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See What’s New in iOS 16

Lock Screen, Focus, and more.

iOS 16 is here, and there’s lots to love. Here’s a look at some of its coolest features—and the apps and games to get the most out of them, handpicked by our editors.

See what’s happening with Live Activities

Get real-time updates from your favourite apps with Live Activities. Track the arrival time of your ride, follow the latest sports scores or see your alarm right from your Lock Screen. And on iPhone 14 Pro, Live Activities will display in the Dynamic Island when your phone is unlocked. Let Live Activities give you more information at a glance on your Lock Screen with these apps.

Customize your Lock Screen

In iOS 16, you can now add Lock Screen widgets to see information from your favorite apps at a glance. Plus, play with fonts, wallpapers, and photos to build the perfect personalized layout.

Take Focus further

Whether you’re working or spending time with family, setting up a Focus is a great way to establish boundaries. In iOS 16, Focus filters let apps customize what you see based on the Focus you have enabled. (For example, your work calendar would be hidden when you’re using the Personal Focus.) Try the feature out with these apps.

Challenge your friends in Game Center

The redesigned Game Center dashboard makes it easier than ever to see which games your friends are playing, as well as their achievements in compatible games like the ones below.

SharePlay via Messages

SharePlay comes to Messages in iOS 16. Now you can invite others to enjoy a movie, listen to an album, learn a language, or try a workout—all while chatting over iMessage.

Take a shortcut

Use Siri and Spotlight to run preset shortcuts—no setup required. Search for an app’s name to see available shortcuts—or create your own using the Shortcuts app. Here are a few apps with handy shortcuts.

See what’s been shared

Now when someone sends you a video or article in Messages, it will be easy to find the next time you open compatible apps like the ones below. Just head to the app’s new Shared with You section to see everything in one place.

Sketch together with Freeform

The new productivity app Freeform gives you and your collaborators a flexible shared canvas. View others’ contributions in real time as they sketch and make notes. You can also add nearly any kind of file – images, video, audio, PDFs, documents and web links – to the canvas and preview it inline (iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2 or macOS 13.1 or newer required).

Copy text from videos

Live Text recognizes words in your photos, and now the feature works with videos too. Just pause the video, then touch and hold on some text, like an address, phone number, or website. Try it with these video apps.