iOS 16 review: unlocking the lock screen

When you don't use your phone, the story ofiOS 16 is all the things it does. Picking up your phone hundreds of times a day is not the right outcome according to Apple. Apple is the most likely culprit for that problem. There are ways for your phone to be useful without you having to use it a lot.

Every year, the new version of Apple's mobile operating system is filled with improvements and changes to practically every app and screen on the phone. In the last few years, all the new versions have been of the old type. Apple gave a part of its software a new look.

The lock screen is the most important part of the operating system. The purpose of Apple has been changed from a clock and a bunch of notifications to a second homescreen. It was an instant upgrade to my phone life when I was able to see my calendar without my phone being locked, and I have a small button on my notes app that launches a new note.

There is a habit tracking app called Streaks that I like to use. I have a daily goal of taking 5,000 steps and a button on my lock screen that lets me know when I reach that number. Every time I look at my phone, I think about going outside and touching grass.

Light-touch interactions have never been good for the Apple device. You had to open an app, pick up your phone, and open it all before you could use it. Part of the appeal of the Apple Watch is that it makes it easier to do simple tasks. Put a bunch of them on your lock screen is Apple's best solution so far. The always-on displays on the iPhone 14 Pro allow it to become a fountain of useful information without the need for a single tap.

Image: Apple / David Pierce

Apple isn't done with this job yet. The only way to use theseWidgets is to open their app, which is why they are so non interactive. I want to see my entire day, but I can't long press the calendar. I want to log my water consumption, but I can't.

I would prefer to play and pause from the pill. Only a few first-party apps seem to be using Live Activities so far. Clock is a perennial early adopter of features in the mobile device operating system. I don't like the idea ofWidgets being app shortcuts, and I prefer them to be tinyAPPS.

Lock screens can be used to change focus modes. For the last four years, I have had the same picture on my background. I have one home and lock screen background for the work week and another for the weekends with a focus mode that shuts off email and slack notifications.

Image: Apple / David Pierce

It takes a fair amount of work to get all this set up, but it is worth the half-hour because now I know how to use it. Lock screens are a nice context switch mechanism, and I have come to appreciate them, despite the fact that focus modes still need an advanced degree to set up correctly. Every time I see a photo of my dog, I think to myself, "Get off your phone and go outside."

All the small things

It has been a joke for a long time that most of the new features in Apple's mobile device operating system are from six years ago. Apple takes features from third party apps and bakes them into the operating system itself. Outside of Apple pretending it invented decade-old software tricks, this is the right strategy; most users don't want to download tons of apps or learn new things, and the more functional the iPhone is, the better it will be for most people.

The camera is the only thing that Apple does that other manufacturers or OS can not do. With Live Text in video, you can snap some footage, then pause the video, and hold on to some text to copy it. It is not perfect, but it is good enough to use. The feature that can automatically grab the subject, so long as it's human or animal, out of a photo so you can paste it or save it somewhere else, is the same as the feature that can grab the subject, so long as it's human or animal, out of I have been impressed with how well it was able to hide my dog's head from the couch or my face from the wall behind me.

Image: Apple / David Pierce

It feels like Apple could and should have added more features to the mobile operating system in the past. Mail is the only email service that still offers the feature of undoing Send and scheduled messages. Maps can now do more than one stop in a trip. It works well and makes you wonder what happened to Apple. We are here, but not yet. There are a number of new accessibility features in the newest version of the software, including a system-wide closed caption feature and real-time image recognition.

There are two things that have made my phone use better. Haptic feedback is the first thing that comes to mind. After weeks of using it and getting that gentle buzz every time I hit a key, I don't know how I ever smashed my fingers on the glass. I don't know if it's made me a better typer, but it's a nicer setup. There are two ways to mark conversations unread in messages. For a long time, my texting behavior has been to either respond immediately or not reply at all. I can mark a message as not being received. I will take what I can get despite the fact that you can't just show unread messages in the app.

You can change a message in Messages. You can see all versions of the message if you tap on the blue "Edited" symbol under the text. You can change it up to five times after you send it. If you don't use the latest Apple software on your stuff, you'll end up with that hideous "David edited this message" text that will make you cringe. The unsend feature only works on iMessage, and there is no way to retrieve the text you sent to a friend on the phone. Don't hold your breath for the solution to come from RCS.

Image: Apple / David Pierce

I was hoping for improvements to the dictation in the new version of the operating system. In theory, you can dictate more and better than ever, because it now has the ability to make the heart and the exclamation mark. You can now dictate and type at the same time, which is confusing if you accidentally brush the mic button and your text field fills with background chatter. I stopped using these features completely because they were so hit and miss. Scientists should study you if you can remember the names of all the characters.

Apple shifted its focus to the bottom of the screen as phones got bigger. The URL bar has been moved down to save your thumbs. It takes some time to get used to the look, and seeing the results up above felt odd for weeks before I stopped noticing it.

There is something at the bottom of your phone. There is a pill that says search. The old button showed how many homescreens you have, but it didn't mention Spotlight. Spotlight is great. Spotlight should be used by you. A quick search is still the fastest way to find an app or a contact, and it is even a decent way to search through your email and texts.

This is one of the features that make up the bulk of the new operating system. The changes made the phone easier to use. Video apps that fail in really screwy ways when you try to rotation from portrait mode to full-screen landscape are the only ongoing problem I have. Developers should fix that asap. In the early stages of the software's development, it was more stable than most other new software.

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Third-party developers will decide whether or not the latest iteration of the mobile operating system is a success. If they embrace the Dynamic Island, develop interesting lock screen widgets, create Focus filters that give users more control over what they see and when, and flip their interface to the bottom-up style Apple wants, they could help make the iPhone feel more coherent, more useful when you're not You might not notice much about the new OS if they don't and you use third-party apps.

Passkeys is the new password-free security system that will be supported by the new version of the mobile operating system. You can't use passkeys anywhere right now, but I expect them to catch on quickly. Passkeys aren't an Apple-only thing, so your phone becomes the key to your security. In the few places I could test passkeys, I was able to use them on my device in Apple's new operating system.

I believe that Apple is on the right path. It wants the phone to be lively and interactive and to get you what you need without requiring you to enter another universe. The business and antitrust implications of that thinking are complex and fascinating. I like the idea that my phone has everything I need to show it to me in the right places, without me having to look for it. To make this work, Apple will need to push even harder on notifications, live activities, and even the Dynamic Island.

Most parts of the phone are a little bit better thanks to the new software. That is where Apple is now. I bet Apple doesn't have new ideas about how tech works for the iPhone. The Apple product is going to keep getting better for a long time.

How are you going to switch?