iOS 15.4 Features: Everything New in iOS 15.4

[phillypharm]

Is your mouse's scroll wheel supposed to work on the iPad? For some reason my MX Master 2 doesn't scroll so I can't swipe pages at all when I move from my Mac to the iPad...

 

[ivanov]

Just tried to backup my iPhone into my iMac (running macOS Mojave). The iMac won't recognise the phone for import of photos (into the Photos app). Backup can be performed, but it simply won't see new photos without selecting all new photos on the device, choosing AirDrop, pushing them to the iMac, then importing into Photos. This is not good.

 

[fwmireault]

What would be the safer option between unlock FaceID with Apple Watch or unlock FaceID with a mask? The former doesn’t do any face scanning at all, am I right? I can use both features so I don’t have a preference, but I’d prefer the more secure one

 

[frownface]

Got excited over the faceID mask update; then got disappointed to read my phone isn't supported ?

 

[_Spinn_]

Huge update. I'm really happy with turning off notifications for automations and the Wallet Widget.

 

[Tagbert]

Well it works great and I will still be using a mask for a while at work due to our guidelines. 12 hrs per day, 5 days per week for at least the next month and maybe until the end of 2022.

We’ll still be using them in public places for a while.

 

[Tagbert]

Ugh. Where is digital ID‽

In a committee at your state’s office of records

 

[lk400]

FaceID with a mask was certainly well-timed.

In my country more than 99% of people are wearing masks, so it will be very helpful for us and others.

 

[lk400]

Good to see they finally got FaceID with Mask working as this all comes to an end. Will be nice to have in place for the next pandemic.

Plenty of countries still have very high percentages of people using masks (I would estimate higher than 99% where I am). It was also very common to use masks before COVID when sick or during allergy season. This is a welcome change for many.

 

[Act3]

Seems smoother and more responsive than previous 15 versions. At least on my ipp m1. Maybe placebo who Knows

 

[CSM2000]

Can you ”Clear” the content of a text message conversation thread addressed to multiple people without having to delete the entire message and start over? This used to be possible in previous versions of iOS. Recent version no longer includes the ”Clear” button capability.

 

[Malus120]

Trade-In Cosmetic Scan

Code in iOS 15.4 suggests that Apple is working on a "Cosmetic Scan" feature that will be used when trading in an iPhone. Cosmetic Scan will likely be used to check an iPhone for damage like scratches and dings to provide a more accurate trade-in value estimate.

Oh great, what an awesome feature. Now an algorithm can do multiple depth scans at high res to find those micro abrasions that an Apple Store employee would miss saving Apple from having to pay full price for trade ins. It's... Amazingly Great!
(PSA: Trading in at the Apple Store is almost always a bad deal even if you are getting "full value")

 

[BvizioN]

Finally!! Hallelujah!! I will be able to unlock my iPhone while wearing face diapers! Been waiting for this feature long long time. So excited.

 

[MacsRgr8]

Although I do not know what my use case for Universal Control really is, I will say it is mighty impressive.

Main reason is to impress your friends with a cool demo

 

[Macyourdayy]

Good to see they finally got FaceID with Mask working as this all comes to an end. Will be nice to have in place for the next pandemic.

It ended? Wow, thanks for the update. Won’t I feel silly still wearing masks.

Apple hasn't officially said anything. Any reasoning is really just speculation at this point. They very well could add it to more devices in a future update. No iPads have it either.

It has to be hardware limitations on the older models. I doubt further software tweaking will enable the kind of security level necessary. Bummer as my wife is using my old 11pro, shame about it not enabled on my M1 iPad Pro but as I don’t go shopping with my iPad, I don’t think I’ll have issues with that.

I used to care about these updates and then I got past adolescence.

My concern with updates is what they break or remove, which is why I put up with useless/snarky comments in the forums while trying to find out if any update is good or otherwise.

Just tried to backup my iPhone into my iMac (running macOS Mojave). The iMac won't recognise the phone for import of photos (into the Photos app). Backup can be performed, but it simply won't see new photos without selecting all new photos on the device, choosing AirDrop, pushing them to the iMac, then importing into Photos. This is not good.

?

Plenty of countries still have very high percentages of people using masks (I would estimate higher than 99% where I am). It was also very common to use masks before COVID when sick or during allergy season. This is a welcome change for many.

Sure is, but I’d still like Touch ID back, maybe on the sleep/wake button like the iPad Air.

 

[Kulfon]

None of this is important, but…I hope they did nit screw a battery life?

 

[lk400]

Sure is, but I’d still like Touch ID back, maybe on the sleep/wake button like the iPad Air.

I wonder if the reason for not doing that is that so many people use cases on iPhones. Apple cases cover the sleep wake button (cynic might say that they don’t want to lose case sales).

