By: Nick Gambino
Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) is in full swing. Hardware and software announcements abound, but it’s the new iOS 16 that has the tech world and iPhone users buzzing.
As we discussed last week, iOS 16 was never going to be a complete redesign, but there are new features that have been a long time coming. Let’s get into the ones you care about.
Text message compatibility with Android
If you’ve ever texted with an Android user using your iPhone (especially in a group chat), you know it’s a clunky experience. Between videos coming in low-res and full text explanations of emoji reactions (Tapbacks), you might as well not do it.
iOS 16 fixes at least one of these problems. Now when you use emoji reactions on texts with Android users it’ll show up as a proper reaction in the corner of the text. No more, “Kelly laughed at ‘You gotta be kidding me.’”
Google did something of a workaround for this a few months ago, but now Apple is picking up the ball and correcting it on their end.
Unsend or edit messages
Finally! iOS 16 will allow you to unsend or edit a message after it’s already left your phone. This is not an open ticket to call back all your messages. You’ll have 15 minutes to undo whatever you sent.
A workaround to this is to just not send bad text messages. Easy, right?
Even more message features
A feature that’s sorely missing is the ability to mark messages as Unread, like an email. Well, they’ve added that too. Until now, users have had to rely on not opening the message or pinning it to the top. So this is a pretty big deal.
Another big add is the ability to recover recently deleted messages. Again, this is like email or photos. It’s not a feature I necessarily thought I’d need, but I can see it coming in handy.
Better lock screens
We predicted that we would see some sort of always-on lock screen in iOS 16. Alas, that was not to be, but they are allowing you to customize your lock screen more than ever. You can add unique backdrops and shuffled photos. You can even edit fonts, colors and other elements to make it uniquely your own.
There’s also more functionality integrated into the lock screen. You can add widgets from a plethora of apps and will see notifications come in on the bottom of the screen so as not to block important details at the top.
Those are the new features that are most interesting to even the most casual iPhone user. Go here for a complete rundown of the new iOS features.
iOS 16 will be available in beta next month with a wide rollout in the fall.
