Apple iOS 16 Review: Should You Upgrade?

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Apple’s latest upgrade is iOS 16, released in September 2022 and includes new features for iPhones and iPads. Unfortunately, more improvements in an update mean more chances for bugs. Are you reluctant to upgrade to unknown changes or wondering how do to update your iPhone? We have reviewed the latest update to help answer your questions.

Lock screen visuals

The first thing you will notice is the new look Lock Screen. The update brings lock screen customisation to a new level allowing you to personalise wallpaper, font type and style and display aspects of the wallpaper photo in front of the digital time display. In addition, the device will intuitively pair the style of your wallpaper image with a colour filter, tint and font style that complements the design.

Exciting imagery in the Apple collection allows you to personalise your wallpaper with dynamic images that change throughout the day or create your unique wallpaper with your favourite photos and emojis.

The addition of Visual Look Up, and Live Text Enhancements functions gives you the option to use visual cues instead of text options, for example:

• Tap and hold on an object in an image to lift it from the background
• You then have the option to place the image in an app like Messages or iMail
• The artificial intelligence (AI) in this update also quickly provides you information about a subject or a scene that it recognises in an image, such as birds, landmarks or animals

Widgets and notifications

You can now customise the home screen widgets to access information at a glance, such as alarms, time zones, calendar events, weather, battery levels and more. The enhanced appearance of notifications now rolls in from the bottom of the screen and gives you the option to view an expanded list, stacked notifications or as a count.

Apple News can also notify you with personalised information, including your favourite sports:

• Follow your favourite teams and leagues
• Receive scores, schedules and fixtures to professional leagues
• Get stories from hundreds of top publishers
• Watch highlights direction in the news app
• Your favourites will sync seamlessly with the Apple TV app

Focus and productivity

Apple has improved its Focus feature, first rolled out in the iOS 15 update. This was designed to help you stay in the moment and reduce distractions from notifications through selecting the following modes on your Apple smartphone:

• Personal
• Work
• Exercising
• Gaming
• Sleep.

When in Focus mode, your device will indicate that you’re unavailable to others and automatically hide notifications. The iOS 16 version of Focus is easier to use, allowing access to modes with a simple swipe to a designated lock screen.

iMessages

Some innovative new features of Apple’s iMessage include an ‘undo send’ option that allows you to recall messages for up to two minutes after sending. You can also edit messages for up to 15 minutes after sending them to fix those embarrassing typos. Message recipients will see a record of your edits in an attempt to stop people from using this function for nefarious reasons.

The Share Play feature, designed to bring people together easily, lets you share content like watching movies, listening to music or playing games while messaging friends. The Collaboration feature provides a simple way to work together on a shared project in real-time while giving activity updates in a thread.

The intuitive improvements in sending and receiving emails also make connecting easier, such as the options to:

• Schedule a message in advance
• Cancel a message before it hits the recipient’s mailbox within 10 seconds of sending (you can increase the duration of message recall)
• The Remind Me function will prompt you to follow up if you haven’t received a response and alert you to check that you haven’t forgotten an attachment or included a recipient.

Security and safety

Some impressive features focused on digital safety have been included in the update. First, we’ll cover the online safety features, including a safer Passkey. Designed to replace passwords, the Passkey uses Touch ID or Face ID and is described as “a next-generation credential that can’t be phished or leaked” by Apple.

Passkey is a collaboration between FIDO Alliance, Google and Microsoft to safely access websites or non-Apple apps and devices using your iPhone.

Family Sharing offers a safer, age-appropriate way to set up accounts for children with full parental control across a variety of applications, including:

• approving or declining requests for screentime directly to the child’s device
• The Family Checklist gives you prompts to update parental control or recommendations to turn on location sharing as the child gets older
• Age-appropriate restrictions for apps, movies, books and music

Breakdown of all features

There are too many to mention in detail so here is a quick breakdown of other new features included in iOS 16:

• Safety Check – remove access you’ve granted others to your devices
• Apple Pay Order Tracking – detailed order tracking and receipts recorded in your digital Wallet for Apple Pay purchases
• Apple Maps – improved driving navigation, easily customise routes with multiple stops and sync from Mac to iPhone
• Dictation – this feature allows users to move fluidly between voice and keyboard
• Fitness – designed to help you meet your fitness goals and track activity even if you don’t have an Apple Watch with the addition of motion sensors

Each update brings new bugs, so you might want to wait until Apple has had some time to fix them. Also, for those with older devices, the iOS 16 update isn’t supported on iPhone 6S and iPhone 7 ranges, iPad mini 4 and iPad Air 2 or the iPod Touch.

We hope this information has helped you better understand the new iOS 16 upgrade. So if you’re ready to purchase your first Apple iPhone and are looking for advice or have recently upgraded your phone or iPad and want a hand setting it up (including data transfer from your old devices), we’re here to help.

We offer friendly and easy-to-follow iPhone, iPad (and Android phone and tablet) setup assistance. We can also teach you how to use new apps and functions with our iPhone support services, so you get the most out of your new tech from day one.