iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5 are shaping up to be the biggest upgrades to iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 since their initial release last September. Apple is going to introduce several major new features with the upcoming update. Below is a look at the top five features that iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5 will bring to your iPhone and iPad.
Apple is expected to release iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5 in mid-March. If you cannot wait until then, you can always install the developer or public beta of the OS. However, remember that the builds might be a bit buggy, and you might experience random crashes and other issues. Until iOS 14.5 lands though, check out the top 5 cool features that it will add to your iPhone.
Cool New iOS 14.5 Features Coming to Your iPhone
1. Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch
The biggest highlight of the iOS 14.5 update is that it adds the ability to unlock an iPhone using the Apple Watch. The pandemic has greatly limited Face ID’s usefulness as it does not work when one is wearing a mask. This requires iPhone users to unlock their device by entering the device passcode, which can get frustrating quickly.
Apple is putting an end to all such issues for iPhone owners who also use an Apple Watch by using the latter as a second authentication source.
Read: How to Unlock iPhone With Your Apple Watch When Wearing a Mask
2. 200+ New Emoji
The iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5 update will add over 200 new emoji characters as well. Apple will also update many existing emojis for better diversity. The headphone emoji has also been updated to make it look similar to the AirPods Max. You can read about all the new emojis in iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5 over at Emojipedia. Additionally, the update also adds emoji search support in iPadOS 14.5.
3. Change Default Music App
After allowing users to change the default email and browser app in iOS 14, Apple is taking things a step further and will allow iPhone and iPad users to change the default music app as well.
Using Siri, you can set Spotify, Books, YouTube Music, and one of the many other third-party music streaming apps as the default music app on your iPhone once iOS 14.5 lands.
4. App Tracking Transparency
This is a major new privacy feature that Apple will launch with iOS 14.5. To the end-user, App Tracking Transparency might not seem like a big deal. However, if you have followed the rollout of this feature, you’ll know that it has led to Facebook openly criticizing Apple and even claiming that this move will be devastating for small businesses.
App Tracking in iOS 14.5 will require that whenever an app tries to track user activity across other apps and services for advertising purposes, it requests the required permission from the end-user.
5. Safer Web Browsing
Apple has improved fraudulent website tracking in iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5 and proxies all queries through its own services to prevent Google from logging one’s IP address and other details. To be clear, Apple is still relying on Google’s fraudulent website database, but its own servers act as a proxy server for requests. Due to this, Google’s server only sees Apple’s proxy server IP address and not the user’s IP address.
Moreover, Safari in iOS 14.5 sends only hashed prefixes of the URL, or basically a ‘hidden’ URL, to the phishing website checker. Since Apple uses a hashed prefix, Google can never know the website you’re trying to visit. Again, this might not impact usability in a big way, but it’s a step in the right direction for Apple to further beef up user privacy in iOS 14.
iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5 pack plenty of other new features apart from the five mentioned above. This includes “Hey Siri, Call Emergency” support, more languages support in Scribble for iPadOS 14.5, a new gesture in the Apple Music app, AirPlay 2 support for Fitness+, and more.
iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5 Release Date
iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5 are currently in beta testing stages from Apple. While there’s no word from Apple, iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5 will likely be released sometime in March. The OS release might also coincide with the launch of new iPads, third-gen AirPods, and AirTags.
Are you looking forward to the release of iOS 14.5 and trying out all the new features it packs? Drop a comment and let us know!
