Review: iOS 16

As many iPhone users know, Apple releases a new iOS update every Sept. These are usually the biggest updates the phones receive for a year, and this year was a notable one. Anyone with an iPhone 8 and newer can download the iOS 16 update.

The major feature that users will notice first is the lock screen. Apple has made some changes to the lock screen by adding more levels of customization through widgets, which are information displayed in a way that can be read at first glance, and a cleaner way to display notifications. The notifications now come up from the bottom of your lock screen instead of sitting in the middle.

The other notable thing that received changes was the Messages app. Users can now mark messages as unread, edit messages, and unsend messages. Message edits are going to be a useful tool when a word gets spelled wrong or a sentence is worded in a way that’s hard to understand.

One thing about message editing is that users could make people look bad by editing a message after a response to make it seem as if that person said something that they didn’t. This could easily shine people in a bad light. The edited messages do have a small blue pop-up that says “edited” that a user can click on to see the edit history, but that can be edited out of screenshots.

The last feature is that the phones can automatically cut subjects out of photos so that users can have a subject with no background. All that people need to do is hold down on the subject of the image and the phone will cut it out for them. For people who use their phone as a professional tool for photography, this feature can reduce the time of cutting a subject out of the background for other programs like Photoshop.

This update is a well-rounded one with features that can improve ease of use. Users will be able to enjoy the features, and the updates do not incorporate any hard-to-understand changes or confusing changes.