iOS 16 will improve the interface and ergonomics of iPhones, but also add new features. Many of them are directly linked to other products and services in the Apple ecosystem, confirming that the iPhone is more than ever the link that unites all of the experiences of the brand to the apple.
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Every year, Apple offers a major update for the mobile operating system embedded in the iPhone: iOS. In 2022, it’s iOS 16’s turn to enrich the experience on Apple brand smartphones. New features, interface changes, here’s everything we know about the improvements coming to iOS.
🗓️ When is iOS 16 coming out?
Apple is very predictable in its release schedule. iOS 16 will be officially presented during the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2022, which takes place from June 6 to 10. As usual, it is during the opening ceremony of the event that the new version of iOS will be unveiled. We can also expect additional information in the following days.
Soon after, a beta version of iOS 16 will be made available to developers. A public beta for all users will follow a few weeks later. The big launch of the stable version of iOS 16 will take place in the fall of 2022, in parallel with that of the iPhone 14. This should most likely take place during the month of September.
📱 Which iPhones are compatible with iOS 16?
While all iPhones supporting iOS14 have been able to switch to iOS 15, some older models will not be able to take advantage of the update this year. According to preliminary information, the iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus and the first generation iPhone SE are deprived of iOS 16. These devices began to be marketed between fall 2015 and spring 2016 and have one thing in common : they ship an A9 chip, which therefore no longer seems capable of supporting the latest features brought by iOS 16. Here is the list of iPhones that will be able to install the update:
- iPhone 14
- iPhone 14 Max
- iPhone 14 Pro
- iPhone 14 Pro Max
- iPhone 13 Mini
- iPhone 13
- iPhone 13 Pro
- iPhone 13 Pro Max
- iPhone 12
- iPhone 12 mini
- iPhone 12 Pro
- iPhone 12 Pro Max
- iPhone SE (2020)
- iPhone 11
- iPhone 11 Pro
- iPhone 11 Pro Max
- iPhone XS Max
- iPhone XS
- iPhone XR
- iPhone X
- iPhone 8 Plus
- iPhone 8
- iPhone 7 Plus
- iPhone 7
Please note, this does not mean that all of these terminals will be able to benefit from all the features of iOS 16. It is likely that hardware limitations (SoC, photo sensors) prevent certain models from accessing new options.
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On the iPad side, four models that had been entitled to iOS 15 will remain stuck under this version of the operating system and cannot be upgraded: iPad mini 4, iPad Air 2, iPad 5 and iPad Pro from 2015.
💡 What’s new in iOS 16?
iOS 16 will introduce design and interface changes, as well as new functions. While waiting for the formalization, here is what to expect with this version according to various leaks that have been able to reach us.
Better notification management
Renowned journalist Mark Gurman, who works for Bloomberg, assures that Apple is working on changes to the notification system. He doesn’t go into much detail on the matter, but one of the improvements could be the Focus mode introduced with iOS 15, a young service that still needs to mature. As a reminder, this mode is used to refine precisely which notifications you receive according to your activity or the schedule of the day, with predefined presets or the possibility of creating your own from scratch.
A new status bar?
We anticipate that Apple will finally remove the notch on its new iPhones, or at least on the iPhone 14 Pro. The disappearance of the notch saves space on the upper part of the screen, and in particular at the level of the status bar, which should be redesigned for the occasion.
Interactive widgets
Apple would work on a block of widgets. The project would be called “InfoShack” internally and its development would still be ongoing. What we see in the visual below is therefore perhaps not representative of the final interface, but we can at least see what Apple is trying to do.
🔴EXCLUSIVE: iOS 16.
Be prepared for interactive widgets! Apple is now working on these “big widgets” internally named InfoShack.
Will tell you more about them soon. pic.twitter.com/GZF9zYjOsw— LeaksApplePro (@LeaksApplePro) January 26, 2022
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Some widgets integrated into this block would also become interactive, and no longer just informative, thus making it possible to quickly control a few basic functions: the stopwatch, the multimedia player, the flashlight… iOS would finally catch up on Android in this area, because pressing a widget on iPhone today only allows to open an application.
Make emergency calls via satellite
Apple has been working on such a feature for years, we’ve been talking about it for a while now and thought we’d get it on iOS 15, but the ability to send messages and make emergency calls through satellites should finally land with iOS 16. It is possible that only the iPhone 14 can enjoy this new feature of iOS.
Health and Fitness apps get up to speed
With the new features planned for Apple Watch Series 8 and watchOS 9, the iPhone and iOS must adapt to integrate the functionalities added to the hardware and software of the brand’s connected watches, the iPhone still acting as a control hub. The Health and Fitness applications (formerly Activity) will therefore be updated, with the best for sleep monitoring, for example.
Additional options for women’s well-being and health are also provided, as is a medication tracking tool. One of the functions would be to be able to scan a medicine box to register a product in the app. Many features would be planned for this medication management aid, but not all of them should be available from the launch of iOS 16.
Finally, there was talk of a food and nutrition tracker for iOS 15, which ultimately did not see the light of day. What if iOS 16 was the right one?
Road accident detection
With iOS 16, the iPhone could detect traffic accidents and automatically notify the emergency services so that any injuries are taken care of quickly.
Options related to virtual reality and augmented reality
Apple should launch a mixed reality headset (which combines virtual reality and augmented reality) by the end of the year. This one could even make an appearance at WWDC before a marketing in the fall. Apple will necessarily have to adapt iOS to integrate services and features to make the most of this headset, the first of its kind to arrive in the ecosystem. iOS 16 should notably come with a new application dedicated to the use of headphones, and surely more.
Always-on display
Another lack of iOS compared to Android that Apple must fill. The Always-on display allows the display of important information on the slab even when it is not in use: time, date, battery level, notifications… Any smartphone equipped with an OLED technology screen can potentially benefit from an Always-on function, but the iPhones are still not entitled to it, several years after abandoning the LCD on its main series mobiles. Again, this is a sea serpent that is mentioned with each update.
New app icons
macOS Monterey has brought a new design for the icons of Apple applications on the desktop, the trend should follow on mobile with iOS 16, which will deepen the work started with iOS 15 in this area. The new aesthetic would be very close to what we can now have on the Mac, more modern and more minimalist than the current icons.
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