iOS 16 is packed with new features that help you connect with others, be more present and in the moment, explore the world, and use powerful intelligence to do more with iPhone than ever before.
What’s New:
iOS 16.3.0 Release Notes:
This update includes the following enhancements and bug fixes:
- New Unity wallpaper honors Black history and culture in celebration of Black History Month
- Security Keys for Apple ID allow users to strengthen the security of their account by requiring a physical security key as part of the two factor authentication sign in process on new devices
- Support for HomePod (2nd generation)
- Emergency SOS calls now require holding the side button with the up or down volume button and then releasing in order to prevent inadvertent emergency calls
- Fixes an issue in Freeform where some drawing strokes created with Apple Pencil or your finger may not appear on shared boards
- Addresses an issue where the wallpaper may appear black on the Lock Screen
- Fixes an issue where horizontal lines may temporarily appear while waking up iPhone 14 Pro Max
- Fixes an issue where the Home Lock Screen widget does not accurately display Home app status
- Addresses an issue where Siri may not respond properly to music requests
- Resolves issues where Siri requests in CarPlay may not be understood correctly
iOS 16.2.0 Release Notes:
Freeform
- Freeform is a new app for working creatively with friends or colleagues on Mac, iPad and iPhone
- A flexible canvas lets you add files, images, stickies, and more
- Drawing tools let you sketch anywhere on the canvas with your finger
Apple Music Sing
- A new way to sing along with millions of your favorite songs in Apple Music
- Fully adjustable vocals let you duet with the original artist, sing solo, or mix it up
- Newly enhanced beat-by-beat lyrics make it even easier to follow along with the music
Advanced Data Protection for iCloud
- New option expands the total number of iCloud data categories protected using end-to-end encryption to 23 — including iCloud Backup, Notes, and Photos — protecting your information even in the case of a data breach in the cloud
Lock Screen
- New settings allow you to hide wallpaper or notifications when Always-On display is enabled on iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max
- Sleep widget lets you view your most recent sleep data
- Medications widget lets you view reminders and quickly access your schedule
Game Center
- SharePlay support in Game Center for multiplayer games so you can play with the people you are on a FaceTime call with
- Activity Widget allows you to see what your friends are playing and achieving in games right from your Home Screen
Apple TV
- Live Activities for Apple TV app let you follow your favorite teams with live scores right on your Lock Screen or in Dynamic Island on iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max
Home
- Improved reliability and efficiency of communication between your smart home accessories and Apple devices
This update also includes the following improvements and bug fixes:
- Improved search in Messages allows you to find photos based on their content, like a dog, car, person, or text
- Reload and Show IP Address setting enables iCloud Private Relay users to temporarily disable the service for a specific site in Safari
- News articles in Weather display information relevant to the weather in that location
- Participant Cursors in Notes allow you to see live indicators as others make updates in a shared note
- AirDrop now automatically reverts to Contacts Only after 10 minutes to prevent unwanted requests to receive content
- Crash Detection optimizations on iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro models
- Fixes an issue that causes some notes not to sync with iCloud after updates are made
Some features may not be available for all regions or on all Apple devices. For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website:
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222
iOS 16.0.3 Release Notes:
This update provides bug fixes and important security updates for your iPhone including the following:
- Incoming call and app notifications may be delayed or not delivered on iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max
- Low microphone volume can occur during CarPlay phone calls on iPhone 14 models
- Camera may be slow to launch or switch between modes on iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max
- Mail crashes on launch after receiving a malformed email
For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website:
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222
iOS 16.0.2 Release Notes:
This update provides bug fixes and important security updates for your iPhone including the following:
- Camera may vibrate and cause blurry photos when shooting with some third-party apps on iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max
- Display may appear completely black during device setup
- Copy and paste between apps may cause a permission prompt to appear more than expected
