iOS 16 was recently released for iPhone 8 and newer models. It has been reported that some features are exclusive to some models such as improved Cinematic Mode on the newly-launched iPhone 14 Pro and the iPhons 14 Pro Max. While the latest iteration is filled with new features — ranging from privacy, security to accessibility — we have listed a few that stand out of the lot. These features are pretty much available for all iPhone models that support the new iOS 16 software.
1. Lock Screen
Probably the most talked about and the most noticeable feature of iOS 16 is the new Lock Screen. You can now customise the font, colour, and placement of elements on the Lock Screen. Want to jazz up your Lock Screen more? Change font styles and customise the look of date as well as time by choosing from a number of available colour choices.
Photo subjects are dynamically displayed in front of the time and you can also choose widgets, such as weather, calendar events, time zones, and battery levels among others to be displayed on the Lock Screen.
2. Focus Mode
Introduced in iOS 15, the Focus Mode in iOS 16 gets an improvement. Firstly, Focus Mode is also tied up with the Lock Screen with iOS 16 so you can now activate Focus modes with a swipe. You can also customise it with a Lock Screen Wallpaper and/ or widget as per your choice. Apart from its tandem with the Lock Screen, Focus Mode also gets deeper integration with other apps like Calendar, Mail, Messages, and Safari. This functionality will also be extended to third party apps, according to the company.
“Set boundaries within Apple apps like Calendar, Mail, Messages and Safari for each Focus you enable. Have a Focus turn on automatically at a set time or location or while using a certain app,” Apple says.
3. Messages
If you are an iPhone user, you know how important the Messages app is. Alongside all the features you liked in Messages, Apple is now offering a few more to make the experience better. You can now edit a message for up to 15 minutes after sending it and recipients will be able to see a record of edits made to the message.
Other features look like they have pretty much taken a cue from mail services. Sent a message to a wrong contact? Not to worry, as you will now have up to 2 minutes to ‘unsend’ it. You can also mark a message as unread. This feature is probably for those who are busy and wish to respond to text later once they have time to spare. Last but not the least, you can also recover recently deleted messages (up to 30 days after deleting them).
4. Passkeys
Probably one of the most futuristic steps taken by Apple in the space of user privacy and security is the introduction of Passkeys. Passkeys replace passwords. You can sign-in to websites or apps on other devices, including non?Apple devices, with a saved passkey by scanning the QR code with an iPhone and using Face ID or Touch ID for authentication.
Passkeys are end?to?end encrypted and sync across your Apple devices through iCloud Keychain. They “never leave your device and are specific to the site you created them for”, and the private key is never kept on a web server.
5. Live Text
The Live Text in videos feature is now interactive. You can now pause a video and can perform functions like copy and paste, lookup, and translate. Live Text works in Photos, Quick Look, Safari and more. You can track flights or shipments, translate foreign languages, convert currencies and more. Apart from this, the Live Text gamut is now expanded with the addition of support for Japanese, Korean, and Ukrainian text.
The iOS 16 update brings a lot more than we mentioned above. Here are some other features that you can look out for. There is an iCloud Shared Photo Library that lets users share photos with up to five other users. The Mail app is getting a scheduling feature for emails, and there is a new way to dictate on iOS 16 with support for voice and keyboard together to enter and edit text. Automatic punctuation inserts commas, periods, emojis, and question marks as you dictate.
iCloud Shared Photo Library is coming later this year and an updated Apple CarPlay is coming in 2023.
