Apple’s new iOS 16 software update is finally here and you can enjoy over 350 new features and changes on your iPhone. There are major improvements to the lock screen and home screen, a nice surprise for the Contacts app, and a host of new updates to Safari, Mail, Messages, and more.
There are so many new features in iOS 16, many of them hidden, that we find more and more every day. Almost every app has a nice surprise for you, so check out all the sections below to see all the latest tools and services.
Apple released iOS 16 to everyone on September 12, the same time that iOS 15.7 was released.
Lock screen
- You can add multiple lock screen wallpapers and switch between them. (more information)
- There is a new gallery of lock screen wallpapers. (more information)
- You can choose a weather lock screen wallpaper that automatically updates when the weather changes. (more information)
- And you can choose an astronomical lock screen wallpaper that automatically updates when astronomical conditions change. (more information)
- The Emoji option in the lock screen wallpaper gallery allows you to set from one to six emoji as your wallpaper in a grid, ring, or spiral pattern. (more information)
- You can choose from solid color or gradient color in five different styles as your lock screen wallpaper. (more information)
- There is a collection of additional wallpapers from Apple including Pride, Unity, Dynamic Options and other designs. (more information)
- The Shuffle Photo option in the lock screen wallpaper gallery lets you automatically change your wallpaper every time you touch or wake iPhone, or every hour or day. You can select images from collections, favorite photos, or manually selected images. (more information)
- You receive suggestions from your photo library when you create custom photo wallpapers. (more information)
- The lock screen wallpaper gallery has a “People”category to help you find images of people faster. (more information)
- Wall mural can be in its natural state or use black and white, duotone, color fills, studio lighting, or a color background filter, depending on the type of photo. (more information)
- Lock screen wallpaper elements can be dynamically displayed before the time. (more information)
- You can change the font and color of the lock screen time. (more information)
- You can add mini widgets above the lock screen time. (more information)
- Under the lock screen time, you can add up to four small widgets or two medium widgets. (more information)
- Third party widgets will work on the lock screen but need to be made by the developers. (more information)
- Each lock screen wallpaper can be assigned focus. (more information)
- You can set or create lock screens from the Focus menu. (more information)
- You can add new lock screens from settings. (more information)
- Your home screen wallpaper will automatically match your lock screen wallpaper, but you can change it to blur version, color/gradient, or any images from Photos. (more information)
- Interactive actions are displayed at the bottom of the lock screen to keep you up to date in real time. (more information)
- Third-party Live Activities will work on the lock screen, but they need to be made by the developers. (more information)
- Now Now Playing controls take up half the space and are now located at the bottom of the screen. (more information)
- The Now Playing album art is displayed above the controls, and the background color of the lock screen is the same as the cover color. (more information)
- New notifications appear at the bottom of the lock screen instead of at the top. (more information)
- There is a new animation when viewing old notifications for an app or theme on the lock screen. (more information)
- You can choose between a list, stack, or counter view for lock screen notifications, either through notification settings or by squeezing lock screen notifications. (more information)
- The timer interface looks better and is displayed at the bottom of the screen. (more information)
home screen
- Spotlight search occupies page points on the home screen. (more information)
- You can return page dots to the main screen. (more information)
- The Spotlight search bar is now above the keyboard. (more information)
- The wallpaper on the home screen automatically matches the background of the lock screen. (more information)
- You can create emoji wallpaper styles for your home screen. (more information)
- You can shuffle personal photos at different intervals for your home screen wallpaper. (more information)
- You can set the weather and astronomy home screen wallpaper, which is automatically updated according to the current conditions. (more information)
- You can choose a different home screen wallpaper for each lock screen. (more information)
- Apple wallpapers can be in focus or blurry on the home screen. (more information)
- You can choose solid colors for your home screen wallpaper. (more information)
- And you can choose color gradients for your home screen wallpaper. (more information)
- Photo wallpapers on the main screen can be black and white. (more information)
- You can set up custom home screen pages to suit each focus you use. (more information)
- You can use the very first Apple clownfish iPhone wallpaper. (more information)
Focus
- You can associate focuses with a specific lock screen and home screen layout.