- VoiceOver may be unavailable after rebooting
- Addresses an issue where touch input was unresponsive on some iPhone X, iPhone XR, and iPhone 11 displays after being serviced
For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website:
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222
iOS 16 Release Notes:
Lock Screen
- Redesigned Lock Screen gives you all new ways to personalize your Lock Screen by showcasing favorite photos, customizing font styles, displaying widgets, and more
- Multiple Lock Screens can be created and you can easily switch between them
- Lock Screen gallery offers personalized suggestions along with Apple curated collections for your Lock Screen
- Font and color options for customizing the look of the date and time on your Lock Screen
- Widgets on the Lock Screen display information at a glance like the weather, battery levels, upcoming calendar events, and more
- A new effect places the subject of the photo in front of the time (iPhone XS and later)
- Photo styles change the color filter, tinting, and font style of photos on the Lock Screen to complement each other
- Notifications appear at the bottom of your Lock Screen and can be displayed in an expanded list view, stacked view, or count view
Focus
- Lock Screen linking connects your Lock Screen to a Focus, so you can activate a Focus by switching to the corresponding Lock Screen
- Focus filters hide distracting content in apps like Calendar, Mail, Messages, Safari and third party apps
- Streamlined setup makes it easier and faster to get started with Focus, with personalized Lock Screen and Home Screen suggestions that include apps and widgets that are relevant to the Focus you’re setting up
Messages
- Edit a message for up to 15 minutes after sending it and recipients see a record of edits
- Undo send allows you to recall any message for up to 2 minutes after sending it
- Mark as unread makes it easy to come back to a conversation later
- SharePlay in Messages lets you enjoy activities like watching movies, listening to music, playing games, and more with friends while messaging
- Collaboration provides a simple way to invite others to collaborate on a file via Messages and get activity updates in the thread when someone makes an edit to a shared project
- Improved search delivers more accurate, complete results and provide suggestions as soon as you begin to type
- Undo send allows you to cancel delivery of a message within 10 seconds of hitting send
- Scheduled send for sending an email at a specific day and time
- Follow’up surfaces sent emails that have not been replied to, to the top of your inbox so you can quickly follow’up
- Remind me lets you schedule a date and time to be reminded about an email
Safari and Passkeys
- Shared Tab Groups let you share a set of tabs with others and see the Tab Group update instantly as you work together
- Tab Group start pages can be customized with different background images and favorites for each Tab Group
- Pinned tabs in Tab Groups enable you to pin frequently visited websites for each Tab Group
- Safari web page translation adds translation for web pages in Turkish, Thai, Vietnamese, Polish, Indonesian, and Dutch
- Passkeys offer support for an easier and safer sign’in method to replace passwords
- Passkey syncing through iCloud Keychain makes your passkeys available across all your Apple devices while keeping them end-to-end encrypted
Live Text
- Live Text video support allows you to interact with text in a paused video frame so you can copy, translate, lookup, share, and more (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)
- Quick actions let you take action on data detected in photos and videos with a single tap, so you can track flights or shipments, translate foreign languages, convert currencies, and more (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)
Visual Look Up
- Lift subject from background isolates the subject of an image so you can copy and paste it into apps like Mail and Messages (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)
- Visual Look Up adds recognition of birds, insects, spiders, and statues in your photos (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)
Siri
- Easy Shortcuts setup makes it possible to run shortcuts with Siri as soon as you download an app with no upfront setup (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)
- A new setting allows you to send messages without Siri asking you to confirm before sending
- “Hey Siri, what can I do here?” helps you discover Siri capabilities in iOS and apps just by asking (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)
- Call hang up option for ending Phone and FaceTime calls with Siri by saying “Hey Siri, hang up.” (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)
Dictation
- All-new Dictation experience supports using your voice and keyboard together to enter and edit text (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)
- Automatic punctuation inserts commas, periods, and question marks as you dictate
