Prior to its official release on Monday, Best iOS 16 was given a couple additional previews with the introduction of Apple’s new iPhone 14 series last week. Previously in beta, iOS 16 provides a number of updates to the iPhone, among them additional photo-editing features, the ability to edit and unsend iMessage communications, and an updated Apple Maps. There are a number of features that we see on other Apple devices and Android smartphones that don’t seem to be coming to iOS, despite the fact that there are a lot of new capabilities.
I don’t want to downplay the positive aspects of this list, especially the always-on display that was mentioned when it was first published after WWDC 2022 and was available for the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, but some of these features that are still on the way to the iPhone are fairly simple to find when you look just outside of Apple’s product line.
We want an always-on display.
The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max from Apple are the first devices to include an always-on display, which has been a feature of many Android phones for the previous ten years. Utilizing OLED panels, an always-on display shows glanceable information like the time and some notifications by just lighting up the required pixels.
Apple has been employing OLED panels since the iPhone X in 2017, but it appears that it saved the development of an always-on display with wallpaper art and colours for the 14 Pro and Pro Max.
What We Got: Enhanced group texting
With best iOS 16, Apple’s iMessage will be able to modify and recall messages that haven’t been read yet, but these improvements are still mostly iPhone-only functions that aren’t helping the situation of text messaging in the phone industry as a whole. iOS still uses the antiquated SMS standard for messaging phones that aren’t iPhones, which is devoid of modern conveniences like typing indications and easier group texting.
Despite Google’s efforts to get phone carriers to support the RCS standard, which includes these features, the standard is currently only supported by Android devices, despite Google’s claims that they would be happy to collaborate with Apple to ensure interoperability. Admittedly, this process has taken years and has encountered setbacks.
The likelihood of such seems as remote as ever — Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, recently stated at a tech conference that the firm sees little customer demand for RCS functionality, but that group conversations between the iPhone and Android phones provide some promise. iOS 16 will feature message reactions received by SMS, which at the moment appear as a string of characters describing how someone “Liked” or “Loved” a particular message.
As it currently does when every member of the group conversation is using an iPhone, the Messages app will now translate them into the proper icon. Recently, Google added a comparable function to its Messages app that translates iPhone replies similarly. Although this change won’t significantly enhance these group chats, I’ll accept it for the ease.
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Apple iOS 16 Released: Here’s Everything Best in Your iPhone
