Every year, Apple breathes new life into the iPhone with an update to iOS, the phone’s operating system. Last year, iOS 14 brought a relatively major update, with features like home screen widgets and the App Library. Earlier this year, however, Apple announced iOS 15, and it’s set to make just as much of an impact on our daily lives.
Apple has just brought many practical improvements to the Spotlight universal search function in the iOS 15. By swiping down or accessing on the iPhone/iPad main screen interface, users will be able to get a richer content retrieval experience, covering content such as network pictures, photo albums, and lock screens. When you want to search for content on iOS 15 devices, Spotlight will provide a better one-stop experience
Web Images Search
Spotlight can be used to search for images on the Internet. For example, when you want to search for cats, Spotlight can now provide a set of the most popular Internet heat maps. This function supports the retrieval of images of people, animals, plants, landmarks, monuments, etc., but usually only when searching for larger topics will you get relatively accurate search results.
Maps Spotlight Search Improvements
Apple Maps has been getting a lot better over the past few years, and with updates to iOS 15 and macOS Monterey, Apple is making it even better. Notably, the service is getting an enhanced 3D view, which continues with driving, walking, and biking directions. When driving, you’ll get things like details about lanes, pedestrian crosswalks, and bike lanes. It’s pretty cool.
When searching for companies that support the App Clips applet function, iOS 15 also supports seeing relevant operation buttons in the map results in Spotlight, so that users can access menus or ticketing, view reservations, takeaway delivery, reservation lists, show times, and Get parking details and other information.
Lock Screen Spotlight Search
Even on the lock screen, iOS 15 allows users to swipe down from the top of the screen to quickly search. In this scenario, it does not focus on private information such as photos, text messages, and contacts, but instead focuses on content such as the Web, Siri knowledge base, news, stocks, and dictionaries. As for a more personalized search experience, iOS 15 will only appear when the user unlocks it. In this way, even if someone gets your iPhone, they can only use it for general search purposes, and cannot view the owner’s private information.
Rich Search Results
Apple has expanded the Siri knowledge base, and Spotlight now supports richer search results. Users can get more information than ever before directly from the Spotlight interface. Apple is bringing on-device processing to Siri, which will help make it faster and more helpful when you don’t have an internet connection. And, Siri will be able to announce notifications other than messages, including Reminders.
For example, when searching for a movie or TV show, you can click on the results to see more details, such as supported platforms, cast lineups, trailers, seasons, TV application links, Siri recommended search seen, and audience comments. In contrast, in iOS 14, the scope of such search information is quite limited, and is usually limited to online searches.
App Searches
iOS 15 has also improved the App Store search experience. When you need to retrieve resources in the official app store, you can now directly initiate the search through Spotlight without switching to the main App Store program to complete the download and installation process.
Photos Search
In addition to searching for web images, Spotlight can also help users detect photos in local albums. For example, search by keywords such as cats and dogs, and can narrow the search scope according to location, person, scene, and specific objects (such as pets or plants). If a specific contact name is used as a key word in the search, users can also easily share photos through the message application.
Spotlight Search Warnings
Finally, as part of the ongoing CSAM child safety protection suite, Apple is expanding the Siri and Spotlight guidelines to ensure children’s online safety and provide corresponding assistance in risky situations.
