iOS 16 for iPhone: The Best New Features

This story is part of Focal Point iPhone 2022, CNET’s collection of news, tips and advice around Apple’s most popular productions.

Since Apple’s iOS 16 announcement at its WWDC keynote in June, the commercial has been releasing beta versions for developers and users to test. Apple’s sixth and novel public beta for iOS 16 brings back a much-missed feature for some iPhone users: a percentage number within the battery symbol that shows your iPhone’s proper battery charge.

At an iPhone 14 launch event on Wednesday, Apple announced that iOS 16 will roll out to country with compatible iPhones on Sept. 12. The iOS beta indicates approximately upgrades focused on communication, personalization and privacy. Big attempts are coming to the iPhone lock screen, Messages app and Wallet, but lesser-known features lurking in iOS 16 are proper checking out, too. 

Here’s every iOS 16 feature you must know about. Plus, check out the newly announced Apple Watch Series 8, Apple Watch Ultra and iPhone 14. (If you missed the Apple event, catch up with CNET’s live blog.)

Apple event: Full coverage

The instruction to edit and ‘unsend’ messages

“Embarrassing typos are a sketch of the past,” Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice presidential of software engineering, said at WWDC as he introduced three of the most named 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 communication, you’ll be able to edit the message after the fact. A tiny “edited” appears in the spot under the message.

In Messages, you can edit previously sent messages.

Apple

Next, and this might be my favorite new feature, you can now recall a sent message. If you accidentally send an unfinished communication, you can use the Undo Send tool to maintain 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 capable tool for when you don’t have time to Answer to a message in the moment, but want to make sure you come back to it later.

A new customizable lock screen

One of the things you look at the most on your iPhone is the lock Hide, 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 Hide 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 Hide widgets like temperature, activity rings and a calendar. The widgets are akin to complications on the Apple Watch lock screen. 

Your iPhone will get more customizable in iOS 16. You’ll be able to Decide how your lock screen looks, down to the font and color.

Apple

You can even set up multiple customized lock screens with different widgets and simply swipe to switch between them. There’s also a photo crawl option that automatically changes the pictures on your lock screen.

One feature we’d been hoping to see Apple add was an always-on Show. It’s something nearly all Android phones have; even the Apple Watch does. Well, with the new iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, the always-on display has finally arrived.

iOS 16 adds a feature that developers can use named Live Activities. This is essentially a mini view of the real-time moves of a workout, sporting event or Uber ride from your iPhone’s lock screen.

Apple

Notifications and live activities

Sometimes notifications can Hide up your lock screen’s photo, so iOS 16 changes notifications to the bottom of your display. As you claim them, instead of being compiled into a list, they Go like a vertical carousel. This not only looks better but must be a big help for one-handed use of your iPhone.

iOS 16 also aims to Decide another notification problem. Sometimes you get a bunch of notifications in a row from one app, like the acquire of a basketball game. A new tool for developers named Live Activities makes it easier to stay on top of things happening in real time from your lock Hide, instead of getting a series of interruptions.

Live Activities must make it easier to follow sporting events, workouts or even the moves of an Uber ride.

Skip CAPTCHAs using Private Admission Tokens

The CAPTCHA — which stands for Completely Automated Community Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart — has been a Important evil across the internet. CAPTCHAs are designed to make sure that a people is accessing a website or service, and not a bot. I find them annoying, as they often involve reading strangely written letters or having to find all the images that have a truck. With iOS 16, Apple plans to start replacing these awkward interactions with Private Admission Tokens.

According to a video on Apple’s website demonstrating Private Admission Tokens, websites that support the token will essentially log in and authenticate that you are indeed a world without your having to play any of the New CAPTCHA games. Apple says in the video that the business is working with other companies to roll out Help for this feature, so we can’t say the CAPTCHA will be dead when iOS 16 rolls out to the public. But the Idea could provide some relief if it gets adopted.

