20 Important iOS 15.2 for iPhone Features You Need to Know About

With the holidays approaching, it’s easy to miss a big software update on your iPhone, and by that I mean iOS 15.2, released on Monday, December 13th. The system has a surprising amount of new features and changes. updated firmware, and there are a few important ones you need to know about.

The latest major update, iOS 15.1, introduced major issues such as vaccination cards in Wallet, SharePlay, and new home automation triggers. But the latest iOS 15.2 update is heating up the competition with a new plan for Apple Music, a visual app privacy report, child safety in Messages, and outdated death contacts. See below for the full list of things we found in iOS 15.2 for iPhone.

Apple Music Voice plan

Announced back in October, the Apple Music Voice Plan is a new tier of Apple Music subscriptions designed specifically for Siri. It’s basically a simplified version of Apple Music for less money, costing just $4.99 a month. This is compared to the standard fee of $9.99 for individuals and $14.99 for families.

You’ll get access to all 90 million ad-free songs, 30,000+ playlists, and live and on-demand radio stations. However, you will miss out on premium features, such as spatial audio, lossless audio, lyrics browsing, music videos, download library, offline listening, family access, and friends’ listening habits. Also, you cannot listen to Apple Music from Android or Windows.

You can start a free 3-month plan trial from the Music app or say “Hey Siri, start my Apple Music Voice trial.”According to Apple, after subscribing, “[you] can request music to be played on all of their Siri-enabled devices, including HomePod mini, AirPods, iPhone, or any other Apple device, and when using CarPlay.”

As you’ve probably guessed, the app has a customizable interface with additional features that make it easier to use the Siri-managed plan. You’ll see suggestions based on your history, likes and dislikes, and you can ask Siri to suggest music for you. There’s also “Play Again”where Siri gives you access to recently played music, and “Just Ask Siri”or “Hey Siri, Play”where you can learn how to optimize Siri for Apple Music.

Visit the Apple help page for a list of commands you can use.

Searching Apple Music playlists

Also new to the Music app is the ability to search for songs in a playlist – for Apple Music playlists and your own playlists in your library. When in a playlist, simply swipe down on the screen to open the search bar.

Application privacy report

The App Privacy Report helps you monitor the apps you install by giving you access to important data about how those apps use the allowed sensors on your device, how they use and process your data, and how they track and send data from your iPhone. back to them or affiliates.

While you could already get an app privacy report in iOS 15 (from the App activity logging section), this was not very convenient because you would have to share the JSON data file with an app or device that could read it. Now in iOS 15.2, an easy-to-understand interface displays results for the past seven days. In the report, you will see sections for:

• Data and sensor access: Shows how many times the app has accessed your camera, contacts, location, media library, microphone, photos, and screen recordings.
• App Network Activity: Shows the domains the app has contacted and the date and time of each, and whether the domains were accessed through the app itself (game servers, analytics, etc.) or from content within the app (external links, embedded videos, etc.).
• Website Network Activity: Shows how many domains were associated with websites that you visited in a web browser or web view in an app.
• Most used domains: Shows the domains that all the apps you use link to, as well as the websites you’ve visited from any app. This helps identify the domains that are used to collect data about you to create a profile.

Hide my email for iCloud+ users

With Sign in with Apple, you can already use Hide My Email to assign disposable email addresses to apps and services you subscribe to on your iPhone. This way you don’t have to reveal your real email address. In iOS 15.2, you can also create disposable email addresses that can be shared with anyone as long as you’re a paid iCloud+ subscriber.

Go to Settings -> [Your Apple ID] -> iCloud -> Hide my email. You can see all the one-time addresses used to sign in with Apple, and you can click “Generate a new address”to create one in-place. You cannot create your own email address yourself, but you can click “Use a different email address”to update the pre-created ones.

You can also generate a new disposable email address in Mail. In a draft, click From, then select Hide My Email. It will automatically generate it after you send an email and store it in your Hide My Email history.

