iOS 16, Apple’s latest operating system for the iPhone, is a major update that adds a range of useful and fun features, fixes security holes and tweaks the overall look. But it’s not quite a perfect experience “out of the box”, so to speak.
In some cases, Apple has added new features that are likely to annoy you. In this article, we show you how to turn them off. Meanwhile, some extremely welcome new features are disabled by default. We’ll show you how to activate them. With these nine simple tweaks, you’ll find that iOS 16 will be a better experience.
Also read: Everything about IOS 16 – news and hidden gems
1. Get the battery percentage indicator back
With the launch of IOS 16, Apple has brought back the battery percentage meter, which disappeared from the iPhone in 2017. But you have to enable it yourself.
Go to Settings > Battery and press the slider marked Battery percentage. At the time of writing, it does not work on iPhone XR, 11, 12 mini and 13 mini.
Test: IOS 16 – funnest update in a long time
2. Turn off the search button
If you look at an iOS 15 home screen, you’ll see a small icon between the dock and the other app icons. It shows a row of dots indicating how many home screens you have and which one you’re on. After updating to iOS 16, this icon is replaced by a search icon, which duplicates the Spotlight feature, accessed by swiping down on the home screen.
Test: iPhone 14 – an iPhone for the people
If you find this unnecessary and/or distracting, you can go back to the dots by going to Settings > Home Screen and enabling Show on Home Screen.
3. Enable the haptic keyboard setting
Most of us turn off the iPhone’s keyboard sound, which can be annoying when typing long messages in public. But doing this means you miss out on the useful haptic feedback that actually helps.
In iOS 16 there is an option to enable haptic keyboard feedback without keyboard clicks. Go to Settings > Sound & Haptics > Keyboard Feedback to activate the function.
4. Give yourself more time to undo emails
As of iOS 16, Mail lets you undo sent emails within a certain time limit. But the strange thing is that the time limit is up to you – to a certain extent.
Test: iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max – slightly better, much more expensive
The feature is set to 10 seconds by default, but if you go to Settings > Mail > Delay to Withdraw you can change it to 20 or 30 seconds.
5. Stop accidentally ending calls
Many iPhone owners have made the mistake of pressing the side button during a phone call. By default, the action ends the call — but in iOS 16, Apple adds a new option that lets you change that.
Go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch and then select Prevent lock to end calls.
6. Sending messages without confirmation
A Siri time saver: when sending messages with Siri, you can now skip the confirmation step. Go to Settings > Siri and Search > Send messages automatically, tap the slider so it turns green. Now Siri will not ask you to confirm.
7. Share (some of) your Focus
iPhone users had access to several focus modes in IOS 15, but IOS 16 expands the function considerably. One change is greater control over the sharing of status information. It is much easier to review and control which focus modes should and should not be shared.
Go to Settings > Focus and make sure Sharing across devices is on. You can now tap Focus Status, and choose which modes, if any, to sync.
We found that all modes were set to share by default, but you might not want everyone to know you’re sleeping or working out, for example.
Note that sharing permissions still only apply per app. Go to Settings > Notificationsfor example and you can enable and disable Allow access for Messages.
8. Fine tune your notifications
Apple has changed how notifications appear on the lock screen. Those from the same app are organized under what Apple calls the Trave view. This view is enabled by default, but those who prefer to use the old method can do so:
Go to Settings > Notifications and choose List at the top to return to how it was in iOS 15. Or choose Number if you don’t want to see any notifications at all, and just get a discreet number at the bottom of the screen.
9. Prevent your personal photos from appearing
iOS 16 adds an AI-based feature that finds what it thinks are important photos and video clips that then pop up in various places (widgets, search, Made for You in Photos, and more), as a reminder of happy memories. This is a nice feature, but it’s not for everyone – especially if you have embarrassing pictures on your phone or just don’t want people on the train to see your holiday pictures.
You can turn this feature off by going to Settings > Pictures and then tap on Memories and photos in the field of view, so that it turns light gray.
Translated and edited by Petter Ahrnstedt