Wallet and Apple Pay Later

ID cards from more conditions will be available in your Wallet app along with more safety and privacy features. In iOS 16 you can also protecting your identity and age. So rather than showing your True birth date, the Wallet app will display your ID and that you’re over 21.

iOS 16 creates sharing keys easier with apps like Mail and Messages. When your friend receives the key, they can add it to the Wallet app on their iPhone. Apple said it’s working to make sure that public keys are an industry standard and free for others.

The Wallet app in iOS 16 gets a bunch of Little but notable updates, including the Apple Pay Later payment plan.

Apple

Apple Pay will wait on new types of payments and adds a new feature requested Apple Pay Later, a Klarna-like service that lets you snappy the cost of an Apple Pay purchase into four constant payments spread over six weeks, with zero interest and no fees. Upcoming payments are became through the Wallet app, making it easy to keep track of dates and payments.

But Apple Pay doesn’t stop there. A new feature will also help you track Apple Pay sequences and lets merchants deliver detailed receipts and tracking demand. This should make it easier to stay up to date on the location of all your orders.

You can tap and hold on the copies of a photo and separate it from the background. Then you can drag it into another app like Messages to piece it.

Apple

Visual Look Up’s tap and drag for photos

In iOS 15, Visual Look Up analyzes your photos and can identify objects like plants, landmarks and pets. iOS 16 takes this to the next serene. When you touch a photo’s subject like the dog in the image ended, you can lift it away from the background and add it to apps like Messages. Essentially it’s a tap-and-hold tool that removes a photo’s background.

Apple sometimes overuses the word “magic,” but this feature truly seems like it.

During the keynote for WWDC, Apple exclusive Craig Federighi introduces SharePlay for the Messages app.

Apple

SharePlay comes to Messages

SharePlay, which debuted in iOS 15, lets you have a community experience while connecting with someone over FaceTime. You can examine TV shows, listen to music in sync and latest things. iOS 16 adds the ability to discover more apps that wait on SharePlay from within FaceTime.

But perhaps one of the coolest things Apple did for SharePlay was to make it work within the Messages app. Apple said that this was one of the biggest requests from app developers. Now when you want to share a movie on Disney Plus, you can launch SharePlay together with a friend while chatting in Messages.

Safety Check lets you snappy reset location sharing and access to passwords. It’s planned to be helpful for people in abusive relationships.

Apple

Safety Check aims to help republic in abusive relationships

Safety Check
 is a new feature planned to be helpful for people in abusive relationships. It lets you reconsideration and reset who has access to location information as well as passwords, messages and other apps on an iPhone.

Focus mode updates and Cluster filters

Focus mode gets several updates. The first applies Cluster behaviors to widgets and lock screen looks. So you could have one lock mask set for when your Work Focus is enabled and latest for workouts.

Apple added specific Focus filters that apply your iPhone’s Cluster mode within apps. For example, in Safari, you can miniature what tabs are shown depending on what Focus mode you have active.

Apple Maps adds transit fare cards

Maps will get several updates. You’ll be able to plan trips with up to 15 different stops inoperative the way. If you start planning a trip with the Maps app on your Mac, you’ll be able to piece that to your iPhone.

And in something similar to what Google announced for Google Wallet in Android 13, you’ll be able to see transit fare moderators as well as add more money to a fare card from within Apple Maps.

In iOS 16 you’ll be able to customize Quick Start with a specific child’s iCloud parental systems and settings.

Apple

iCloud family checklist

iCloud gets certain new features. One of the more interesting ones is the option to snappy set up a new device for your child. When Quick Start appears, you have the option to pick a user for the new map and use all the existing parental controls you’ve previously selected and configured. However, this is not what many of us serene want: the ability to set up separate users for the same device.

There’s a new family checklist with tips for updating settings for your kids as they get older, like a reminder to check location-sharing settings or piece your iCloud Plus subscriptions.

For more, check out everything Apple announced at its Sept. 7 “Far Out” store. Plus, here’s how to download iOS 16.