Learn about the best features of iOS 16

A few hours separate us from the iOS 16 update, many of us are waiting for this update, and why not? iPhone owners change their device completely with any major new update and enjoy new features for free without the need to upgrade their devices or wait long months, we all get the update on the day of its release. So what are we waiting for from this update and what are the best iOS 16 features? Follow along with this article...

You can see the countdown timer on the main screen of the iPhone Islam app, if you click on the logo at the top

We will mention some of the main features in iOS 16, of course there are more features and we will list them successively in upcoming articles, but today and in order not to prolong you, we will show what makes you excited to upgrade to iOS 16

Spotlight search has become the home page score

The iOS 16 update replaces the page dots at the bottom of your home screen with a new Spotlight search bubble. Clicking it does the same thing as scrolling down the home screen page. And like Page Points, you can swipe left or right in the search bubble to speed up scrolling through other Home screen pages.

Long-pressing or tapping on the bubble in the home screen editor will open the page selector to show or hide pages.

If you like the old page score and prefer to swipe down to show Spotlight search or use, you can get the score back. Go to Settings → Home Screen, then turn off the new Show Spotlight option.

Spotlight search bar above the keyboard

The search bar is right above the keyboard every time you open a Spotlight search on your home screen, and when you scroll through the results, the bar moves to the bottom of the screen when the keyboard is gone.

Lock screen

This is one of the most prominent new features in the iOS 16 update, which is the largest update to the lock screen ever with a completely new design and shape.

Simply tap and hold on the screen to launch the customizer, you can easily customize the lock screen and change the color and font of the lock screen to match the wallpaper style of your choice. And mentioning wallpapers, there is a new gallery that offers many wallpaper options, in addition to customization options, you will also find a gallery of widgets, such as calendar, temperature, activity, battery and much more. The depth effect with images separates the text on the lock screen from the background.

One of the highlights of the iOS 16 update allows you to customize your lock screen with a different wallpaper for every occasion. With each lock screen wallpaper, you can choose between font type, color theme, and add widgets.

When you add a new lock screen wallpaper from the lock screen or via Settings → Wallpaper → Add new wallpaper, the Home screen wallpaper will automatically match it.

Cool emojis and colors for wallpapers

When you change the lock screen wallpaper, you can choose a repeating emoji or a combination of them in different grid patterns. Additionally, the Color option allows you to choose any solid color and apply a gradient effect such as glossy, blurry, dark, tonal, and pulsating.

And since the default home screen wallpaper is the same as the new lock screen wallpaper, you can use these options for your home screen wallpaper as well.

blackout backgrounds

When you use an Apple wallpaper for your home screen background, you'll see an option in the background editor called Legibility Blur. By default, it's off, but when it's on, the wallpaper is dimmed to put more emphasis on apps, folders, widgets, and other content on your Home screen pages.

You can choose wallpapers of one color

Apple has quite a few solid color or pure color wallpapers, and you always had to find your own picture to use if you wanted a solid color wallpaper on your home screen. Now, the third option from the left in the main screen background editor is the pure color or single color fill. Click "Configure" in the preview image to show pure colors, where you can choose the color and its strength.

Choose any color gradient background

If you like a pale color more than a clear color, the second option from the left in the home screen wallpaper editor lets you choose a color gradient. Click "Format" in the preview image to bring up the gradient picker, where you can select the color and strength of the gradient.

Photo backgrounds are natural or black and white

If you select an image for your home screen background, you can now choose to keep it as "natural" in the background editor or make it "black and white" instead. Swiping to the left changes it to black and white, and swiping to the right returns it to the original image.

Focus

Focus modes have also been improved, allowing users to now link focus modes to a specific custom lock screen. After you customize all the new lock screens, you don't need to switch between them manually. Lock screens can now be tied to a specific focus on the iPhone, so your wallpapers and widgets can be set accordingly.

There are a lot of changes to the focus tool, and one of them gives you home page suggestions when setting focus. Click Choose for the home screen in the new Customize Screens section, and you'll see page suggestions that remove apps and widgets not associated with this focus.

For example, focus at work might only keep apps related to emails, tasks, contacts, automation, stocks, utilities, etc. If none of the suggestions work, scroll down to find the current Home screen pages to switch them to focus.

