Apple has just launched iOS 15.2, iPadOS 15.2, watchOS 8.3 and tvOS 15.2 with important news. News ranging from Apple Music Voice to voice recognition for personal requests in Spanish on the HomePod to repair history and more.
Kind of like the spring update, but at Christmas
Normally the .2 versions of the operating systems arrive already released the year following the presentation of the version in question. We often refer to these releases as “spring updates” for exactly this reason. This time, however, it appears the timeline has moved forward, as in iOS 15.2 there is a lot of news, let’s review all.
- Apple Music Voice: The new Apple Music Voice plan allows us to take advantage of Apple Music’s full catalog, over 90 million songs, via Siri arrives today with iOS 15.2. A package to which we can subscribe for only 4.99 dollars per month and which gives us access to Apple’s music streaming service on all our devices.
- Repair history: In Settings > General > Information we will find a new section: History of parts and repairs. A section that only appears if our iPhone has undergone a repair and which indicates which ones have been carried out and with which parts. A place to go to make sure all repairs have used official company parts and have been made with full warranties.
- Rename tags in reminders: We can now rename an entire label in the Reminders app of our iPhone or iPad without having to rewrite a new label in all of the reminders. It’s as easy as entering the label in question, pressing the three-dot button and choosing Rename.
- Search for Apple Music playlists: It is now possible to search in the lists that we have in Apple Music.
- Hide my email in the Mail app: In iOS 15.2, we can create addresses from Hide my email from the Mail app itself. Thanks to this, in addition to the convenience of not having to access the Settings application, we can initiate communication, with which we can write to anyone and receive responses without exposing our real address.
- Legacy contacts: A feature that we saw showcased at WWDC21 with which an Apple ID can be configured to give another account access to all of its content in the event of its owner’s death. With it, a person can recover photos, messages, notes, files, contacts, calendars, apps, backup copies and more information from Apple ID.
- Changes in Macro mode: In the iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max, Apple introduced the macro photography mode. It’s a system that allows us to get extremely close to the lens of our photo and capture all of its details. In iOS 15.2, we can turn off auto macro mode and make a button appear in the same Camera app to turn this mode on or off at will.
- Active search for devices in the Find app: In the search application, we will now find, in the tab Objects, the section “Objects that can locate me”. This allows us to research devices that could be used to track our location.
- Application privacy report: In Settings > confidentiality > Application privacy report We can check what information apps access on our devices. We can see if they are accessing the photos, microphone or location, which domains they log into, how often, and generally have a clear idea of their behavior. Critical information to see which apps might be accessing too much information or even selling or sharing it without our knowledge.
- Voice recognition in personal requests on HomePod: With iOS 15.2 we can, from the Home app, activate personal requests in Spanish on our HomePods. This will allow the speaker to respond in a personalized way based on who is asking.
While not making the list, given its more moderate importance, this update has some other cool changes. One of them is the redesign of the Apple TV app on the iPad, now with a sidebar, or the addition of the tab shop in the app. We also see the arrival of Communication Saftey with which, as parents, we can configure the iPhone of a minor to warn him before seeing naked photos in the Messages application.
There have also been changes to the emergency call system, which now ditch eight seconds back to avoid accidental calls, in notification summaries, which now have a different aesthetic, and in the formulation of Private Relay, now called “Limit IP Address Tracking” in the mobile data settings. All in all, a most interesting update.