Connect with us

Technologies

13 Hidden iOS 16 Features You Didn’t Know Your iPhone Had

You haven’t unlocked your iPhone’s full potential until you’ve tinkered with these lesser-known features and settings.

It’s been over half a year since iOS 16 was released to the general public, yet there always seems to be new features and settings to discover within Apple’s latest iPhone software update. Not all these unexplored features will be as popular as unsending texts and emails or cutting out objects from your photos, but they’re still worth exploring if you want to become a pro iPhone user.

CNET Tech Tips logoCNET Tech Tips logo

I’m going to walk you through everything you need to know about the best hidden gems in iOS 16, like password-protected photo albums, easily accessible Wi-Fi passwords and more.

Read more: What to Expect on iOS 16.4

And while you’re here, make sure you also brush up on the major new iOS 16 features you’ll love, and a few that you might just hate (luckily, there’s a fix).

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 that feature didn’t automatically work, you couldn’t just dig out the password from your settings. Plus if you wanted to share a saved Wi-Fi password with someone else, like an Android user or someone on a computer, you had to remember the password. Until now.

In Settings, go to Wi-Fi and tap the tiny information icon to the right of the network you want the password for. To view the network password, tap the Password section and then use Face ID or enter your passcode to view it. You can then tap Copy to copy the password into your clipboard and share it.

Wi-Fi network settings on iOS 16Wi-Fi network settings on iOS 16

You can view the password for any Wi-Fi network you’ve ever connected to, as long as you’re currently connected to it or near enough that it appears under My Networks.

Screenshots by Nelson Aguilar/CNET

The credit card-sized Anker 622 not only attaches to your MagSafe-compatible iPhone to give it a charge but also has a built-in kickstand so that you can comfortably view and use your device while it gets juice.

$59 at Amazon

You’re receiving price alerts for iPhone pro tip

Find and remove duplicate photos and videos

Maybe you’ve saved the same photo multiple times or downloaded a video more than once, resulting in duplicates littering up your photo album. It may not be a problem if you’ve got storage to spare, but you’re running out of space, you can now remove every single duplicate easily with iOS 16.

In Photos > Albums, you should see a new Duplicates album under Utilities. Apple scans through all of your photos and shows you any photo or video you’ve saved more than once in that album. From there, you can either delete any duplicates, or simply press Merge, which will keep the photo with the highest quality (and relevant data) and then move the others to the trash.

Duplicates folder in PhotosDuplicates folder in Photos

Merging will keep the highest quality photo and delete the rest.

Screenshots by Nelson Aguilar/CNET

Although you’ll probably want to go through each set of duplicates, to ensure that they’re actually exact copies and not similar photos, you can also hit Select > Select All > Merge to remove every single photo and video that Apple thinks is a duplicate, all at once.

Hang up a phone or FaceTime call with Siri

Siri does a lot of things. You can use the virtual assistant to send a text message, get directions or play music — but one thing she’s never been able to do is hang up a phone call. Weird right? Now that’s finally a possibility with iOS 16.

In Settings, go to Siri & Search and first make sure Listen for “Hey Siri” is toggled on. If it is, you should see a new option underneath — Call Hang Up. Go into that option and toggle on Call Hang Up. When you’re on a phone call or FaceTime video chat, simply say, “Hey, Siri,” and ask her to hang up your current call.

Hang up call with siriHang up call with siri

For this to work, Listen for “Hey Siri” must be toggled on first.

Screenshots by Nelson Aguilar/CNET

Pair 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, to your iPhone and iPad, in order to more comfortably play mobile video games like the Apple Arcade library, Minecraft and Call of Duty. Now you can add another console controller to that list.

If you own a Nintendo Switch, you can now pair your Joy-Con controllers to your iPhone or iPad running iOS 16. To start, hold down the little black pairing button on the Joy-Con, until the green lights start running back and forth. This means the device is in pairing mode. Next, open your iPhone and go to Settings > Bluetooth and select the Joy-Con from the list. Repeat this step with the other Joy-Con.

Hidden and Recently Deleted albums are now password protected

The Hidden album in the Photos app is clearly not hidden, seeing as anyone can easily find it. That makes it impractical for adequately hiding private photos and videos. While Apple does have an option to make the Hidden album “invisible,” anyone with access to your phone could make it visible again and view everything inside.

Thanks to iOS 16, you can now lock the Hidden album. You don’t actually need to do anything to toggle this feature on. 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 view the contents of those albums, you’ll need to use Face ID or your passcode.

The Hidden album in PhotosThe Hidden album in Photos

The Hidden and Recently Deleted albums now require Face ID to be accessed.

