12 iOS 16 hidden features Apple didn’t show off on stage
Apple hosted its WWDC last week wherein it unveiled the new iOS 16 software update for iPhone. The new iOS 16 software update comes with a whole load of features such as Lock Screen customization, offline dictation, Live Activities, improvements to iMessage, and a lot more. Due to the limited time on stage, Apple wasn’t able to go through all the changes that iOS 16 comes with. We have been playing with iOS 16 on our iPhone for the past week, and we have found some great features that Apple didn’t show off on stage. Here are the top 12 iOS 16 hidden features you should know about.
12 iOS 16 Hidden Features That You Should Know About
1. Check the password of saved Wi-Fi networks
iOS 16 will finally iPhone allow users to see and copy the Wi-Fi passwords of saved wireless networks. Simply go to the Wi-Fi Settings on your iPhone, select the i button, and then tap on Password. You can now easily copy, paste, and share the Wi-Fi password with your friends, family, and guests from your iPhone settings.
2. Merge duplicate photos
We often click a number of photos in order to capture the perfect moment. But, more often than not, these duplicate images serve no purpose and unnecessarily occupy the precious storage space of our device (sometimes of our iCloud as well). To counter this and to reduce the number of similar shots on your iPhone, Apple has added a new feature to iOS 16 that will limit the number of duplicate images on your iPhone.
A new album is created in the Photos app every time your iPhone detects a duplicate image. This new album shows up with the name Duplicates under the Utilities section in the Photos app. Opening up the album will reveal all the duplicate images on your iPhone. You can then simply merge the images using the Merge button. Apple says that merging the two (or more) photos will combine the highest quality and relevant data from both the images and the other duplicated copy will be deleted from your device.
3. Copy and paste edits in the Photos app
iOS has a pretty powerful image editor built right inside the Photos app. The company has now introduced a new feature with iOS 16 that allows you to copy edits made to an image (filters, change in color temperature, etc) from one image directly onto another image. Here’s how you can do it:
- Open the Photos app on your iPhone and select the image that you’ve edited.
- Tap the Three Dots located at the top right-hand corner and select Copy Edits.
- Now head over to the image you want to paste the edit on.
- Select the image, tap the Three Dots at the top right, and then select Paste Edits → Done. Your desired edits should now be applied to the selected image.
4. Face ID now works in landscape mode
Apple has improved Face ID a lot over the past few years. The company improved the speed of Face ID authentication with iOS 15 last year and launched the Face ID with Mask On feature recently. In iOS 16, Apple has improved Face ID even further as the face recognition technology now works in the landscape mode as well. Even though there is no official information about the supported models, some enthusiasts speculate that the feature is available only on iPhone 13 (and later) models.
5. Ability to delete Contacts easily
Right now, deleting a contact on iPhone is a tiresome process. You have to go to the detailed information of the contact, select the Edit option, and then scroll down all the way to finally select the Delete Contact option. It seems that Apple has finally heard the requests of its users as it has made the process of deleting a contact easier in iOS 16. You can now simply tap and hold on a particular contact to delete it from your list.
6. Disable ‘Lock to End Call’
One of the quirks that iPhone users (especially the new users who switch from Android) complain about is that pressing the lock button ends the call. You can finally disable the ‘Lock to End Call’ feature in iOS 16. Simply go to Settings → Accessibility → Touch and then disable the Lock to End Call setting.
7. Dedicated AirPods Section in Settings
AirPods are one of the best accessories you can buy for your iPhone. The earphones from Apple work flawlessly with your iPhone. However, there still is no dedicated app to control settings and software updates of your AirPods. With iOS 16, things are improving a bit as your iPhone will now show a dedicated AirPods section in the settings app. It is located just above the Airplane mode toggle and takes you to the same screen when you click the i button next to the AirPods in Bluetooth settings — it’s just more accessible now.
8. Sort Apple Music Playlists
Apple has finally added the highly-requested sort feature to the playlists in Apple Music with iOS 16. You can now tap the three dots on the top right and sort the playlist based on Title, Album, Artist, and Release Date. Moreover, Apple has also updated the Now Playing widget in iOS 16 that shows the particular audio output device instead of the generic casting button. For example, if you’re using your Beats Studio Buds, you’ll see its icon appear in the Now Playing window but as soon as you switch to the HomePod, you’ll see the icon for HomePod in the Now Playing window instead.
9. Support for Switch controllers
Apple has officially added support for Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons and Pro Controllers in iOS 16. You can now natively pair your Switch game controllers to your iPhone and play games using them. The support for Switch controllers also extends to tvOS, macOS, and iPadOS.
10. Revert to old-style Lock Screen Notifications
One of the biggest highlights of iOS 16 is the new Lock Screen customizations. You can completely change the way your Lock Screen looks with new widgets, clock fonts, and much more. Notifications too now show up at the bottom of the Lock Screen. However, if you don’t like the new style and want to revert back to the old way, you can do so in iOS 16 settings. You can choose between the List view, Count, and Stack notification view in the iOS settings.
11. Quick Notes in Share Menu
Quick Note is a nifty tool Apple introduced in iOS 15. You can quickly save information in the Notes app using the Quick Notes tool. With iOS 16, Apple is further improving the feature as Quick Notes now shows up in the Share Sheet. This means you can quickly save a note for things like an article or an image, or something that you want to save for later.
12. Improved Clipboard manager
In iOS 16, Apple has added more features to the clipboard manager. Currently, iOS shows you a toast notification whenever an app accesses the clipboard. In iOS 16, whenever you copy and paste something from one app to another, it will show a pop-up saying “App A would like to paste from App B”. You can then allow the app to access the clipboard or deny it from reading the contents of the clipboard. This adds one more step that an app has to take to access your clipboard and makes your iPhone more secure.
iOS 16 will bring a lot of features to the iPhone. Apple will release the final build of iOS 16 with the release of the iPhone 14 series later this fall, but if you’re really keen on installing iOS 16 on your iPhone, you should wait for the Public Beta that will be released next month. What are your thoughts on iOS 16? Let us know in the comments section below!
