Tip of the week: Three reasons to try iOS 16
Welcome to Advisorator’s Tip of the Week, helping you learn something new from the tech world every Tuesday.
Apple released iOS 16 on Monday, so unless you’re feeling skittish about buggy software, you can download the update under Settings > General > Software update.
Why bother? The most notable feature is the ability to edit and undo iMessages, which you can do by long-pressing whatever you’ve just sent, then hitting the “Edit” or “Undo Send” buttons. Just note that the latter has a two-minute takeback window, and anyone who’s not running iOS 16 can still see what you’ve undone. Also, your edit history is visible to the recipient no matter what.
Voice dictation also gets an overhaul, automatically inserting commas, periods, and even question marks based on your inflection. You can also tap anywhere in your text to make changes without leaving dictation mode, and if you’re dictating a message with Siri, you can say things like “smile with sunglasses emoji” to enter it 😎 with just your voice.
Lastly, you can now set up widgets and background graphics on the lock screen. Long-press anywhere on the screen, then hit the Customize or + buttons to start setting things up. I previously wrote a guide on making the most of this feature over at FastCo.
I look forward to exploring more of iOS 16 in the weeks ahead, but you can check out Apple’s full list of feature updates in the meantime.