During the summer, popular tech developer Apple held their annual World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC22). At this conference they announced the new software that would come to their users and their devices in the fall of this year.

Well, fall has arrived and Apple has just released their latest version of their popular iPhone software IOS 16. IOS 16 is packed full of new features to help you better personalize your iPhone as well as make your iPhone as ergonomic and comfortable to use as possible.

New Lock Screen features in IOS 16

IOS 16 mainly focuses on the Lock Screen of your phone and as a result, many of the new features in this update are tailored specifically for your Lock Screen. The new features that the update brought includes,

• A new customizable Lock Screen that lets you personalize your iPhone’s Lock Screen with widgets, adjustable photos with available filters, portrait photos, different clock fonts, colors, a new depth affect for the clock, and much more.
• The new Lock Screen also lets you switch wallpapers and lock screens with the press of a button as well as link a Lock Screen to a certain focus mode, such as a picture of family for your personal focus and an earth collection Lock Screen for your work focus.
• Live Activities which lets you track Uber rides, Sports game scores, and other things that happen in real time right from your lock screen.
• A new music player that shows up on the bottom of the lock screen and can even turn your whole Lock Screen into a music player, showing the album art, title, skip and previous track, and even lyrics of the song you are listening to right from your Lock Screen.

New focus abilities

Last year in IOS 15, Apple released a new do not disturb mode called focus. Focus allows you to filter your notifications so that certain apps and messages from specific people can’t distract you during the day.

Now however, Apple has announced a new focus feature for IOS 16 called focus filters. Focus filters allows you to filter certain tab groups in safari, e-mail addresses in mail, events in the calendar, and text messages in the messages app. On top of that, Apple also released a new API for app developers so that focus filters will work with other apps as well.

Messages Updates

For messages, Apple has made some major updates and took the time to listen to their users and add three of the most highly requested features.

With IOS 16 you can now edit the messages that you send so that type-o’s and other embarrassing mistakes are no more. In addition, Apple has also developed “Undo Send” which allows you to delete a sent message all together, and you can now mark any text message unread just like an e-mail.

Along with these amazing features, Apple is also adding a radical new update to the Dictation feature. This new update lets you dictate your message while keeping the keyboard open so you can edit messages while you dictate them. The new dictation also adds punctuation and emojis to your text automatically. These new dictation updates also work when sending a message or e-mail to Siri.

Shareplay

Shareplay was introduced in the last update and according to Apple people are loving the new FaceTime feature. But now, Apple is making shareplay even easier to use with a new button that lets you jump straight into a shareplay app right from your FaceTime call.

Along with the app links, there is also a new feature that lets you send a shareplay link right from a text message so that you and another person can jump into a shareplay app straight from messages.

Live Text and Translate updates

Live text and the translate app were released back with the last IOS system, and now Apple is making them even better with IOS 16.

With the new update you can now use live text in videos, just pause the video at any frame and live text will automatically activate when you select text on the screen. Also, there are now quick actions in Live Text  so now you can translate currency, or a foreign language with the push of one button.

In the translate app, Apple added a new camera feature, so now you can take a picture of a restaurant menu or anything with a foreign language on it and translate it right there in the translate app with the help of Live Text.

Photos and Camera updates

In the photos app, you can now make a sticker for your messages out of a photo from your photo gallery. Just select a photo and hold down what you want to make a sticker out of and image lookup (which was introduced in IOS 15) will automatically cut out the background of the subject and make a sticker for you to use in your messages, e-mails, notes. etc.

There is also a new feature called “iCloud Shared Photo Library,” which lets you share photos with your family and friends to one big photo library saved to iCloud. You can share everything in your library, or specific photos with up to five people. Once the library is made, you can manually add photos to it from the Photos app, or you can automatically share photos to the shared library from the Camera app as soon as you snap a photo. This feature can be toggled on and off, and it can automatically enable when your iPhone detects other family members’ phones around you. Everyone has equal permissions in the library so everyone in the library can edit, delete, and view photos. Captions and keywords are synced too. The content in the shared library will be visible in your memories, featured photos, and photos widget on your home screen.

