Apple Releases iOS 16.1 With Support for iCloud Shared Photo Library, Matter, Live Activities and More

The first major update to the operating system was released today.

You can download the update on eligible phones by going to settings > general >software update. It can take a few minutes for the updates to reach everyone.

Several features that were not in the launch version of iOS 16 are being added with this update. There is support for managing a photo library with friends and family, as well as Live Activities to the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island on the 14 Pro models.

The update adds support for Matter, as well as the ability to use Apple Fitness+ on the phone without an Apple Watch. The full release notes can be found here.

This update introduces iCloud Shared Photo Library making it easy to keep your family photos up to date. This release also adds support for third party apps in Live Activities, support for Apple Fitness+ on iPhone even if you don't have an Apple Watch, and includes other features and bug fixes for your iPhone.

iCloud Shared Photo Library- Separate library for seamlessly sharing photos and videos with up to five other people- Setup rules allow you to easily contribute past photos based on start date or people in the photos when you set up or join a library- Library filters for quickly switching between viewing the Shared Library, your Personal Library, or both libraries together- Shared edits and permissions let everyone add, edit, favorite, caption, and delete photos

- Sharing toggle in Camera lets you choose to send photos you take straight to the Shared Library, or enable a setting to share automatically when other participants are detected nearby using Bluetooth

Live Activities

- Live Activities from third party apps are available in the Dynamic Island and on the Lock Screen for iPhone 14 Pro models

Fitness+

- Apple Fitness+ is supported on iPhone even if you don't have an Apple Watch

Wallet- Key sharing enables you to securely share car, hotel room, and other keys in Wallet using messaging apps such as Messages and WhatsApp

- Savings account enables Apple Card customers to grow their Daily Cash by depositing it in a high yield savings account

Home

- Matter, the new smart home connectivity standard, is supported enabling a wide variety of smart home accessories to work together across ecosystems

Clean Energy Charging

- New setting that can try to reduce your carbon footprint by selectively charging when lower carbon emission electricity is available

Books

- Reader controls are automatically hidden as you start reading

This update also includes bug fixes for your iPhone:- Deleted conversations may appear in the conversations list in Messages- Dynamic Island content is not available when using Reachability

- CarPlay may fail to connect when using a VPN app

There are a number of vulnerabilities addressed in the latest version of the operating system, including one that Apple says may have been exploited. There is more information in the document.

iPadOS 16 is the first release of the iPadOS 16 software. Stage Manager is a new multitasking feature that caused Apple to delay iPadOS 16.1. The information on all of the new features can be found in our recap.