UPDATED: iOS 9 release date, features and rumors

iOS 9 release date, compatibility and features

In between the last month's Apple Watch launch and September's iPhone 7 unveiling, the next big project for the Cupertino company is iOS 9.

Its annual mobile operating system update may be one month from its official debut, in beta form at least, during Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference.

Yes, iOS 8.4 may take center stage, but when WWDC 2015 starts on June 8, you can expect an iOS 9 tease of some sort during the software-focused keynote that morning.

The new iOS is going to favor new features, apps and stability over drastic visual changes, according to the latest rumors. Here's what we anticipate next month.

iOS 9 release date

Apple has confirmed the June 8 to June 12 dates for WWDC 2015 in San Francisco, and the company always has its keynote on day one of this five-day conference.

That means registered Apple developers can expect to see and then download the next iOS update on June 8 or soon after, at least if everything holds to the same-day delivery pattern as past years.

The latest unofficial news seems to indicate that the company may hold back on iOS 9 and launch iOS 8.4 instead, debuting an artist-driven social network as part of its fresh Apple Music app.

Soon after that, there may be an iOS 9 public beta too, given all of the iOS 8 problems a year ago, and everyone else should expect the final version in September along with the new iPhone.

That three-month wait can be a good thing. iOS 9 beta 1 will be buggy and unfinished. The best features typically don't launch until the gold master version in September anyway.

iOS 9 compatibility

This may be the first iPhone and iPad software update to require a lightning cable.

iOS 8 muscled out iPhone 4 compatibility last year, and iOS 7 said goodbye to iPhone 3GS two years ago. Is iPhone 4S on the iOS update chopping block?

That makes sense. After all, the company is gearing up for its lightning-port-required Apple CarPlay infotainment system and Apple Watch has the same compatibility chart among phones.

On top of that, iPhone 5 and iPhone 5C first introduced 1GB of RAM, up from the 512MB in the iPhone 4S. It's time to retire these 30-pin dock devices.

Small iOS 9 download size

There are still plenty of iPhone and iPad users left behind in the transition from iOS 7 to iOS 8 simply because they don't have enough internal storage to make the update.

These deprived 16GB phone and tablet owners need up to 5GB of free space to install iOS 8, and that means deleting precious apps, photos, videos and music.

With the iPad Air 2 syphoning off 3.4GB for the operating system alone, this leaves users with a paltry 12.6GB and, if you factor the 5GB needed, that's just 7.6GB for all of their content.

iOS 9 is expected to change this frustration, which has made paying for iCloud storage seem like a punishment. iOS 8.3 and iOS 8.4 beta are setting a good example with a slightly smaller footprint.

Siri update

Apple's voice-controlled personal assistant is reportedly receiving a small upgrade in iOS 9 to match the Siri found on Apple Watch.

The silent smartwatch version of Siri has a little more color to its wavy lines at the bottom. That's all we know so far based on this week's rumors.

But there's a good chance if Siri comes with new looks, it also comes with more smarts. After all, Apple's assistant needs to compete with the more-accurate Google Now and Microsoft's Cortana.

Siri also needs to stop answering to "Hey, Siri" when we don't say actually say that command prompt. That'd be a step in the right direction.

Beats Music integration

Don't forget about Dre. Streaming music is really taking off and Beats may be Apple's answer to Google Play Music All Access.

Not that the existing services aren't great, but one which can easily be tied into your iTunes account and include access to your existing iTunes library would certainly be welcome.

It already has iTunes and now it has purchased Beats and has access to Beats Music. It's not unrealistic to think that Apple might build the service into iOS 9, either as a pre-installed Beats Music or under new Apple branding, if it doesn't come even sooner in the form of iOS 8.4.

Apple Maps with public transit

Apple is regularly improving its once-disastrous mapping effort and with each update it becomes ever more useful, but it's still not quite a match for Google Maps.

One major improvement which was actually rumored for iOS 8 but didn't arrive was public transit directions for bus, train and subway routes.

More ambitiously, we've also heard rumours that Apple is working on an augmented reality view that uses your camera to highlight points of interest on your screen. This could explain all of the camera-equipped Apple vans roaming the streets.

Stability improvements

The No. 1 new, but boring feature we're going to see from iOS 9 is stability. iOS 8 has been plagued with false starts, glitches and continuing Wi-Fi and battery drain bugs.

Apple's Health app made a unfashionably late debut in iOS 8.0.1, a botched update it pulled, and its message boards are full of complaints, which Apple alluded to during the iPad event.

iOS 9 is reportedly receiving a lot of under-the-hood attention to prevent the same issues from reaching the post-beta masses in September.

With the quick adoption rate that Apple devices have over Android, there's really no time for such widespread bug-testing.

More interface shortcuts

iOS 9 is likely to open up new shortcuts, allowing you to quickly navigate menus on your iPhone and iPad with simple taps or gestures.

Apple did a good job of this with iOS 8 via interactive notifications, frequent contacts listed in the "multitasking" menu, inline audio and video messaging and a bunch of mail app tweaks.

iOS 9 could save us even more time. We'd love to see Command Center host shortcuts to individual settings: holding down the Wi-Fi on/off switch should lead to the Wi-Fi menu, the Bluetooth switch to the Bluetooth menu, etc.

