The release of iOS 15 is still a ways off, but that hasn’t stopped the rumor mill from churning. For now, we’ve collected what we know so far and what we’d like to see. Apple will talk more about iOS 15 later this year at WWDC 2021, but we’re bound to see leaks in the meantime.
Apple really changed things up with iOS 14 last year, bringing features that users have been asking for, such as widgets on the home screen. It also added the App Library for automatically organizing your apps and the ability to change your default browser and email client. And iOS 15 should bring a lot more improvements.
Based on the leaks and rumors thus far, here’s everything we know about iOS 15 so far, which will debut on the upcoming iPhone 13 lineup.
iOS 15: Release date and betas
Apple usually launches the new version of iOS alongside that year’s latest iPhone. This typically happens in September. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Apple delayed the launch of the iPhone 12 series until October, while iOS 14 still released in September 2020.
That in mind, we think iOS 15 will drop in September of this year. However, Apple is very likely to talk about it this summer at WWDC, its yearly developer conference. There, we’ll hear more about new features and tweaks. We also will probably learn about developer and public betas around that time, too.
With iOS 14, users could install the public beta version to test out the new features, granted they could handle the bugs. There’s no reason to believe that Apple won’t do the same thing with iOS 15.
iOS 15: What devices will it support?
Apple has not officially released a list of which devices will get iOS 15. However, rumors suggest that the new version will come only to the iPhone 7 and above. That would leave the iPhone 6s, 6s Plus, and original iPhone SE out in the cold.
If that holds true, then here’s what iPhones we believe will get iOS 15:
- iPhone 7
- iPhone 7 Plus
- iPhone 8
- iPhone 8 Plus
- iPhone X
- iPhone XR
- iPhone Xs
- iPhone Xs Max
- iPhone 11
- iPhone 11 Pro
- iPhone 11 Pro Max
- iPhone SE (2020)
- iPhone 12 mini
- iPhone 12
- iPhone 12 Pro
- iPhone 12 Pro Max
And, obviously, the iPhone 13 series will come with iOS 15 out of the box.
iOS 15: What we want to see
We’re bound to see a lot of new stuff in iOS 15, but nothing is set in stone just yet. That’s why we have a little wishlist of things we want the new iOS to have. There are still some things Android does well. that iOS could benefit from.
Improved notifications: This has been a pain point for iOS for a long time. It’s something that Google continues to refine in Android and we’d really like to see Apple take some of those lessons learned and apply them to iOS 15. Notification triage is a nightmare on iOS. Inline replies are sorely needed for apps that support them. Grouping needs adjustment to not bury important information. Actionable notifications, like deleting an email, should be clearer and more intuitive.
A better Siri: Let’s admit it, Siri isn’t that great. Sure, it’s improved quite a bit with each new iteration, but it lags significantly behind Google Assistant. Apple has a lot of room to grow in this regard. We’d like to see better speech recognition and better native answers. Pulling up web searches is fine and all, but part of what makes Assistant so useful is its ability to answer a lot of your questions directly. Siri just can’t compare, and we want to see that change.
Allow more default apps: With iOS 14, Apple finally let users choose their own default browsers and email clients. This was a very good step in the right direction. However, we’d like to see Apple continue to let loose a little bit, starting with changing the default SMS. Using iMessage is fine, but being able to switch to something like Signal to have all chats in the same app. Other app defaults would be welcome, too, like music and video.
