Read more: Will your iPhone run iOS 16? Some will not be compatible And while the biggest and most popular features usually provide instant gratification, it’s the smaller, overlooked changes that can completely change the way you use your iPhone. We’ll take a look under the hood of iOS 16 at some of the lesser-known features and settings that iOS 16 has to offer, like password-protected photo albums and easy-to-access Wi-Fi passwords. If you want to learn more about iOS 16, check out the new iOS 16 features you’ll love and how to use the new Tap to Lift feature in your photos.
Hidden and recently deleted albums are now password protected
The hidden album in the Photos app is clearly not hidden as you can easily find it, making it impractical to adequately hide private photos and videos. While Apple has the option to make the Hidden album “invisible”, anyone with access to your phone can make it visible again and see everything inside. Thanks to iOS 16, you can now lock the Hidden album. You don’t need to do anything to enable this feature. If you want to check it out, launch the Photos app and go to the Albums tab at the bottom of the screen. If you scroll down, you’ll see a tiny lock next to the Hidden and Recently Deleted albums. To see what’s inside, use your Face ID or passcode. Hidden and recently deleted albums now require Face ID access. Nelson Aguilar/CNET
View and share saved Wi-Fi passwords
Apple has allowed iOS users to share Wi-Fi passwords for a while now, but only by placing two Apple devices near each other. And if this feature didn’t work automatically, you couldn’t just discover the password from your settings. Additionally, if you want to share a saved Wi-Fi password with someone else, such as an Android user or someone on a computer, you should know the password. So far. Read more: You can finally see your saved Wi-Fi passwords on an iPhone In Settings, go to Wi-Fi and tap the tiny info icon to the right of the network you want the password for. To view your network password, tap the Password section, then use Face ID or enter your password to view it. You can then tap Copy to copy the password to your clipboard and share it. You can view the password for any Wi-Fi network you’ve ever connected to, as long as you’re currently connected or close enough to show up under My networks. Nelson Aguilar/CNET
Find and remove any duplicate photos and videos
Maybe you’ve saved the same photo multiple times or downloaded a video more than once, thus wiping out duplicates in your photo album. This might not be a problem if you have the storage available, but if not, it might be a good idea to go back and remove each copy — which is now easy to do in iOS 16. Under Photos > Albums, you should now see a new Duplicates album under Utilities, where Apple scans all your photos and shows you any photo or video you’ve saved more than once. From there, you can either delete any duplicates or simply hit Merge, which will keep the highest-quality photo (and related data) and then move the rest to the trash. The merge will keep the highest quality photo and delete the rest. Nelson Aguilar/CNET While you’ll probably want to go through each set of duplicates to make sure they’re really exact copies and not similar photos, you can also hit Select > Select All > Merge to remove every photo and video that Apple thinks are duplicates. all at the same time.
Pin your favorite tabs in Safari
Safari limits your open tabs to 500, and if you’re close to that limit, it can be very difficult to find the exact tab you’re looking for. You could scroll endlessly, but now there’s an easier way to find the exact tab you’re looking for. In Safari, if you tap down on an open tab, you now have the option to tap Pin Tab. This will move that tab to the top of Safari, where it will exist as a tiny tab preview, permanently pinned there, which you can then tap to view. All pinned tabs appear at the top of Safari. Nelson Aguilar/CNET If you tap and unpin a tab, it will move to the first position in your open tabs grid.
Pair your Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons with your iPhone
Apple has long allowed you to pair third-party controllers like the PS5 Sony DualSense and Xbox Core Controller with your iPhone and iPad to more comfortably play mobile video games like the Apple Arcade library, Minecraft, and Call of Duty. And you can add another console controller to this list. If you have a Nintendo Switch, you can now pair the Joy-Con controllers with your iPhone or iPad running iOS 16. To get started, hold down the little black pairing button on the Joy-Con until the green lights start flashing front and back . This means the device is in pairing mode. Next, open your iPhone and go to Settings > Bluetooth and select Joy-Con from the list. Repeat this step with the other Joy-Con. You can pair one or both controllers with your Apple device. James Martin/CNET
