Tech Tip — What Are the Best New Features in iOS 15?
Fall is here and that means cooling temperatures, changing leaves, and of course, an update to Apple’s operating system iOS and iPadOS. For some of us, this is a really exciting time of year to see what Apple is putting into place to help make our phones and iPads more useful and productive. Each year we get a preview of what is coming in June and then near the end of September we get to start using it. I have been using some features for several weeks since I signed up for the public beta program.
Some years there are sweeping changes and other years only minor ones. Most people are viewing this year’s upgrade as a minor change. However, I wouldn’t undervalue the additions made for 2021. I think there are some standout features that will be helpful for many users. I am going to highlight those here today. You can see more about most of the features at Apple’s website, and if you really want a comprehensive iOS 15 review, check out the MacStories website and Federico Viticci’s annual iOS in-depth review. It is widely known as the review of Apple’s operating system.
Focus Mode
Focus mode is an update to what was previously known as ‘Do Not Disturb’. This was a way to turn off all sounds and notifications for periods of time or specific situations. An example of this would be going into a meeting where you did not want to receive any notifications or phone calls. Turning on Do Not Disturb (DND) would ensure no phone calls, text messages, or calendar reminders would interrupt or distract you during your meeting. This was especially helpful if you were presenting during the meeting.
Focus mode takes that to a new level, allowing the user to take more control over who can and cannot capture your attention. Now, you can select if certain people can reach you via messaging or phone call. You can set different parameters for different situations. As a District Manager, perhaps you only want to be able to receive phone calls or messages from your boss or spouse. You could set those specific contacts up to allow them to reach you, but everyone else would receive a message that you are busy. Used in conjunction with Siri Shortcuts and location triggers, you could set a Focus mode based on where you are (i.e., a store location, your office) to determine which Focus mode to use.
Going beyond that, you can also establish which applications are available to you in the focus mode you set. If you want to concentrate on reading information for your personal development, you could block out all notifications and calls, plus only allow certain applications (i.e., no Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc. to distract you). I think this feature has a ton of future potential. I have started to play with this and while I still find some limitations to what I would like it to do, it is much better than the previous DND function which had no specific settings, only on or off. It will be fun to see where Apple takes this one.
Quick Notes
The Notes app in iOS is an underrated tool that is easy to overlook. It is built into every Apple operating system. For some, that makes it inferior. For others, that is the attraction. It is free and well-integrated into the operating systems. They synch seamlessly across all devices, which is an added bonus. I think with these updates, it may become a ‘go to’ note-taking application for many more people, including power users.
The addition of tags is a very helpful tool. This makes notes more searchable and adds to the ability to organize your notes much better than just a folder structure alone. This now enables you to have multiple common terms to group different notes together and see them in context with different things. For example, if I have a note that would be related to the ‘team,' but also related to ‘development,’ with tags I now can apply both search terms to the same note. In a folder structure (the only option available in the past), you would have to select one or the other, and then you may not find the note if you were only looking in one place.
The biggest upgrade, though, comes in the form of adding ‘quick notes’. For iOS users, this allows you to swipe up from the bottom corner of your device to activate the quick note function. Once this appears, you can write (with an Apple Pencil) or type a note about whatever you need. Best of all, you can create an immediate link to whatever you are working on at the time. For example, if you are looking at a webpage, and you think of something that would go with what you are looking at, you can enable a quick note, capture the thought and a link back to the website, so it is all together in one place with the note.
The ability to backlink to other applications, such as Mail, is also very handy. This allows you to essentially add a note to an email that can then be referenced later (in either direction) when looking at the email or the note. With a single tap, you can then see the other component. Using location services, it would be possible to take an email from one of your managers, create a note to follow up on something later, and then receive a reminder which includes both the email and the note when you next arrive at their location. Very useful.
New Reminders Updates
Reminders is another Apple stock app that can be easy to forget exists. I actually find Reminders to be a powerful app. While I continue to use OmniFocus as my main ’to do’ app of choice, I keep coming back to Reminders for other small tasks that I do not need a lot of extra support for. Usually, when I use Reminders, I realize that it is more than capable for almost any use case or situation. With the additions of Smart Lists and tags, it is very close to being able to replace OmniFocus for handling any need I would have. With the integrations afforded by being an Apple app, I think that most users will find this a highly valuable to-do tool that accomplishes everything they need.
Updated Multi-Tasking Functionality
Multitasking is an iPadOS only feature. It was introduced last year. However, it was not easy to use and it could be confusing to remember how to get different apps to work together in the multitasking mode. This year, it has been greatly enhanced and makes the process much more intuitive to the everyday user. Multitasking allows you to have multiple ‘windows’ open at the same time on your iPad. This tends to work best on the larger screen devices, but it is functional on even the smallest iPad, the iPad Mini. (Which is great — the new iPad Mini that was introduced in September is a fantastic looking device. I could see it as an excellent tool for many retail field leaders who don’t want a big iPad to carry around, yet want to take notes, use the Apple Pencil, and still have some power features available only on the iPad.)
Multitasking allows for three different arrangements. This is great when you need to be able to work functionally in both apps back and forth. It’s good for research, or seeing multiple views of the same app. For example, you may be working with your calendar while writing an email. You can do this with a separate email app and a calendar app, or two views of the same app if your calendar app is the same as your email app (think Outlook).
Home screen widgets
The iPhone received this full upgrade last year. It allows users to place widgets on your home screens to provide real-time information, views to key data points inside the app (think list of new emails), or quick links to other parts of the application. This is a great feature because it can save time or unnecessary clicks/taps into the application to get quick pieces of information. The biggest upgrade for this year is really in iPadOS. Last year, the iPad did not get the same access to these Home Screen widgets. There was an ability to keep some widgets on the left side of the main Home Screen, but they could not be moved around.
This year, widgets are available to use on iPads, including a new larger size appropriate for the iPad. Below, you can see the different sizes of widgets available for the iPad.
There is an endless number of combinations that can be used to create almost a dashboard view of key items that you may be using on a daily basis. This feature can be combined with Focus Mode, so you only see certain things when you are utilizing a specified focus mode selection.
Keyboard Shortcuts
As a quick bonus item, the addition of more shortcuts, especially global keyboard shortcuts on iPadOS, is a big win when you have a keyboard attached. Both the CMD key and the ‘Globe’ key can be used to modify any number of other keys to get things in motion. Pressing and holding the keys will bring up a list of items that can be activated.
You can quickly see how useful many of these will be to navigate through different situations. I have found them to be very handy when I don’t want to take my hands from the keyboard. Keyboard shortcuts have come a long way from CMD or CTRL + C or V for copy and paste.
As you can see, iOS 15 has made some nice improvements that can be useful for almost any user. I like that Apple continues to push boundaries and look for ways to take what once might have seemed like power user functions and make them accessible to everyone. While there is still a lot I would like to see come to iOS, especially iPadOS, this is a good annual update with more useful features on the way. Features like SharePlay, which allows you to watch videos in synch with a friend via FaceTime, are geared towards the personal user and I think that is a good way to broaden the audience for all of these devices. In some cases, I think those ‘personal’ features could be used for more interactive meetings in a business environment as well. Again, I have only scratched the surface on what is new this year, but these were some of the biggest and most productive new benefits I found in the updated iOS 15 app.
How might you use some of these new features in your workflow?
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