Soon, iPhone owners will be able to edit text messages, and Android owners will be able to send high-resolution photos. Many of the changes are long overdue.
Around this time every year, our smartphones become a reminder to always be ready for change. That’s because Apple and Google announce updates to the operating systems that power our iPhones and Android phones. Soon, the software that makes the devices tick will have design tweaks and new features — in other words, new things to learn. On Monday, Apple unveiled iOS 16, the next version of its iPhone operating system. It will include new features like a redesigned lock screen and the ability to edit text messages. Last month, Google introduced Android 13, which features a streamlined wallet app for storing credit cards and important documents like vaccine records. Both companies also said they were improving their apps for sending text messages. The new iPhone and Android operating systems will arrive on our phones as free updates this fall. Apple and Google often accompany these software updates with highfalutin language and promises. “Today we’re going to push our platforms further than ever,” Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, said in a prerecorded video for the event announcing the new software. But in reality, lots of the changes — especially the ability to retroactively edit a text — are incremental improvements that feel as if they should have happened a long time ago. Here are the most noteworthy updates to look for. Apple said it was making a change to the first thing anyone sees when using an iPhone: the lock screen. In the past, people could modify only the wallpaper on their lock screens. But with iOS 16, iPhone users can customize the lock screen by choosing from different fonts and colors for the clock. People will also be able to pin “widgets,” which are essentially shortcuts to apps like the phone’s calendar and fitness data tracker, to the lock screen. These customizations could help us tailor our phones to our lifestyles.