Wallet updates

In the wallet app, you are able to store your digital credit cards, ID, and drivers license, and now you can use Apple Wallet for even more. Now you can use the wallet app to verify your identity in certain apps that require it such as Uber, and Lyft. The in app ID verification only uses necessary parts of your ID, so instead of using an exact birthday wallet will put that you’re over 21.  You can also share keys that are saved in your Apple Wallet with others. Such as digital car keys, smart house lock keys, hotel room keys, and much more. You can also share keys with people with android devices as well thanks to Apple working with the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) to make key sharing an industry standard in all phones.

Apple has also developed “Tap to Pay,” which is a new way to make contactless payments with your iPhone. Just hold your phone, and credit card to another iPhone running a point of sale app such as Square, and your iPhone will make a transaction from your bank completely over the air and contactless. Apple has also announced “Apple Pay later” which lets you split a large transaction into four payments spread over a six week period with no interest. Apple pay later will be accepted everywhere Apple Pay is accepted, including in app, and online purchases. In addition, all payments are managed through Apple wallet and you can see upcoming payments and manage them to fit your budget. The update is also bring “Apple Pay order tracking,” which lets you track an online order through Apple Pay and Apple wallet.

Maps update

Apple has brought their new map to several big countries including the United States, and Canada, and this year they will be bring the new map to even more places such as Monaco, Luxembourg, and France.

Apple will also be adding “Multistop routing” which lets you plan multiple stops in advance when planning a journey of Apple Maps, and every route that you plan is saved so that you can get back to previous routes quicker and easier. You can also make a route on your Mac and iPad and seNent them to your iPhone or iPad to use in the Maps app and Apple CarPlay. You can even make additional stops to your route while on the road with Siri.

Apple has also added “Transit” to Maps. This lets you view transit fares such as bus, and train fares right from the Maps app. You can also add transit cards to your Apple Wallet and add funds to your transit card right from the Maps app using Apple Pay.

News updates

In the new News app you can now follow your favorite sports teams and get live score coverage straight from the News app with a new feature called “My Sports.” You can also find schedules, game highlights, and standings for your favorite major league and college sports teams right from the News app. Your favorite teams are saved and synced across all of your Apple devices so you can access them anywhere with any device. This new feature will be available in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia, for free.

Privacy Updates

For people stuck in a dangerous situation, Apple has developed a new feature called “Safety Check.” This allows users to review and reset other people’s access to your accounts, Apple ID settings, personal data,and more. In addition, Safety Check stops sharing your location and resets all off the privacy permissions for all of your apps. It also helps you sign out of iCloud on your other devices and restricts messages and FaceTime calls to just your main device. You can manage who you give access to and which apps you give access to as well, and you can update these permissions at any time.

My views

As an Apple fan myself, I believe that all of these features are a great addition to your Apple device. However, there are some critiques and drawbacks that I have found with some of these features.

I think that the shared library is a nice addition to your photos, but it will be a bit difficult to know which photos are shared especially if you turn on automatic sharing. In addition, the new undo send, and delete messages is a huge improvement to the messages and mail apps. But, the person you are messaging has access to an edit and deletion history, so they can see any edits or deletions you’ve made to your iMessage, or e-mail. So be wise and careful of what you edit or delete. I also love the new customizable lock screen, and the new photo circulate wallpaper, which cycles your photos on your wallpaper so every time you turn on your iPhone a new picture appears on your wallpaper. However, I believe that there should be a lock screen cycle feature which cycles through the wallpapers that you’ve selected for a certain focus so that when you turn on your iPhone, a new lock screen appears every time.

Not all of by views are bad however. I especially like the Safety Check feature, and the peace of mind it gives to people in dangerous situations. I’m also a fan of the new lock screen customization features and the new shareplay features as well. As an avid shareplay user, I think it’s great that you can now jump straight into a shareplay app straight from messages and FaceTime.

IOS 16 is available to download for iPhone 8 and later, so if you have an iPhone 7 and lower, you are now unsupported by apple. The update is free and available to download right now, and as of Sept. 14, Apple has already released IOS 16.1, which makes general performance improvements, bug fixes, and more for people who already have IOS 16.