Apple announced that its latest operating system, iOS 16 is set for release on 12 September.
Source: Apple
Brand New Lock Screen UI
Reimagine your Lock Screen with the all-new personalisation tools available. Showcase your favourite photos, customize font styles to whatever you like, and display a set of widgets to get access to information important to your lifestyle at a glance.
Source: Apple
Multiple Lock Screens
You can now highly customize your different Lock Screens, each with a backdrop and style of your choice – and easily toggle between them based on your mood.
Source: Apple
All-New Notification View
Notifications will also be in an expandable list view, stacked view or hidden view right at the bottom of your Lock Screen – so they don’t block your beautiful wallpaper or disrupt your view of the Lock Screen in any way.
Source: Apple
Focus Mode
If you don’t already use this, expect to use this newly streamlined setup for Focus which allows you to select the apps and people you want to receive notifications from, by allowing or silencing them – whichever you prefer. With iOS 16, you can now connect your Lock Screen to your Focus, so that the overall look and feel of your iPhone matches how you prefer to use it as and when you like. With a single swipe, you can go from your Personal Focus, to Work Focus, to Weekend Focus – you can rename your Focus and even set a customized emoji for each Focus, just the way you like it. We talked about this in our iPad Productivity piece too!
Source: Apple
iCloud Shared Photo Library
Redefine the way you share photos with your family with the all-new iCloud Shared Photo Library, coming later this year to the iOS 16. I’d imagine this would be in the subsequent updates of the iOS.
Source: Apple
Smarter Ways To Share Photos
With Shared Photo Library, you can easily select to contribute past photos based on a specific start date or the people in those photos. Once you set up a shared library, you can instantly share photos directly from Camera, choose to share automatically when other shared library members are in close proximity, and get smart suggestions for adding photos to the shared library in For You. Talk about skipping the hassle to individually select photos to share with your loved ones!
Source: Apple
Brand New Message Hack
I’m not gonna lie, this excites me the most. Ever wish you could easily edit an embarrassing typo in a Message you sent to your coworker? Now, with iOS 16, you can. You can now edit a message you just sent, or unsend a recent message if the content was inaccurate.. or too emotionally charged. You can even mark a message as unread, if you can’t respond instantly but accidentally read it. Now you can ‘backsies!’ if you accidentally sent a message you’d live to regret later.
Source: Apple
Health App Updates
The brand new Medications feature in the Health app allows you to easily manage and track the medications you take. No more forgetting to take that medication on time!
You can also send loved ones an invite to securely share their information stored in the Health app.
Source: Apple
Fitness App
The Fitness app can help you track and meet all of your fitness goals… Even if you don’t own an Apple Watch. Leveraging on improved iPhone motion sensors, your daily steps, distance, and third-party workouts like F45 will give you an estimated amount of calories to contribute to your daily move goal seamlessly. No more excuses not to clock in that regular workout routine you’ve been putting off since forever.
Source: Apple
Family Sharing
If you have kids who either use your iPhone for entertainment, or own an Apple device themselves – you can now easily create accounts for them with the right parental controls. Set your preferences for age-appropriate media, Screen Time, location sharing, and more. Screen Time requests from your kids will also appear in iMessages, so approving or declining a request is as simple as a tap on your screen.
You can also easily set up a new device for your kids using Quick Start – with all the appropriate parental controls already in place. Talk about ease of connectivity!
I’m currently on iOS 16 beta – and it truly is a step above the previous iOS updates and has increased my productivity on my iPhone.
There’s a lot more that iOS 16 will bring to users on 12 September, so keep your eyes peeled!
