Five new features that iOS 15.4 brings to your iPhone and iPad
Available to download since March 14
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WithAppleannouncing itsMac Studio, theiPhone SE 3, theStudio Display, and more at its March 2022 event, the release foriOS 15.4has followed a week after, available for your iPhone SE, iPhone 6S, and above.
iOS 15was released in September 2021, and it brought SharePlay, widgets to iPadOS, Focus modes, and more, all focusing on a theme of productivity.
But Apple has been fullsteamahead with .1 updates since then, as 15.1, 15.2, and 15.3 have all brought bug fixes and refinements to youriPhoneandiPad.
With this in mind, here are five features that you can get acquainted with as iOS 15.4 downloads to your device.
1. Face ID with a mask
While Apple introduced a feature that would allow yourApple Watchto authenticate you by unlocking your phone, it wasn’t helpful to those who didn’t own a watch.
With iOS 15.4, you can enable an additional feature where you will be asked to scan your face while wearing a mask. The Face ID hardware will then recognize your eyes and facial features to unlock your phone instead.
2. Universal Control with iPadOS 15.4
This is something that was announced atWWDCin 2021, Apple’s yearly developer conference, but it wasdelayedfrom the latter half of 2021 to the release of iPadOS 15.4.
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As long as you have a certain iPad model and a Mac running macOS 12.3 Monterey, you can use your mouse cursor across both devices, so you can drag and drop your content seamlessly.
If you’re struggling to set Universal Control up, we’ve gota guideto help out with that.
3. New Emoji
A new update wouldn’t be the same without new emoji, and this time there’s a bunch you can use.
From a salute to different genders being pregnant, alongside many new hand gestures, there’s plenty to choose from for yourWhatsAppand Twitter messages.
4. Better anti-stalking measures for AirTag
When you set up a newAirTagin iOS 15.4, you will be greeted with a pop-up explaining that it’s a crime to use it to track people, making users aware of its misuses across the world so far.
There’s also better ways to manage its Notifications through the Find My app, so you can configure when the time-tracking alerts will arrive, alongside deciding whether to deliver all of its notifications right away or at a certain time of day.
5. Notes in iCloud Keychain
You’ve been able to save and sync your passwords iniCloudsince 2019 with the release of iOS 13. But 15.4 allows you to add notes to your custom iCloud passwords through iCloud Keychain.
While it sounds like a small feature, it’s significant due to other password apps having this for a number of years, and the ease of adding some extra reminders in these sections can help, especially if you have multiple accounts for the same site.
Daryl had been freelancing for 3 years before joining TechRadar, now reporting on everything software-related. In his spare time, he’s written a book, ‘The Making of Tomb Raider’. His second book, ‘50 Years of Boss Fights’, came out in 2024, with a third book coming in 2025. He also has a newsletter called ‘Springboard’. He’s usually found playing games old and new on his Steam Deck, Nintendo Switch, and MacBook Pro. If you have a story about an updated app, one that’s about to launch, or just anything Software-related, drop him a line.
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