- Offers an appropriate set of lock screens for the provided focus options, such as a rich data lock screen when you use work focus, or a photo lock screen when you use personal focus.
- Offers home screen pages with apps and widgets best suited to the focus you’re customizing.
- Set borders in Apple apps like Calendar, Mail, Messages, and Safari for each Focus enabled. For example, choose a set of tab groups to display in Safari when you’re in work focus, or hide your work calendar when you’re using personal focus.
- Turn on the Focus automatically at a set time or place, or when using a specific app.
- Get started with Focus with individual settings for each setting.
- When setting up Focus, select the apps and people you want to receive notifications from, either by allowing them or by disabling them.
- Developers can use the signal you use to allow Focus to hide distracting content.
Camera
- You can blur the foreground in portrait photos for a more realistic depth of field effect. This is only available for iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max.
- The depth of field effect has been improved for cinematic video, more accurate for profile angles and around the edges of hair and glasses. This is only available for iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max.
Photo
- You can remove the background to isolate items and use them as stickers or whatever. (more information)
- You can remove and merge duplicate images. (more information)
- You can lock your hidden and recently deleted albums with Face ID or Touch ID. (more information)
- You can access image actions faster. (more information)
- You can copy and paste edits for images and videos. (more information)
- You can batch process images and videos for bulk editing. (more information)
- You can view changes more easily. (more information)
- You can make a Live Photo a static picture faster. (more information)
- You can delete a custom album with less labor. (more information)
- There are quick actions for albums. (more information)
- You can sort people alphabetically. (more information)
- You can undo and redo changes! (more information)
- The Settings link is more visible on the sharing page. (more information)
- There are new types of Memory. (more information)
- You can click to restart the video in Memories. (more information)
- You can turn off music when playing memories. (more information)
- You can turn off recommended content in the For You tab. (more information)
- You can use Live Text in video. (more information)
- And use Live Text Quick Actions. (more information)
- And translate text on photos and videos with the Live Text Translator tool.
- There’s a new shared iCloud Photo Library where anyone can add, edit, add to favorites, add captions, and delete content. (more information)
Messages
- You can edit iMessages within 15 minutes of sending them. (more information)
- You can steal an iMessage back within 15 minutes of sending it. (more information)
- You can mark messages as read or unread. (more information)
- You can show and recover deleted messages. (more information)
- You can now use SharePlay while messaging. (more information)
- You can collaborate on projects with a person or an entire group in Messages. (more information)
- Audio messages get their own application. (more information)
- You can dictate text more easily. (more information)
- You can enter and edit text with active dictation. (more information)
- You will see the content available to you in third party applications. (more information)
- You can use Siri to send messages automatically. (more information)
- Siri can insert emoji into messages for you. (more information)
- You can use Spotlight to search for images in messages. (more information)
- You can respond to Screen Time requests. (more information)
- You can focus on certain conversations when a certain focus is turned on. (more information)
- You can toggle the focus status for each conversation. (more information)
- You can choose which apps to open links in. (more)
- You can easily share your digital keys. (more information)
Reminders
- There are 14 new hairstyles and 3 updated ones for Memoji. (more information)
- There are 9 new nose designs for Memoji. (more information)
- There is a new hat option for Memoji in the headwear section. (more information)
- There are 3 new neutral lip colors for Memoji. (more information)
- Added 6 new expressive poses for Memoji stickers. (more information)
- You can assign any Memoji sticker as a profile picture for yourself or a contact. (more information)
- There are 3 new Memoji sticker poses for profile pictures only. (more information)
Contacts
- You can see unread messages or missed FaceTime calls and phone calls from friends and family right on your home screen.
