Five Useful Features Coming to iPhone with iOS 16

While the headline feature of iOS 16 is the ability to customize your lock screen with new fonts, widgets, and more, the update will bring tons of other useful features to the iPhone, with five of our favorite additions highlighted below.

iOS 16 is currently only in beta for Apple developers, but Apple said the public beta will be available sometime in July. iOS 16 will be released to all users around September and the update is compatible with iPhone 8 and later.

Live Activities

iOS 16 includes a new Live Activity feature that brings Live Notifications to the iPhone lock screen. Live Activities will be useful for staying on top of live events or other tasks, such as keeping up with the score of a sports game, tracking the progress of an Uber ride, monitoring Starbucks order status, viewing stopwatches, and more . ,

Apple said Live Activities will arrive in an iOS 16 update later this year, meaning it won’t be available when iOS 16 is first released to all users. Apple will make available an API for developers to deliver live activities to their third-party apps, so there are likely to be all kinds of different use cases for this useful new feature.

Edit or Send iMessage

iOS 16 introduces the ability to edit or unsend recently sent iMessages, as well as mark iMessage conversations as unread after opening them. Apple allows users to edit or unsend iMessage for up to 15 minutes after sending it.

To edit or stop a message from being sent, users simply tap and hold a bubble and select the appropriate option from the menu that appears. Edited iMessages are marked as “edited” below the message bubble, and edited or forwarded messages are still visible in their original form to users running older software versions, such as iOS 15.

Nintendo Joy-Con Support

Despite not being advertised as a feature on Apple’s website, iOS 16 adds support for the Nintendo Switch’s Joy-Cons and Pro Controllers. iPhones running iOS 16 can be used with separate left or right Joy-Cons, or both can be used together as a single controller.

In the iOS 16 developer release notes, Apple stated that the iPhone supports several additional Bluetooth game controllers in iOS 16, but Apple did not provide a list of new compatible controllers. This is in addition to existing iPhone support for PS5 and Xbox Series X controllers since the release of iOS 14.5.

Apple Pay Order Tracking

Apple Pay in iOS 16 is getting order tracking information built into the Wallet app for online orders through Apple Pay. The tracker provides the estimated delivery date of the order and indicates when the package is ready for delivery.

fitness app without apple watch

Starting with iOS 16, the fitness app is now available on iPhone for all users, even if they don’t have an Apple Watch. The app has a daily activity ring that relies on the iPhone’s motion sensor to estimate a person’s calorie burn and steps per day.

For a closer look at iOS 16, check out our video walkthrough of some of the biggest new features.