The best of the rest
There’s much more to iOS than the headline acts. Here’s a look at what else is new You will now find Spotlight accessible from the bottom of the home screen. It provides richer results and is contextaware. You can also use it to do things like start a ti
As with every update to iOS, the main features aren’t the whole story. There are a ton of smaller features and updates that should make using your iPhone more productive and more fun.
Photos
We covered the new shared libraries in Photos already, but there are a few more additions to that app. The new duplicate detection feature automatically identifies two of the same image in albums, making it easier to clean up your library. There’s also a batch-editing feature that enables you to make changes to one photo and apply those changes to other photos in your library. You can also undo or redo multiple edits.
The Hidden and Recently Deleted albums are locked by default, and need Face ID, Touch ID or a passcode to unlock them. There are also new Memory types and improvements to that feature.
Wallet
In addition to allowing you to store travel cards, Wallet now enables you to track orders paid for with Apple Pay and provides detailed information on when you can expect your delivery.
You can now use an ID stored in Wallet for apps that require ID or age verification, and you can securely share keys for your home, car or hotel room that are stored in Wallet with apps such as Messages, Mail and WhatsApp.
Health and Fitness
The Health app now enables you to log your medications so you can keep track of what you’ve taken and when. You can create schedules and reminders and view your adherence to them in charts. You can also share your health data with others and create a PDF of health records from within the app.
The Fitness app is now available to all iPhone users, regardless of whether you own an Apple Watch, and the iPhone’s sensors will track activity such as flights of stairs climbed and steps taken and convert those into calories burned. You can also share your Move ring with others, and there are new awards for hitting goals.
FaceTime
FaceTime in iOS 16 enables you to seamlessly hand-off a call from iPhone to Mac or iPad, or vice versa, and when
you do, if you’re using a Bluetooth headset, that will switch to the other device, too.
Live Captions automatically transcribes audio, while SharePlay has also been improved, and you can now collaborate on FaceTime calls using apps such as Pages and Numbers.
Reminders
Reminders gets pinned lists so you can keep your most important lists in prime position at the top of the screen. There are also improvements for time-based organisation. For example, the Today list is split into morning, afternoon and tonight, to help you keep track.
You can create or download templates for lists and use rich text, enabling you to bold, underline, strikethrough or create bullets in text. There is also now the option to receive notifications when tasks are completed on a shared list.
News
Remember we talked about Live Activities in the Lock Screen section? The sports scores element is possible because of an addition to News called My Sports. This allows you to nominate teams or leagues you want to follow and quickly access scores, schedules and news stories from them.
News in iOS 16 now has more in-depth local news and it’s also more widely available. There’s also a customisable Favourites group in the Today feed, making it easier to find the stories you want to read.
Spotlight
The rest
You can translate text around you using the Camera app, keep track of your favourite artists in Music, and personalise Spatial Audio. And, at last, you can use Face ID in landscape mode. There’s a new audio player in Books, more poses and hairstyles in Memoji, and updates to Accessibility settings.