This week saw the release of iOS 15.4, the latest version of the iPhone’s operating system, and the
most significant upgrade to date in the current OS cycle. It brings with it the usual bug fixes,
and also a lot of new features, but in my opinion, only a few of them are really worth talking about,
many are extremely minor tweaks and updates. So, in this video, I’m going to try and cut through
the noise, and detail what I think are the most important new features included in iOS 15.4.
Use Face ID with a mask
Face ID is nothing new, and over the past couple of years, wearing a face mask in public has become
the norm. But Face masks and Face ID are not especially compatible, for obvious reasons. If you
own an Apple Watch, you can already use the watch to override Face ID and allow you to unlock your
phone whilst keeping your mask on, but that’s not much help to you if you don’t own an Apple Watch.
There is now a setting that allows you to use Face ID natively on your iPhone while wearing a face
mask, so no watch required. Head to Settings, Face ID and Passcode, and toggle on Use Face ID with a
mask. Apple do explain to you that the accuracy of Face ID is better when it can see your entire
face, but in this mode, Face ID can use your eyes and the area of your face around your eyes
to establish whether or not it’s you. When you set this mode on, your iPhone will run a fresh Face ID
scan of your face, although you don’t have to be wearing a mask when this happens. Note that you do
have to be looking at your phone to unlock it when wearing a facemask, but the good news is that Face
ID will now work for unlocking your phone, your banking apps etc, even if you’ve got a mask on.
Siri has a new voice
Siri has been updated to include a more gender neutral, non binary option, meaning that a bunch
of people can feel a bit more catered to, whilst still allowing everyone to keep the Siri version
that they’ve already become accustomed to, and that’s got to be a good thing. And I was
really intrigued as to what a gender neutral voice might sound like, and yeah, I see what they mean.
To set it, head to Settings, then Siri and Search, then Siri Voice. It’s only available
in the American voice at the moment, so we have to go to American, and it’s voice number 5.
Better Live Text integration
Live text is a feature that I think Apple are really going to be going full steam with in future
iOS updates, I’ve noticed that it’s appearing across more and more of the operating system,
and getting a lot of attention in marketing. If you’ve not already tried it,
live text uses your camera along with the smarts of your phone to extract text from
whatever you’re pointing your camera at in the real world, turning it into machine text.
The big change this time is in Notes, if I go to a blank note, and then tap on the camera icon and
choose Scan Text, the camera view appears, and I can hover over the text that I want to insert, and
then choose Insert. The text that you’ve selected will now be inserted into your note, so if you
work with paper documents or non-digital content quite a bit, this could be really handy for you.
Apple Pay improvements
Contactless pay with iPhone is a great feature, but it can be a bit trigger happy,
I’ve activated it so many times when I’ve been pulling my phone out of my pocket,
completely by accident. Now, when you double tap the side button,
rather than simply bringing up all of your Apple Pay cards, your iPhone will now insist
on using your biometric to open the wallet first, adding an extra layer of security.
Compatible iPhones now also support Tap to Pay, which allows users to receive payments via their
phones, removing the need for third party hardware like the little Square terminals that you see.
This does now need to be built into apps, I think Stripe are likely to be the first to implement it,
and at present it’s limited to the US, but the idea here is that if you’re running a
small business and someone wants to pay you using a card or with their phone,
they can simply hold it to your phone, like you would a card reader in a store.
Traders at food markets, mobile hair dressers, there’s loads of people who could benefit
from this. Sounds like a great feature that removes a barrier for small business owners,
and hopefully we’ll see it gain traction outside of the US soon.
Emojis
Ah, emojis, what more can you say about them, other than the latest operating
system includes 37 new ones, including such hits as ‘Can’t look’, crying happy tears,
love heart hands, melting face, pregnant man... ok, and biting lip.
Yeah, people are definitely going to be sending a lot of biting lips from now on.
Easier Share Play setup
Shareplay is an interesting feature, allowing you to watch content on your Apple device at the same
time as friends, via the use of FaceTime. It’s not something I’ve used personally, but I can see
why people would. Previously, the process was to begin a Facetime call, and then add the Share Play
content in that way, but you can now do this in a more logical manner, by going to a show that you
want to watch, tapping the dedicated SharePlay icon, and setting up a SharePlay call there.
AirTags - New setup prompt
AirTags have been making the news lately for all of the wrong reasons,
so in an effort to, at the very least, remind AirTag owners that the devices
should only be used for tracking their own personal property, and never people,
Apple have created a new prompt. When setting up a new AirTag now in iOS 15.4,
users will be reminded of this and told that tracking people without their consent is a
criminal offence. In fairness, I’m guessing that the people who use it for this purpose probably
already know that they’re breaking the law, but a bit of additional safeguarding can’t hurt.
Custom Email Domain
If you own a custom email domain, and you have an iCloud plan that includes iCloud +, you can
probably save yourself some money by migrating your custom email domain into iCloud, rather than
paying for it separately. For example, I’ve got a couple of domains, one for this channel, another
for another freelance business that I have, and I’ve been paying quite a bit of money each month
to host my email with GoDaddy. As I have iCloud +, I’m entitled to bring up to 5 custom email
domains over to iCloud with 3 email addresses for each of them, and you can now manage this
entire process on your phone. It’s extremely easy, head to Settings, click on your name, then iCloud,
then iCloud Mail, and tap on Custom Email Domain. Follow the steps to setup the mail settings for
your custom domain, and you can then send and receive email for that domain, via iCloud.
And then finally, not really worth a full mention by themselves but still worth mentioning,
you can now add Notes to passwords saved in iCloud keychain, and third party support
for Pro Motion now exists, so expect to see all your favourite apps updating with this
support in the coming days and weeks, which is a massive win if you own an iPhone 13 Pro.
Like I said at the start of this video, there are other changes, updates and improvements,
but they’re all pretty minor, I feel like these are the main ones that the largest number of
people are likely to see some kind of benefit from. What about you, what changes have you been
most pleased to see in this latest update? Drop me a comment, and let’s talk about it.
And as ever, if you found this video useful, do please consider leaving me a like,
and subscribing to my channel for more content like this in the future.
See you on the next video.