One of the biggest iOS 15 features is SharePlay. It lets users experience Music, TV & movies together, but only if you all have the appropriate subscription.
Thanks to COIVD-19, FaceTime has gotten a massive overhaul in iOS15 to make the experience better and more inviting.
Firstly, there are three new audio upgrades:
- Spatial Audio: this spreads the sound out on a call so a voice will come from the actual direction they are on screen
- Voice Isolation: this blocks ambient noise and prioritises a human voice instead
- Wide Spectrum: this picks up your voice as well as everything else around you, if that’s your thing
There are also some new viewing options, including Grid View Video which displays multiple people on a call as uniform tiles. And you can more easily identify who is speaking by a white outline that will appear around their picture.
And the new portrait mode feature works exactly like it does when you’re taking a photo — it blurs the background and places focus on the person.
FaceTime Links is also a thing now. This lets you share a link for a FaceTime call anywhere — in messages, email, WhatsApp, or Calendar. It also works for Android and Windows users.
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Okay cool but what about SharePlay?
SharePlay lets you to share music, movies and TV on FaceTime calls.
If you indulged in Netflix Party at any point during quarantine, you’ll be familiar with this concept. Except Netflix isn’t one of the associated apps, yet.
But it will work with other third party apps. Some of these include (though not all are available in Australia): HBO Max, TikTok, Disney+, Hulu, Twitch, MasterClass, Paramount+, NBA, and ESPN+.
Naturally, it will also work with Apple TV+ and Apple Music — plus you can AirPlay the content to your television if you want a bigger viewing experience.
But there is an unsurprising caveat. People will only be able to SharePlay together if they all have access to the app being used. In other words, you all need a subscription if one is required.
While this obviously won’t matter for Twitch and TikTok, it absolutely will for the likes of Disney+, Apple TV+, etc.
So before you going firing up the group chat, make sure nobody is going to miss out on the fun.