And while iOS 15 showcased some exciting additions on the way to the iPhone platform. It didn’t satisfy everyone who was watching, myself included.
Here’s why I think iOS 15 is only half of an update.
What Do You Mean iOS 15 Is Only Half an Update?
iOS 15 was announced at WWDC 2021, but it lacked many new features that Apple enthusiasts were hoping for.
Normally, Apple’s iOS updates bring some pretty big changes. For example, iOS 7 modernized the iOS design and iOS 13 introduced dark mode. But iOS 15 didn’t really offer anything particularly new.
With iOS 15, some of the most noticeable changes include:
Focus, to let you filter notifications across Apple devices Safari redesign Maps redesign, including new 3D city views FaceTime gets SharePlay, Spatial Audio, and Portrait Mode And Mail gets Private Relay and the ability to hide your IP address.
I don’t know if you’ve spotted the trend, but all of these new features can be found across all of Apple’s software, so they don’t really count for iOS 15.
Some of the iOS 15 exclusive features include the Wallet app allowing you to add NFC keys, Live Text to identify text in photos, Walking Steadiness in the Health app, and a redesigned Weather app.
Let’s break these down.
The NFC keys in Wallet sounds quite cool—I’ll give Apple that. But the feature can’t be used yet. Hotels and smart-lock makers need to adapt to the new service, so it’s really only coming soon and may still be hard to find by the time iOS 15 releases in fall.
In contrast, Walking Steadiness seems unnecessary. Who really needs to see their iPhone to guess how steadily they’re walking?
So ignoring the Apple-wide feature updates and the currently redundant features, iOS 15 leaves us with Live Text and the redesigned Weather app. Don’t get me wrong, these two features are very welcome indeed; Live Text will get used by many users, I’m sure.
The problem is that it’s just these two features. Two features. Two! In what’s supposed to be a major iPhone update.
Come on Apple, you can do better than that for a new version of iOS! An update like this would usually come as an incremental update to the current software, half an update, if you will–the true iOS 14.5
What Were You Expecting From iOS 15?
Although we didn’t see as many leaks for iOS 15 as usual, there were some reports of what the new software would bring. Mark Gurman from Bloomberg told us that notifications would be changing, iPadOS would get improved multitasking, and we’d get some privacy changes.
One source even leaked to me that we’d see nutrition tracking and a redesigned lock screen in iOS 15, and confirmed some of Gurman’s reports. Gurman later reported that the redesigned lock screen had been delayed until iOS 16, and who knows what happened to the nutrition tracking.
Read More: Must-Have Features We Want to See in iOS
Although we’re unlikely to ever be able to confirm this, it seems that Apple pushed back some iOS 15 features at the last minute. If that’s true, there’s not much indication as to why Apple did this. But it is very noticeable that iOS 15 is lacking.
Why Are You Getting So Upset Over iOS Leaks and Rumors?
Of course, everything we see in rumors and in leaks is just speculation. Nothing gets confirmed or denied by Apple before the company announces new software. So you could argue that people shouldn’t be upset over incorrect speculation.
Well, we know just what Apple can do.
Last year, it launched its own silicon chip for Macs, arguably outperforming any other chip on the market. Apple has released many big changes through software updates in the past, so we know that it can do this again.
Read More: Apple’s New M1 Chip Is a Game Changer: Everything You Need to Know
When you consider the potential of iOS 15 as well as all the speculation, I think it’s pretty fair to be disappointed by the update. As I showed you earlier, we only truly got two new features in iOS 15–that’s reason enough for disappointment a major software update if I’ve ever seen it.
Here’s to Another Year and Another Update
Apple announces new software every year at WWDC, so it’s a pretty sure thing that we’ll be seeing iOS 16 in June 2022. With some features delayed until next year, and Apple’s ever-growing potential, hopefully iOS 16 will offer a bit more bang for its buck.