- Emoji support lets you insert emoji using your voice (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)
Maps
- Multi-stop routing supports adding up to fifteen stops along your driving route in Maps
- Transit cards in Maps let you see low balances and replenish your card when you add transit cards to Wallet, all without leaving Maps
- Transit fares show you how much your journey will cost in the San Francisco Bay Area, London, New York, and San Diego
Apple Pay and Wallet
- Apple Pay Order Tracking allows you to receive detailed receipt and order tracking information in Wallet for Apple Pay purchases with participating merchants
- ID cards in Wallet lets you share verified information with apps that require identity verification (iPhone 8 and later)
- Apple Account supports topping-up your account balance from your Apple Account card in Wallet
Home
- Redesigned Home app makes it easier to navigate, organize, view, and control your smart home accessories
- Home tab now integrates all your accessories, rooms, and scenes into a single tab for a whole-house view, allowing you to see your entire home at a glance
- Categories for lights, climate, security, speakers and TVs, and water let you quickly access all the relevant accessories organized by room, and displays more detailed status information
- New camera view displays up to four cameras front and center in the Home tab, scroll to see any additional camera views in your home
- Redesigned accessory tiles feature more visually recognizable icons that are color-matched to their category, and new behaviors for more precise accessory controls
Health
- Medications feature helps you track and manage your medications, vitamins and supplements by creating a list, custom schedules and reminders, and then viewing logging over time
- Add medications using your iPhone camera (iPhone XS, iPhone XR and later)
- Interaction alerts inform you if there is a critical interaction when you add a new medication
- Cycle deviation notifications alert you if your logged menstrual cycles show a pattern of infrequent periods, irregular periods, prolonged periods, or persistent spotting
- Invitations for Health Sharing allow loved ones to easily and securely share their health data with you
- Health Sharing reminders give you transparency and control over the health data you are sharing with loved ones
News
- My Sports enables you to easily follow your favorite teams and leagues and watch highlights right in the News app
- Favorites give you easy access to the channels and topics you read the most, in a consistent place near the top of your Today feed
- New homepages deliver visually updated and easier to navigate topic feeds for local news locales, sports teams and leagues, and more
Family Sharing
- Improved child account setup makes it easier to create an account for a child with the right parental controls, including age’appropriate media restrictions
- Device setup for a child lets you use Quick Start to easily set up a new iOS or iPadOS device for your child with your selected parental controls in place
- Screen Time requests in Messages make it even easier to approve or decline requests from your child
- Family Checklist gives you tips and suggestions like updating a child’s parental control settings, turning on location sharing, or just reminding you to share your iCloud+ subscription with everyone
Safety Check
- Safety Check is a new section in Settings to help people in domestic or intimate partner violence situations quickly reset the access they’ve granted to others
- Emergency reset lets you quickly take action to reset access across all people and apps, including disabling location sharing via Find My, resetting privacy permissions for apps, and more
- Manage sharing and access helps you review and customize which apps and people can access your information
Accessibility
- Door detection in Magnifier locates a door, reads signs and symbols around it, and gives you instructions for how to open the door (iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro)
- Apple Watch mirroring provides full control of Apple Watch from iPhone and supports use of Switch Control, Voice Control, or any other assistive features on iPhone to get the most out of your Apple Watch
- Live Captions (beta) automatically converts audio into text for users who are Deaf or hard of hearing to follow along more easily with calls and media content (iPhone 11 and later)
- Buddy controller helps users with cognitive disabilities get support from a caregiver or friend while playing a game, by combining inputs from multiple game controllers into one
- VoiceOver is now available in over 20 new languages and locales, including Bangla (India), Bulgarian, Catalan, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese
- Voice Control spelling mode gives you the option to dictate names, addresses, or other custom spellings letter by letter
This release also includes other features and improvements:
- Fitness app lets you track and meet your fitness goals even if you don’t yet have an Apple Watch, using iPhone motion sensors to give you an estimate of your calories to contribute to your daily Move goal
