Top New iOS 16 features

There have been quite a lot of enhancements and updates in iOS 16.
iOS 16 brings one of the most important updates for the iPhone’s Lock Screen since iOS 7. With improvements for Focus Mode, more continuity capabilities, and tweaks to Messages, there’s a lot to take advantage of from the new update.

Let's get into some of the top new features of iOS 16:-

iPhone's Lock Screen, Notifications, and More

The lock screen looks different with all the new clock font, widgets, and customization of your lock screen.

Interestingly, now you can create multiple lock screens, each with different background, theme, and style, like setting up a data-rich lock screen when you turn the work mode on. You can customize each lock screen based on your interest and switch between them quite easily.

The iOS 16 update is set to launch aesthetic choices and multilayered depth effects for photos for particular modes as well, specifically for Portrait Mode.

The iOS 16 update on the new Lock Screen paved the way for improvements in the notifications to declutter the Lock Screen and make it seem more spacious. Notifications will now roll in from the bottom of the page enabling users to swipe up to view the complete list of updates, reminders, and notifications and swipe down to hide them.

The Live Activities on the new iPhone update is set to make notifications more ergonomic, mainly by tracking live events. Whether it is the latest football game or the most recent news updates, users can easily track the progression of these sessions and events in real time without being burdened with multiple notifications.

You can also link specific Lock Screens to one of the Focus Modes. Every time the Focus Mode is activated, the Lock Screen automatically changes to one set for that particular Focus Mode. This Focus mode helps in providing distraction-free work mode by adding certain widgets on the Lock Screen.

Focus Mode Enhancement

The introduction of Focus Mode on iOS originally came in iOS 15 but was not used much as it took a lot of time in setting up. The new Apple update is looking toward changing that with the release of iOS 16 by making the Focus mode more streamlined and user-friendly.

In iOS 16, while creating, editing, or customizing a specific Focus Mode, users can choose people or apps to be allowed or be silent from notifications. This simplifies users’ decision to include or exclude certain people or applications from sending unnecessary notifications with the Focus mode activated. As mentioned earlier, Focus can now be linked with the Lock Screen or Home Screen according to the user selection.

With the iOS 16 update, users can add Focus filters, allowing only specific content from specific applications to pop up when Focus is on. Currently, with the new Apple software update, these filters are available for native Apple applications. Still, Apple developers have the opportunity to integrate this feature with up-and-coming APIs.

The Continuity Camera

With the continuity camera, you can use your iPhone camera as a webcam, pretty cool, right? For this, you should have iOS 16 and the latest version of macOS Ventura on your MacBook. The Continuity Camera wirelessly turns your iPhone into your macs webcam. With this, you can have access to several other features that our iPhone has, like portrait mode, studio light, center stage, and desk view among others.

Desk View can be obtained by using the ultra-wide camera of our iPhone mounted on top of the laptop. We can get the standard webcam view or the top-down view of whatever is in front of the laptop on the desk. This feature can be a great help in demonstrating activities during online classes, tutorials, etc.

Battery percentage in the status bar

The battery icon in the status bar now shows the exact battery percentage, which can be turned on from the settings. Ever since iPhone 10, users weren't able to see the battery percentage in the status bar and it was quite hard to know the battery level.

To turn on battery percentage, go to the battery section from the settings app. From there you can toggle the battery percentage indicator as required.

Live text in videos

Prior to iOS 16, we were able to open any picture with text in it, and Live text recognized the text which we could copy somewhere else. iOS 16 adds the same feature of Live text in videos adding another level of usability in our hands as now we can pause the video at a particular point where required text is present and can lift the text from inside the video.

Visual Look Up

Visual Look Up has been introduced which helps us to tap and hold on the subject of an image to lift it from the background and place it in apps like Messages. Visual Look Up also expands to recognize certain things like birds, insects, and statues.

Screenshots

A new option of copy and delete has been added in the bottom sheet of screenshots, which allows users to also copy the image rather than just delete it. This allows users to copy the image to paste it into any other app without first saving the image to the Photos app.

Shared Library

iCloud Shared Photo Library gives families a new way to share photos seamlessly with a separate iCloud library that up to six users can collaborate on, contribute to, and enjoy. Users can choose to share existing photos from their personal libraries or share based on a start date or people in the photos. A user can also choose to send photos to the Shared Library automatically using a new toggle in the Camera app. Additionally, users will receive intelligent suggestions to share a photo that includes participants in the Shared Photo Library. Every user in the Shared Photo Library has access to add, delete, edit, or favorite the shared photos or videos, which will appear in each user’s Memories and Featured Photos so that everyone can relive more complete family moments.

Updates to Messages

Users can edit or recall recently sent messages, recover recently deleted messages, and mark conversations as unread so they can come back to them later. In addition, SharePlay is coming to Messages, making it possible to enjoy synced content like movies or songs and shared playback controls all while chatting in Messages.

Other Improvements

Apart from the above-mentioned, there has been an upgradation in Apple Maps where we can plan up to 15 stops, Health application, Apple CarPlay, Weather application, Improvements in iMessage/Messaging app, Fitness, Safari, Siri, and many more.

The iOS 16 update has created excitement among developers and users. Its new features show that Apple is continuously innovating to improve the quality of life with impressive iOS updates.

The iOS 16 is in public beta right now. In order to download the beta version, you need to enroll your device into the Apple Beta Software program and install a configuration profile to get the iOS 16 beta on your iPhone.

There can be further improvements to these iOS 16 previews in the final versions that can become even more beneficial for developers in the market.