iOS 16 System Features Supported Devices

iOS 16 System Features | Supported Devices

iOS 16 is the 16th and current major version of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple for its iPhone products. It was announced at the company's Global Developers Conference on June 6, 2022, as the successor to iOS 15.

The first developer beta was released on June 6, 2022, with the first public beta released on July 11, 2022. The public version iOS 16 was released on September 2022.

iOS 16 is very similar to iPad OS 16. It is the first iOS version that only works on iPhones, dropping support for the seventh generation iPod Touch.

Updates

The first beta version of the iOS 16 developer was released on June 6, 2022. IOS 16 was officially released in September 2022.

iOS 16

System features

Freeform

Freeform is a whiteboard app that lets users collaborate together in real time.

Lock screen

The lock screen theme is now customizable and can host widgets. The font and text color can be customized for the date and time and color effects can be applied to the lock screen. The date is now higher than the time and a small widget can be added next to the date. Other widgets can be added and arranged horizontally in the third row.

Multiple lock screens can be set up.

Live wallpapers have been removed due to the new click-and-hold gesture that would allow users to customize their lock screen.

The lock screen now also supports landscape mode, arranging items horizontally instead of vertically when the phone orientation is horizontal.

Improved focus mode

 

Different lock screens can be set up based on the active focus.

Focus filters allow applications to display different content based on active focus. For example, Safari can view open tabs related to work only if the user is in the work focus, and the "Mail" application can view emails that do not come from work contacts only if they are not included in the list allowed for work.

It is now possible to create lists of applications and contacts that should be silenced and allowed.

Notifications can now appear from the bottom of the lock screen.

It is possible to display notifications in three different styles: count, stack or list. Notifications can be grouped with two fingers to reduce them to a counter.

There are new notification widgets for the lock screen that display data in real time, allowing the user to constantly follow events without being overwhelmed by separate notifications.

Control Center

The new drop-down menu in the "Control Center" displays all applications that have recently accessed the camera, microphone or location, and switches the new Control Center for quick notes.

The Shazam voice recognition feature now integrates its history with the history of the main Shazam app, instead of separating the history.

Tape

The status bar can now display the percentage of battery on iPhones with Face ID, so the user does not need to drag the Control Center to see it.

Settings in landscape mode

The Settings application now also supports landscape mode, displaying on the left the settings menu and on the right the current Open setup page.

Improved dictation

During text dictation, the keyboard is always present and allows the user to switch from speech to handwriting and vice versa without interruption. It is also possible to insert emojis through dictation. Automatic punctuation marks automatically insert a dot when there is a pause in dictation.

Enhanced live text

The ability to select and process text in videos.

Quick actions are commands that are available directly on live text. It is possible to make price conversions to another currency or translate text on the fly.

Support expanded to Japanese, Korean and Ukrainian.

Enhanced visual search

Visual search is now able to extract objects and people identified in photos. It can be interacted with to do things like drag and drop it into other apps.

Siri improvements

It is possible to end Cellular and FaceTime calls by simply saying "Hey Siri, hang up ".

Siri can now announce notifications on megaphone.

Spotlight

A new button for accessing Spotlight directly from the Home screen.

The search input text box is now installed on the keyboard, instead of on top, in order to be more accessible using the phone with one hand.

It produces more photos from applications such as messages, notes and files.

Quick actions such as starting a timer or launching a shortcut.

Translation

It now allows the user to activate the camera to translate the recognized text directly.

Adds support for Dutch, Indonesian, Polish, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese.

Spoken content

New audio options have been added for some supported languages, and added Sounds and support for the following languages:

• Bangla
• Basque
• Bhojpuri
• Bulgarian
• Catalan
• Croatian
• Galician
• Kannada
• Malay
• Marathi
• Persian
• Shanghainese
• Slovenian
• Tamil
• Telugu
• Ukrainian
• Vietnamese

"Premium" options have been added for a few specific voices.

Users can now play samples of voices before downloading them.

Improved accessibility

Door detection is a feature that allows visually impaired people to be guided by a camera. He is able to recognize the presence of a door and indicates how many meters it is away.

