iOS 16 tips & tricks

You have a ton of options here: you can select a range of images to shake throughout the day, you can set an emoji background with cool patterns, you have new astronomical screens that show you real weather conditions, and so on.

#2. Add widgets to your lock screen

Second, you should try out the new lockscreen widgets. You have a place for one widget on the top row, and then below the clock you can place four small widgets or two larger widgets. And a tap on a widget takes you straight to the app it’s associated with. Currently, only a few Apple apps support this, but in just a few months we envision most popular apps will have a lockscreen widget.

#3. Connect a Focus to your lock screen

Apple takes it a step further and allows you to associate your custom lock screen with a particular “Focus”, so the moment you switch to a work focus, you have a work lock screen, for example. Correctly!

#4. Change fonts and colors

And did we mention that you can customize individual elements of the lock screen? You can choose between different fonts and colors to make it truly yours.

#5. Haptic feedback while typing

Then you now get haptic feedback while typing. Android has had this feature for about a decade, so we don’t know why Apple took so long, but it’s here.

It’s not enabled by default, but you just go to the Sounds & Haptics menu, tap Keyboard Feedback, and turn on the Haptic option. It’s a really nice tight, subtle vibration with every tap and it feels great!

#6. Password protect your photos

There are also a few new features in the Photos app, with your hidden and recently deleted photos now protected with Face ID or a passcode, which is great for those photos you don’t want your friends or family to accidentally stumble upon. . Hey, some people need their privacy anyway!

#7. “Location” reminder when sharing photos/videos

Another useful feature is that when you share a photo or video, the share sheet tells you if that file contains your location.

You can simply tap on the options menu and disable the location to protect your privacy.

#8. Lock notes with passcode

You now have the same option for notes that you can lock with your iPhone passcode, or you can even create a separate password for notes for your account, but keep in mind that if you forget that you won’t be able to access the notes.

#9. Send and edit iMessage

That’s a great option for that one text you instantly regretted sending.

#10. Cut background from photos

You can also easily use the new automatic scene selection tool for your photos. We were surprised how the phone would cut out the background pretty accurately in an instant and you can then paste that image into an iMessage or email, or really anywhere.

#11. Text from video

This is great if you’re abroad and need to translate something, or just copy a bunch of text.

#12. Easy Unit Conversions

It’s now super easy to convert units from imperial to metric too, you can just say 35 miles to Siri and it will convert that to kilometers, or type an amount of money in a foreign currency and it would convert that to the default currency for your region . Or if you want to convert the temperature from Fahrenheit to Celsius. Super handy!

#13. Quick Notes

Finally, a handy new feature is Quick Notes. It allows you to share any selection, photo, video, web page or just any file in a quick note.

If you select a memorable paragraph from an article you are reading, just tap the share icon and save it as a quick note and it will automatically have the source link there too.

#14. Subtitles and playback speed with new video player

Video scrubbing to navigate a video has been implemented in a much nicer way in the new video player in iOS 16, and you get automatic subtitles, playback speed controls, plus you can use the Live Text feature from within the player!

Last words

There are many other new features in iOS 16, but those are the ones that I think have made the biggest change to the way I used my iPhone. Some of these are in-depth like the lockscreen widgets and customizations, others are more subtle, but they all seem to work great even in this beta phase, and I can’t wait to see third parties bring their widgets to the lock screen too.

Do you have a favorite new feature?