Apple's iOS 16 just dropped this morning, along with MacOS 12.6 (not yet Ventura), watchOS 9.0 and tvOS 16. In addition, Apple also released iOS 15.7, which, along with iOS 16, fixed vulnerabilities which may have been exploited in the wild. So, if you are still iOS 16 shy, go grab the iOS 15.7 security update ASAP.
I have iOS 16 beta on a test iPhone 12 Pro Max, but having it on my main device, iPhone 13 Pro, is actually where the game begins (since it is on my main AppleID!). Here is a short list of my favorite iOS 16 features so far.
Lock Screen
This is the most obvious one! Yeah, Apple finally allowed its users some degree of customization, but as haters will say, not quite at par with the competing platform. Anyway, in addition to being able to change the wallpaper, iOS 16 added some customizable widgets. If you are familiar with how the Apple Watch watch faces can be customized with complications, iOS 16 brings a similar feature to the iPhone. You can tap, hold and swipe to change it. You can, of course, also change the screen automatically, depending on your Focus settings. Right now, I have a weather-based Lock Screen whilst in Work Focus mode, a photo of me and my daughter when in Personal Focus mode, and thinking of emojis wall paper during weekends and holidays!
Messages
No, there is no support for Rich Communications Services (RCS), i.e., green bubbles remain green! Ha! Anyway, the long overdue new features that I like are EDIT, UNREAD Group threads, and UNDO Send. Undo send, however, only works as intended when recipients are on iOS 16 as well, otherwise, you cannot undo what you have sent! I don't think I'd use Undo that often, but EDIT is heaven-sent!
Mail
Mail also received two (2) features, Remind Me and Send Later, that are perfect for my predominantly online working setup. I have three (3) mail clients running on my iPhone: Mail, Fastmail and Proton.Me. Fastmail recently added the Send Later function. I use this to schedule work related email to be sent at 8AM the next day or the following work day. Whilst Apple's Send Later setup seems similar to Fastmail or other mail clients, Apple is doing this on device, not on the cloud, for security and privacy reasons. Downside to this is that your device should be online when it is time to send it, otherwise, it will be sent on a later time.
Live Text in video
Live Text in photos was extremely useful and I use it often (pulling up phone numbers and email from posters, copy and paste from a paper I am reading, copying Zoom passcodes, etc.). iOS 16 brings Live Text in video now. Pause the video and boom! Think of copying subtitles from your favorite video, or translating foreign words from a video tour you are watching for your next vacation! Personally, it is more for those video tutorials where I can copy code and paste it on my favorite Tot app.
Passkeys
I have been enjoying using the TouchID and FaceID as a second-factor authentication when logging in to online services. Passkeys will completely remove that need for the password! I am looking forward to using this on all major online services.
Photos
Photos now have two (2) new features that definitely make my list of favorites: batch edit and deduplicate. Batch edit allows you to copy your edits and corrections from one photo, and apply those on to other photos - simply do your usual photo editing, hit Copy Edits, and then select another photo or photos to apply the same on the images! Cool, eh?
Deduplication, as the term implies, locates duplicates and allows remove one (or more) to save space, or just leave the copies alone. This comes in handy specially for me, as I usually shoot at least two photos of family and friends every time - just to be sure.
In addition to these two, there is a fun, nifty, little feature that slid in Photos, and that is the ability to lift any photo subject and detach it from the background. Think of it like third-party applications that allow you to draw a lasso or something on the object and remove it from the entire photo - now think of making this magical by simply tapping and hold on the image and lifting it! Yes, this Photos feature is probably the most fun new addition, and will be used more often, specially when lifting the object and pasting it on Messages like a sticker!
Shortcuts
I have yet to check out the new Shortcut functions that were added, but one thing that was added that makes using Shortcuts easier is App Shortcuts. App Shortcuts are shortcuts created by the app developers that are ready to be used by anyone, even without tinkering with some coding. I cannot wait for third-party applications to support this!
FaceID
This one does not work on old iPhone models, unfortunately, but having FaceID work whilst on landscape mode is super convenient. Tried it on iPhone 12 Pro and it did not work, but worked on iPhone 13 Pro.
There you go - my favorite new iOS 16 features. I was hoping for Freeform, the new app to drop along with iOS 16, too, but unfortunately it didn't. Anyway, iOS 16 has dozens more features that are waiting for me to explore, like Focus Filters, Shortcuts functions, and more health and fitness functions!
So, have you upgraded to iOS 16 already? What are you waiting for?