The new accessibility setting allows the user to prevent the termination of phone calls by locking the phone.

Wi-Fi network improvements

Previously saved Wi-Fi networks that can be edited, deleted or selected are now displayed to view the network password after authentication via Face ID or Touch ID. Before this change, the only option for users to remove previously connected networks was to click "forget about this network" from within the Settings application which can only be done if it is currently connected to that network. Users also had the ability to clear all previously known networks from their iOS devices by selecting "Clear Network Settings" from the general settings, transferring or resetting network settings. The latter option is more often recommended for those who seek to fix various Wi-Fi network problems .

Cellular network improvements

During the configuration of the cellular network, the eSIM can be transferred from another iPhone via Bluetooth.

Back-up

Backups to iCloud can now also be made on 4G, along with 5G and Wi-Fi.

Face id

Face ID now works when the phone is oriented horizontally. It is limited to iPhone 13 models and iPhone 14 models.

Keyboards

Tactile feedback of the keyboard can be enabled. While typing text, a small vibration can be felt that simulates pressing mechanical keys.

Console support

IOS 16, iPad OS 16 and tv OS 16 now support connecting Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons and Pro Controllers.

Augmented reality

A new framework called Room Plan will allow applications to quickly create three-dimensional floor plans for rooms using the LiDAR Scanner that was introduced with the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max App features

Messages

Sent messages can be edited in a matter of minutes and can be deleted in a couple of minutes.

The ability to mark an entire discussion as unread.

Share Play is now available in the "Messages" application to watch a movie or listen to music with friends, without asking them to make a FaceTime call.

Recover deleted messages less than 30 days.

Collaboration

the ability to invite someone to work on a project, so that you receive updates in a thread from the "Messages" application every time someone edits a shared document. It works with iOS applications such as files, Keynote, Numbers, Pages, Notes, Reminders, Safari and third-party applications designed to take advantage of this collaboration feature.

In previously sent or received voice messages, users can swipe their finger on The Sound Wave graph to determine the location at the selected point.

The ability to report unwanted SMS-MMS messages to communication companies.

FaceTime

Live captions automatically transcribe what is said during a FaceTime call.

Mail

Mail messages can be scheduled to be sent later.

Recently "sent" emails can be canceled in a matter of seconds.

The ability to set a reminder for messages to which the user has not yet responded.

An improved search corrects typos based on the content of their messages.

The new rich links to emails provide more context and detail at a glance.

Maps

Multi-stop steering is now available. Multiple intermediate stops can be added to the routes, up to a maximum of 15. Users can also ask Siri to add a new breakpoint on the go.

Payment is in transit, now the cost of prices can be calculated.

The new MapKit features "look around" support and detailed city experience.

Photos

Photos from the user's library can be shared with five different contacts. Shared photos can be freely edited or deleted by these contacts.

There is a new tool that allows the user to detect duplicate photos in albums.

Hidden and recently deleted albums are now protected by Face ID or Touch ID.

It is now possible to copy filters and effects from one photo to another.

It is possible to search for a specific text inside the images.

When cropping photos, there is now a wallpaper format that will crop the image to the same aspect ratio as the devices display.

Automatic duplicate detection automatically detects duplicate photos or videos and groups them together. The high-quality version will be preserved and the relevant data from duplicates will be integrated into the saved image.

Camera

While taking photos, there is a button to switch between whether the photo will be automatically shared in the Shared Photo Library or will be saved only in the personal photo library.

The camera app has a live translation feature built into the viewfinder.

Safari

Shared Tab Groups:

tab groups can be shared with others to work on them together and see in real time which tabs others are looking at.

Pinned tabs:

in the open tabs view, the tabs can be pinned at the top.

Tab group start pages: each tab group can have a different start page with favorites, frequent visits, etc.

Sync add-ons:

you can see which add-ons are installed on other devices and specify that they are installed on your current device. After installing them, they are synchronized across all devices, so you only need to enable them on one device that you enable on each of them.

Synchronize website settings:

website settings such as Page Zoom, desktop website request, reader usage, etc.can be automatically synchronized across all devices, so you only need to set them on one device that is automatically set on all other devices.

