opens in new window
UPDATE September 20, 2021
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.

Tools to Find Focus and a Fresh New Look for Notifications

On-Device Intelligence Powers New Photo Features and Advanced Spotlight Search

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 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 Visual Look Up, users can learn more about popular art, landmarks, books, plants and flowers, and breeds of pets.

More Privacy Controls

Additional iPadOS 15 Features

  • Safari introduces new ways for users to personalize their browsing experience. Tab Groups allow users to organize tabs and easily access them at any time across iPhone, iPad, or Mac. A customizable start page and web extensions on iPadOS make Safari even more personal and powerful.
  • Shared with You offers an all-new way to enjoy content sent by friends and family over Messages. Content like photos, articles, and music shared over Messages will automatically appear in a new Shared with You section in Photos, Safari, Apple News, Music, Apple Podcasts, and the Apple TV app.
  • Photos includes the biggest update ever to Memories, with a fresh, new look; an immersive, interactive interface; and integration with Apple Music, which uses on-device intelligence to personalize song suggestions that bring memories to life.
  • iCloud+ introduces new premium features, including Hide My Email, expanded HomeKit Secure Video support, and iCloud Private Relay2 — an innovative new internet privacy service — at no additional cost. Current iCloud subscribers will be upgraded to iCloud+ automatically. All iCloud+ plans can be shared with people in the same Family Sharing group, so everyone can enjoy the new features, storage, and elevated experience that comes with the service.
  • Maps delivers new ways to navigate and explore the world with significantly enhanced details in cities for neighborhoods, commercial districts, elevation, and buildings, as well as new road colors and labels, custom-designed landmarks, and a new night-time mode with a moonlit glow.
  • Accessibility features are designed to work the way users do. The VoiceOver screen reader now uses on-device intelligence to explore objects within images, enabling users to discover more details about the people, text, table data, and other objects within images. Support for third-party eye-tracking hardware enables users to control iPad using only their eyes. Sound Actions lets users customize Switch Control to work with mouth sounds, and display and text size can now be customized on an app-by-app basis.

  • Text of this article

  • Images in this article

  1. Available on iPhone and iPad with A12 Bionic and later. Requires download of speech models. Audio is sent to Apple servers if user opts in to improve Siri and Dictation.
  2. iCloud+ plans: 50GB with one HomeKit Secure Video camera ($0.99 per month), 200GB with up to five HomeKit Secure Video cameras ($2.99 per month), and 2TB with an unlimited number of HomeKit Secure Video cameras ($9.99 per month). iCloud Private Relay will initially be released as a public beta.