Apple iCloud+ with private relay, hide my email now available in India

Apple has finally started rolling out iOS 15, the next major operating system for the iPhone, in the Indian market.

The update, as the Cupertino giant promised, is available to all the new and old eligible iPhones, including both SE models and the latest iPod Touch.

It brings a host of new features such as Live Text and Focus mode as well as a long overdue upgrade for iCloud, the cloud storage service from the company.

Apple has renamed its paid cloud offering to iCloud+, giving users a way to enjoy all the best features of storage service (Photos, Backup, and iCloud Drive), with some great new premium capabilities.

This, at the core, will include three key introductions -- Private Relay, Hide My Email, and HomeKit Secure Video.

Private relay can be described as built-in VPN service for Safari.

As per Apple, the feature will ensure that the traffic leaving your device is encrypted so that no one, not even Apple, could know who is browsing what and use that information to create detailed profiles.

It puts browsing request through two separate internet relays to ensure privacy.

Similarly, Hide My Email also focuses on privacy. As the name suggests, the feature, built into Mail, Safari, and iCloud settings, generates unique, random email addresses which you can use to fill into forms or while signing up on websites. The messages sent on these random email IDs will be forwarded to your main one, which will remain secure and out of the reach of other platforms.

Beyond this, iCloud+ subscribers will get the option to connect one, five, or unlimited homekit secure cameras, without the recordings counting against iCloud storage. They will also get the ability to switch to a custom email domain if needed.

Users who are already paying for iCloud will be automatically upgraded to iCloud+. Meanwhile, those who want to take the subscription will have to shell out Rs 75 for 50GB storage, Rs 219 for 200GB, or Rs 749 for 2TB every month.