iOS 15 Should Have Been A Big Deal, But ...

According to Romain Dillet of TechCrunch, the release of iOS 15 should be a major event for mobile operating systems. And he is right. However, this year, there were no breakthrough feature or overarching theme that makes this release stand out. Apple has focused on quality-of-life updates as well as new features for its own apps.

The result is a solid update that is not going to be controversial. Some people are going to take advantage of the new Focus feature. They will spend a lot of time customizing their phone to make it as personal as possible. Other people are just going to miss or dismiss the new features.

It seems like a small change, but it actually says a lot about the current state of iOS. Apple considers iOS as a mature platform. Just like users don't have to update your Mac to the latest version of macOS if they don’t want to, they can now update at their own pace.

Also, iOS should be considered as a mature platform for app developers, so iOS 15 adoption will be slower than usual as people won’t necessarily update to iOS 15 right away. Apps should potentially work on older iOS versions for longer.

Of course, users will "update" to a new version of iOS when they buy a new iPhone and replace their old iPhone. But Apple has people who pre-ordered the iPhone 13 and will get iOS 15.

One of the biggest changes in iOS 15 is the ability to change your Focus from Control Center. It’s a surprisingly powerful feature with a lot of options and tweaks.

But it’s definitely one of the most interesting features of iOS 15. Chances are users spend a lot of time with their phone, and their device requires a lot of attention from them. With this new feature, it reverses the balance and puts them back in charge.

"Do Not Disturb" users are already quite familiar with the idea that they can silence notifications when they don’t want them. If users want to keep using "moon mode" with iOS 15, they don’t have to change anything.

But users can now create additional Focuses. By default, Apple suggests a few Focuses — Work, Sleep, Driving, Fitness, Gaming, Mindfulness, Personal and Reading. Each Focus is customizable to their needs and they can create new Focuses from scratch.