That's much faster than closing the app and heading to the settings menu to make a simple change, like pair a new Bluetooth device. Android has been able to do this trick for years.

Another Google-inspired menu change involves keeping media in the notification menu, not just on the lockscreen. Actively streaming a movie should put the controls at your fingertips.

iOS 9 feature long-shots

The list of iOS 9 feature seems rather thin at the moment mainly because no one can officially confirm much else ahead of next month's announcement.

Nevertheless, there are plenty of other updates we'd like to see added to Apple's iOS 9 beta, which is widely expected to launch this summer.

Not all of them may actually become reality, of course. But there is a strong push from users for the following ideas.

Home screen widgets

We've been crying out for widgets for years and with iOS 8, Apple is sort of giving us them… sort of.

They live in Notification Center with basic functionality at-a-glance. Pulling down this hidden menu reveals sport scores, OpenTable reservations and a Calendar preview, for example.

But what we'd still love to see is home screen widgets. Apple has kept its interface clean and that's presumably one of the reasons why widgets have taken so long to arrive in any form.

Empowering users to customise their home screens can only be a good thing, though, and if Apple doesn't want to go as all-out with it as Android has, it could always look to Windows Phone for inspiration and simply make its icons "'live."

This doesn't have to be completely different to what's there now, but folders that tell you more information about changes to the apps held within is our top ask for iOS 9.

Guest and kids mode

Does someone else in your family like to get their grubby little hands on your iPad? Kids love playing games on the tablet, which is more accessible than PS4 and Xbox One.

Letting a spouse or child borrow your expensive Apple device wouldn't be as much of a problem if there was a proper guest mode and, better yet, kids mode.

Sure, there's a very limited "Guided Access" option that restricts usage to one particular app, but a system-wide guest account for family members would be ideal for the family iPad.

Coupling this proposed guest mode with an instant Touch ID login would be even better and would one-up Google's existing multiple account interface found in Android 5.0 Lollipop.

Actual multitasking

Let's be honest: using two apps at once is true multitasking. Switching between two paused apps is not true multitasking.

Apple could upgrade iOS 9 from the latter, fulfilling the side-by-side app functionality that always seems to be rumored but never actually pans out every year at WWDC.

You could visit both TechRadar AND GamesRadar. Win-win!

A 12-inch iPad Pro would give mobile power users enough space to work with two or more apps at once, and the speculated 2GB of RAM for upcoming devices would back it up.

iOS 8 code had suggested that Apple was testing out some sort of multitasking, so it isn't very farfetched that the feature could make its official debut in iOS 9.

iCloud price drop

Ready or not, everything is being saved to the cloud these days and there's no easier way to back things up on an iPhone and iPad than iCloud Drive.

Apple's cloud-based ecosystem automatically saves photos, video and documents exactly like every other file hosting platform out there – except it costs more.

Yes, there's 5GB of free storage space, but that's not even big enough to remotely back up a 16GB iPhone. Paying for 20GB isn't big enough if you own more than one Apple device.

1TB of space from Dropbox and Google Drive is half the price of iCloud Drive and that really needs to change with iOS 9's native cloud storage system.

Ability to default to third party apps

Apple still has the largest and most diverse selection of apps of any mobile OS, but it largely keeps them at arms-length and keeps the core smartphone operations fairly locked down.

There aren't any third party SMS apps for example and while there are alternatives to the "Mail" app, there's nothing built into iOS to let you make one of them the default email app.

Even if iOS 9 doesn't let us open up more APIs to developers, it'd be nice to at least be able to open up a Mail webpage link in the Chrome browser instead of defaulting to Safari, or use Siri to call look up directions in Google Maps.

Hide apps that can't be uninstalled

Apple clearly doesn't want people deleting the stock apps that come with iOS, yet we'd wager we're not alone in saying that we don't use all of them – they clog up the home screen.

Android has its app drawer and we don't expect as major an addition as that, but maybe just a 'hide' option against them in the settings screen. Then you can always go back in and unhide the forgettable apps if and when you decide that you do want to use them.

This is a feature that would become even more important if Apple let us change the default apps as suggested above.

Less reliance on iTunes

Liking iOS doesn't necessarily mean liking iTunes and it definitely doesn't mean liking being forced to use it whenever you connect your iPhone and iPad to a computer.

It's a rather divisive piece of software and there are times when simply being able to mount your iDevice as a drive, wade through its folders and cut and paste things would seem an easier way to go about managing it, so it would be great if Apple let us do just that with iOS 9.

It doesn't have to ditch iTunes, just give us the option to use something else.

Embrace jailbreaking rather than trying to prevent it

Apple has always done its best to prevent jailbreaking. Of course, determined users always find a way. There are numerous advantages to having a jailbroken device and we're not talking about the illicit ones.

Escaping lockdown opens up new apps and features that Apple won't allow in its walled garden. Often these are things that other operating systems already provide or which Apple will later add.

For example folders were possible on jailbroken devices long before they were added to iOS and SBSettings pre-dated the long-overdue Command Center by five years.

Of course when Apple does add these features they're normally a lot more polished and stable, but adventurous users should have the option to get new functionality early.

We're not saying Apple should build in the ability to access these things, just that it shouldn't block it, much like Google makes no attempt to stop users from rooting their devices.

We don't see Apple ever doing a 180 on this but we'd love it if the Cupertino company did make things more lax in iOS 9.

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