iOS15 vs. iOS16: Worth Making the Switch?

iOS15 vs. iOS16

At Apple’s WWDC keynote, it was announced that the iOS16 releases public beta will be released in July and will include a revamped lock screen, privacy and family sharing enhancements, and a slew of new capabilities for current apps. So let’s take a look at the features and differences between iOS15 vs. iOS16 and what the new OS has to offer.

Let’s go over all of the iOS16 new features, Major changes were made across the iOS system in line with the modern trends of flexibility, customizability, privacy, and usability made to enhance the overall user experience.

  • Heavily customizable lock screen with add-on widgets.
  • Notifications come in from the bottom.
  • Order tracking in
  • In-app verification of ID in Wallet
  • Live text in video
  • Live activity progress from the lock screen for viewing Uber journey progress, workouts, sports events, and more
  • Focus mode adds to your choices of the lock screen, widgets, notification settings, and filters for your feed
  • Apple Pay and Apple Pay Later order tracking
  • Safety Check allows you to easily manage who has access to your permissions
  • Shared iCloud Photo library
  • The ability to edit messages after they have been sent and mark any thread as unread

Now let’s look at some of these features in more detail and see what has been added or removed.

Lock Screen

The newly redesigned Lock Screen allows you to customize how the information shows on the screen, and you can also choose from a variety of fonts and color schemes to customize the photos and text to your liking. As mentioned above, you can add widgets like calendars, activity, and weather apps to help you plan your day and even keep up with deliveries and stay updated on sports scores.

Adding to the Focus features available on the iOS 15, you can set up multiple lock screens that can be switched between easily and are synchronized with the focus modes you have previously set up.

Notifications

The iOS16 left good enough alone in this one. Some UI improvements were made with messages and alerts coming in from the bottom of the screen and being able to link your Lock Screen to your Focus mode settings. On top of all the other features that were already implemented in iOS15 – notifications muting, summary contact photos, and more – the notification system is continuously being refined.

Messages

Major changes have been added to the messaging system, with the ability to edit messages after sending or totally delete the message before it is seen, which is handy for avoiding embarrassing typos or regrettable messages to your ex. You can also mark any threat as unread to come back to it later.

The iOS16 now also allows SharePlay, a feature that allows users to view content simultaneously, to be used directly via Messenger with the ability to chat while the content plays.

Mail 

Apple’s Mail app isn’t exactly the most vital application among the operating system’s roster, it is easily overshadowed by better 3rd party mailing apps. 

But now, Apple has made a great effort to bring it back into the limelight with scheduled send, undo send, and other features in the iOS16.

Photos

iOS16 offers a variety of improvements to managing your photos. iOS16 gives users the ability to put a password for an album, detect duplicate photos, deactivate featured content, and more. It also introduces a new iCloud feature, allowing specific albums to be shared with specific people. A new way to store all 784 of your friend group’s selfies from that one trip.

While many features of the iOS16 are not exactly revolutionary in their own right, they do massively improve the user’s overall experience. By sticking to the path of privacy, connectivity, and usability, Apple has come out with another good set of additions to the incremental improvements being done to their operating system.