Only the Home screen pages you chose during the Focus setting will appear on the iPhone when the focus is active. If you don't select any of them while setting the focus, your home screen will remain the same as before.

Easily solve the problem of duplicate contacts

If your contacts have many duplicates and you can't fix them, iOS 16 has a solution. The update includes a feature dedicated to merging duplicate contacts and solving problems with multiple contacts once and for all.

If you have more than one contact for the same person, the Contacts app will automatically detect duplicates and notify you of finding those duplicates.

There is an interfaceDuplicates FoundOr find duplicates at the top of the app, and if you tap on them, all the duplicate contacts will be merged into a single contact.

This feature was previously available on a Mac, but was not available on iOS devices.

You can cancel sending an email even after it has been sent

The Mail app has been updated and introduced a slew of new features that make it more in line with competing mail services like Gmail. One such new feature is the long-awaited undo send option, which is designed to let you recall an email quickly and delete it if you spot an error.

There are many new features in the Mail app. You can schedule your emails to send in the future, or have Mail give you a reminder about an email you opened but forgot to reply to. It will also allow you to move sent messages to the top of your inbox so you can get a reminder to send a follow up, and it can notify you if you've forgotten an important part of an email like an attachment or a recipient.

Edit or cancel an iMessage

The iOS 16 update introduces the ability to edit or cancel recently sent iMessages, as well as mark iMessage conversations as unread after opening them. Apple allows users to edit or unsend an iMessage after it has been sent.

To edit or unsend a message, the user simply taps and holds the message and selects the appropriate option in the menu that appears. Edited iMessages are marked as "edited" below the message, and edited or unsent messages are still visible in their original form to users with older versions like iOS 15.

Support for Nintendo Joy-Cons

The iPhone supports many game controllers and the iOS 16 update adds support for the Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons and Pro Controller controllers. It can be used individually left or right, or both simultaneously as a single console.

Fitness app without Apple Watch

The Fitness app is now available on iPhone for all users, even if they don't have an Apple Watch. The application features a daily activity loop that relies on the iPhone's motion sensors to estimate the calories a person burns and daily steps.

Improve Siri's skills

One of the old complaints about Siri is that it's hard to realize what you can do, as much as we want to get familiar with Siri's different skills and commands, but sometimes it's hard to remember what you can do. The iOS 16 update addresses that with a new feature that lets you simply ask Siri what it can do for you. You'll be able to ask "Hey Siri, what can I do here" on select apps, to get a feel for Siri's capabilities in that app. And if the feature works as advertised, it will make Siri's various functions less mysterious than in the past.

Use Siri to run shortcuts instantly

Before the iOS 16 update, the user had to activate the Siri commands for the apps himself, but with the new system, the app developer was automatically able to place commands in the Shortcuts app without user interaction.

To discover these ready-to-use shortcuts, they can be found in the Shortcuts app, which adds a new App Shortcuts section, showing which apps feature the shortcuts. Suggested shortcuts should also appear as Siri Suggestions in the search screen on the iPhone.

Dictate emoji using Siri when writing messages

When you dictate messages in the iOS 16 update, say “Heart emoji” or “Crying emoji,” and so on, and the appropriate emoji will appear.

And it's not just emoji, but it's now able to automatically insert punctuation while dictating messages by inserting dots at the end of sentences. These improved dictation features work in both Messages and Mail.

Ask Siri to hang up

In iOS 16, phone calls are completely hands-free, and you'll now be able to tell Siri to end phone calls or FaceTime.

Control more things offline

Processing on the iPhone I was able to use Siri when there was no internet or network connection to perform simple tasks, including launching apps, controlling playback, setting time, alarm, etc.

The list of tasks that Siri can do offline increases in the iOS 16 update. For example, Siri will be able to handle home control requests via HomeKit devices, intercom features, voicemail, and notifications, all while offline. And you'll need an iPhone that works with an A12 Bionic processor, meaning the start of an iPhone XS or later.

Send messages automatically

Currently, when you dictate a text message through Siri, it will ask you if you're ready to send the message, which is useful especially when you're driving, because Siri may not pick up your words perfectly, so there's time to review. And if you prefer to send messages quickly, you can have Siri skip this step in the iOS 16 update.

