Apple Releases macOS Catalina 10.15.1 – Adds AirPods Pro Compatibility, New & Updated Emoji, More

Apple today released macOS Catalina 10.15.1, the first update to their macOS Catalina operating system, first released to the public in October.

macOS Catalina can be downloaded for free from the Mac App Store via the Update feature in the System Preferences app on compatible apps.

Version 10.15.1 brings a large number of new and improved features, including the new emoji characters that were added in iOS 13.2, as well as support for Apple’s new AirPods Pro wireless earbuds. The promised Siri privacy controls have been added, allowing users to opt out of sharing Siri recordings with Apple.

From Apple’s release notes:

The macOS Catalina 10.15.1 update includes updated and additional emoji, support for AirPods Pro, HomeKit Secure Video, HomeKit enabled routers, and new Siri privacy settings, as well as bug fixes and improvements.

Emoji
– Over 70 new or updated emoji, including animals, food, activities, new accessibility emoji, gender neutral emoji, and skin tones selection for couple emoji

AirPods
– Introduces support for AirPods Pro

Home app
– HomeKit Secure Video enables you to privately capture, store, and view encrypted video from your security cameras and features people, animal, and vehicle detection
– HomeKit enabled routers let you control how your HomeKit accessories communicate over the internet or in your home
– Adds support for AirPlay 2-enabled speakers in scenes and automations

Siri
– Privacy settings to control whether or not to help improve Siri and Dictation by allowing Apple to store audio of your Siri and Dictation interactions
– Option to delete your Siri and Dictation history from Siri Settings

This update also includes the following bug fixes and improvements:
– Restores the ability to view file names in the All Photos view in Photos
– Restores the ability to filter by favorites, photos, videos, edited, and keywords in Days view in Photos
– Fixes an issue where Messages would only send a single notification when the option to repeat alerts was enabled
– Resolves an issue that caused Contacts to launch to the previously opened contact instead of the contact list
– Adds a two-finger swipe gesture for back navigation in Apple News
– Resolves issues that may occur in the Music app when displaying playlists inside folders and newly added songs in the Songs list
– Improves reliability of migrating iTunes library databases into the Music, Podcasts, and TV apps
– Fixes an issue where downloaded titles were not visible in the Downloads folder in the TV app