Apple’s iOS 16 has been unveiled and comes with a bunch of stunning new features that help increase the security and privacy of the iPhone – as well as being extremely useful, of course.
Unveiled at Apple’s annual World Developers Conference (WWDC), iOS 16 has yet to hit the world of online advertising – namely Facebook – with any major moves. But that doesn’t mean there will be nothing. It is assumed that Private Relay may become available to all iPhone users by default and this may still happen.
The upcoming iOS 16 comes with some features that people have been wanting for a while and basically supports Apple’s ethos of giving you more control over your iPhone’s data. On the security side, Apple wants iPhone users to be protected by default, and some of the new features of iOS 16 are aimed at that.
Here’s what to look forward to when iOS 16 arrives this fall.
Cancel sending messages
This is a great – and a feature that many Apple fans have been demanding for some time. Apple has already given you the ability to edit and cancel sending iMessage messages on your iPhone. This means that all late-night messages that you regret, or any awkward work messages, can be deleted in the blink of an eye.
It’s easy to do, just call up the message using the undo tool. If you have edited the message, the only gift to the person receiving the iMessage will be a small “edit” below the text. Apple is catching up with this feature on the iPhone, but the wait won’t be long for it to finally use it.
Access keys
Passwords suck. They can often be guessed, they are revealed in violations and many people repeat them in the services. I often advertise the benefits of password managers, but there’s something even better on the horizon – Apple’s iOS 16 passwords are meant to get rid of passwords altogether.
Passwords are not just Apple’s business – they are promoted by the FIDO Alliance, of which Apple is a member along with Google and Microsoft. Based on the WebAuthn standard, passwords use public key cryptography to protect your accounts, completely eliminating the need for passwords. In short, using passwords in iOS 16, Apple will authenticate you in the background, and all you have to do is use Face ID or Touch ID, not a password. Cool huh?
Safety check
A new privacy feature called Safety Check will arrive in iOS 16, which aims to help protect people from abusive partners. This feature allows you to stop location sharing and revoke all access to accounts you may have previously provided, including an emergency reset feature to quickly exit iCloud and reset your privacy permissions. This ensures that only the device you are currently using receives messages. The iOS 16 feature is useful and broader – you can use Security Check to see which people and apps have access to information.
And something else…
There may not have been any important features of the iPhone affecting ads, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be in later beta versions of iOS 16. Other brilliant new features include the ability to lock hidden photos and deleted photos by default to hide your personal photos, and on the security side you can now access Wi-Fi passwords and receive important security fixes on your iPhone by default.
It’s still early days, but it’s clear that iOS 16 will continue the ethos of Apple to give you more security, privacy and control of your iPhone. The exact release date is not yet known, but it will probably be September, along with the release of the latest iPhones.
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