- AirPods Pro (2nd generation) support
- Personalized Spatial Audio uses the TrueDepth camera on iPhone to create a personal profile for Spatial Audio that delivers a more precise and immersive listening experience on AirPods (3rd generation), AirPods Pro (1st and 2nd generation), AirPods Max
- Handoff in FaceTime allows you to move FaceTime calls seamlessly from your iPhone to your iPad or Mac, and vice versa
- Memoji updates include more sticker poses, hairstyles, headwear, noses, and lip colors
- Quick Note adds support for taking a note in any app on your iPhone and adding links to create context and easily find content
- Translate camera lets you translate text around you using the camera in the Translate app
- Duplicate detection in Photos identifies duplicate photos so you can quickly clean up your library
- Foreground blur for portrait photos in Camera blurs objects in the foreground for a more realistic-looking depth-of-field effect (iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max)
- Pinned lists in Reminders helps you quickly navigate to your favorite lists
- Search on the Home Screen enables Spotlight to be accessed directly from the bottom of the Home Screen, making it easy to open apps, find contacts, or get information from the web
- Automatically send messages in CarPlay to skip the confirmation step when sending messages
- Rapid Security Response gets important security improvements to your devices even faster, as they can be applied automatically between standard software updates
This release includes even more features and improvements. For more information, please visit this website: https://www.apple.com/ios/ios-16
For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website:
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222
Previous release notes:
iOS 15.6 includes enhancements, bug fixes and security updates.
- TV app adds the option to restart a live sports game already in-progress and pause, rewind, or fast-forward
- Fixes an issue where Settings may continue to display that device storage is full even if it is available
- Fixes an issue that may cause braille devices to slow down or stop responding when navigating text in Mail
- Fixes an issue in Safari where a tab may revert back to a previous page
For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website:
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222
Previous Notes:
This update includes the following bug fixes for your iPhone:
- Battery may drain more quickly than expected after updating to iOS 15.4
- Braille devices may become unresponsive while navigating text or displaying an alert
- Made for iPhone hearing devices may lose connection within some third-party apps
Face ID
- Face ID while wearing a mask option on iPhone 12 and newer
- Apple Pay and password autofill in apps and Safari can be used with Face ID while wearing a mask
Emoji
- New emoji including faces, hand gestures, and household objects are now available in emoji keyboard
- Handshake emoji allows you to choose separate skin tones for each hand
FaceTime
- SharePlay sessions can be initiated directly from supported apps
Siri
- Siri can provide time and date information while offline on iPhone XS, iPhone XR, iPhone 11 or newer
- Siri now includes an additional voice, expanding the diversity of options
Vaccine cards
- EU Digital COVID Certificate support in Health enables you to download and store verifiable versions of COVID-19 vaccination, lab results, and recovery records
- COVID-19 vaccination cards in Apple Wallet now support the EU Digital COVID Certificate format
This release also includes the following enhancements for your iPhone:
- Safari webpage translation adds support for Italian and Chinese (Traditional)
- Podcasts app adds episode filters for seasons, played, unplayed, saved, or downloaded episodes
- iCloud custom email domains can be managed from Settings
- News offers enhanced discovery of audio content in the Today feed and Audio tab
- Camera in keyboard can be used to add text to Notes and Reminders
- Shortcuts now supports adding, removing, or querying tags with Reminders
- Emergency SOS settings have changed to use Call with Hold for all users. Call with 5 Presses is still available as an option in Emergency SOS settings
- Close-up in Magnifier uses the ultra-wide camera on iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max to help you see small objects
- Saved passwords can now include your own notes in Settings
This release also includes bug fixes for your iPhone:
- Keyboard may insert period between typed numbers
- News widgets in Today View may not open articles when tapped
- Photos and videos may not sync to iCloud Photo Library
- Speak Screen Accessibility feature may quit unexpectedly within the Books app
- Live Listen may not turn off when switched off in Control Center
Previous Notes:
- iOS 15.3.1 includes bug fixes and security updates for your iPhone and is recommended for all users.
