It’s that time of the year again! Today, Apple has previewed iOS 16 at its WWDC22 event, where the most significant update is the new lock screen.
iOS 16 now brings a brand new personalized lock screen experience. With a new multilayered effect, the subjects of photos are artfully set in front of the time on the lock screen, creating a sense of depth. Users can also change the date and time look with expressive type styles and color choices.
The lock screen features widgets that take inspiration from Apple Watch complications, making it easy to get information at a glance, such as upcoming calendar events, the weather, battery levels, alarms, time zones, Activity ring progress, and more. The lock screen gallery also features a range of options, just like how you can change the watch faces on your Apple Watch with just a swipe.
Live Activities is a new feature that helps users stay on top of things that are happening in real-time, such as a sports game, workout, ride-share, or food delivery order, right from the lock screen.
Additionally, notifications have been redesigned to roll up from the bottom, ensuring that users have a clear view of their personalized lock screen.
Apple also brings the Focus feature to the lock screen. You can choose your desired focus straight from the lock screen and change which apps can show notifications with Focus filters.
iCloud Shared Photo Library gives families a new way to share photos seamlessly with a separate iCloud library that up to six users can collaborate on, contribute to, and enjoy. Users can choose to share existing photos from their libraries or share based on a start date or people in the photos.
A user can also choose to send photos to the Shared Library automatically using a new toggle in the Camera app. Additionally, users will receive intelligent suggestions to share a photo that includes participants in the Shared Photo Library. Every user in the Shared Photo Library has access to add, delete, edit, or favorite the shared photos or videos, which will appear in each user’s Memories and Featured Photos so that everyone can relive more complete family moments.
Apple has also updated the Messages app with three big updates in iOS 16. You can now edit or recall recently sent messages, recover recently deleted messages, and mark conversations as unread. SharePlay is also coming to Messages, making it possible to enjoy synced content like movies or songs and shared playback controls all while chatting in Messages.
Apple also showed off the new generation CarPlay that will be able to provide content for multiple screens within the vehicle, creating an experience that is unified and consistent. New CarPlay also comes with deeper integration with the vehicle that will allow users to do things like controlling the radio or changing the climate directly. It will also show the speed, fuel level, temperature, and more on the instrument cluster.
More information about the next generation of CarPlay will be shared in the future, and vehicles will start to be announced late next year.
The developer preview of iOS 16 is available to Apple Developer Program members at developer.apple.com starting today, and a public beta will be available to iOS users next month at beta.apple.com. New software features will be available later this year as a free software update for iPhone 8 and later. For more information, visit iOS 16. Features are subject to change. Some features may not be available in all regions or all languages.