Emergency SOS menu update

Emergency SOS gives you an easy way to call emergency services at any time without having to open the Phone app or fiddle with dialing on the lock screen.

In iOS 15.2, its settings menu looks a little different, with “Side Button Call”now labeled “5 Tap Call”for iPhone 8 and later. This function remains the same: five presses of the side button start the countdown to call the emergency services. And “Automatic call”is replaced with “Call on hold”. Again, the functionality hasn’t changed here.

Before (left) and after (right) the update to iOS 15.2.

Five more seconds for an emergency SOS

Every time an emergency call starts counting down, you will have eight sections instead of three before it makes the call. This way you have five more seconds to stop it if it triggers randomly.

Communication security

Parents of children in their family groups can use Screen Time on each child’s account to access the new Communication Safety feature. If Check Sensitive Photos is enabled for a child, Messages will alert them whenever it detects (using only on-device processing) that they are sending or receiving nude photos.

To turn it on, go to Settings -> Screen Time -> [Child Name] -> Communication Security -> Check Sensitive Photos.

Whenever a child receives a photo that may contain nudity, it will be blurred, and when they touch it to open, they will receive a page with information about how the photo can be kept private, giving them the option to back off or continue. On the next screen, they will have another opportunity to back off or text an adult.

Child Safety Guide

In addition to the new tool available in Messages, Apple has expanded the capabilities of Siri, Spotlight and Safari Search. Both parents and children will have access to additional online safety resources. “For example, users who ask Siri how they can report child exploitation will be directed to resources on where and how to submit a report,” Apple says.

Siri, Spotlight, and Safari Search have also been updated to intervene when users search for queries related to child exploitation. These interventions explain to users that interest in the topic is harmful and problematic, and provide resources from partners to help them with this issue.

outdated contacts

What happens to your Apple ID account and all devices you’re signed into after you die? Legacy Contacts answers this question in iOS 15.2. Go to Settings -> [Your Apple ID] -> Password & Security -> Expired Contact and you can add any person(s) from your family or contacts list, whether they have an Apple ID or Apple device.

Adding someone as an old contact will generate a passkey that you can share in Messages. If they’re using iOS 15.2 or later, they can keep a copy of the key in their Apple ID. If they are using older software, it will ask them to update. You can also print the key, and share a PDF file or screenshot. These are the best options for your non-Apple friends.

According to Apple, old contacts can view “photos, messages, notes, files, apps you’ve downloaded, device backups, and more.”However, they won’t be able to see the payment details or passwords in your Keychain Access or digital media subscriptions purchased with your Apple ID.

Each time you die, the contact must have the passkey you generated when you designated them as your former contact, as well as your death certificate. If approved, they will receive a unique Apple ID to sign into your account. Your credentials will stop working and Apple will remove Activation Lock from all of your devices so they don’t turn into expensive paperweights.

Store in the TV app

Apple has moved the “Movies”and “TV Shows”sorting options in the Apple TV app from the “Watch Now”tab to a new “Shop”tab so you can “view, buy, and rent movies and TV shows at the same time. place.”

Honestly, this doesn’t improve the experience much, as you’ll still see titles you can already watch on Apple TV+, Apple TV channels, and third-party media apps, along with content you can buy from iTunes. It’s just that the new “Shop”tab highlights the buy and rent options.

improved city maps in CarPlay

If you’re using CarPlay, you’ll see improved city maps in Apple Maps. Supported cities will have more road information, including but not limited to turn lanes, bike lanes, pedestrian crossings, and median boundaries.

Find My Tracking in Backup Mode

When Find Me is enabled with Find My Network, other people’s Apple devices on the Find Me network can help locate your iPhone, even when it’s offline. For iPhone 11 and newer, the network can even help you find your iPhone up to 24 hours after you turn it off.