Previous Notes:
iOS 15.2.1 contains bug fixes for your iPhone including:
- Messages may not load photos sent using an iCloud Link
- Third-party CarPlay apps may not respond to input
For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website:
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222
Previous Notes:
iOS 15.2 adds Apple Music Voice Plan, a new subscription tier that provides access to music using Siri. This update also includes the App Privacy Report, new safety features for children and parents in Messages, and other features and bug fixes for your iPhone.
Apple Music Voice Plan
- Apple Music Voice Plan is a new subscription tier that gives you access to all songs, playlists, and stations in Apple Music using Siri
- Just Ask Siri suggests music based on your listening history and likes or dislikes
- Play it Again lets you access a list of your recently played music
Privacy
- App Privacy Report in Settings lets you see how often apps have accessed your location, photos, camera, microphone, contacts and more during the last seven days, as well as their network activity
Messages
- Communication safety setting gives parents the ability to enable warnings for children when they receive or send photos that contain nudity
- Safety warnings contain helpful resources for children when they receive photos that contain nudity
Siri and Search
- Expanded guidance in Siri, Spotlight and Safari Search to help children and parents stay safe online and get help with unsafe situations
Apple ID
- Digital Legacy allows you to designate people as Legacy Contacts so they can access your iCloud account and personal information in the event of your death
Camera
- Macro photo control for switching to the Ultra Wide lens to capture macro photos and videos can be enabled in Settings on iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max
TV app
- Store tab lets you browse, buy, and rent movies and TV Shows all in one place
CarPlay
- Enhanced city map in Apple Maps with road details like turn lanes, medians, bike lanes, and pedestrian crosswalks for supported cities
- This release also includes the following enhancements for your iPhone:
- Hide My Email is available in the Mail app for iCloud+ subscribers to create unique, random email addresses
- Find My can locate iPhone for up to five hours when in Power Reserve
- Stocks allows you to view the currency for a ticker and see year-to-date performance when viewing charts
- Reminders and Notes now allow you to delete or rename tags
- This release also includes bug fixes for your iPhone:
- Siri may not respond while VoiceOver is running and iPhone is locked
- ProRAW photos may appear overexposed when viewing in third-party photo editing apps
- HomeKit scenes that include a garage door may not run from CarPlay when your iPhone is locked
- CarPlay may not update Now Playing information for certain apps
- Video streaming apps may not load content on iPhone 13 models
- Calendar events may appear on the wrong day for Microsoft Exchange users
For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website:
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222
Previous Notes:
FaceTime
- Spatial audio makes people’s voices sound like they’re coming from the direction in which they’re positioned on the screen on Group FaceTime calls (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)
- Voice Isolation blocks background noises so your voice is crystal clear (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)
- Wide Spectrum brings all background noises into your call (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)
- Portrait mode blurs your background and puts the focus on you (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)
- Grid view displays up to six people at a time in Group FaceTime calls in the same-size tiles and highlights the current speaker
- FaceTime links allow you to invite your friends into a FaceTime call, even friends on Android or Windows devices can join from their browser
Messages and Memoji
- Shared with You shows content sent to you by friends in Messages conversations in a new section in Photos, Safari, Apple News, Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, or the Apple TV app
- Pinned content elevates the shared content you choose and makes it more prominent in Shared with You, Messages search, and the Details view of the conversation
- Multiple photos sent in Messages are displayed as a glanceable collage or a swipeable stack
- Over 40 Memoji outfit choices and up to three different colors to customize your Memoji stickers’s clothing and headwear
Focus
- Focus lets you automatically filter notifications based on what you’re currently doing, such as fitness, sleep, gaming, reading, driving, work, or personal time
- Focus uses on-device intelligence during set up to suggest apps and people you want to allow notifications from in a Focus
- Home Screen pages can be customized to match your apps and widgets to a specific Focus
- Contextual suggestions intelligently suggest a Focus based on your context, using signals like location or time of day
