Many iOS 15 features only work on newer iPhones ~ Computer Hacking

iOS 15 has more than 100 new features and improvements, but not all are available for all supported devices.

When Apple released its preview of iOS 15 on 7 June 2021 there was much to celebrate. One of the big surprises was that Apple granted the six-year-old iPhone 6S another generation of iOS.

But as always, there is a downside: there are lots of new features to get excited about in iOS 15, but not every new feature will work on all devices. (Read Which iPhones will get iOS 15).

Nor will they work in every country because Apple restricts some functions geographically. For example, some map innovations are only available in the USA and some European countries support offline Siri (after downloading language models), while others don’t.

Some of the new features rely on 5G functionality, so, obviously, these improvements are only available for iPhone 12 and later.

Other challenging features are limited to the A12 Bionic Chip and newer, which means that only the iPhones XR/XS and newer can fully exploit the potential of iOS 15.

Here you will find the entire overview of all the new iOS 15 functions, specifying which are limited to specific iPhone models or regions.

iOS 15 feature	Availability
3D spatial sound in FaceTime	From iPhone XS/XR
Portrait mode in FaceTime	From iPhone XS/XR
Interactive globe in Maps	From iPhone XS/XR
Immersive pedestrian routes	From iPhone XS/XR
Text recognition for objects (live text)	From iPhone XS/XR
Detailed travel guides	From iPhone XS/XR
House keys in Wallet	From iPhone XS/XR
Hotel keys in Wallet	From iPhone XS/XR
Office keys in Wallet	From iPhone XS/XR
Car keys in Wallet	From iPhone XS/XR
Share health data with the doctor	US only
Test results	US only
Continuous blood sugar measurements	US only
Risk of falling	From iPhone 8
Offline Siri	From iPhone XS/XR. Requires download. German, English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese
Speech recognition	From iPhone XS/XR. Requires download. German, English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese
On-device speech processing	From iPhone XS/XR
Zoom in QuickTake videos	From iPhone XS/XR
Advanced 5G connectivity	From iPhone 12
Offline dictation	From iPhone XS/XR in Arabic, Cantonese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, and Yue Chinese
Dictate for more than 1 minute	From iPhone XS/XR. Requires download. In Arabic, Cantonese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, and Yue Chinese
Spatial audio	From iPhone XS/XR
Air quality in Maps	Canada, China mainland, Germany, France, India, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, UK, and US
Weather warnings	US only