- Finally you can create, edit and delete groups in Contacts. (more information)
- And finally, you can add and remove people from groups in Contacts. (more information)
- And finally, you can send an email or message to entire groups. (more information)
- You can unsend an email within 10, 20, or 30 seconds after it was sent. (more information)
- You can schedule an automatic email to be sent at any time. (more information)
- Mail may ask you to reply to emails you sent that you never received a response to. (more information)
- Mail can remind you to check email later like a snooze feature. (more information)
- More mailboxes are available for Send Later, Track, and Remind. (more information)
- Blocking senders is much easier. (more information)
- You’ll receive alerts when Mail detects missing attachments or recipients in emails you’re trying to send. (more information)
- As with Posts, there are enhanced link previews. (more information)
- Mail will highlight search terms in search results. (more information)
- You’ll get smart search suggestions before you even start searching. (more information)
- Search recognizes spelling errors and includes synonyms to give you more accurate results. (more information)
- Mail supports BIMI logos for brands that digitally verify that emails were sent by brands and not by spammers or hackers. (more information)
Safari
- You can collaborate with other users in tab groups. (more information)
- You can pin tabs to tab groups. (more information)
- You can add favorites to the start page of each tab group. (more information)
- You can see recently closed tabs for each tab group. (more information)
- Set custom backgrounds for each tab group. (more information)
- Easily copy objects from online images to isolate them from the background. (more information)
- Sync all your extensions across devices connected to iCloud. (more information)
- Get push notifications for websites – in the 2023 update. (more information)
- Sync your website settings across devices connected to iCloud. (more information)
- You can change the suggested strong passwords. (more information)
- There is an updated search tool for web pages. (more information)
- You can get English translations from internet images. (more information)
- The video has Live Text, which works when paused on a frame. (more information)
- You can display specific tab groups with focus filters. (more information)
- Shortcuts have a lot of new actions for Safari. (more information)
Access keys
- Work without a password with Apple’s new passkeys, which use a public and private key to sign in to websites and apps with Face ID or Touch ID. (more information)
- Passkeys are synced across your iCloud-connected devices, so you can sign in from any Apple device. (more information)
- Passkeys even work on third party devices, but you need to use your iPhone to scan a QR code to sign in. (Additional Information)
Music
- Follow the artists you like the most with new music notifications and improved recommendations.
Podcasts
- Get faster access to more of your CarPlay library. It’s easier to find downloaded and saved episodes and view the latest episodes of the shows you follow.
TV App
- Online activities allow you to follow your sports scores and play the game right on your lock screen, a feature coming later this year.
News
- Get more detailed coverage from your local city and leading newspapers with homepages.
- Local news is available in more markets, and local news can be found in the Top Stories section and the Today widget.
- Quickly access the channels and topics that interest you most with a customizable Favorites group in the Today feed.
- Follow your favorite teams, leagues and athletes with Apple News. Customize your My Sports feed to get the latest news, highlights, and scores, schedules, and standings for your favorite teams and leagues.