- Status appears to your contacts in Messages conversations, indicating your notifications are silenced with Focus
Notifications
- A new look displays contact photos for people and larger icons for apps
- Notification summary delivers a helpful collection of your notifications daily, based on a schedule you set
- Notifications can be muted from any app or messaging thread for the next hour or for the day
Maps
- Detailed city maps display elevation, trees, buildings, landmarks, crosswalks and turn lanes, and 3D views to navigate complex interchanges, and more in San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York, and London, with more cities coming in the future (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)
- New driving features include a new map that highlights details like traffic and incidents, and a route planner that lets you view your upcoming journey by choosing a future departure or arrival time
- Immersive walking directions show step-by-step directions in augmented reality (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)
- Updated transit experience provides one-tap access to departures near you, makes it easy to see and interact with your route using one hand, and notifies you when approaching your stop
- Interactive 3D globe shows enhanced details for mountain ranges, deserts, forests, oceans, and more (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)
- Redesigned place cards make it easy to learn about and interact with places, and a new home for Guides editorially curates the best recommendations for places you’ll love
Safari
- Bottom tab bar is easier to reach and helps you move between tabs by swiping left or right
- Tab Groups help you save and organize your tabs and easily access them across devices
- Tab overview grid view displays your open tabs
- Start page can be customized with a background image and new sections like Privacy Report, Siri Suggestions, and Shared With You
- Web extensions on iOS help you personalize your browsing and can be downloaded through the App Store
- Voice search lets you search the web using your voice
Wallet
- Home keys let you tap to unlock a supported home or apartment door lock (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)
- Hotel keys allow you to tap to unlock your room at participating hotels
- Office keys allow you to tap to unlock your office doors for participating corporate offices
- Car keys with Ultra Wideband help you unlock, lock, and start your supported car without having to take your iPhone out of your bag or pocket (iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 models)
- Remote keyless entry functions on your car keys allow you to lock, unlock, honk your horn, preheat your car, or open your trunk on your supported vehicle
Live Text
- Live Text makes text interactive in your photos so you can copy and paste, look up, and translate in Photos, Screenshot, Quick Look, Safari, and live previews with Camera (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)
- Data detectors for Live Text recognize phone numbers, emails, dates, street addresses, and more in photos so you can take action on them
- Live Text is available from the keyboard letting you insert text directly from the camera viewfinder into any text field
Spotlight
- Rich results brings together all the information you’re looking for on contacts, actors, musicians, movies, and TV shows
- Photos can be searched from your photo library by locations, people, scenes, text in the photos or other things in the photos, like a dog or a car
- Web image search allows you to search for images of people, animals, monuments, and more
Photos
- New look for Memories with a new interactive interface, animated cards with smart, adaptive titles, new animation and transition styles, and multiple image collages
- Apple Music can be added to your Memories for Apple Music subscribers, and personalized song suggestions combine expert recommendations with your music tastes and what’s in your photos and videos
- Memory mixes let you set the mood by selecting from different songs and a Memory look to match
- New memory types include additional international holidays, child-focused memories, trends over time, and improved pet memories
- Info pane now displays rich information about the photo like which camera and lens, shutter speed, file size, and more
- Visual Look Up recognizes art, landmarks around the world, plants and flowers, books, and dog and cat breeds in your photos so you can learn more about them
Health
- Sharing lets you choose health data, alerts, and trends to share with people important to you or those who are caring for you, including your healthcare provider
- Trends lets you see how a given health metric is progressing over time and can notify you when a new trend has been detected
- Walking Steadiness is a new metric that can assess your risk of falling and notify you if your walking steadiness is low (iPhone 8 and later)
- Verifiable health records enable you to download and store verifiable versions of COVID-19 vaccines and lab results
- Lab results can now be pinned for quick access and include highlights that show how your labs have changed over time
