iOS 16: All major new Apple features revealed at WWDC

This story is part WWDC 2022CNET’s full coverage with and about Apple’s annual developer conference.

iOS 16, Apple’s next major operating system for the iPhone, made a big shock WWDC 2022, Apple ‘s annual developer conference. With iOS 16 you will be able to edit the messages you have already sent in the Messaging applicationand you will get new tools to personalize your iPhone with the ability to customize the look of your lock screen i new privacy features for those in violent relationships. All this makes iOS look fresh and modern on paper. iOS 16 is likely to be released this September along with about the much talked about iPhone 14 and will be available for iPhone 8 and later.

Apple’s iOS 16 review was pre-recorded and streamed online and for a small outdoor audience on a lawn in Apple Park, the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, California. The introduction to the WWDC followed May 16th iOS release 15.5 which included updates for Apple Cash, Photos Memories, and the Podcasts app. Apple also recently launched a development beta for iOS 15.6, which is currently lacking significant new features and appears to be mainly concerned with debugging.

iOS 16 allows you to edit and ‘cancel sending’ messages

“Shameful typing errors are a thing of the past,” Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi, said as he presented the three most sought-after features for the Messages app.

First, in iOS 16 you will be able to edit the sent messages. So, if you notice a typing error after the message, you will be able to edit the message afterwards. A little “edited” appears in the status below the message.

Next – and this could be my favorite new Message feature – you can cancel a sent message right away. If you accidentally sent an unfinished message, you can use the Undo Send tool to prevent reading and hopefully make your friends and family look less chaotic.

Finally, you can mark messages and threads as unread. This could be a great tool when you don’t have time to reply to a message at this time, but you want to make sure you come back to it later.

Your iPhone gets a new customizable lock screen

One of the things you watch most about your iPhone is the lock screen, especially if you have an iPhone equipped with a Face ID. iOS 16 brings the most important update to the iPhone lock screen so far. Press and hold to edit the lock screen: you can swipe to try several different styles. Each style changes the color filter for the background of the photo and the font on the lock screen so that everything complements each other. This is a bit like Apple’s position on Google’s Material You launched with Android 12.

You can also customize the fonts for the time and date to your liking and add lock screen widgets such as temperature, activity rings, and calendar. The widgets are similar to the complications on the locked screen of the Apple Watch.

You can even set up multiple custom lock screens with different widgets and easily swipe to switch between them. There is even a random image option that automatically changes the images on the lock screen.

One feature we were hoping Apple would add she was always on screen. This is something that almost all Android phones have; even the Apple Watch works. I guess there’s hope he’ll come up with that iPhone 14.

Live notifications and activities

Sometimes notifications can overwrite a photo of your lock screen, so iOS 16 moves notifications to the bottom of your screen. As you receive them instead of listing them, they appear as a vertical carousel. Not only does this look better, but it should be a great help for one-handed use of your iPhone.

iOS 16 also aims to solve another problem with notifications. Sometimes you get a bunch of notifications in a row from one app, like when a basketball game score is updated. A new tool for developers called Live Activities makes it easier to keep track of things happening in real time from your lock screen, instead of getting interrupted.

Live activities should make it easier to follow sporting events, training or even the progress of an Uber ride.

Wallet and Apple Pay later

Multi-country IDs will be available in your Wallet app along with more security and private features. In iOS 16 you can also protect your identity and age. So instead of showing your exact date of birth, the Wallet app will show your ID and that you are over 21 years old.

iOS 16 makes it easy to share keys with apps like Mail and Messages. When your friend receives the key, they can add it to the Wallet app on their iPhone. Apple said it is working to make shared keys industry standard and free for others.

Apple Pay will support new types of payments and adds a new feature called Apple Pay later, a Clarney-like service that allows you to divide the cost of buying Apple Pay into four equal payments spread over six weeks, with no interest and no fees. Upcoming payments are managed through the Wallet app, which makes it easy to keep track of dates and payments.

But Apple Pay doesn’t stop there. The new feature will also help you track Apple Pay orders and allow merchants to provide detailed invoices and tracking information. This should make it easier for you to keep up to date with the status of all your orders.

Tap and drag the visual search for photos

In iOS 15, Visual Look Up analyzes your photos and can identify objects such as plants, landmarks and pets. iOS 16 takes this to the next level. When you touch a photo object like the dog in the picture above, you can separate it from the background and add it to apps like Messaging. Basically, it is a tap and hold tool that removes the background of the photo.

Apple sometimes overuses the word “magic,” but this feature really does look that way.

SharePlay comes in Messaging

SharePlay, which debuted in iOS 15, gives you a shared experience while connecting to someone via FaceTime. You can watch TV shows, listen to music in sync and other things. iOS 16 adds the ability to detect multiple SharePlay-enabled apps from FaceTime.

But perhaps one of the best things Apple did for SharePlay was that it works in the Messages app. Apple said this is one of the biggest demands of app developers. Now that you want to share a movie on Disney Plus, you can run SharePlay with a friend while chatting in messages.

Safety Check aims to help people in violent relationships

Security check is a new feature designed to help people in violent relationships. Allows you to view and reset who has access to location information, as well as passwords, messages, and other iPhone apps on iPhone.

Focus mode updates and focus filters

Focus mode received several updates. The first applies focus behavior to widgets and the lock screen layout. So, you can set one lock screen when your work focus is enabled and another for training.

Apple has added specific Focus filters that apply the way your iPhone focuses within applications. For example, in Safari, you can limit which tabs are displayed depending on which focus mode you have active.

Apple Maps adds transportation tickets

The maps will receive several updates. You will be able to plan trips with up to 15 different stops along the way. If you start planning a trip with the Maps app on your Mac, you’ll be able to share it on your iPhone.

And in something similar to what Google announced for Google Wallet in Android 13, you’ll be able to see transportation cost estimates as well as add more money to a map ticket from Apple Maps.

iCloud Family Checklist

iCloud gets several new features. One of the more interesting is the ability to quickly set up a new device for your child. When Quick Start appears, you have the option to select a user for the new device and use all existing parental controls that you previously selected and configured. However, this is not what many of us still want: the ability to set up separate users for the same device.

There’s a new family checklist with tips for updating settings for your kids as they get older, such as a reminder to check location sharing settings or share your iCloud Plus subscriptions.

For more, take a look everything Apple announced at WWDC 2022.