The latest operating system for iPhones will be available next week, Ars Technica has learned. iOS 15.4 offers, among other things, the possibility to unlock your iPhone via facial recognition while wearing a mask. We expect this to be the last major operating system update before iOS 16.
iOS 15.4 went into beta in January, giving us a taste of new features. Apple has not given a specific release date for the operating system, but did say yesterday that the new green iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro will come with iOS 15.4 and will be available on March 18.
With iOS 15.4, you can unlock a phone with Face ID while wearing a face mask. The feature works by focusing on your eyes and you can use it while wearing glasses (but not sunglasses). It also works to sign in to apps and use Apple Pay. It’s still the safest way to make sure Face ID isn’t tricked, if your phone’s camera requires a full view of your face to log in, but if you can use your phone while keeping your mask on, you can add this convenience.
Apple’s latest version of iOS should also bring in more emoji. The new smiley faces and colorful characters bring the total to 838 characters, which were finalized as Unicode 14.0 by the Unicode Consortium in September. New additions include ‘heart hands’, ‘coral’, ‘biting lip’, ‘melting face’, ‘fluid liquid’, ‘low battery’, ‘pregnant man’ and ‘pregnant person’.
Other features rolling out include a new US English voice for Siri and, as described by The Verge, Apple Tap to Pay and a notification that notifies you if someone is using an Apple AirTag to unknowingly track you.
iOS 15.4 is expected to debut alongside iPad OS 15.4 and macOS 12.3.
