BETA YOURSELF iOS 16

How sweet is iOS 16? Pretty sweet, with all its new features. Craig Grannell digs into the best bits to show us how Apple's latest operating system can bring new life to your iPhone...

-  Craig Grannell

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Get your locks off

Borrowing a trick from the Apple Watch, iOS 16 lets you tap-hold a lock screen to add new ones and swap between them. Each lock screen can be customised - tap above and below the clock to add widgets that resemble Apple Watch complications. This is ideal for at-a-glance weather reports, alarms and more.

Find your Focus

In iOS 15, Apple moved beyond Do Not Disturb with the context-sensitive Focus; that system now goes deeper. Each lock screen can have a Focus attached, to help you quickly identify and switch setups. And Focus Filters in Settings let you filter inboxes, group Safari tabs and more, based on your selected Focus.

Share your snaps

In Settings > Photos > Shared Library, you can create an iCloud Shared Photo Library. This allows you to share an entire library, or photos based on people or dates, or just a manual selection of snaps, with up to five others. Be mindful that, if you set this up, the library eats into your storage but everyone can add, edit or delete images.

Perfect your setup

Spend some time in Settings to explore your new options. Notifications Display As adjusts how lock screen notifications look; Sound & Haptics adds keyboard haptics; in Wi-Fi, you can copy and paste passwords; in Home Screen, you can toggle the search button; Game Centre has had a big profile redesign; and Family Checklist outlines useful features.

Cover your privates