13 iOS 15 Settings You Should Turn On Right Now!

iOS 15 introduces new settings to the iPhone experience, but not all are enabled by default. In this article, we will walk you through all the iOS 15 settings that you need to turn on in order to get the most out of your iPhone.

See also: 30 Best iOS 15 Tips and Tricks to Try First

We’ve put together a list of new iOS 15 settings as well as some older iPhone settings that somehow got turned off when you installed the update.

Without further ado, here’s a list of 13 iOS 15 settings you should turn on right away:

1. Turn on Hide IP Address

In iOS 15, Apple updated its Intelligent Tracking Prevention feature in Safari to prevent trackers from accessing your IP address in order to build a profile about you.

In the settings for Safari, you can adjust the ability to hide your IP address, so you can browse with the security you want.

This setting should be on by default, but if it isn’t or you turned it off for some reason, you can follow these steps to hide your IP address on iPhone.

1. Start the Settings app from your Home screen.
2. Scroll down and tap Safari.
3. Tap Hide IP Address.
4. Tap From Trackers.

2. Turn on Find My Network

Apple’s iOS 15 has enhanced the ‘Find My network’ features to help find iPhones even when they’re off.

The new ‘Find My network’ capabilities should come in handy in numerous scenarios, including when an iPhone has run low on battery power or a thief has turned the phone off.

For this feature to work, the ‌Find My‌ network feature must be enabled. It’s on by default, but you can double check by going to your profile, tapping on ‌Find My‌, selecting ‌Find My‌ ‌iPhone‌, and then making sure “‌Find My‌ network” is toggled on.

3. Turn on Time Sensitive Notifications

With Focus in iOS 15, you can set an activity that you’re doing, such as working, exercising, reading, or spending time with family, and block out the notifications that are unrelated to those tasks. It’s like Do Not Disturb, but with more options for refining what you see and what you don’t see.

If there’s something pressing coming up or an event you’re expecting that you don’t want to miss, you can still use Focus to block out distractions while still allowing any important message notifications to come through to your iPhone, thanks to time sensitive notifications.

Time sensitive notifications are a new notification class in ‌‌iOS 15‌‌, and a notification marked as time sensitive can be allowed to bypass Focus mode. Notifications that are classed as time sensitive are those that are immediately important, such as someone at the door, a food delivery, a ride pickup, and more.

To turn on Time sensitive notifications for messages:

1. Start the Settings app on your ‌iPhone‌, then tap Messages.
2. Select Notifications.
3. Toggle the switch labeled Time-Sensitive Notifications to the green ON position.

Now you won’t miss that important alert on your device, even when you’re focusing on something in particular.

4. Announce Notifications Through Headphones

Just Like Announce Messages and Calls, Announce Notifications on iPhone in iOS 15 means a more seamless experience to hear and respond to alerts without having to unlock your device or say “Hey Siri.”

With this setting enabled, Siri will read out notifications without having to unlock your iPhone when 2nd generation AirPods and some Beats headphones are connected. Siri will avoid interuppting you and will listen after reading notifications so you can reply without saying “Hey Siri.”

1. Start the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Swipe down and tap .
3. In the top section choose Announce Notifications.
4. Under ANNOUNCE WHEN CONNECTED TO section, turn on the toggle next to Headphones.

5. Turn on Scheduled Summary

By enabling Notification Summary, one can take a break from less important notifications that don’t require immediate attention. This helps to reduce distraction while you’re at work or spending time with your loved ones.

That said, Notification Summary in iOS 15 isn’t turned on by default. As a result, most non-tech-savvy users might not be aware of this new feature.

To turn on Notification Summary in iOS 15:

1. Start the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Go to Notifications > Scheduled Summary.
3. Turn on the toggle button next to “Scheduled Summary”.
4. Tap the “Continue” button to set up your Notification Summary.
5. Select the apps for your summary by tapping the radio button on the left. Then tap the “Add # Apps” button.
6. Set a schedule and choose the times when you’d like to receive the notification summary. Here you can set a preferred time for the 1st summary and 2nd summary. Or tap the “Add Summary” option if you want to get the notification summary three or four times a day.
7. Then tap on “Turn on Notification Summary“.

Now all you have to do is wait for your specified time to come and you’ll see a summary card showing you all of the alerts it’s been holding, organized by the apps and alerts you interact with the most at the top and those apps you don’t interact with all that often at the bottom.

6. Share Focus Across Devices

With Focus, you set an activity that you’re doing, such as working, exercising, reading, or spending time with family, and block out the notifications that are unrelated to those tasks. It’s basically Do Not Disturb but with more options for refining what you see and what you don’t see.
You can set up different Focus modes for work, personal time, working out, gaming, reading, cooking, or anything else you can think of where you don’t want to be disturbed.

When you activate a Focus on one device, it activates across all of the devices you’re signed into with your Apple ID so you won’t be disrupted even if you switch from an ‌iPhone‌ to an ‌iPad‌ or a Mac.

When someone goes to send you an iMessage, if Share Focus Status is toggled on, they’ll see a small message at the bottom of the app that says “[Person] has notifications silenced.” People can choose to send a message anyway regardless of Focus status if there’s something important that needs to be shared.

To activate Focus mode across your devices, simply toggle on ”Share Across Devices” in the Focus mode section of the Settings app.

7. Turn on Focus Status

In any Focus that you create or edit, you can opt to toggle on the “Focus Status” option. This option lets apps like Messages tell people that you have your notifications silenced.

