iOS 15’s most compelling features are the ones you can’t see

Apple’s latest mobile operating system iOS 15 is here, giving iPhones everywhere a welcome refresh. Unlike previous years, however, iOS 15 doesn’t include any marquee feature or big software redesigns; this one’s more about incremental progress — refining the user experience that Apple’s been building upon for well over a decade.

Software is generally divided into two categories: active features and passive features. As their names suggest, active features are those that require direct user input to interface with a piece of hardware. On the opposite end, passive features hum along in the background, keeping a device running while users do more important things.

Although iOS 15 did receive its fair share of new active features (Safari tabs, a notification center revamp, and upcoming SharePlay integration), some of the most exciting features this year — at least to me — were of the passive variety.

Private Relay (but don’t call it a VPN)

First up is Private Relay (beta), — also sometimes referred to as iCloud Private Relay — Apple’s unofficial VPN service. It’s designed around a relay system where Apple’s servers act as the middle man between your iOS devices and websites, allowing Private Relay to mask your phone’s IP address from view when browsing the internet. This, in turn, obscures your browsing activity from would-be prying eyes.

Now, for the downsides. Private Relay only works in Safari, so apps — including third-party browsers like Chrome — can still track and monitor your web traffic. Also, it’s only available to iCloud+ subscribers. Luckily, if you choose to pay for extra iCloud storage (which a lot of users do, thanks to Apple’s paltry 5GB of free storage), you will have access to this feature. You just have to turn it on in the iCloud settings on your phone or iPad, and you’re protected.

Mail IP address blocking

You may not realize it, but many of the emails and newsletters you receive — particularly from brands — include quite a few tracking codes. These codes provide insights into open rates, bounce rates, how users engage with embedded links, and more.

With IP address blocking that’s now built into iOS 15’s Mail app, you can hide your IP address from prying eyes, thus scrambling their metrics and keeping your mail-opening habits private. Best of all, this feature is part of the the Mail app, so it doesn’t matter whether you’re using your iCloud account, Gmail account, Outlook, or another service — you’re safe.

Focus

That brings us to Focus, iOS 15’s latest feature to help users “unplug” from their devices for a period of time. For anyone who’s ever used Do Not Disturb or Sleep, you’ll find these two options have been wrapped up together within Focus. New this year, users can now designate specific contacts that can bypass Focus if necessary (not just favorites). There are also new scheduling options, as well as a Focus status that can be shown to your contacts in iMessage when enabled.

Joining Do Not Disturb and Sleep within Focus are two additional categories: Personal and Work. Either of these can be set up to allow or block different people and/or apps from delivering notifications while enabled. Each scenario is independent and fully customizable, giving you the option to tune each preset to your specific needs.