Weather
- A new design shows the most important weather information for that location and includes new maps modules
- Weather maps can be viewed in full-screen and show precipitation, temperature and air quality in supported countries
- Next-hour precipitation notifications alert you when rain or snow is about to start or stop in Ireland, U.K., and US
- New animated backgrounds more accurately represent the sun position, clouds, and precipitation (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)
Siri
- On-device processing means audio of your requests does not leave your device by default, and means Siri is able to process many requests while offline (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)
- Share items with Siri lets you send on screen items like photos, web pages and Maps locations to any of your contacts
- Onscreen context can be used by Siri to refer to contacts on screen to send them a message or place a call
- On-device personalization allows Siri speech recognition and understanding to improve privately (iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR and later)
Privacy
- Mail Privacy Protection protects your privacy by preventing email senders from learning about your Mail activity, your IP address or whether you’ve opened their email
- Safari Intelligent Tracking Prevention now also prevents known trackers from profiling you using your IP address
iCloud+
- iCloud+ is a cloud subscription service that gives you premium features and additional iCloud storage
- iCloud Private Relay (beta) sends your requests through two separate internet relays and encrypts the internet traffic leaving your device so you can browse Safari in a more secure and private way
- Hide My Email lets you create unique, random email addresses that forward to your personal inbox so you can send and receive email without having to share your real email address
- HomeKit Secure Video supports connecting more security cameras without using your iCloud storage quota
- Custom email domain personalizes your iCloud Mail address and allows you to invite family members to use the same domain
Accessibility
- Image exploration with VoiceOver allows you to get even more details about people and objects, and learn about text and table data in photos
- VoiceOver image descriptions in Markup let you add your own image descriptions that can be read by VoiceOver
- Per-app settings allow you to customize display and text size settings only for the apps you want
- Background sounds play balanced, bright, or dark noise, ocean, rain, and stream sounds continuously in the background to mask unwanted environmental or external noise
- Sound actions for Switch Control enable you to control your iPhone with simple mouth sounds
- Audiograms can be imported in Settings so you can customize Headphone Accommodations based on your hearing test results
- New Voice Control languages include Mandarin Chinese (China mainland), Cantonese (Hong Kong), French (France), and German (Germany)
- Memoji options including a cochlear implant, oxygen tubes, or a soft helmet
- This release also includes other features and improvements:
- Tags in Notes and Reminders help you quickly categorize your items to make them easy to find, and you can use custom Smart Folders and Smart Lists to automatically collect your notes and reminders based on rules you can define
- Mentions in Notes enable you to notify others of important updates in shared notes, and an all-new Activity view displays all the recent changes in a note in a single list
- Spatial audio with dynamic head tracking in Apple Music brings an even more immersive experience to Dolby Atmos music with AirPods Pro and AirPods Max
- System-wide translation lets you select text throughout the system and translate it with a tap, even in photos
- New widgets include Find My, Contacts, App Store, Sleep, Game Center, and Mail
- Cross-app drag and drop function lets you pick up images, documents, and files from one app to another
- Keyboard magnification loupe magnifies the text when moving the cursor
- Apple ID Account Recovery Contacts lets you to choose one or more people you trust to help you reset your password and regain access to your account
- Temporary iCloud storage grants you as much iCloud storage as you need to create a temporary backup of your data, free of charge, for up to three weeks when you buy a new device
- Find My separation alerts notify you if you leave a supported device or item behind and Find My will give you directions to your item
- Game highlights of up to the last 15 seconds of gameplay can be saved using game controllers like the Xbox Series X|S Wireless Controller or Sony PS5 DualSense™ Wireless Controller
- App Store in-app events help you discover timely events within apps and games such as a game competition, a new movie premiere, or a livestreamed experience
This release includes even more features and improvements. For more information, please visit this website: https://www.apple.com/ios/ios-15/features/
For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website: