The fact that the iOS 14.5 is still on its way doesn’t stop the anticipation for the next-gen iOS 15 which would be released alongside the iPhone 13 series later on this year and with that, there will definitely be some pretty decent features and updates to expect from the new operating system when it finally makes its debut later on this year.

Since the last iOS 14, Apple made the home screen much more interesting than before which now includes the implementation of a widget system that allows for different elements to be displayed on the home screen much like the way Android home screen works whereby there is separate page for both home and applications.

With that, the next iOS 15 will definitely be another major upgrade from the current version and that should also introduce some pretty decent features that would make the next-gen iPhones much more interesting and of course become a good selling point for the company.

Even though majority of the stories about the iOS 15 are based on rumors and unofficial reports, there are some features that could potentially make it to the final and stable version as with the iOS 14.5 which is sort of like a gateway to the future iOS.

Release date of the iOS 15

The first and most important question many people have in mind is when the next-gen iOS 15 will be released and there is a high possibility that the next version might be as far as September when the company releases its iPhone 13 series.

If we’re to base this suspicion on the previous year, Apple announced its iPadOS 14 and the MacOS Big Sur during the WWDC 2020 back in June and while that same period might be reserved for the WWDC 2021 event as well, the iOS 15 is likely not to be announced during this tech event. But there could be plans to announce the developers beta which is basically for testing by app developers until a stable version is released later by Summer.

Even though there was a slight delay in the release of the iPhone 12 series released back in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, that might not be the case in 2021 as the company is said to have everything in place to ensure the timely release of the next-gen iPhone 13 series by September.

The devices that will support iOS 15

Apple is known to always support most of their older devices during a new software update and that doesn’t sees to be stopping soon as the release of the iOS 15 will still be supported by iPhone 7 and above so those with much older iPhone 6 series might not be able to get this upgrade.

One of the reasons why the iOS 15 might not be supported on much older iPhone 6 series is because of the fact that they run on the much older A9 chips unlike the iPhone 7 and above which run the A10 Bionic chipset and above all which could impact the performance of the new operating system.

New iOS 15 features

With new operating systems comes newer features and some of what could be expected when the iOS 15 is unveiled according to reports includes changing more default applications and even making widgets much more interactive.

While there might not be a really huge change from one feature to the other, the limitation with the current iOS 14 in terms of the kind of default application that can be swapped out for a third-party app might be reduced so you might be able to use Google Chrome as your default browser instead of Safari or Gmail instead of the default Mail app and so forth.

The upcoming iOS 14.5 update will also let you change your default music platform from Apple Music. iOS 15 may allow you to make more customizations like this. 

In terms of the interactivity of the next-gen iOS 15, there are reports stating that you might be able to have Widgets on the iPhones do more than they are currently. A good example is being able to do things like change volume or toggle things on and off all from your home screen’s widget just like Android.

We may also see more widget size options, the site reported. There is also a report that the iPhone 13 could support always-on display which is currently on the Apple Watch and that is some pretty decent feature to have and that will also require some hardware that would support the feature.

Downloading the iOS 15

For those in the Apple’s developer program, they may be able to download the iOS 15 developer beta when it gets announced (by June during WWDC 2021) possibly and then you can be able to test it out and see for yourself.

The updated iOS 15 Public Beta should be available to download later on by summer however, its usually a good idea to never download such buggy software on your daily driver smartphone – maybe try it on your secondary iPhones.

Once iOS 15 is generally available, which we expect to be in September, Apple will likely send a notification letting you know you can update. Or, you’ll be able to do it manually, by going to the Settings app > General > Software Update.