 

[lk400]

Any idea why the iPhone X(S) Max and iPhone 11 are left out from Face Mask ID? It’s hard to believe that they are not capable…

Was there an upgrade to the Face ID sensor in more recent phones? A completely uniformed guess, but is suspect they may be using higher resolution or otherwise more accurate scanning given less of the face is scanned.

 

[RandomTox]

Once again Apple gives us another mostly useless update and acts like it's a big deal.

Personally I would like to see all the following asap from Apple.


1. redesign the notification center. It's ridiculous. At the very least add "Clear All" button immediately, even if there's only one notification.

2. after Face-ID recognizes you, go directly into the phone home screen. You shouldn't have to swipe up after the phone recognizes you. Or at least make it possible to turn this off and on.

3. make it possible to dismiss Calendar and any notification banner from any app if you're in another app. You shouldn't have to go back to the lock screen or be forced to tap it to get into the app sending it in order to dismiss it.

4. when you're running a count down timer in the clock app you can see on the Locked screen how much time is left, by all means make it possible to go directly to the the timer when you tap the time left on the Locked screen.

5. give us an LED visual for notifications in addition to sound and vibration. Allow us to change the colors of the LED light based on what the notification app is.
The fine folks who like things the way they are can just leave things as is.

6. give us an always-on screen for the clock. On the always-on screen we should also be able to choose if we want to see if we have any notifications (the amount and the app) or if we to just want to see the clock.
Once again, the people who don't like it should be able to turn it off. No more Apple forcing us to do stuff.

7. add haptic feedback to the keyboard and make it possible to customize different intensities to your heart's content.
It's beyond crazy that you have no feedback whatsoever if you're typing and the phone is on mute. Those who are concerned with battery or simply don't like this should be able to turn it off.

8. make it possible to adjust volume for independent apps and settings and not this general thing they're doing. Separate volume control for keyboard volume, music volume, ring volume, system volume.
I, for example, would like the keyboard clicks to be much louder than they are but without it affecting the volume on the entire phone or the ring and notifications volume. It's silly of Apple to force it to be like this.

9. add suggestions from the address book as you start a phone number.
Common now Apple, this has been available for the last 15 years on Android.

10. make it possible to customize the texting app in every conceivable way. Font size, bubble size shape color etc.

11. make it possible to schedule a text message to be sent at a certain time/date. This is a basic feature. Compose your message now and schedule it to be sent when the time is right. I used to use this feature all the time when I had to text people who are in different time zones when they have to get the text at a certain time in their time zone but it's way too late for me to stay up to send the text.

12. use an OS-wide clipboard and make cut and/or copy not expire until you, the user, cleans it.
You should be able to copy text now and paste it tomorrow if you want to.
And 12b make it possible to copy multiple copy entries ready to paste any one of them by long pressing, at least the last 10 cut/copies should be possible.

13. in Mail give us the option to NOT go to the next email when you are deleting an email but to go back to the inbox. Those who want to keep things the way they are should be able to turn this feature off.

14. make it possible to move the icons on the desktop anywhere you want to.

NO reason to upgrade. Hypeware as always.

 

[Kram Sacul]

Worst Siri voice ever.

 

[NightFox]

I, for example, would like the keyboard clicks to be much louder than they are

You are Satan and I claim my £5.

 

[SidricTheViking]

Anyone experience a bug with Haptic Touch on the Setting and App Store Apps specifically? Long pressing pulls up the Haptic Touch menu, but I am unable to slide my thumb to an option, I have to lift my thumb off and then press an option. The expected behavior works for all other apps except these two. I even reset the phone but the issue persists. So strange. Speaking of reset, I had an impossible time resetting the phone as it kept getting stuck in "Backing Up to iCloud" so I had to reset it from my computer...thank god there's still a port on the phone!

Working fine for me on my iPad Air (4th gen) and iPhone 11, on both App Store and Settings.

 

[Zanton68]

Is there a “things that don’t work anymore” thread for iOS 15.4 i.e. what it breaks etc? Maybe phone calls don’t work anymore or iOS 15.4 disables the camera for some users….?

Sorry. Had too many bad experiences of iOS updates. I’ll go away and mutter to myself now…

 

[mcilwraith]

I seem to have lost about 10Gb of storage on my iPhone since installing iOS 15.4. iOS data is 8Gb, but system data is at 15GB! what the hell is that? has it not deleted the updater?

 

[nihil0]

Any idea why the iPhone X(S) Max and iPhone 11 are left out from Face Mask ID? It’s hard to believe that they are not capable…

Indeed. To me it seems like purely marketing reason. If Face ID with mask works on lower level of security it means that even lower models could work with it. Well, seems they need to push those iPhone sales.