Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman says Apple will debut several new features as well as enhancements of other features in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 later this year. Gurman says the new features will include a revamped Home screen for the iPad, as well as an updated Lock Screen and new notification preferences.
From the report:
The company is planning a new feature that will allow users to set different notification preferences, such as if the phone makes a sound or not, depending on their current status. The enhancement will come in the form of a new menu that lets users select if they are driving, working, sleeping or custom categories of their choosing. The menu will be shown on the updated Lock Screen and in Control Center, the iPhone and iPad’s menu for quickly accessing settings.
There will also be an option to set automatic replies to messages depending on their status. That will be an improvement over the current auto-reply feature, which is only currently available while driving. Apple has added some unique notifications features such as Do Not Disturb and Sleep Mode, but this will mark the first time the company offers a systemwide feature for changing notifications depending on a user’s status.
The report says iPadOS 15 will allow users to place widgets on any part of the iPad Home screen, much like on the iPhone. Currently iPadOS limits widgets placement to the Today View column on the left-hand side. There are also plans to allow users to replace the entire app grid with only widgets.
The planned software update, which current is codenamed “Sky,” will apparently include selective enhancements, rather than a major revamp.
The report indicates that Apple is working on improvements to iMessage, which could eventually act as more of a social network, much like WhatsApp.
Apple is also reportedly working on a new privacy menu that will display which apps are silently collecting data about the user.
We should see what Apple officially has in store for iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 – Alongside updates for macOS, watchOS, and tvOS – during Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference in June.
