Apple’s iOS 16, the iPhone’s next major software upgrade, feels fresh and contemporary on paper. Previewed at the company’s annual WWDC keynote, iOS 16 …
Apple’s iOS 16, the iPhone’s next major software upgrade, feels fresh and contemporary on paper. Previewed at the company’s annual WWDC keynote, iOS 16 will usher in improvements focused on making communication, personalization and privacy easier. This includes a number of significant updates for your iPhone’s lock screen, Messages app and Wallet. The iOS 16 developer beta is currently out, with a public beta version coming in July. iOS 16 will launch this fall, likely alongside the heavily rumored iPhone 14. The new software will work on iPhone 8 models and newer. Here’s every iOS 16 feature you should know about.
“Embarrassing typos are a thing of the past”, said Apple Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi as he introduced three of the most requested features for the Messages app. First, in iOS 16 you’ll be able to edit sent messages. So if you notice a typo after a message, you’ll be able to edit the message after the fact. A tiny “edited” appears in the status under the message. Next, and this might be my favorite new feature, you can immediately recall a sent message. If you accidentally send an unfinished message, you can use the Undo Send tool to prevent it from being read and hopefully look less chaotic to your friends and family. Last, you can mark messages and threads as unread. This could be an excellent tool for when you don’t have time to respond to a message in the moment, but want to make sure you come back to it later. One of the things you look at the most on your iPhone is the lock screen, especially if you have a Face ID-equipped iPhone. iOS 16 brings the most substantial update to the iPhone’s lock screen yet. Press and hold to edit your lock screen. You can swipe to try out several different styles. Each style changes the color filter for the background photo and the font on the lock screen so everything complements each other. This feels a bit like Apple’s take on Google’s Material You, which launched with Android 12. You can also customize the fonts for the time and date, and add lock screen widgets like temperature, activity rings and a calendar. The widgets are akin to complications on the Apple Watch lock screen. You can even set up multiple customized lock screens with different widgets and easily swipe to switch between them.
