Apple kicked off its annual developer’s conference on Monday by unveiling new features on iOS 15 that cater to our lives as the world begins to emerge from the pandemic, including updates to video calls on Facetime and digital keys in Apple Watch.
On FaceTime, Apple will offer new options to let users watch movies or listen to music together during a call. It is also introducing a new grid view to better broadcast every face on a call. Android and Windows users will now also be able to join FaceTime calls.
Apple is also introducing updates to its mobile wallet that will allow users to unlock everything from their home to their hotel room with digital keys in the app.” You can never leave home without your keys, so we are continuing to add keys to the wallet and making them even better,” said Jennifer Bailey, VP of internet services and Apple Pay, citing recent additions such as car keys to unlock a vehicle from your iPhone. BMW and others will ship cars with this feature starting later this year, she said. The company will also make it possible to store identity cards in Apple Wallet. Starting this fall, users can scan their driver’s license or ID into the wallet app — in participating states — where it will be stored in an encrypted form.
For people still frequently glued to their screens, Apple introduced a new iOS feature called “Focus” that will let users select what kinds of notifications they want to receive, and from whom, at certain times of day. For example, a user can set their phone on “work” mode, and opt to only receive notifications from coworkers, emails and Slack messages. When other notifications are turned off, users can set a “do not disturb” auto-reply for messages.
-CNN