Head to Settings > Focus > Do Not Disturb. Turn on Focus Status.

8. Allow Notifications In Do Not Disturb

In iOS 15, you can finally allow specific apps to send you notifications during Do Not Disturb. This way you can let an app override Do Not Disturb on your iPhone. In addition to apps, you can allow specific contacts to send your notifications during DND.

To exclude specific apps from Do Not Disturb in iOS 15 on iPhone:

1. Go to Settings > Focus > Do Not Disturb.
2. In Do Not Disturb, tap the Apps section at the top right.
3. Go to the “Apps” tab and tap the Add App option. Select all the apps you want to whitelist from Do Not Disturb and tap Done.

That’s it. All the apps in the allowed list will now be able to bypass Do Not Disturb mode.

Besides whitelisting certain apps, you can now turn off Do Not Disturb for one contact in iOS 15. Earlier one could enable the “Emergency Bypass” option to get calls and messages from individual contacts while in DND mode. Thankfully, iOS 15 adds the ability to exclude certain contacts from Do Not Disturb.

To add exceptions for certain contacts during Do Not Disturb on your iPhone:

1. Go to Settings > Focus > Do Not Disturb.
2. Tap the People section at the top right.
3. Tap the “People” tab and then tap the ‌ Add Contact option.
4. Select all the contacts you want to turn off Do Not Disturb for and tap Done.

All your contacts in the allowed list will now be able to reach you when Do Not Disturb is turned on.

9. Record App Activity

We’re all aware that our apps are collecting our personal data, but wouldn’t you like to know just how often they’re peeping in?

Apple’s new App Privacy Report, which is available on iOS 15, creates a summary of all the times your installed apps have collected your data over a seven-day period. This report includes information regarding access to your location, microphone, photos, and contacts. It also displays any third-party domains your apps may be contacting so you know where your data could end up.

The setting is a little hidden away in iOS 15, so if you want to turn the summary option on, follow the steps below.

1. Start the Settings app and scroll down to ”Privacy”
2. Tap ”Record App Activity” at the bottom of the “Privacy” menu
3. Toggle ”Record App Activity” on

Once you enable “Record App Activity,” your phone will now record when and how often your apps access your data, and you can return to this screen to see the full report.

10. Turn On Lossless Audio

Lossless means that after compression and then decompression, the audio that you’re hearing is identical to the audio as it was recorded by the artist, preserving the texture, detail, and sound that went into the music when it was created.

With lossless audio, ‌Apple Music‌ subscribers can listen to songs exactly as the artists recorded them in the studio and intended them to be heard.

But before you can immerse yourself in this unique and elevated music listening experience, you want to make sure that this iOS feature is enabled first. Here’s how to turn on Apple Music Lossless Audio on iPhone.

1. Start the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Scroll down and select Music.
3. Tap Audio Quality.
4. Tap the toggle for Lossless Audio to ON (green.
5. Under Cellular Streaming, Wi-Fi Streaming, and Downloads, select the audio quality that you want. Lossless starts at up to 24-bit/48kHz, while High-Resolution Lossless goes up to 24-bit/192kHz.

11. Turn on Reduce White Point

Even with your iPhone’s brightness slider down all the way, your display will probably still be too bright at night with all the lights dimmed or turned off. So if you want to continue scrolling through Instagram in bed or enjoying a late-night TikTok binge without hurting your eyes, there’s a quick trick you can use to make your screen even dimmer and prevent strain on those peepers.

1. Start the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap ”Accessibility.”
3. Select ”Display & Text Size.”
4. Scroll down and toggle the switch on next to ”Reduce White Point.”

This setting lowers the intensity of bright colors on your iPhone’s display, which will result in a dimmer image overall. You can use the slider that appears to choose between 25% (the mildest setting) and 100% (the dimmest setting).

12. Turn on Text Message Forwarding

The ability to send and receive text messages from a computer or tablet is more than novelty; it’s quite convenient and can even ensure you don’t miss an important text. And should you ever lose your iPhone , or if your phone is out of battery when you’re expecting a critical message, you’ll be happy you had the foresight to set up text message forwarding on your iPhone .

You can forward text messages from your iPhone to other devices connected to your Apple account to help you stay on top of your text conversations at all times.

To turn on text message forwarding on an iPhone:

1. Start the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Go to the ”Messages” tab.
3. Tap the words ”Text Message Forwarding.”
4. On the next screen, tap the button beside the device where you set up Messages (“Your Name’s MacBook Pro,” for example) so it toggles to green.
5. Texts sent to your phone will now also be shared with the device(s) you have allowed. You can send and receive texts there, and can disable the forwarding by simply toggling that button under “Text Message Forwarding” off again.

13. Preserve Camera Mode Settings

Do you have a favorite filter or camera mode? If so, it’s frustrating to have to select it afresh every time you open your camera app. By the time you’ve got your camera set up, the fleeting moment you wanted to capture could have vanished forever.

The trick is to use the iPhone’s Preserve Settings feature.

To turn on these settings:

1. Start the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap on Camera.
3. Tap on Preserve Settings.
4. Turn on Camera Mode.
5. Turn on Live Photo.

Once you turn on these iOS 15 Settings, you’ll enhance your overall experience while you use your iPhone. If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to let us know in the comments section below.

See also: How to Fix Common iOS 15 Problems