When Apple announced the upcoming iOS 15 and xex ?n ??iPadOS 15 updates at the 2021 Worldwide Developers Conference, CEO Tim Cook revealed a host of exciting new features including Spatial Audio on FaceTime, Do Not Disturb responses, and securely uploading photo ID.
One of the features not mentioned in the conference but is sure to bring joy to people who hate it when their iOS or iPadOS completely changes overnight is hiding on the preview pages for both updates: The ability to choose if you update your device to the next OS entirely or just allow security updates.
Previously, iPhone and iPad users who wanted to take advantage of needed security updates had to update their entire OS to the next version. Now, according to the language on the preview, users can update to 15 entirely "or continue on iOS 14 and still get important security updates until you’re ready to upgrade to the next major version."
ZDnet points out that this language does not make it clear how long Apple will support iOS and iPadOS 14 as further security updates come out, as well as noting that no such security-OS update divide appears to be in the works for Apple Watch users.
Still, this is probably welcome news for Apple users with older hardware or just the more cautious ones, since this lets anyone tighten up their device's security without taking a chance on a heftier update.