Notes
- You can create and use quick notes. (more information)
- You can lock notes with your iPhone’s passcode. (more information)
- Folder creation has a new look. (more information)
- There are more smart folder filters. (more information)
- The folder options also have a new look. (more information)
- You can group notes by date. (more information)
- The sharing options also have a new look. (more information)
- You can collaborate with anyone who has a link. (more information)
- You can start a chat right from Shared Notes. (more information)
- There are extended invitations to cooperation. (more information)
- You can easily find collaboration in messages. (more information)
- There is a new folder called Shared Notes. (more information)
- You can add text, captions, and shapes as you draw. (more information)
Reminders
- Finally, you can pin the lists. (more information)
- You can create and use list templates. (more information)
- There is a new smart list for all completed reminders. (more information)
- Smartlists are easier to hide by default. (more information)
- You can format the text in your notes using bold, italic, and underline. (more information)
- You can format the text in your notes using bulleted, numbered, or dotted lists. (more information)
- You can search the web for any selected text. (more information)
- Smart lists “Today”and “Scheduled”are organized. (more information)
- You can add today’s items to the reminder badge counter. (more information)
- List groups have a new view that allows you to see all the reminders in the group at the same time. (more information)
- You can receive notifications for shared lists. (more information)
- You can filter reminders by any tag, not just all tags. (more information)
- You can filter out reminders with specific tags. (more information)
Weather
- Now you can add up to 50 locations to the Weather instead of 20. (More)
- You can add eight different weather widgets to your lock screens. (more information)
- You can set a weather wallpaper on your lock screen that will update based on local weather conditions. (more information)
- You can receive notifications from the Weather app for Severe Weather warnings in your area. You can turn it on or off in the weather settings. (more information)
- There’s also a “Rainfall next hour”notification option from the Weather app. You can also turn it on or off in the weather settings. (more information)
- Notifications for bad weather and precipitation in the next hour can be configured for each location. (more information)
- Clicking on a module in the Weather app opens a more detailed view with additional information. Supported modules include air quality, hourly forecast, 10-day forecast, UV index, wind, precipitation, feel, humidity, visibility, pressure, and sunrise/sunset. (more information)
- The expanded weather air quality view displays a map. (more information)
- You can now view the 10-day forecast for most modules in the Weather app. (more information)
- You can switch between modules directly in the more detailed weather view using the dropdown selector. (more information)
- The weather map view has forecast maps for the next hour, not just 12 hours. (more information)
- The entire Report a Problem module can be clicked instead of the Learn More link. (more information)
- The iPad version of Weather is finally here. (more information)
- Apple Weather data is available to third-party apps and services with the new WeatherKit. (more information)
Labels
- You can launch shortcuts to third-party apps through Siri without any configuration. (more information)
- You can launch more shortcuts from Spotlight. (more information)
- The My Shortcuts tab is now just Shortcuts. (more information)
- There is a new “App Shortcuts”section for all pre-programmed shortcuts available in apps; You can find it by clicking “Shortcuts”or “Back”on the new “Shortcuts”tab. (more information)
- You can disable the display of application shortcuts in Spotlight. (more information)
- There’s a new list view for shortcuts, so you’re not stuck with just a cumbersome grid. (more information)
- You can reorder lists by name, number of actions, last modified, or missing. (more information)
- Other apps group the available actions into categories for easy browsing. (more information)
- The title bar in the label editor has been reduced. (more information)
- Now you can only access shortcut details from Quick Actions. (more information)
- You can launch the shortcut from the quick actions menu. (more information)
- “Suggestions for next steps”can be hidden in the editor. (more information)
- The icon picker loses its tabbed design for scrollable browsing. (more information)
- You can now search for glyphs by name in the icon picker. (more information)
- Some glyphs in the icon palette have been updated. (more information)
- Now you click “Done”in the editor instead of the “X”button. (more information)
- There are 7 more actions in the Books app. (more information)
- There are 3 more actions in the Mail app. (more information)
- The Maps app has 3 more activities and a few name changes. (more information)
- There are 2 more actions in the Messages app. (more information)
- The Notes app has 13 more activities and a few name changes. (more information)
- There are 3 more actions and one name change in the Reminders app. (more information)
- There are 6 more actions in the Safari app. (more information)
- There are 4 more actions in the Shortcuts app. (more information)
- There are 9 more actions in the Voice Memos app. (more information)
- New actions are available for scripts, media, documents, clocks, and files. (more information)
- The “Show in Calendar”action for the calendar is now “Open in Calendar”. (more information)
Living text
- Text is fully interactive in paused video frames, so you can copy and paste, search for information, and translate languages—works in Photos, Quick View, Safari, and more.
- Data found in photos and videos can be acted upon with a single tap, so you can track flights or deliveries, translate foreign languages, convert currencies, and more.
