can even keep track on Apple
Watch. By simply holding up iPhone, users
can receive detailed walking directions in
augmented reality.

A three-dimensional city navigation and !

exploration experience comes to Apple Maps
with more realistic and colorful details.

New Keys and State IDs Come to

Apple Wallet
With iOS 15, users can access even more
places with just a tap of their iPhone with
new home, hotel, office, and car keys in
Wallet. Digital car keys get even better
with support for Ultra Wideband
technology, so users can securely lock,
unlock, and start their supported vehicle
without removing their iPhone from a
pocket or bag.3 iPhone can also be used to
unlock a userʼs home, office, or even a
hotel room — all through keys stored in
Wallet.4 Additionally, users will be able to
add eligible state IDs and driverʼs licenses
to Wallet on iPhone as this option
becomes available in their state in the
future.5

House and hotel room keys as well as ID cards !

come to Wallet for a simple tap-to-unlock
experience for everyday places.

Redesigned Weather Experience

Weather includes an all-new design with
full-screen maps, graphical displays of
weather data, and dynamic layouts that
change based on conditions. Beautifully
animated backgrounds more accurately
reflect sun position, clouds, and
precipitation, and notifications indicate
when rain or snow is about to start or stop.

The Weather app has been redesigned to include !

full-screen maps and dynamic layouts that
change based on weather conditions.

Organize and Collaborate in

Notes
Notes adds user-created tags that make it
easy to quickly categorize notes and
mentions that allow members of shared
notes to notify one another of important
updates. An all-new Activity view shows
the recent history of a shared note, and
Highlights reveals details on who made the
changes. Quick Notes created on Mac and
iPad can be viewed and edited in Notes.

Notes adds user-created tags that make it easy !

to quickly categorize notes in line with relevant
content.

More Privacy Controls

New privacy features provide even more
transparency and control over the data
users provide to apps. Mail Privacy
Protection prevents senders from learning
whether an email has been opened, and
hides IP addresses so senders canʼt learn
a userʼs location or use it to build a profile
on them. Siriʼs protection of user privacy
goes even further with on-device speech
recognition as usersʼ audio requests are
now processed entirely on device by
default, enabling more personalization,
offline requests, and faster performance.6

Additional Features
Siri adds Announce Notifications on
AirPods and the ability for users to
share whatʼs on their screen just by
asking. Siri can now be enabled in third-
party HomeKit accessories, so
HomePod and HomePod mini users can
easily and securely ask Siri to send a
message, set a reminder, or broadcast
an Intercom message to the family from
more devices in the home.7