Here Are the New iOS Features We're Most Excited About

On Monday, Apple announced the release of iOS 15 and some major updates to its iPhone features along with it.

"For many customers, iPhone has become indispensable, and this year we've created even more ways it can enhance our daily lives," Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering, shared in a statement. "iOS 15 helps users stay connected while sharing experiences in real time, gives them new tools to help reduce distraction and find focus, uses intelligence to enhance the photos experience, and, with huge upgrades to Maps, brings new ways to explore the world. We can't wait for customers to experience it."

Here are just a few of the updates travelers need to know about right now.

FaceTime tuneups

FaceTime has become an invaluable tool in helping people stay connected over the pandemic. Now, Apple aims to make that connection even smoother with updates like microphone updates to help separate the user's voice from background noise.

Facetime will also get the Portrait Mode treatment. Users will now get to blur their background and "put themselves in focus," you know, for when you get those surprise FaceTime requests and your house isn't exactly clean.

The iPhone will now also offer SharePlay, making it possible for people using FaceTime to also listen to Apple Music, watch a TV show or movie from Apple TV, or share their screen to view apps together, making it ridiculously easy to have shared experiences from afar.

Apple Maps upgrades

According to Apple, "Users will experience significantly enhanced details in cities for neighborhoods, commercial districts, elevation, and buildings, new road colors and labels, custom-designed landmarks, and a new night-time mode with a moonlit glow" with its updates to Apple Maps.

With iPhone or CarPlay, Maps will now show "a three-dimensional city-driving experience with new road details that help users better see and understand important details like turn lanes, medians, bike lanes, and pedestrian crosswalks."

Those using public transit will also be able to now pin and save their favorite lines, and Maps will also notify users when it's nearly time to disembark from their ride.

Find My updates

As any traveler knows, lost phones can happen. However, Apple's new iOS 15 updates to Find My could help make tracking down lost devices a bit easier. According to Apple, it's introducing new capabilities to help locate a device that has been either turned off or erased, and it's introducing new Separation Alerts to notify a user if they leave an AirTag, Apple device, or Find My network accessory behind in an unfamiliar location.

Accessibility additions

Apple's iOS will also expand upon the phone's accessibility features to "enable users to explore even more details about the people, text, table data, and other objects within images."

In a statement, Apple explained, "In support of neurodiversity, new background sounds help minimize distractions, and for those who are deaf or hard of hearing, Made for iPhone supports new bidirectional hearing aids. Sound Actions customizes Switch Control to work with mouth sounds, and users can now customize display and text size on an app-by-app basis."

See every iOS update coming to iPhone soon here.