How to Use & Update All New Features in iOS 14 and iPadOS 14.6

Jenny Barry May 26, 2021 | 08:25

Apple’s iOS 14.6 and iPadOS 14.6 launched this week, adding several new features to iPhones and iPad devicesto iPhones and iPad devices. Guide: How to use, How to update all new features.

How to Update All New Features in iOS 14 and iPadOS 14.6

iOS 14.6 was released on April 24, and it's available for all iPhones from the iPhone 6S onwards. If you have any version of iOS 14 on your phone then you can also get this. For iPad users there's iPadOS 14.6, which is basically the same.

iOS 14.6 features: As well as fixes for 43 security vulnerabilities, iOS 14.6 includes a range of new features and improvements, and the key ones can be found below. Here’s a round-up of all the new features in iOS/iPadOS 14.6 and how to use them—and don’t forget you can install the software update under Settings > General > Software Update.

1.Voice Control changes - Unlock your screen with your voice

One smaller feature that will be very useful to some is the ability to unlock your iPhone after a restart using just your voice if you use Voice Control.

The next big update will be iOS 15

Users can unlock their iPhone’s screen with a voice command after restarting the device. The new accessibility feature is available for all users with voice commands enabled.To turn on voice controls:

Go to Settings > Accessibility > Voice Control.
Tap “Set up Voice Control.” iOS will download the necessary files in the background. When it’s done, you’ll see a mic icon on the screen indicating voice controls are turned on.
You can also view voice commands and modify or create your own under Settings > Accessibility > Voice Control > Customize Commands.

2. Apple Card Family Group spending features

Apple Card Family was also announced ahead of iOS 14.6, but is now available (though only initially in the US). This allows two people to co-own an Apple card, with equal impact on their credit ratings.

It also allows parents to share their Apple Card with their kids, while keeping in control with spending limits and other tools. All of the spending on an Apple Card Family account can be tracked on an iPhone and there's a single monthly bill.

An Apple Card can now be shared with up to five other accounts in your Family Sharing group. Users must be 13 years or older to use Apple Card payments. Along with the family sharing option, users can track expenses and set spending limits and other restrictions.

You’ll find all the options in Settings > [username] > Family Sharing.

3. Lossless audio for Apple Music

Technically this hasn't arrived as part of iOS 14.6, but the update has paved the way for it being switched on sometime in June.

This feature brings Spatial Audio with support for Dolby Atmos to Apple Music, along with the ability to listen to more than 75 million songs in lossless quality (up to 24 bit at 192 kHz).

This is a big upgrade and it comes to Apple Music subscribers at no extra cost.

Apple Music’s new Lossless Audio quality option won’t hit the app until sometime next month, but iOS 14.6 preemptively adds support for the audio format to all applicable iOS and iPadOS devices.

4.Updates for New AirTag tracking functions

If you lose an AirTag or another compatible device and you set it to Lost Mode in the Find My app, then previously you could only leave a phone number for anyone who finds the device to contact you on, but with iOS 14.6 the option to share an email address instead has been added.

Apple’s recently released AirTags have a couple of new features included in iOS/iPadOS 14.6, including:

Tapping an AirTag with an NFC-capable device (like your iPhone or iPad) shows a partial phone number of the AirTag’s owner.
“Lost mode” in the Find My app now lets you add an email instead of a phone number.

5. New podcast options

The Podcasts app has seen some small but useful changes with iOS 14.6, with the addition of ‘Mark All Episodes as Played’, ‘Mark All Episodes as Unplayed’ and ‘Remove Downloads’ options.

Those first two seem in part aimed at fixing a problem added by iOS 14.5, as that update made it so that every episode of a show was shown in your library by default, with the only way to remove them being to manually mark unwanted episodes as played, and then hit the ‘Hide Played Episodes’ option.

6. Apple Podcasts Subscriptions

Apple announced Apple Podcasts Subscriptions ahead of iOS 14.6, so we knew what to expect, but it's available now.

This – as the name suggests – is a subscription service for podcasts, one which provides ad-free listening, early access to content, and exclusive content. However it’s not one single subscription, rather you’ll be able to subscribe to individual podcasts and creators.

Pricing - and exactly what will be offered with a subscription - will therefore vary based on what you choose to subscribe to.

At the time of writing, NPR, the Los Angeles Times, Tenderfoot TV, Sony Music Entertainment, and more already offer subscriptions on the service.

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