In line with previous previews, Apple pushed out the iOS / iPadOS 16.1 update (internal version number: 20B82) to iPhone and iPad users early this morning, 14 days after the last release, bringing a number of feature improvements and fixes.
iOS 16.1 Official Release
- According to the official changelog, iOS 16.1 officially introduces iCloud Shared Photo Gallery, making it easy to keep family photos up to date. This update also adds support for third-party apps in Live Events and includes additional features and bug fixes for iPhone.
iCloud Shared Photo Gallery
- A separate gallery lets you seamlessly share photos and videos with up to five other users
- Set rules to make it easy to provide past photos based on the start date or people in the photo when setting up or adding to a gallery
- Quickly switch between shared galleries, personal galleries, or both, using gallery filters
- Shared editing and permissions allow everyone to add, edit, favorite, delete photos and add captions
- “The “Share” switch in Camera allows you to send photos taken directly to the shared gallery or enable automatic photo sharing settings when other participants are detected nearby via Bluetooth
Live Events
- Live activity from third-party apps is now available on the iPhone 14 Pro model’s Smart Island and Lock screens
Wallets
- Key sharing allows you to securely share car keys, hotel room keys and other keys in your Wallet using messaging apps such as Messages and WhatsApp
Home
- Supports the new smart home connectivity standard Matter, with a wide range of smart home accessories that work together across the ecosystem
Books
- Reader controls automatically hide when you start reading
Bug fixes
- Deleted conversations may appear in the “Messages” conversation list
- Lingering Island content is not available when using Easy Access
iPadOS 16.1 official release
Apple’s iPadOS 16.1 release further enhances the versatility of the iPad with powerful new features for efficiency and collaboration. iCloud Shared Photo Gallery makes it easy to keep your family’s photos up to date. “Messages adds the ability to edit or retract sent messages and offers new ways to start and manage collaborations. “Mail introduces a new inbox and authoring tools, and the Safari browser adds shared tab groups and a new generation of security with passkeys. “Front Desk Scheduler brings a new way to multitask on iPad by allowing you to use multiple stacked windows and easily switch between them.
iCloud Shared Photo Gallery
- iCloud Shared Photos Gallery makes sharing photos and videos a breeze, with the ability to share with up to five other users in a separate gallery and seamless integration with the Photos App.
- Smart setting rules allow you to easily provide past photos based on the start date or people in the photo when setting up or adding to a gallery
- Quickly switch between shared galleries, personal galleries, or both, using the gallery filter criteria
- Shared editing and permissions allow everyone to add, edit, favorite, delete photos and add captions
- “The “Share” switch in Camera allows you to send photos taken directly to the shared gallery or enable automatic photo sharing settings when other participants are detected nearby via Bluetooth
Messages
- Messages can be edited up to 15 minutes after being sent and the recipient can see the edit history
- Undo send allows you to withdraw a message up to 2 minutes after it has been sent
- Mark as unread allows you to easily return to the conversation later
- Share in Messages allows you and your friends to watch movies, listen to music, play games and enjoy great activities while you’re messaging
- Collaboration makes it easy to invite others to collaborate on files through Messages and get activity updates in the conversation when someone edits a shared item
- Improved search function gives more accurate and complete results and provides suggestions as soon as you start typing
- Undo Send allows you to unsend an email within 10 seconds of hitting send
- Timed sending allows you to send emails on a specific date and time
- “Remind Me allows you to set a date and time to get reminders for specific emails
Safari browser and passkeys
- Shared tab groups allow you to share a set of tabs with others and instantly see tab group updates during collaboration
- Tab group starters allow you to add different background images and personal favorites to each tab group
- Fixed tabs in tab groups allow you to fix frequently visited websites for each tab group
- Safari browser web translation adds Turkish, Thai, Vietnamese, Polish, Indonesian and Dutch web page translations
- Passkeys support a simpler, more secure way to sign in, and can be used in place of a password
- Sync passkeys with an iCloud keychain so they can be used on all Apple devices while maintaining end-to-end encryption
Front Desk Scheduling
- “Scheduler in Front is a new way of multitasking that automatically organizes apps and windows into one view
- Stacked windows allow you to stack and resize apps to create the ideal workspace
- App grouping allows you to create App sets for a quick return
- Recently used apps are arranged on the left-hand side of the screen, allowing you to quickly switch between apps and windows
New display modes
- “Reference Mode provides reference colors for popular color standards and video formats on the 12.9-inch iPad Pro with Liquid Retina XDR display while using it as a reference display for Macs with Apple chips thanks to the Onboard feature
- Display scaling setting adjusts the display pixel density upwards so you can see more within the App, available on 12.9-inch iPad Pro (5th generation and later), 11-inch iPad Pro (1st generation and later) and iPad Air (5th generation)
Weather
- The Weather app on iPad is optimized for the larger display and includes immersive animations, detailed maps, and a weather forecast module with tap-and-touch operation
- Weather map showing precipitation, air quality and temperature, either as a region-wide map or full-screen view
- Tappable module for more detailed information such as hourly temperature or precipitation forecasts for the next 10 days
- Air quality is shown by color coding, rating and category, and can be viewed on a map with information on air quality and related health advice, pollutant classification and more