And now in iOS 15.2, the network can help locate your iPhone for up to 5 hours if it’s in standby power mode, which is activated whenever the iPhone’s battery is low. Don’t confuse this with low power mode, which is used when the iPhone is still on to prevent it from dying.

Currency View in promotions

A small change to the Stock app in iOS 15.2 adds a “Show currency”option to the ellipsis (•••) menu in the list of stocks. If this option is enabled, the currency of the stock (for example, USD) will be displayed next to its ticker.

Stock returns for the years prior to the start date of the year

Another small change for stocks is the addition of a year-to-date chart, or year-to-date chart, when viewing stock performance. YTD is the period from the first day of the current calendar or fiscal year to the current date. According to Investopedia, “YTD information is useful for analyzing business trends over time, or comparing performance data with that of competitors or peers in the same industry.”

Removing or renaming tags in reminders

Reminder tags were introduced in iOS 15, but there was no easy way to remove or rename the tag you created and assigned to tasks. In iOS 15.2, you can select a tag in the Tag Browser, then tap the ellipsis (•••) icon and then Rename Tag or Delete Tag. When you delete it, it will be removed from all your reminders, and the rename will be applied to all assigned reminders at the same time.

This should also work in the Notes app, but we haven’t seen it active yet.

• Don’t Miss: Organize Your iPhone Reminders with Tags You Can Search, Filter, View, and Create Smart Lists

new wording for iCloud private relay

When you have iCloud Private Relay enabled (still in beta) for a specific Wi-Fi or cellular data network, it will hide your IP address from known trackers in Mail and Safari. Prior to iOS 15.2, the toggle in each network’s settings was simply called “iCloud Private Relay.”Now it’s more descriptive – “Limit IP Tracking”- to avoid confusion. The fine print for this feature also explains that the toggle will disable iCloud private playback for the network. In general, it works the same way; the button is simply named differently.

Fixed privacy and security issues

The iOS 15.2 update includes some fixes for privacy and security issues, like most iOS updates. You can view the full list on the Apple security page for iOS 15.2, but the following should be noted:

• Hide Live Photos metadata in SharePlay: A huge privacy issue with the SharePlay FaceTime feature introduced in iOS 15.1 has made it possible for users’ sensitive information to be accidentally leaked in Live Photos metadata. This issue has been fixed in iOS 15.2.
• Prevent people with physical access to your device from seeing contacts: Another big issue fixed is a lock screen exploit that allowed anyone with physical access to your device to access your contacts via Lock Screen Notes.
• Block saved passwords: Another major issue was that anyone with physical access to your device could access your saved passwords without using Face ID or Touch ID authentication. Now it’s fixed.

Macro Control for iPhone 13 Pro models

If you have an iPhone 13 Pro or iPhone 13 Pro Max, you can go to Settings -> Camera and enable Macro Control so you can easily switch to and from the ultra-wide lens for photos and videos. With this setting enabled, you’ll see a flower icon in the Camera app whenever you get close to an object in the frame; clicking on it will enable or disable macro photography.

There’s also a toggle for “Macro”in the “Save Settings”menu for the camera, so it remembers whether or not you want to use the ultra-wide-angle lens for close-ups.

Display Repair Restriction Changes

If you have an iPhone 13 model and need to replace the screen, Face ID might not work after the repair. The problem was that Apple had to connect its tools to the display during repairs, and independent repair clinics did not have access to these tools, which led to problems with face authentication. In iOS 15.2, Apple tools are no longer needed to repair the display.

bug fixes

This release also includes bug fixes for your iPhone. Full list below.

• Siri may not respond while VoiceOver is running and iPhone is locked.
• ProRAW photos may appear overexposed when viewed in third party photo editing applications.
• HomeKit scenes that include a garage door may not launch from CarPlay when your iPhone is locked
• CarPlay may not update current playback information for certain apps
• Video streaming apps may not download content on iPhone 13 models
• Calendar events may appear on the wrong day for Microsoft Exchange users