iOS 15: what features are still missing?

Mathilde Rochefort September 22, 2021, 3:170 p.m.© Apple

As of yesterday, iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 are available for download. While many highly anticipated features are present, one cannot help but notice that a few are missing from the announcements made during WWDC 2021.

The SharePlay call is missing in particular, the improvement of the “Find my AirPods” tool and Universal Control.

For Universal Control, you have to wait macOS Monterey

The absence of Universal Control, which allows a cursor to be shared between Mac and iPad , is probably the least surprising. Indeed, the feature was not present in the betas of the operating system and will also only be compatible with macOS Monterey, which is not yet available. It would therefore not be surprising if the Cupertino company kept the surprise for the moment… especially since rumors are rife about a possible upcoming keynote reserved for new MacBooks and AirPods 3.

Last June, Apple also presented a feature integrated into the App Store and giving access to live events in the form of streaming, such as online games. Now, this function is announced “later this fall”.

SharePlay, the great absentee

The improvement to the "Find my AirPods" feature is undoubtedly eagerly awaited by owners of the headphones, and for good reason. The Apple brand had declared that a device similar to the AirTag would make it possible to visualize where exactly the AirPods are. Here too, the tool is announced “later this fall”. Like Universal Control, it is not excluded that Apple will wait for the next potential keynote to update this function, since it is possible that it will present its next generation of wireless headphones there.

Finally, it is above all the absence of SharePlay that raises eyebrows. It was indeed integrated into the beta of iOS 15, before being removed. Presented as a real turning point for FaceTime, the latter notably offers the possibility of watching and listening to films, television shows, music, podcasts and many other things with friends or family, while chatting by video. For once, SharePlay is expected to roll out later this year… but at the same time delays the release of Group Workouts for Fitness Plus in the US.

Of course, it's a safe bet that Cupertino has decided to reschedule the launch of these features for good reasons, both commercial and technical.

Source: The Verge