Apple's iOS 16: Intelligent and user friendly; check features and specs here

Apple’s software-heavy event at the Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) kickstarted with the new iOS, which the Cupertino giant is making much more user friendly and intelligent. Right from customising the lock screen to editing sent messages, focus filter, and a lot more.

“iOS 16 is a big release with updates that will change the way you experience iPhone. We have reimagined how the Lock Screen looks and works with exciting new features that make it more personal and helpful, introduced iCloud Shared Photo Library for families, streamlined communication through new capabilities in Messages and Mail, and harnessed enhanced intelligence with updates to Live Text and Visual Look Up,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “

While Apple has introduced many new features, here are the top five.

Reimagined lock screen:

With the iOS 16, you can bid goodbye to the good old lock screen and customize it as per your liking. Apple is creating a sense of depth on the lock screen allowing photos to be set in front of the time on the Lock Screen. Plus, users can change the look of the date and time with expressive type styles and colour choices. To bring Apple Watch like experience, Apple has now added widgets to the lock screen which makes it easy to get information at a glance, such as upcoming calendar events, the weather, battery levels, alarms, time zones, Activity ring progress, and more. Notifications have been redesigned to roll up from the bottom, ensuring that users have a clear view of their personalized Lock Screen.

Filtered Focus:

With iOS 16, Focus can now connect to the Lock Screen, offering users a way to tie a Lock Screen wallpaper and widgets to a particular Focus. And with Focus filters, apps like Calendar, Mail, Messages, and Safari can display only the content that is relevant to a user’s Focus.

Edit Messages:

Editing or recalling a recently sent message will be possible with iOS 16. It will also bring in an option to recover recently deleted messages, and mark conversations as unread so they can come back to them later. SharePlay is coming to Messages, which will make it possible to enjoy synced content like movies or songs and shared playback controls all while chatting in Messages.

Enhancement of Live Text, Visual Look Up:

Live Text uses on-device intelligence to recognize text in images across iOS, and Apple is now expanding to include video. Users can pause a video on any frame and interact with the text. Live Text also adds the ability for users to quickly convert currency, translate text, and more. Visual Look Up takes photos further by introducing a new feature that allows users to tap and hold on the subject of an image to lift it from the background and place it in apps like Messages. Visual Look Up also expands to recognize birds, insects, and statues.

New Tools for Mail

On iPhone, users will be able to schedule emails ahead of time and there will be an option to cancel delivery of a message before it reaches a recipient’s inbox. Apple says Mail detects if the user forgot to include an important part of their message, such as an attachment. Users will also have the option to resurface a message at any date and time with Remind Later, and Follow Up suggestions automatically remind users to follow up on an email if they have not received a response.

And there are plenty of other updates across Safari by adding shared Tab Groups to share a collection of websites with friends and family, making it seamless to add tabs and see what others are viewing. Apple Maps is introducing multistop routing. Dictation will bring a new on-device experience that allows users to fluidly move between voice and touch. And accessibility updates include Door Detection, which helps users who are a blind or have low vision to use their iPhone to navigate the last few feet to their destination.

To be available for iPhone 8 and upwards, the iOs 16 developer preview is available to Apple Developer Program members starting today, a public beta for users next month, and the official release later this year.