- Adds recognition of Japanese, Korean and Ukrainian text.
visual search
- Lift the subject from the image or isolate it by removing the background. It works in Photos, Screenshot, Quick View, Safari, and more—available on iPhones with A12 Bionic and later.
- Visual Look Up adds the ability to recognize birds, insects, spiders and statues – available on iPhone with A12 Bionic and later.
Searchlight
- Spotlight can be accessed right from the bottom of the home screen, making it easy to open apps, search for contacts, or get information from the web.
- Recent searches allow you to quickly return to a result. Siri suggestions are now context-aware, so you can take actions like moving to your next meeting or checking the status of an upcoming flight more quickly.
- Spotlight uses information from images in messages, notes, and files to provide searches by location, people, scenes, or even objects in images, such as text, a dog, or a car. – Only local files on the device. Live Text Photo Search is available on iPhones with A12 Bionic and later.
- Use Spotlight to take action quickly. Start a timer, turn on Focus, find the name of a song with Shazam, launch any shortcut, and more. Search for the app’s name to see the shortcuts available for the app, or create your own with the Shortcuts app.
Siri
- Siri can launch shortcuts from your apps without any configuration.
- Skip the confirmation step when sending messages. You can enable this feature in the settings.
- Insert emoji when sending messages using Siri – available on iPhone with A12 Bionic and later.
- Discover the power of Siri in iOS and apps by asking, “Hey Siri, what can I do here?”You can also learn about a specific app by saying, for example, “Hey Siri, what can I do with iRobot?”- Available on iPhone with A12 Bionic and later.
- Siri can help you hang up hands-free. Just say “Hey Siri, hang up”(the callers will hear you). You can enable this feature in settings – it’s available on iPhones with A12 Bionic and later.
- Siri handles more types of requests offline without an internet connection, including home control (HomeKit), intercom, and voicemail – available on iPhone with A12 Bionic and later.
Dictation
- You can seamlessly switch between voice and touch while dictating on your device. (more information)
- You can insert emoji using your voice while dictating. (more information)
- There’s a new dictation button that appears above the cursor to make it easy to stop it. (more)
- You no longer need to say “dot”or “question mark”because it will automatically place punctuation marks such as periods, commas and question marks. (more information)
Cards
- You can schedule up to 15 navigation stops per trip. (more information)
- You can add additional stops while navigating, not just for coffee or gas. (more information)
- Transit rates will be displayed when planning a trip to supported locations. (more information)
- You can add transit cards to Wallet directly from Maps. (more information)
- You can view and reload your transit balances. (more information)
- VoiceOver can determine starting points. (more information)
- Avoid hills, busy roads and stairs when walking. (more information)
- Quick access to quick links for places so you can quickly call a place, view its website, share, etc. (more information)
- You can allow businesses to use the photos you upload to Maps. (more information)
- Switching between miles and kilometers has gone beyond Maps. (more information)
- Eleven more countries receive improved maps. (more information)
- Seven more cities receive detailed impressions. (more information)
Apple Pay and Wallet
- Divide your purchase with Apple Pay Later into four payments over six weeks with no interest or fees—later this year.
- Securely share your Apple Wallet keys with people you trust through your favorite messaging apps like Messages, Mail, or WhatsApp, coming later this year.
- Share your identity information on apps that require identity and age verification. Applications will only ask for the information they need to complete the transaction. You will be able to view this request, and your data will be transferred only after authorization using Face ID or Touch ID. – Available on iPhone 8 and later and Apple Watch Series 4 and later.
- The Daily Cash Center, part of the Apple Card, will help you learn how to earn Daily Cash, view your lifetime Daily Cash earnings, track your progress towards offers, and find the latest Bonus Daily Cash sellers.
- Apple Cash payment requests make it easy to manage active payment requests from your Apple Cash card in Wallet.
- US customers will be able to share verified information from their Wallet ID in apps that require age or identity verification.
