Apple has released iOS 15.2 bringing new privacy features, Apple Music Voice Plan, Digital Legacy and more.
Privacy
A new feature is App Privacy Report in the Settings app. This shows users how often applications have accessed certain features on their iPhone over the past seven days – such as its location, camera, microphone, photos, etc.
This report is intended to help users control who has access to their data. If you’ve ever looked at your weekly Screen Time reports, the App Privacy Report is similarly organized — but instead of telling you how much time you’ve spent in different apps, the report shows what data and sensors each app can access, network activity for those apps and other privacy-related data.
Messages
Along with App Privacy Report, iOS 15.2 introduces new safety options for Messages. Communication safety setting gives parents the ability to enable warnings for children when they receive or send photos that contain nudity.
Parents also now have the option to enable warnings for their children when they send/receive photos containing nudity. Kids also get safety warnings with “helpful resources” if they receive a photo with nudity.
In addition, Expanded guidance in Siri, Spotlight and Safari Search have been implemented to help children and parents stay safe online and get help with unsafe situations.
Apple Music Voice Plan
Apple Music Voice Plan is a new subscription tier that gives you access to all songs, playlists, and stations in Apple Music using Siri. The Voice Plan tier cuts the subscription price in half — down to £4.99, per month — but it can only be controlled by talking to Siri, not manually through the Apple Music app.
Just Ask Siri suggests music based on your listening history and likes or dislikes, while Play it Again lets you access a list of your recently played music.
Spatial audio and lyrics features won’t be available, but you will have access to the full Apple Music catalogue.
Macro Control for photos
One of the new features is something that’s been requested for months: a Macro toggle for the iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max. Since release, the iPhone 13 Pro handsets enable Macro mode automatically when getting close enough to a subject.
It works well, but the lack of manual control over the feature has been a regular annoyance for users.
With iOS 15.2, users can simply tap the Macro button to enable or disable the mode as they see fit.
Digital Legacy
Digital Legacy allows you to designate up to five people as Legacy Contacts so they can access your iCloud account and personal information in the event of your death.
On the iPhone or iPad, you go to Settings and find Password & Security, which is found when you tap on the tile with your name on, at the top of the front page of Settings.
Here, providing you’re running iOS 15.2, you’ll see an entry marked Legacy Contact. Add the details of the person you’d like to have access to your iCloud content after you’re gone.
The next step is to let your chosen contact know about this, and to do this, you can send them a message via the Messages app.
Assuming they accept, then the access key they’ll need is automatically stored in their Apple ID settings. They need to have iOS 15.2 on their iPhone, too, by the way. They’ll need the access key to get into your account when you have passed.
If they don’t have the software yet, you could alternatively print the access key and give it to them, or send a PDF. And you can save a copy with your will.
You can name up to five Digital Legacy contacts, so you just follow the same process for each.Â
Parts and Service History
iOS 15.2 also lets you see the repair history on your iPhone by going to Settings > General > About > Parts and Service History.
The new section will detail any servicing that took place at Apple as well as whether the parts came from Apple or an unknown vendor. However, if you haven’t taken your iPhone in for service, the feature won’t display.
iOS 15.2: The Best of the Rest
In the TV app, the Store tab lets you browse, buy, and rent movies and TV Shows all in one place.
In Apple CarPlay, there are enhanced city map in Apple Maps with road details like turn lanes, medians, bike lanes, and pedestrian crosswalks for supported cities.
Hide My Email is available in the Mail app for iCloud+ subscribers to create unique, random email addresses.
Find My can locate iPhone for up to five hours when in Power Reserve.
Stocks allows you to view the currency for a ticker and see year-to-date performance when viewing charts.
Reminders and Notes now allow you to delete or rename tags.
iOS 15.2 Bug Fixes
iOS 15.2 bring the following bug fixes:
- Siri may not respond while VoiceOver is running and iPhone is locked
- ProRAW photos may appear overexposed when viewing in third-party photo editing apps
- HomeKit scenes that include a garage door may not run from CarPlay when your iPhone is locked
- CarPlay may not update Now Playing information for certain apps
- Video streaming apps may not load content on iPhone 13 models
- Calendar events may appear on the wrong day for Microsoft Exchange users
You can download the update by opening the Settings app and going to General > Software Update.
