Focus, Notifications, Reminders and more
Fed up with distractions while you’re trying to concentrate? The new Focus feature is for you
What’s new in Focus
Do Not Disturb has long allowed you to switch off notifications during hours you specify. Now, Focus goes further, enabling you to filter notifications based on what you’re currently doing. When you set up a Focus, iOS will make suggestions based on your past activity. You can even create a Home Screen that shows only those apps you need while focusing. And your iPhone will use signals like time of day or your location to suggest a Focus to turn on. If someone you’ve chosen not to receive messages from tries to contact you while a Focus is active, they’ll get a message telling them that your notifications are off. But they will still be able to get through to you with an urgent message.
What’s new in Notifications
Notifications in iOS 15 have a completely new look that includes profile photos for people who contact you and larger icons for app notifications. You can choose to receive a daily digest of notifications in the morning, evening or at a time you specify, so you can catch up on those you missed while Focus was active. Developers can specify notifications as time sensitive, for example, those telling you a Deliveroo driver is on their way. And those notifications will be delivered immediately, no matter your settings. If you’re involved in a Messages group conversation but haven’t been active in it for a while, iOS 15 will suggest you mute it.
What’s new in Reminders
Reminders, like Notes, gets support for tags, enabling you to tag reminders so that you can find them easily. And you can filter reminders by one or more tags. Tags can also be used in the new Custom Smart Lists. This feature allows you to create lists of reminders based on parameters you specify such as tag, time, location, flag, or priority. Reminders also gets improved natural language support that understands phrases like ‘every other morning’. And you can have Siri announce Reminders if you’re wearing AirPods or compatible Beats headphones. Apple has made it easier to delete completed reminders, and added suggested attributes such as tags and people when you create a reminder.
What’s new in Notes
The biggest new feature in Notes on Mac and iPad is Quick Notes, which allows you to create notes from applications like Safari. You can’t create Quick Notes in iOS 15, but you can read and edit those created on your Mac or iPad. Notes also has support for tags, including Custom Smart Folders which collect and display notes based on their tags. An activity view allows you to see changes that have been made to shared notes since the last time you checked. There’s a summary of updates, and a day-byday list of changes made by each contributor. And collaboration has been improved further with the addition of ‘mentions’. If you ‘@‘ someone in a note, they will be notified and sent a link to the note.
What’s new in Health
Health in iOS 15 gets several new features, mostly designed to let others access your health data in a way that you control. For example, you could choose to share data on your heart health and vital signs with a family member or carer. When you share, for example, heart health data with someone else, they get notifications when something significant changes. And you can also choose to send them notifications for significant changes in other categories. Trend analysis allows you to see how a metric you choose is progressing over time, and you can choose to receive a notification when a new trend is detected. You can share trend information with others over Messages, a feature that may help health professionals with remote consultations.
Finally, there’s a new walking steadiness metric that analyses your gait, balance, and strength and assesses your risk of falling.