- You no longer need to add a new hotel key to Wallet for every new booking: one key allows you to register and unlock your room for all your upcoming stays at hotels of the same brand.
- You can now securely add new keys to your iPhone and Apple Watch directly from the website in Safari without downloading the app.
- Click the “+”button in Wallet to see a list of all the keys you own and choose which ones you want to add to your new device.
- Apple Pay Order Tracking allows users to receive detailed receipts and order tracking information in Wallet for Apple Pay purchases from participating merchants.
- Merchant tokens allow you to securely set up and complete pre-authorized or recurring Apple Pay payments.
- You can now enter purchase amounts for multiple merchants on the same Apple Pay billing sheet. This allows you to make complex purchases, such as a travel package with flight, car rental and hotel, and then send payments to individual merchants.
- The shortcut menu (available for certain passes and cards) allows users to access many backpass features with a single touch.
- Customers can top up their account balance from their Apple Account card in Wallet.
House
- The Home app has a brand new design that makes it easy to navigate, organize, view and manage all your accessories. Enhancements to the core architecture increase the performance of your smart home and make it more efficient and reliable. — At the end of this year.
- Take a look at your entire home in the updated Home tab. Rooms and favorite accessories are integrated into the app’s main tab, making it easy to access the accessories you use most often.
- Lighting, Climate, Security, Speakers & TVs, and Water categories provide quick access to all relevant accessories organized by room, as well as more detailed status information.
- The Home tab displays up to four camera images front and center, and by scrolling you can see any additional camera images in your home.
- Accessory tiles have been redesigned to make various accessories more visually recognizable in shape and color. Accessories can be controlled directly from their tiles by tapping the tile icon, or you can tap the accessory’s name for more detailed control.
- Enhancements to the underlying architecture provide faster and more reliable performance, especially for homes with lots of smart accessories. Communicate with connected accessories and control them more efficiently from multiple devices at the same time using the Home app. — At the end of this year.
- New iPhone lock screen widgets let you see the status of your home and quickly access your favorite accessories right from the lock screen.
- Matter is the new smart home connectivity standard that will allow compatible accessories to work seamlessly together across platforms. Matter lets you choose from even more compatible smart home accessories and control them using the Home app and Siri on your Apple devices. — At the end of this year.
Health
- Create a Medication List to keep track of the medications, vitamins, and supplements you take. And add your own visuals to make them easy to remember.
- You can quickly add your medications using the iPhone’s camera. Just place the drug label in the frame and you will see results for drug name, strength and shape. – Available on iPhone XS, iPhone XR and later.
- Create custom schedules and reminders for each medication, whether you take your medication multiple times a day, once a week, or as needed.
- Log when you took your medications from a reminder, or record your medications right in the Health app. Interactive charts help you understand when you’ve taken your medications and give you insight into your medication adherence.
- Educational content about the medications you are taking gives you more context, including how the name is pronounced, what the medication is used for, how it works, and possible side effects.
- Taking some medicines together can make them less effective or cause side effects. To help with this, when you add a new drug, you will receive an alert if a critical interaction occurs. You can view critical, severe, and moderate interactions in the Health app.
- Invite your loved ones to share their health data with you securely. Once they receive your invitation, they will be able to choose what data to share.
- You may receive a notification if your recorded menstrual cycles show infrequent periods, irregular periods, long periods, or persistent spotting.
Stock
- View the date of the company’s upcoming earnings report and add it to your calendar.
- Create multiple custom watchlists to organize the tickers you follow. Group symbols according to any criteria you choose, such as sector, asset type, ownership status, etc.
- Use the new two-column layout in the Medium and Large Stocks widget to see even more symbols.
iCloud+
- The Hide My Email feature is integrated directly into QuickType keyboard hints, so you can hide your personal email address in third-party apps.
- Share your personal domain with people outside of your Family Sharing group, buy a new domain, or turn on aliases for everyone right in your iCloud Mail settings.
family exchange
- Set up an account for your child with the right parental controls right from the start, including easy-to-use and age-appropriate guidelines for limiting media usage.
