iOS 16.0 turned out to be surprisingly buggy. But Apple will get the better of your pain – iOS 16.1 fixes a bunch of bugs while adding some cool new features to your iPhone.
Video: Everything new in iOS 16.1
Apple has delayed some of the features that were supposed to launch with iOS 16.0, which is never a good sign. On the iPad side, iPadOS 16.0 is so full of bugs that Apple decided to skip iPadOS 16.0 altogether and jump straight to iPadOS 16.1.
Our vlogger Michael Billig (@twitter.com/michael_billig) is so excited about these bugs that he created an entire video about all the bug fixes and changes in iOS 16.1.
Before we get to the fixes, let’s explore the new features in iOS 16.1, shall we?
1. Wallpaper setting
In the Settings → Wallpaper menu, you can scroll through all the lock screens and the home screen. You can also start creating your lock or home screen from there. In iOS 16.0, you could only edit your lock screens from the lock screen.
2. Percent change in battery charge
iOS 16.1 introduces a battery percentage display feature on smaller, previously unsupported devices such as the iPhone 11, iPhone 12 mini, and iPhone 13 mini. The battery indicator on the status bar has also been made more legible by filling the battery icon.
3. Loading content in the app
A new toggle in Settings → App Store allows downloadable apps to immediately receive additional content from servers before they even launch. This is great for large games that make you wait on first launch until resources such as graphics and levels are loaded.
4. Lock screen charging indicator
Now, when you connect your iPhone to a power source, the current battery percentage is briefly displayed right above the time. As it was before, so it should be.
5. Action API
iOS 16.1 allows third-party apps to integrate with Live Activity, a new Apple feature that displays live data, such as sports scores, on the lock screen and in Dynamic Island.
6. Device icon in the Music app
In iOS 16.1, when you connect your headphones to your device, a corresponding glyph is displayed at the bottom of the interface. So if you plug in your Beats Fit Pro, you’ll see exactly that in terms of iconography. Prior to iOS 16.1, the audio output menu was represented by an icon reminiscent of AirDrop.
7. Charging with clean energy
This new iOS 16.1 toggle in Settings → Battery will activate the new clean energy charging feature. Apple says this reduces your carbon footprint by allowing your iPhone to selectively charge when lower-carbon electricity is available.
“In your region, the iPhone will attempt to reduce your carbon footprint by selectively charging when lower-carbon electricity is available,” the description reads. “The iPhone learns from your daily charging route, so it can be fully charged before you need to use it.”Read: How to quickly access Wallet and Apple Pay on the lock screen
8. The wallet app is removable
You can now uninstall the iOS 16.1 Wallet app if you don’t need it: enter jiggle mode on the home screen and press “x”to remove the app from your device. Note that it’s not worth it if your only goal is to free up storage space. Deleting stock Apple apps only removes the icon on the home screen, leaving all dependencies intact, so you get a negligible savings in terms of storage space.
After you take a screenshot in iOS 16.1, you can click on the thumbnail to edit the screenshot. It’s the same as before. What has changed is what happens when you click the Done button in the top left corner.
Prior to iOS 16.1, this created a share menu with multiple options. In iOS 16.1, this menu is now displayed at the top of the interface, so you don’t have to move your finger from top to bottom when calling up this menu.
Major annoying bugs fixed in iOS 16.1
I never mind software bugs as they are a fact of life.
I also never complain if a major release of iOS breaks a few things before fixing them again, because I understand the nature and complexity of operating systems.
But Michael realized something when he complained about the many bugs that ruined his experience with iOS 16. I can’t say I’m in the same boat because these teething issues don’t seem to happen that often on my iPhone 14 Pro Max..
However, I’ve come across almost all the bugs that are, well, Michael’s bugs. Just the other day, for example, my phone’s always-on display turned off and I couldn’t turn it back on without rebooting. This is the only random freeze I’ve had so far.
The speaker is very loud for a short while while typing – something I’ve experienced on my device maybe twice. I remember this particular bug showed up on my last two phones, so it’s not new, but I wish Apple had fixed it already.
On the other hand, music playing long after the running app was killed is something I experienced almost every day. It’s so annoying that I stopped listening to music on my new phone. Michael says that iOS 16.0 caused his home accessories to respond sluggishly, but I didn’t notice. He also had mixed experiences with AirDrop (me too!), as the feature seems to be very slow and unreliable in iOS 16.0.
Michael says that even the current iOS 16.1 beta has fixed the aforementioned bugs for him. In fact, he says iOS 16.1 beta 3 is much more reliable than the shipping version of iOS 16.0, and that’s saying a lot!