16 Things You Can Do in iOS 16 That You Couldn’t Before
After months of previews and betas, iOS 16 is right here and rolling out to iPhones worldwide. When you’ve obtained it safely put in in your machine, you’ll wish to learn about all the brand new options now at your fingertips—and we’ve picked out 16 of our favorites, from main to minor, that may make an actual distinction to the best way you utilize your smartphone.
1) Add widgets to a number of lock screens
The lock display screen has been given a significant revamp with the arrival of iOS 16, and now you can add your selection of widgets to it; what’s extra, it can save you a number of totally different lock display screen configurations and bounce between them as mandatory. To make modifications, press and maintain on the show with the lock display screen exhibiting, then select Customise to handle your lock screens, and set the wallpaper and totally different widget mixtures displayed on every one.
2) Change how lock display screen notifications are proven
Sticking with the lock display screen, you’ve now obtained extra management over how notifications are displayed after they arrive: From Settings, faucet Notifications, then select from three totally different modes. The Rely choice is essentially the most minimal, and can simply present you the variety of unread notifications, whereas Stack teams collectively alerts from the identical app. The ultimate choice, Checklist, is how notifications have been proven in earlier variations of iOS.
G/O Media might get a fee
Pre-order
Apple AirPods Pro (2nd Generation)
Releases September 23
Featuring 2x stronger active noise cancellation., longer battery life granting up to 6 hours of listening time with ANC enabled and 30 hours of total listening time thanks to the MagSafe charging case, a new smaller silicone ear tip for tinier ears, a new chip, enhanced Bluetooth, and more
3) Edit and unsend messages
Another of the headline new features this time around is the ability to edit messages sent through iMessage via the Messages app (up to five edits per message) or to unsend messages completely (you get two minutes of thinking time). To make changes to a message that you’ve sent or to send one back to the ether, long press on a message in a conversation—you’ll then see the Edit and Undo Send options appear on screen. Not that recipients who aren’t on iOS 16 will still see your unsent or unedited messages: they’ll just get a new message with each edit.
4) Bring back recently deleted messages
iOS 16 has also introduced the ability to bring back conversations that have been deleted in the last 30 days through the Messages app—it works a bit like the Trash folder on a Mac, giving you an extra safety net before messages are wiped completely. Open up the Messages app, tap the Edit button, then choose Show Recently Deleted. From the next screen, you can restore any of the listed message threads or delete them permanently.
5) Set up filters in Focus mode
The Focus feature gets some enhancements in iOS 16, including the ability to set filters in certain apps—including Messages, Mail and Calendar—so that you don’t have as many distractions to deal with. When you’re creating a new set of rules via Focus in Settings, you can tap Add Filter to do just that: You can easily hide certain email accounts in the Mail app, for example, or limit the number of calendars that are shown in the Calendar app.
6) Schedule the sending of emails
Like Messages, Mail now has an undo send feature (active for up to 30 seconds after sending), and you can also now schedule your emails as well. Once you’ve finished composing a particular email, tap and hold on the blue arrow icon in the top right corner, and you’ll see a choice of options: Choose from one of the suggestions put forward, or tap Send Later… to pick your own schedule (just make sure your phone is online at the time).
7) Lock down your iPhone
iOS 16 includes a lockdown mode that Apple describes as being an “non-obligatory, excessive safety” measure that most individuals received’t ever want: It drastically limits the assault floor that hackers should intention at, whereas additionally limiting a few of the performance of iOS (incoming FaceTime calls and attachments in Messages are blocked, for instance). You possibly can entry it by way of Settings by tapping Privateness & Safety after which Lockdown Mode.
8) Share tab teams in Safari
Maybe not one thing you’re going to be profiting from on a regular basis, however this may very well be sometimes helpful: Now you can share teams of tabs with different individuals by way of Safari on iOS, if maybe you’re engaged on a venture or doing a little analysis collectively. With a tab group open, faucet the share button (prime proper) to decide on some contacts. Word that tab teams can now embody pinned tabs and have their very own customized begin pages as nicely.
9) See the battery degree share
The battery share choice is again once more, making it simpler to see how a lot juice you’ve obtained left. To see the present share degree within the battery icon on the standing bar, head to Settings after which choose Battery, then activate the Battery Share toggle swap. Word that whereas some iPhones have been left with out this characteristic when iOS 16 launched, the iOS 16.1 replace reportedly extends the battery share choice to each iPhone with Face ID.
10) Plan routes with a number of stops in Apple Maps
Google Maps has had multi-stop routes for years, and with iOS 16 put in, now you can create them in Apple Maps. Arrange some instructions between two areas as regular, and also you’ll discover the brand new Add Cease button. You possibly can have as much as 15 stops included collectively in a single set of instructions, and you may change the order of them by tapping and dragging the handles to the appropriate of the display screen.
11) Monitor your health with out an Apple Watch
You now not want an Apple Watch to trace your actions by way of the Apple Health app—when you don’t have the wearable, it’ll use the movement sensors in your iPhone to watch the steps you’re speaking and the distances you’re strolling, and it could actually even work with some third-party exercise apps. Whereas the performance isn’t as complete as when you do have an Apple Watch, it could actually nonetheless calculate the energy you’re burning every day.
12) Run a Security Test
Security Test is Apple’s new characteristic for these “in home or intimate associate violence conditions”—it affords a fast assessment of the individuals and the apps related to your account, letting you revoke permissions akin to entry to your location. We hope you’ll by no means have to show to this characteristic, however when you do, you’ll find it below Privateness & Safety in Settings: Faucet Security Test and you may view your settings or reset them.
13) Lower out objects from pictures
Among the best new options in iOS 16 is offered in a number of apps, together with Images and Safari. It enables you to raise out topics from their background in photographs: With an image open on display screen, faucet and maintain on the primary topic, and if iOS can establish its edges correctly, you’ll see a faint white glow seem across the object in query. You possibly can then ship the thing that’s been lower out some other place by tapping on both the Copy or the Share choice.
14) Monitor your medicines
The Apple Well being app already tracks a complete host of important statistics for you, however with the arrival of iOS 16, it could actually monitor your medicines too—you must enter every part manually, nevertheless it’s a helpful manner of creating certain you’ve gotten taken what you should take every day. From the Well being app, faucet Browse after which Medicines, then select Add a Treatment: You’ll be requested to produce particulars together with its title and the way typically you are taking it.
15) Add haptic suggestions to the keyboard
With iOS 16, haptic suggestions involves the native iPhone keyboard for the primary time, so you possibly can have very light vibrations accompanying your each faucet on the machine—one thing that quite a lot of customers desire, to allow them to be completely certain when their inputs are being registered. To allow the characteristic, open the Settings display screen in your iPhone, then select Sounds & Haptics and Keyboard Suggestions, and activate the Haptic toggle swap that seems.
16) Share pictures extra simply
On the time of scripting this one continues to be “coming quickly”—Apple says it is going to be out earlier than the tip of the 12 months—however a brand new characteristic referred to as iCloud Shared Picture Library will quickly be round to give you a better, extra handy manner of sharing pictures and movies with a choose group of individuals (like shut relations). Anybody that you simply share a library with is ready to edit and delete the pictures and movies that you simply publish, in addition to with the ability to view them.