- Use Quick Start to easily set up a new iOS or iPadOS device for your child with all the necessary parental controls.
- Screen time requests from your kids now show up in messages so they’re easy to approve or decline.
- The Family Checklist contains helpful tips and suggestions, such as updating your child’s settings as they grow up, turning on location sharing, or just a reminder that you can share your iCloud+ subscription with everyone.
Confidentiality
- The security check in settings helps people in situations of domestic violence or intimate partner violence quickly reset the access they have given others. It also helps you manage which people and apps you’ve given access to.
- Apps need your permission before accessing the pasteboard to paste content from another app.
- Stream video directly from devices that support streaming protocols other than AirPlay without having to provide Bluetooth or permission to access the local network.
Safety
- Get important security improvements for your devices even faster. These improvements may be applied automatically between standard software updates.
- Face ID works in landscape on supported iPhone models.
- Lockdown mode provides maximum protection for a very small number of users who face serious targeted threats to their digital security. This further strengthens the protection of your device and severely restricts some features, drastically reducing the attack surface that can potentially be exploited by highly targeted spyware for hire.
- Bypass CATPHA in apps and websites. (more information)
Availability
- Fully control your Apple Watch from your iPhone and use Switch Control, voice control, or any other assistive features on your iPhone to get the most out of your Apple Watch.
- Get detailed descriptions of your surroundings with the new magnifier mode which includes door detection, people detection and image descriptions. – Available for Pro models only.
- Find the door, read the signs or labels around it and get instructions on how to open the door. – Available on iPhone 11 and later.
- Combine input from multiple game controllers into one so your doctor or friend can help you take your game to the next level.
- Siri can help you hang up hands-free. Just say “Hey Siri, hang up”(the callers will hear you). You can enable this feature in the settings. – Available on iPhone with A12 Bionic processor and later.
- You can now end phone and FaceTime calls using voice control. Just use the “hang up” voice command when voice control is on (participants in the conversation will hear you).
- Transcriptions are generated automatically in real time for deaf or hard of hearing users to make it easier for them to follow conversations, audio and video. – Available on iPhone 11 and later.
- Watch automatically transcribed conversations integrated into your FaceTime video calls. With speaker attribution, it’s easy to follow group conversations. – Available on iPhone 11 and later.
- New themes and customization options, such as making text bold, adjusting line, character, and word spacing, and more.
- VoiceOver and Spoken Content are now available in over 20 additional languages and languages including Bangla (India), Bulgarian, Catalan, Ukrainian and Vietnamese. You can also choose from dozens of new voices optimized for assistive features.
- Use Siri to report iPhone notifications on Made for iPhone hearing aids.
- Set how long Siri waits for you to finish speaking before answering your request.
- Turn on or turn off auto-answering phone and FaceTime calls with Siri.
- VoiceOver users now receive automatic audible and tactile feedback that determines the starting point of a walking route in Maps.
- Dictate names, addresses, or other custom spellings letter by letter using voice control.23
- Save your preferred magnifier controls including camera, brightness, contrast, filters and more for repetitive tasks and situations.
- Import audiograms to the Health app on iPhone.
- Teach iPhone to listen for sounds that are specific to your surroundings, such as the beep of an electrical appliance in the kitchen, the clear ringing of a doorbell in your home, and more.
Keyboard
- An additional layout called Changyong is now available for Shuangpin users.
- QuickPath is now supported for Traditional Chinese typing using pinyin.
- Users can now enter Cantonese words and phrases using Jyutping and other phonetic methods.
- Type Sichuan words and phrases with Sichuan Chinese Pinyin Keyboard.
- AutoCorrect supports three new languages: English (New Zealand), English (South Africa), and Kazakh.
