Six great new Apple iPhone features due with iOS 16

Apple announces new features for its operating systems at its Worldwide Developers Conference at Apple Park, California.

Apple’s coming upgrade to its operating systems brings new features to iPhones, iPads and MacBooks. Most Apple users will benefit, even if their devices are reasonably old. For example, five-year-old iPhone 8’s will be eligible for the iOS 16 update, however they won’t run some features due to the absence of a neural engine in the phone’s processor. Nevertheless, many new features this year look practically useful. Here are six good ones.

(Click on the images to enlarge them.)

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Integration of keyboard and voice dictation

Apple’s new integrated keyboard and voice dictation.

Voice dictation has been available in Messages, Mail, Notes and Safari for years but the Achilles Heel has been inaccuracy. Retyping wrongly interpreted words or misspelt names takes time and has left people wondering if they’d be better off only using the keyboard. In the new operating system for iPhones, iOS 16, Apple keeps displaying the keyboard on the screen when you use voice dictation, making it easier to swap between dictation and texting. For example, you can start by dictating a message and pause to quickly type a regularly misspelt name before resuming voice dictation. Apple’s software also will automatically add punctuation.

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Undo Send in Messages and Mail

The Undo Send feature in Mail on an Apple Mac.

Unsending a message in iOS 16 is similar to the methodology of Unsend in social media apps such as Instagram. Long pressing the sent message bubble displays a menu which includes “Edit” and “Undo Send” options. Of course, there’s no guarantee the recipient hasn’t seen the message anyway, but it’s a case of better late than never. Apple warns you that the recipient may still see the message if their iPhone is using an old version of its operating system. The recipient also will be alerted that a message has been unsent. You can also schedule iPhone Messages. Undo Send works differently with Mail. When you send an email you’ll immediately see an invitation to Undo Send at the bottom of the screen. This lasts for several seconds. If you select it, you’ll see a cancel option at the top left of the screen which confirms the Undo Send. The unsent email is saved in the Drafts folder.

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Quick Actions and Visual Look Up

iPhones will soon translate signs for you in the street.

The AI in your iPhone camera is getting smarter. iPhones already support Live Text. When the Photos app encounters text in an image, you’ll see a button at the bottom of the screen. When selected, you can copy text in that photo and paste it into another application, such as Notes. This year, the camera AI also recognises landmarks, plants and animals. You can copy or share an item in a photo such as your dog by touching and holding the dog’s image. You can drag the dog into apps such as Messages and share it. You might share fashion shoes you’ve spotted at a retail store. The AI smarts can convert currency and translate a foreign language on signs in the street with quick actions. The same applies if you point your phone at a menu written in another language. You could use your iPhone to convert a store price tag from an overseas currency into Australian dollars, when shopping overseas.

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The revitalised lock screen

Users can build multiple lock screens representing different activities.

The best feature of the new lock screen is the general information you can access without logging in. In iOS 16, you can set up a series of lock screens each with a unique image. You can choose and display useful widgets which show different information on different lock screens. The widgets could be calendar events, weather, alarms and more. You can build one locks screen for work and another for home, have information on widgets relevant to those environments, and link each lock screen to an Apple focus mode. That means when you choose, say, the home lock screen, you can restrict callers and notifications to your friends and relatives. In the new operating system, notifications will float up from the bottom of the screen. Previously they were at the top and masked information you were reading. Apple has also introduced live notifications which show changing information on a lock screen such as where your Uber driver is. This adds to the lock screen’s versatility.

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Passkeys

Passkeys use a hash of biometric data and can be shared between Apple devices.

Instead of using passwords for accessing apps and websites, Apple will support passkeys. They are a hash of your biometrics, using fingerprint or face recognition, and unique to each application. Passkeys are stored on the device that created them, but they can be made available to other Apple devices through iCloud. Eventually you’ll use the same passkeys on Apple and non-Apple devices. The adoption of passkeys is being overseen by the FIDO Alliance. There are obvious security advantages. While hackers might steal passkeys as they do passwords, they won’t be able to activate access without your fingerprint or face.

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Collaboration with Shared Tab Groups, Freeform App

Shared Tab Groups are managed through the integration of FaceTime in Safari browser.

Safari will let you share a group of websites with friends, family and workmates. You could be choosing furniture with your partner, deciding between travel destinations and hotels with friends, or working on a project with colleagues. All of you might be browsing Safari in different locations but collaborating. Your tabs will be automatically shared as a Tab Group and updated as you add new content. This feature is made possible by the building of a version of FaceTime within Safari. FaceTime lets you form a group of collaborators and manages the sharing of information between them. The iPad meanwhile will receive another form of collaboration. The coming Freeform app will let multiple people on multiple iPads work together in the one collaborative space. The Freeform app is like a virtual whiteboard shared across the internet. The app supports Apple Pencil.

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Apple’s iOS 16, iPadOS 16, macOS Ventura and watchOS 9 software updates will be available in the third quarter. Apple will release Beta versions of this software in July if you want to try it out early. You need to join Apple’s Beta program using the device you will update for the trial.