Apple recently released iOS 16, which promises major improvements. With iOS 16, Apple is adding several new features to its operating system for all the supported devices, (all models from iPhone 8 and on).
These include an all-new lock screen fully customizable, family sharing, a brilliant new option to unsend a message, updated focus modes, mail smart search corrections, more detail maps, important privacy & security updates, passkeys, and many more.
Here’s an overview of what iOS 16 brings to the table.
iOS 16 LOCK SCREEN
The new Lock Screen will be the most prominent of these changes. The lock screen has been completely redesigned with a new user interface that allows you to customize it in ways never before possible. You can now add widgets, change wallpapers, set up quick actions, and much more. This means you’ll have even more control over your device’s looks and feels while locked.
Gallery
Browse among a variety of themes to personalize your Lock Screen. Each theme has a distinctive background, a stylized view of the time and date, and information that is simple to reach at glance. Your lock screen can be changed at any moment of the day. Swipe after tapping and holding.
Editing
The font, color, and arrangement of items on your lock screen may all be changed simply by tapping them. You can use expressive fonts and colors to personalize the look of the dates and times on your lock screen.
Photos
You can see a series of photos automatically appear on your lock screen when you unlock your phone. Let iOS update your Lock screen automatically at regular intervals, or set up an automatic Lock screen rotation schedule. You can use different colors, fonts, and filters for your lock screen images so they look better together.
Widgets
You can display various widgets on your lock screen, including activity rings, the weather, the time, date, battery life, and alarm reminders. Look for widgets at your favorite app store.
Weather & Astronomy
Get detailed forecasts and other information about the skies on your lock screen! You don’t need to unlock your phone to check for updates. It will turn to clouds if the sky is cloudy outside. When it’s sunny, the sun changes, and when it’s raining, it will start to rain on your display.
Notification
Now when you receive new messages, emails, etc., they appear at the bottom of your lock screen so you don’t miss anything important. Choose between an expanded list, stacked, or count views when viewing alerts on the lock screens.
FAMILY SHARING
Account
Family Sharing on iOS 16 allows parents to share their family accounts with children under 13 years old. The main benefit of using this feature is that they can access music, movies, TV shows, apps, books, and other media without having to pay separately. Family sharing is a great way to save money for families who want to purchase items together. Use the right parental controls to protect your child.
Family Checklist
As children grow up, you may want to change their settings, turn on/off certain features like location sharing, and parental control settings, or just remind them that you can share your iCloud+ subscription with anyone who uses Family Checklist.
Screen Time requests
Your children’s requests for screen time now display in Messages, making it simple for you to accept or deny them.
MESSAGES
With the release of iOS 16, Apple also introduced some new features for messages. These include among others the ability to edit a message, undo send, mark it as unread, recover recently deleted messages, and many more.
Edit Message
After you send a message, you have up to 15 minutes to change it. The message’s revision history will be visible to the recipients. A message can be edited by users up to five times.
Undo send
You can cancel any message up to two minutes after you send it. You can press and hold the message, tap on undo send and the message will disappear. This feature is only effective on iOS 16 devices (i.e. iPhone 14 models), so if you try to undo a message that was sent to an iOS 15 device or older, this won’t work. Nevertheless, the recipient of an older device will see a message that you tried to unsent it.
Mark as unread
When you’re not ready to reply right away, mark the message as unread so you know you’ve seen it later.
Recover recently deleted messages
Messages that were recently removed from your inbox can be restored for up to 30 days.
FOCUS
Focus modes have been upgraded not only for the lock screen but also the setup process has been greatly simplified.
Lock Screen linking
Connecting your Focus to your Lock Screen will change your iPhone’s appearance and functionality. Swipe to the corresponding Lock Screen to activate it.
Lock Screen & Home Screen suggestions
Connecting your Focus to your Lock Screen will change your iPhone’s appearance and functionality. Also, you can configure your Home screen page by choosing which widgets and apps appear there. Apple suggests using a lock screen wallpapers from your photo library when using the Personal Focus or a data-rich lock screen when using the Work Focus.
Focus filters
You can set boundaries within Apple applications like Calendar, Mail, Messaging, and Safari so that they don’t automatically open when you turn on Focus mode. You could choose which tab groups appear in Safari when you’re working, for instance, or decide to hide your calendars when you’re not.
Correcting typos, and including synonym words when searching, are two ways that intelligent search improves your search result. Available in English & French.
Once you start searching for emails, you will be able to see more shared content and discussions. If you forget to include an important piece of information, such as an email address or a file name, then get notified so you don’t miss out on any important details.
You can quickly and easily undo an email before it gets into the recipient’s inbox. Undo send is available for up to 30 seconds after sending. Select the duration under the Mail setting.
Never disregard an opened email that you neglected to respond to. Choose a day and time for email messages to reappear in your inbox. Add rich content to your emails so they’re more informative and interesting.
MAPS
Apple Maps have been updated with more detail in more countries and this process is still ongoing.
Maps let you add multi-stop routing to your trip. You can add multiple stops along your route in Maps. Plan a route with several destinations on your Mac and it automatically syncs to your iPhone so you don’t need to manually enter each destination. You can add transit passes to your Wallet, see low balance amounts, and refill your pass all without having to leave Maps.
PRIVACY & SECURITY
Major updates occurred to Privacy & Security issues.
Privacy
This new section in settings allows people who are victims of domestic or intimate partner violence to easily revoke their permissions. It also makes it easier for you to control permissions for apps access.
Unlocking the Hidden and Recently Deleted album folders requires using your iPhone’s Face ID feature, Touch ID privacy feature, or entering your passcode.
Apps need to ask for permission before they can use the pasteboard.
Security
Get critical security improvements and updates for your devices with extreme protection even sooner through regular software updates.
For users who are subject to serious, targeted threats to their digital security, the new lockdown mode offers the highest level of protection. It strengthens your devices’ defenses against spyware attacks by restricting certain functions.
PASSKEYS
Passkeys are a quicker and safer sign-in alternative to passwords. Because passkeys never leave your phone, they’re difficult to steal. Your private keys aren’t ever kept on web servers, so there’s no risk of them leaking out.
You can use your Apple Pay Passkey to log into websites and apps on non-Apple mobile phones and tablets by scanning the QR codes with your iPhone or iPad using Face ID or Touch ID authentication. Passwords are synced between all your Apple devices using iCloud Keychain and encrypted from start to finish.
ADDITIONAL FEATURES & ENHANCEMENTS
iCloud Shared Photo Library
iCloud photo libraries can be shared with up to five additional users. Share all of your old pictures, or use tools to set up contributions of particular pictures based on people or starting dates.
Live Text
Paused video frames allow you to interact with the text by performing actions like copying and pasting, looking up words, and translating. Safari, Quick Look, Photos, and other applications all support Live Text.
Fitness App
You don’t need to buy an Apple Watch to get started tracking your activity and achieving your health goals. You can use Apple HealthKit to track your steps, distances traveled, and workouts from apps and websites. Then combine these data points with iPhone sensors to estimate how many calories you’re burning each day.
Stocks
Make sure to check the dates of the next earnings reports for a company and mark them on your calendar. Get more stocks, using a new two-column format for the medium and large widgets.
Weather
Sign up for alerts when severe weather is expected near you. To view additional information, tap any module in the Weather app. For example, tap “Hourly” to view hourly temperatures and precipitations.