CUPERTINO, Calif.—iOS 16 will reach iPhones later this year, and as expected, it’s loaded with major changes.
Apple executives and product managers took the stage at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote to outline the upcoming features and changes, which include a focus on the lock screen.
It includes more personalization options, like a “depth effect” where you can make a selected photo appear in front of the time. You can also press and hold to customize the lock screen and swipe to try out different styles, like black-and white and other color filters, and font and time options.
You can also tap on items, like the time, to try out different colors, including a slider for tweaking shades.
The lock screen also supports widgets now. Apple demoed moving the lock screen’s selected photo down to make space for widgets, like calendar and weather. A block can hold multiple widgets. There’s also a new wallpaper gallery, with Apple demoing various options, including animations, nature photographs, and “suggested photos” based from your photo library.
You can also save lock screens and select one by swiping.
Apple briefly mentioned the widget kit for developers.
IoS 16 will also have notifications roll in from bottom of lock screen, as well as the ability to hide them throughout the day.
For times when you’re getting multiple notifications from the same app, Apple announced Live Activities for making real-time notifications more manageable and “compact and glanceable experiences . The Live Acitivites API won’t be able available until later this year after iOS 16 launches, though
Apple’s WWDC keynote is ongoing, and this article will be updated with new details as we have them. You can follow along in real-time with our liveblog here.
