Apple released iOS 15 in September 2021, but that doesn’t mean your journey ends here. The company has continued to develop iOS 15, and on January 27, just a few days after the release of iOS 15.3, Apple released a beta of iOS 15.4 for developers.
With the various versions of this beta, Apple has introduced new features, for example, an update to the beta version made it necessary for some users to review their SOS settings to enter an emergency contact.
The iOS 15.3 version mainly introduced security updates and bug fixes. bugs. Instead, with iOS 15.4, it has opted for some interesting new features that Apple had promised for the new operating system, but had not yet arrived.
This is the case of the new emoticons, as well as one of the most anticipated features, especially for users with a mask: unlocking with a mask!
iPad users will also benefit from new support for the ‘Universal Control’ feature, which allows you to use the same keyboard and mouse for iPad and Mac.
When will the iOS 15.4 version be released?
Surely, what you are most interested in knowing is when the final version of iOS 15.4 will arrive. And the best news you’re going to get today is this: Apple just released it, so starting this March 14th you should be able to update it on your compatible iPhone.
How to install iOS 15.4
Now that the final version of iOS 15.4 has arrived, you can easily download it on your iPhone. You have to go to ‘Settings’, followed by ‘General’ and ‘Software update’. iOS 15.4 will appear as available to download and install.
If you are already thinking about the next version and you want to be the first to try the new features of iOS 15.5 before anyone else, we advise you to read our guide on how to participate in the Apple Beta Program.
As always, in this case, you will need to backup your devices before installing the new beta versions. Thus, you will not risk losing your personal files. Ideally, you should use a device other than your primary iPhone or iPad.
We explain how to get the latest beta version of iOS and how to install iOS 15 and later updates.
What news does iOS 15.4 bring?
While iOS 15.3 mainly brought bug and security fixes, iOS 15.4 has brought some interesting new features.
Universal control
While Universal Control is more of a feature for iPadOS and macOS than it is for iOS, it’s probably the biggest new feature in this latest version.
The first beta version of iPadOS 15.4 brought Universal Control. Universal Control is an extension to Sidecar, which was introduced in macOS Catalina and iPadOS 13 and made it possible to place an iPad next to a Mac and seamlessly move the mouse or mouse pointer. touchpad from the edge of the Mac screen directly to the iPad.
The next version of macOS Monterey and iPadOS 15 should allow mouse and keyboard sharing between two Macs. You can find more information about everything that will arrive with macOS 12.3.
Universal Control options are found in the ‘AirPlay & Handoff’ tab in ‘Settings’. There you will find a new option for Cursor and Keyboard (Beta).
Unlock iPhone with a mask
This new function will be a true revolution, although surely people are wondering why it has taken Apple so long to incorporate it.
With iOS 14.5 (in April 2021), it became possible to unlock the iPhone with the Apple Watch if the user was wearing a mask and therefore Face ID could not work. Until now, users without Apple Watch had to wait for Apple to release an iPhone with Touch ID.
In the iOS 15.4 beta ‘Face ID & Passcode’ settings, there is a new switch for Face ID with a mask. With this option enabled, Face ID “will use the unique features around the eye area for authentication,” according to Apple.
Apple notes that Face ID is more accurate if this setting is turned off: it doesn’t do full facial recognition, so it’s less secure. Also, it seems that unlocking by Face ID with a mask only works with an iPhone 12 or later.
Another of the new settings for unlocking with Face ID will be the possibility of adding glasses, which will mean that the system can correctly recognize your facial features. It is true that you can already unlock the iPhone with glasses if you used them when setting up Face ID.
New emoticons
From the hand of the Unicode Consortium, many new emoticons arrive. These include a melting face, a waving face, lip biting, a jar, beans, x-rays, and bubbles. You can see them on the blog emojipedia.
Emergency contact alert
The third beta version of iOS 15.4 includes a prompt to review the Emergency SOS settings. Users are encouraged to enter a phone number of an emergency contact who will be called if the Volume Button and Side Button are held down at the same time.
This person will also receive an alert with your location.
Tap To Pay
On February 8, Apple announced that iPhones will be able to act as point-of-sale terminals in the future. The feature, called ‘Tap to Pay’, has corresponding APIs in the iOS 15.4 beta that developers can customize for their apps and services.
Access to the service requires registration on Apple’s Apple Business Register portal. ‘Tap to Pay’ is quite universal: in addition to NFC-enabled iPhones and credit cards, coupon cards and store cards are also supported.
However, it seems that ‘Tap To Pay’ will only be available in the United States, so it remains to be seen how it will be applied in the rest of the world.
Push notifications in Safari
The iOS 15.4 beta suggested that Apple is working on a new push API for iOS and iPadOS that will make push notifications possible in Safari. Although Apple has been allowing push notifications through Safari on Mac for years, it has so far refused to bring the feature to its mobile devices.
Maximiliano Firtman discovered two experimental WebKit features in the iOS 15.4 beta that indicate the arrival of push notifications, and he pointed this out on his firt.dev blog. The two sliders (integrated web notifications and API push) are off by default and don’t work yet, but he suspects they will eventually.
This should mean that websites can ask if you want to receive push notifications on your mobile.
WebXR support (for AR/VR glasses?)
This beta version suggests that iOS is getting ready for the time when users can connect VR and AR headsets to iPhone and iPad.
9to5Mac has discovered that, in the latest beta, Safari supports a developer interface called WebXR. This is used to develop AR and VR content for the web.
iCloud Keychain and Notes
You will be able to add notes to a password entry in the keychain. You will need to go to ‘Settings’ followed by ‘Passwords’ to see your keychain entries.
Turn off access to iCloud data through the browser
In the first beta, Apple added a new setting for the Apple ID, so that you could disable access to your own iCloud data in the browser via www.icloud.com on the paired device.
This setting disappeared in the second version of the beta, but we hope that Apple will bring it back in subsequent beta versions.
apple card widget
there will be a new widget Apple Card that can be added to the Start screen or ‘Today’ view. It will show your current account balance and movements. The Apple Card is only available in the United States, and in fact we don’t know when it will arrive in other countries.
EU vaccination passport holder
The Health app is now compatible with the format used by the EU in its COVID digital certificates, so EU users will be able to add vaccination passport details to the Health and Wallet apps in Spain.
DualSense adaptive trigger support
iOS 15.4 will allow developers to add support for the adaptive trigger feature of the PlayStation 5’s DualSense controller.
Siri Recording Request
In August 2019, it came to light that Apple was recording some Siri requests and using third-party companies to evaluate them. The worst thing was that this was not sufficiently communicated to users, so many of them were outraged.
Thereafter, Apple explicitly asks users for permission to make these recordings (which are intended to improve Siri), and Apple has promised not to hand over such sensitive information to outside companies.
However, the iOS 15.4 beta has uncovered a bug that caused some of these Siri requests to be stored on some iPhones despite user denial. It seems that the bug existed in iOS 15 until iOS 15.1.1. Then, with iOS 15.2 in December 2021, Apple fixed the bug by preventing those recordings from occurring on affected devices.
With iOS 15.4 (currently in beta 2), the device will once again ask for permission for those Siri reviews, but this will only be for those users who had Apple stop Siri recordings for them in December 2021. So if you see this request indicates that your recordings were being saved.
Apple has confirmed to ZDnet that all records resulting from this error have been deleted.
