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iOS 15.2 is out now: Includes Apple Music Voice, App Privacy Reports

The update for the iPhone and iPad includes several new features and enhancements.
Written by Jason Cipriani, Contributing Writer
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The iPhone 13 Pro Max and iPhone 12 Pro. 

Jason Cipriani/ZDNet
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Screenshots by Jason Cipriani/ZDNet

Apple on Monday released iOS 15.2 and iPadOS 15.2 for iPhone and iPad owners. The update isn't very big, roughly 900MB on an iPhone 13 Pro but it includes several new features and enhancements. 

There's a new App Privacy Report included in the update that shows how which apps are accessing your private data and how often that access is happening. For example, I can see that the Invoxia GPS app accessed my location 51 seconds ago, along with a long list of apps below it that access other parts of my private data. Another example is that the Mail app accessed my contacts six seconds ago, even though I wasn't actively using the app. You can even drill down into how often each app is making requests. 

Also included in the update is the Apple Music Voice Plan. The new plan was announced back in October and relies on Siri for any interactions. It costs $4.99 a month instead of $9.99 a month for a standard Apple Music plan. 

The Messages app also received a few updates for parents and kids. Parents can now enable warnings when a child sends or receives photos that contain nudity and present the child with warnings and resources when they receive a photo with nudity. 

You can now set a Digital Legacy contact that will provide family members or friends of your choosing access to your Apple ID and iCloud account data when you die.

Make sure to back up any of your Apple devices before installing the update, just in case. Once that's done, open the Settings app and go to General > Software Update, then follow the prompts. 

What do you think about the updates in iOS 15.2? Be sure to let us know in the comments below.

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