With a little under three weeks to go until Apple is set to launch its next iPhone on September 9, the official release of iOS 9 also draws near – we expect the OS to roll out in the days following the event.

Along with some major new features, like Apple’s new News app, a revamped Notes app, multitasking features for iPad, public transit info for Maps and the Proactive personal assistant, iOS 9 also brings a slew of ‘hidden’ or slightly less obvious tweaks, improvements and new features to iPhone.

Below we’ve rounded up some of the more notable ‘hidden’ features you can expect to see on your iPhone with iOS 9. Check out the video from Apple blog MacRumors at the end to see some of these in action.

15 hidden features of iOS 9

Improved iCloud Drive access: The new iCloud Drive app lets you access files stored in iCloud Drive, but the app doesn’t automatically appear on the home screen. To get it on your iPhone’s home screen, go to Settings and toggle on the option to show the app on the home screen.

Keyboard improvements: In iOS 9, the shift key now transforms all the letters on to keyboard to upper case to clearly show when the shift function is active. Once you’ve hit an uppercase letter they keys go back to lowercase. There is also a separate keyboard section or flag emoji.

Extended battery life and controls: Along with the ability to manually enable Low Power Mode to get an extra three hours of battery life, you can now also see which apps are using the most power. The Notifications Center now also shows you a new Battery widget for all your iCoud connected devices such as your Apple Watch or iPad.

Siri tweaks: Not only is Siri getting more intuitive and proactive in iOS 9, she’s also getting a design overhaul to match her look on the Apple Watch. New settings allow you to mute Siri when you mute your iPhone. In a muted state, Siri will vibrate to let you know she’s ready for your query.

Lock rotation switch: Like on the iPad, the iPhone’s mute switch can act as a lock rotation switch to keep the device in landscape or portrait mode regardless of physical orientation.

Improved Apple Pay access: You can launch the new Wallet app with a simple double-click of the home button, change which card to pay with and quickly make a payment.

Improved attachment handling in Mail app: With iOS 9, you’ll be able to attach any file from iCloud Drive directly from the Mail app and save attachments directly to iCloud Drive by tapping and holding the attached file. You can also bulk move or delete files. You can now also attach more than five photos from the Photo app.

Photos app updates: An update to the Photos app in iOS 9 now sees all photos taken with the front camera grouped together in a Selfies album while all screenshots are grouped into a Screenshots album. A new thumbnail strip lets you scroll through photos and a simple down swipe takes you back to the Albums view. You can also hide multiple photos by selecting a photo, bringing up the Share Sheet, and selecting the photos you want to hide.

New back to previous app button: A handy new shortcut appears in the upper left-hand corner of your iPhone’s screen if you click a link that takes you out of the current app. Now you can go back to the app you were using by tapping ‘back to…’

New default iOS apps: Find My Friends and Find My iPhone are default apps in iOS 9 and Find My Friends gets a Notification Center widget.

Stronger security: By default, iOS 9 will require that you enter a six-digit passcode instead of the four-digit defaults requirement in previous versions. You can revert back to the four-digit version in Settings. Support for two-factor authentication is also added.

New video controls: You’ll be able to turn the flash off or on while shooting video and you can also control recording resolutions and frame rates from the settings app.

Better search: iOS 9 has a new search API that will allow deep search results from third-party apps. In Search settings, you can toggle installed apps on or off to include or exclude them from search results. You can get results from Bing, documents, Found in Mail, Safari Suggestions and Food, Drinks and Travel in Maps search. You can also call or message contacts directly from Search.

Updated Podcasts app: The Podcasts app has a redesigned Mini player to match Apple’s Music app and now has an option to display all your Unplayed podcasts.

More flexible Settings: You can search for the setting you need in Settings instead of having to scroll through the entire list. New options in Settings let you group app notifications, set Auto-Lock to turn on after 30 seconds, turn off vibrations, disable Shake to Undo, and switch off character preview.

Photos for contacts in Message app: Like on the iPhone 6 Plus, an iPhone 6 running iOS 9 will display contact photos in the Message app.

New in Safari: Safari now supports content blockers, so expect a few to hit the market as soon as iOS 9 does. Safari now also lets you request the desktop version of a website from the share sheet and has an iBooks extension that lets you save web pages as PDFs.

Handoff and Continuity updates: Handoff is displayed in the App Switcher screen with the second beta of iOS 9, while, in the first beta, Handoff wasn’t available in the App Switcher. Additionally, Continuity in iOS 9 will enable users to pick up a phone call on their Mac or iPad even if their iPhone is at home using cellular data.

Smaller and simpler upgrades: The iOS 9 update is the smallest iOS update to date, but for users of 16GB iPhones this may still be a problem. To make space for the iOS 9 upgrade, the update will be able to temporarily delete apps if your iPhone doesn’t have enough free space. The device will automatically reinstall the deleted apps and data after the upgrade is completed.

Image credit: Pascal via Flickr