- Search emoji in 19 new languages including Albanian, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Bangla, Burmese, Estonian, Filipino, Georgian, Icelandic, Khmer, Lao, Latvian, Lithuanian, Marathi, Mongolian, Punjabi, Tamil, Urdu and Uzbek (Latin).
- Keyboard layouts are now available for Apache, Dzongkha, Samoan, and Yiddish.
- Turn on keyboard haptics to feel validated as you type.
Application Clips
- Find and download more immersive app clips with a 50 percent larger size limit.
- Use live action with app clips. — At the end of this year.
- View recommended app clips nearby with improved location accuracy in Spotlight and the Siri Suggestions widget.
Books
- The reading interface has changed a bit. (more information)
- You can quickly go to a previously viewed page. (more information)
- You can get out of the book faster. (more information)
- The Reading menu is now an always available button. (more information)
- Remaining pages and progress status work differently. (more information)
- Bookmarks and Highlights have their own button. (more information)
- There are 3 new page themes. (more information)
- And more dark theme options. (more information)
- The vertical scroll option is now a small button. (more information)
- There are new accessibility and layout options. (more information)
- You can move the Reading menu to the left. (more information)
- You can always show your status bar. (more information)
- The brightness slider has been removed. (more information)
- No more realistic page flip animation. (more information)
- You can use quick actions for workbooks instead of the shared worksheet. (more information)
- There is a redesigned full-screen audiobook player. (more information)
- And a new mini-player for audiobooks. (more information)
- You can expand the audiobook preview to a full-screen player. (more information)
- The Now Playing window appeared on the lock screen. (more information)
face time
- Easily transfer FaceTime calls from iPhone to Mac or iPad and vice versa. When you switch a call, the connected Bluetooth headset switches to the new device at the same time.
- See which of your installed apps support SharePlay and open them using the FaceTime controls, or see what’s new to share with friends in the App Store.
- Press the Share button during an active FaceTime call to start collaborating with other call participants in Files, Keynote, Numbers, Pages, Notes, Reminders, Safari, and supported third-party apps. View automatically transcribed conversations integrated into your FaceTime video calls. With speaker attribution, it’s easy to follow group conversations. – Available in beta in English (Canada, US) on iPhone 11 and later, iPad with A12 Bionic and later, and Mac with Apple Silicon.
game center
- View your friends’ in-game activity and achievements in one place with a redesigned dashboard and Game Center profile.
- Games that use Game Center multiplayer support have SharePlay integration. You can automatically start playing with your friends during a FaceTime call. — At the end of this year.
- Contacts show your friends’ profiles in Game Center. Tap to see what they’re playing and what they’re up to in games. — At the end of this year.
Translate
- Translate text near you using the camera in the Translator app. Pause to have translations overlap text in photos and zoom in for a closer look, or translate text in photos from your photo library.
- Added support for Turkish, Thai, Vietnamese, Polish, Indonesian and Dutch in the Translator app and system-wide translation.
Miscellaneous
- Everyone can have the Fitness app, no Apple Watch required.
- The Apple Books widget for the home screen and Today view is finally here. (more information)
- You can view and copy saved Wi-Fi passwords in plain text. (more information)
- Now in the screenshot editor, you can choose one of 5 Pixel Eraser sizes.
- Five new bilingual dictionaries are available: Bangla-English, Czech-English, Finnish-English, Hungarian-English and Turkish-English.
- Choose an address term for Canadian French, European French, Italian, and Brazilian Portuguese to personalize your device. In the “Language and Region”settings, you can choose how you want to be addressed in the system: feminine, masculine, or neuter.
- You can now access collections by topic and interest in the Tips app.
- By clicking on the label field while editing or adding an alarm in the Clock, you can change the name right here without opening a new window.
- New system languages have appeared, including Bulgarian and Kazakh.
- Songs identified using Music Recognition in the Control Center now sync to the Shazam app.
- Songs identified with Siri now sync with the Shazam app and Music Recognition in Control Center.