- Enjoy thousands of animated backgrounds that change according to sun position, cloud cover and precipitation intensity
- Extreme weather notifications to notify you when extreme weather warnings are issued in your neighborhood
Games
- In-game panel activity provides a central overview of what your friends have achieved in this game, the games they are playing and all their game achievements
- Game Center profile highlights your achievements and leaderboard activity across all games
- “Address Book” integrates your friends’ Game Center profiles to show you what games they’re playing and what achievements they’ve earned at a glance
Live Text
- Live text video support allows you to interact with text in the video pause screen to copy, translate, query, share and more
- Quick actions let you tap to perform actions on data detected in photos and videos to track flights or logistics, translate foreign languages, convert currency and more
View image search
- Extracting the subject from the background separates it from the image for copying and pasting into apps such as Mail and Messages
Siri
- Easy shortcut settings allow you to run shortcut commands directly from Siri after downloading the app without having to set it up in advance
- New settings allow you to send messages directly without Siri asking you to confirm before sending
- “Hey Siri, what can I do?” Discover what Siri can do on iPadOS and in the App with one easy question
- Hang up calls and FaceTime calls with Siri by simply saying “Hey Siri, hang up”
- Emoji support – use your voice to insert emojis when sending messages
Dictation
- New dictation experience with voice and keyboard or Apple Pencil to enter and edit text
- “Automatic punctuation” to insert commas, periods and question marks with dictation
- Emoji support, inserting emojis using your voice
Maps
- Multi-destination routes support adding up to fifteen stops along the driving route in Maps
- In places such as the San Francisco Bay Area, London and New York, transport costs are shown for the trip
Family
- “The Home App has been redesigned to make it easier to browse, organize, view, and control smart home accessories
- “The Home tab now integrates all accessories, rooms and scenes in one place, so you can see what’s going on in your home at a glance
- Accessories are organized by light, environment, security, speakers, TV and water, and by room for quick access and more detailed status information
- The new camera view shows up to four cameras front and center on the Home tab, and scroll to see more camera views of your home
- The accessories section has been redesigned with more recognizable icons and color matching categories, and new controls for more precise accessory control
- Support for the new smart home connectivity standard Matter, which enables a wide range of accessories to work together across the ecosystem, providing users with more choices and greater interoperability
Family Sharing
- Improved child account settings for easier account creation, better parental control and inclusion of age-appropriate media restrictions
- Quick Start makes it easy to set up a new iOS or iPadOS device for your child and select the parental controls you need
- Screen time requests can be sent using ‘Messages’, making it easier to approve or deny your child’s request
- “Family Sharing Checklist gives you tips and advice on updating your child’s parental control settings, turning on location sharing, or reminding you to share your iCloud+ subscription with everyone
Desktop-grade App
- A customizable toolbar allows you to add the features you use most in the app
- Menus provide more context for actions such as Close, Save, and Copy, making it easier to edit text and files in apps such as Pages and Numbers tables
- Find and Replace works across the entire system of apps, including Mail, Messages, Reminders and Swift Playgrounds
- “The Availability view in Calendar shows you the availability of each invitee when you create a Calendar meeting
Security Check
- “Safety Check is a new section in Settings that helps victims of domestic or intimate partner violence to quickly reset the access rights granted to others
- “Emergency Reset allows you to take quick action to reset access for all people and apps, including deactivating Find location sharing, resetting privacy permissions for apps and more
- Manage shares and access rights helps you check and customize which apps and contacts have access to your information
Accessibility
- “Amplifier’s Door Detection feature identifies the location of doors, reads aloud surrounding signs and symbols and tells you how to open them
- Co-Control helps users with cognitive impairments to get support from their carers or friends when playing games by integrating multiple game controller inputs into one
- More than 20 new languages and regions have been added to the narration, including Bengali (India), Bulgarian, Catalan, Ukrainian and Vietnamese
Other features and improvements
- “New tools in Memo and Marker allow you to draw and write with watercolors, single-line brushes and pens
- AirPods Pro (2nd generation) supports “Find” and “Pinpoint” for MagSafe charging cases and a more precise and immersive listening experience with personalized spatial audio; these features also apply to AirPods (3rd generation), AirPods Pro (1st generation) and AirPods Max
- The relay feature for FaceTime calls allows you to seamlessly transfer FaceTime calls from iPad to iPhone or Mac and vice versa
- Mimic Emoji update includes more sticker poses, hairstyles, headgear, nose shapes and lip colors
- Translate text around you with the camera in the Translate App
- “Duplicate content detection in Photos identifies duplicate photos so you can quickly clean up your library
- “Reminders can be top-listed to help you quickly navigate through your frequently used lists
- Focused search is directly accessible via ‘Search’ at the bottom of the home screen, making it easier to open apps, find contacts or get information from the web
- Quick Security Response can be applied automatically during two standard software updates to provide important security improvements to your device more quickly
Note that due to server configuration caching issues across Apple’s regional nodes, there may be a slight delay in detecting the update in some locations, usually within half an hour, but not for long.
