Here are the coolest iOS 15 features coming to iPhones

Perhaps the biggest and most noticeable improvement to iOS 15, you can now FaceTime with your friends on Android and Windows devices.

This is an unusual move for Apple which prefers its walled-garden approach. However, the increasing competition from Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams might have forced the iPhone-maker to open up FaceTime to other platforms.

To be clear, you still cannot initiate a FaceTime call from an Android or Windows device – you will need an Apple device to do that. Still, it’s a notable improvement.

You can now find your lost iPhone even if it is turned off or has been erased. So, if someone tries to use your stolen iPhone, Activation Lock will ensure that the phone is locked and locatable.

Apple has been talking up its privacy credentials for a while now. iOS 15 takes another step in that direction with some important new features like Siri’s on-device speech recognition, so what you tell Siri, stays with Siri on your device.

Another interesting addition is the Privacy Report, which basically keeps a track of all the apps collecting your personal data. This gives you the opportunity to remove any app that is collecting more data than you’re comfortable sharing.

The built-in mail app will now prevent senders from capturing your IP address.

iPhones have had Do Not Disturb mode for a while, but not enough granularity. iOS 15 solves that by adding three new modes called Personal, Work, and Sleep.

Think of these modes like profiles. Specifically, the Personal and Work modes let you select a list of apps that you can access when they’re enabled, allowing you to focus on the task at hand.

Notifications will now display contact pictures wherever available, and app icons are larger to make them easier to identify.

Apart from this, there’s a notification summary that gets delivered to you in batches so you don’t get distracted by unimportant updates.

Apple has updated the 3D view with significantly more details that display buildings, crosswalks, bike lanes and overpasses. The night view has been tweaked to make it more realistic. The public transit view will now tell you where exactly those underground passes begin.

You can now point your iPhone at a number and have your iPhone recognize it and open the phone app. Apple is leveraging on-device intelligence to do this, and more cool things like recognizing text, photos, scenes, objects and more.

The Health app has a new sharing option that lets you share your health data with your doctor or a family member. Apart from this, it will also alert you if there are any changes in your health metrics. For instance, if it detects anomalies in your walking patterns, it will alert you if there is a risk of a fall.

Safari now has a tab view that makes it easier to identify and switch tabs. Apple has also brought controls to the bottom of the browser to make it easier to reach them with one hand.

Also, for the first time, Apple has added mobile web extensions support to Safari.