Apple will introduce iOS 15 and iPad OS 15 at WWDC 2021. The major software update should include a newly designed home screen for the iPad, a refreshed lockscreen and new settings for notifications.

Apple expert Mark Gurman from the news magazine Bloomberg reports on these new features for iOS 15 and iPadOS 15. Accordingly, Apple is planning to extensively overhaul its mobile operating system for iPhone and iPad, according to people who allegedly have knowledge of it.

Apple plans these things for home and lockscreens

Innovations should therefore concern a revised iPad homescreen and lockscreen, and additional privacy protection measures are provided for Apple's flagship models. iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 are to introduce additional settings for notifications on a status basis, for example to be able to more specifically define when and whether the iPhone makes a sound.

The options for this should be available in a new menu in which users can determine whether they are driving, working or sleeping – own categories should also be possible. The new menu should appear directly on the revised lockscreen and in the control center so that it can be reached quickly.

Automatic responses on a status basis

With the new update, there should also be an option to send automatic responses based on your own status, which is an improvement over the previous feature that only works when driving. Apple had introduced "do not disturb" and sleep mode, but there has not yet been a system-wide change based on a status.

More flexible iPad widgets

Another innovation should concern the iPad home screen, which brings a more flexible widget placement in the iPhone style with it. While widgets on the iPad can currently only be arranged in the left half of the page, iOS 15 should remove this restriction and allow free placement. If you want, you should even be able to fill the entire app grid with widgets alone.

The project under the code name "Sky" is to introduce further smaller improvements, for example in the news app iMessage, which in the future could serve more as a kind of social network. Apple will present the new functions of iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 at the in-house developer conference WWDC 2021 in June, a release should be due in autumn.