Added support for the AVIF image format

Notes

A quick note can be created directly from the lock screen.

Quick notes can be created in any application using the share menu.

Contacts:

Duplicate contacts are now detected automatically and users can combine them individually.

When sharing contacts, individual fields can be selected to share only that information.

It is possible to group contacts into separate lists to better organize them and easily send an email to all members of that list.

Ability to export contact lists to a file

Calendar

It is now possible to copy and paste events between different days of the calendar.

Files

New Quick Actions on the file allow the user to convert an image to another format JPEG, PNG, HEIF and resize it.

Advice

The tips user interface has been updated.

Books

The toolbar with the settings for reading, searching and Bookmarks has been replaced by a pop-up panel placed in an icon at the bottom in order to increase the available space for the contents and also to be more accessible when using the phone with one hand.

The ability to adjust the line spacing, letter spacing, word spacing and activate the full adjustment of the text.

A new theme automatically calibrates page colors based on ambient light using True Tone.

Health

Users can add and manage the medications they are taking.

Sleep phases allow users to monitor the sleep phases detected by the Apple Watch.

Apple News

The New "my sport" section for highlights, videos and news related to sports teams. Users can add their favorite sports teams to use with My Sports.

Expand local news.

The New "Favorites" collection.

Weather

New forecast modules for details on air quality, local forecasts.

Hourly forecast for the next 10 days.

More detailed and easier to understand interactive graphs have been added showing the exact trends over time from temperature, wind and humidity..

Receive government notifications about severe weather events such as hurricanes, winter storms, flash floods, etc.

Physical fitness

The application is now available even if the user does not own an Apple Watch.

Homeland

Added support for the new international standard Matter for home automation.

Apple TV

IOS 16 allows cross-device communication in tvOS 16 for new experiences between Apple TV, Apple Watch and iPhone.

Security and Privacy

Lock mode

Lockdown mode is a special mode that, when activated, raises security to the highest possible level by restricting certain features of the operating system, applications and web platform, in order to protect users from attacks.

Unlike many other security features, the lock mode is considered "extreme and optional"

It is possible to disable the lock mode on certain websites and applications by acting from the website settings in Safari and setting up web browsing in lock mode.

Traffic keys

Passkeys allow the user to authenticate services that implement WebAuthn across his devices without using passwords. Pass keys are generated by the phone and permission is granted via Face ID or Touch ID. In addition, Apple makes sense since AutoFill and Face ID or Touch ID are used to verify biometrics.

Safety verification

The security check resets all access permissions granted to people, applications and devices to the iCloud account when activated; this is designed to help those who are in abusive relationships.

Rapid security response

Important security updates are now distributed without the need to update the entire operating system. Users can optionally remove security updates, although the standard update will still include security fixes.

Improved clipboard security

Applications and websites now require permission to copy from the clipboard.

Special access codes

Private access tokens are a new technology that replaces CAPTCHAs and helps identify HTTP requests from legitimate devices and people without compromising their personal identity.

Brand indicators for identifying messages

Brand indicators for message identification help users to easily verify authenticated emails sent by brands by displaying the brand logo along with the email header.

Supported devices

IOS 16 marks the first time since iOS 13 that Apple has abandoned support for any device. Support for the following devices with Apple A9 and A10 Fusion chips has been dropped: iPhone 6s, iPhone 6S Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone SE and iPod touch. The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus pieces have been criticized because of the 5th, 6th and 7th iPad generations that support iPadOS 16 despite having similar or even weaker hardware.

The supported devices, iPhones with A11 Bionic chips or newer, include the following.

• iPhone 8 & 8 Plus
• iPhone X
• iPhone XS & XS Max
• iPhone XR
• iPhone 11
• iPhone 11 Pro & 11 Pro Max
• iPhone SE 
• iPhone 12 & 12 Mini
• iPhone 12 Pro & 12 Pro Max
• iPhone 13 & 13 Mini
• iPhone 13 Pro & 13 Pro Max
• iPhone SE 
• iPhone 14 & 14 Plus
• iPhone 14 Pro & 14 Pro Max
• See also 
• iPadOS 16
• macOS Ventura
• tvOS 16
• watchOS 9