The Send messages automatically setting is available in Siri & Search settings in the iOS 16 update. It's off by default. If you're confident that Siri will accurately transmit your message, you can always turn this on. There's a short waiting period that may be enough to edit and review your message, otherwise, Siri will send the text directly.

Hide and lock photos with face print

You can now hide and lock your photos with a password or even a face print, this way you will be able to keep your most sensitive photos away from prying eyes.

To use this feature, you simply have to select the photo you want to keep protected in the Photos app, tap the three buttons in the top right corner of the screen, and choose Hide.

When you want to check your photo again, you can simply go to the albums in Photos, scroll to the bottom of the screen and select Hidden under the Utilities section. You will then need to use either a faceprint or a passcode to access the hidden album, so you will get your photos back.

Detect duplicate photos

In the iOS 16 update, the iPhone will automatically detect any duplicate photos in the Photos app. Duplicate photos will appear in the Duplicate album under the Utilities section of Photos, giving you the opportunity to combine them to save space and reduce clutter.

The Duplicates album only appears if you have duplicates of photos in your library, then the photos will be combined in a smart way, with the highest details and most metadata preserved, and the best possible photo preserved.

For example, if you have one copy of a high-resolution photo and a second copy with more metadata, Photos will combine the best qualities from both photos into one photo.

Copy and paste edits

If you have multiple photos that you want to edit in the same way, or if you make changes to one photo that you want to copy into another, you can use the new copy-and-paste editing tools.

To use this setting:

Make edits to an image and tap the three dots in the upper right corner, then tap Copy Edits. To copy everything done on the image, then open another image, click on the three-dot icon again, and then choose the Paste Edits feature to get the exact same edits.

Undo and redo edits

In previous versions of iOS, you'd need to manually change one of the edited items back to where you started, or undo the changes entirely, but in the ‌iOS 16‌ update, there are simple undo and redo buttons. One by one instead of having to undo all the edits by undoing the entire photo.

The undo and redo buttons are located in the upper right corner of the photo editing interface and will appear as soon as you make an edit to an image using the editing tools built into the Photos app. And you can undo or redo each change individually, making it faster to go back and correct a mistake.

Sort people's photo history

In a small but significant change, Apple has added an option to sort a custom People album by name. You can open the People album and click the arrow keys to change the order from “Custom Order” to “Name.” Choosing a name rearranges the people in the album in alphabetical order.

Separate an object from the background of an image

Raising an object from the background is one of the most fun additions to the ‌iOS 16‌ update because it's a bit like a miniature version of Photoshop. And you can use it to drag the desired object from any photo or image.

To use it in the Photos app, open a photo and tap and hold the object you want to separate the photo until it lights up. Then you can drag it or choose the Copy option to copy it to the clipboard, then you can paste it into another image or send it as a sticker in messages.

Prevent featured “photos” and memories from appearing in the system

The iOS 16 update adds a new button that lets you prevent featured Photos and Memories from showing up in For You, Find Photos, and widgets. This button can be found in the Photos section of the Settings app.

Camera

Blackout foreground in Portrait photos

When using Portrait mode, you can darken objects in the foreground of the image for a more realistic-looking depth of field effect. This feature is limited to iPhone 13, 13 mini, 13 Pro, 13 Pro Max, and later.

camera translation

System-wide translation has expanded to the Camera app in the ‌iOS 16‌ update, allowing the iPhone's camera to be used for instant translation of signs, menus, and more.

Just open the camera app and point it at the text you want to translate, press the text selection button to select the detected text, and then press the translate option to get an instant translation.

Improved cinematic quality

On iPhone 13 models, the Cinema Mode video recording feature is more accurate in the iOS 16 update, which has a better depth-of-field effect for profile corners, around the edges of hair, and glasses.

Several hours and the iOS 16 update will be officially released to everyone

We know you're excited about iOS 16, the wait is over and iOS 16 will be released in a few hours. We recommend that you back up your device now in preparation for the new update, and try as much as possible to free up more than 10GB of space so that you don't encounter any problems during the update. Stay tuned for our iOS 16 update article and list all the new features.