Screenshots by Nelson Aguilar/CNET

Copy and paste photo and video edits

If you use the editor tool in the Photos app, you’ll be happy to learn that you can now copy and paste edits, including saturation, contrast and brightness, between photos. If you edit one photo or video and are happy with the look, you can paste those same exact edits to any other photo or video in your camera roll.

To do this, launch the Photos app and open a photo that’s been edited in full-screen. Next, tap on the three-dot menu in the top-right corner and then hit Copy Edits. This option will only appear if the photo has been edited within Photos, not any third-party photo editor. Finally, go to the photo you want to copy these edits over to, tap on the three-dot menu and then hit Paste Edits. After a second or so, you should see the photo edits appear.

Copy and paste photo edits on iOS 16Copy and paste photo edits on iOS 16

This feature works between photos and videos.

Screenshots by Nelson Aguilar/CNET

Use Siri to send an emoji

Siri has long been able to send long, complicated text messages and emails by dictation, but with iOS 16, for the first time, you’re now able to use your voice to send emojis. As long as you know the name of the emoji, simply say “face with tears of joy emoji” or “red heart emoji” to insert an emoji into your text with Siri.

If you use the keyboard dictation feature in your iPhone’s keyboard, accessible at the bottom right of your keyboard (microphone icon), you can also say the emoji name to insert an emoji anywhere you can type text, like in a note or a caption on Instagram.

Two screenshots showing how to use your voice to send emojis on iOS 16Two screenshots showing how to use your voice to send emojis on iOS 16

You can send emojis with Siri (left) or type them in using the dictation feature in your keyboard (right).

Nelson Aguilar/CNET

Bring haptic feedback to your keyboard

The iPhone has long had haptic feedback. It’s what you feel underneath your fingertips whenever you attempt to delete an app from your home screen or enter the incorrect password on your lock screen. Strangely enough, haptic feedback has never been available for the stock iOS keyboard — until now.

If you want to enable a slight vibration for every single key you type in, go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Keyboard Feedback and toggle on Haptic. The sound option you see is the loud and annoying clacking sound you might hear when you type in something and your phone isn’t on silent mode, so you can keep that disabled.

Haptic feedback setting for keyboard on iOS 16Haptic feedback setting for keyboard on iOS 16

Every single time you type, you’ll feel a slight vibration for each key you hit.

Screenshots by Nelson Aguilar/CNET

Pin your favorite tabs in Safari

Safari caps your open tabs at 500, and if you’re nearing that limit, it might be pretty darn hard to find the exact tab you’re looking for. You could scroll endlessly, but there’s now an easier way to find the exact tab you’re looking for.

In Safari, if you press down on an open tab, you now have the option to hit 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. If you press down and unpin a tab, it will move to first in your grid of open tabs.

Pinning a tab in SafariPinning a tab in Safari

All your pinned tabs appear at the top of Safari.

Screenshots by Nelson Aguilar/CNET

Use Face ID while you’re lying down

If you’ve ever tried to unlock your iPhone while it’s vertical, like when you’re lying on your side, you might have noticed that it doesn’t work. You have to place your iPhone in portrait orientation, or upright, for Face ID to work. With iOS 16, you can finally use Face ID to unlock your iPhone when it’s in landscape orientation. However, for this to work, you must have an iPhone 13 or 14 running iOS 16.

Copy your screenshots to your clipboard without saving them

You don’t need to save a screenshot to your photo album to share it with someone else. A new iOS 16 feature allows you to take a screenshot, copy it to your clipboard, delete it from your phone and paste it where you see fit. After you take a screenshot, tap the screenshot preview that appears, hit Done on the top-right and then tap Copy and Delete to copy the screenshot to your clipboard.

Copy and Delete feature for screenshots on iOS 16Copy and Delete feature for screenshots on iOS 16

If you take a lot of screenshots, this feature can help you save storage.

Screenshots by Nelson Aguilar/CNET

Remove more preinstalled Apple apps 

Since iOS 10, you’ve been able to remove some preinstalled iOS applications like Stocks, Maps and Calculator — but not all of them. With the release of iOS 16, you can add three more apps to this list of ones you can remove: Find My, Clock and Health. However, deleting these apps can negatively affect and break support with other apps and connected devices, like your Apple Watch.

Make Siri listen to you longer

If you ever find yourself getting cut off by Siri, there’s now a way to force the voice assistant to listen to you longer so that she can catch everything you say. The feature isn’t in an obvious place though — in the Settings app, go to Accessibility > Siri, then choose either Longer or Longest. Play around with the two options to see which works best for you.

The Siri setting in AccessibilityThe Siri setting in Accessibility

This will help Siri from interrupting you when you speak.

Nelson Aguilar/CNET

For more on iOS 16 and the iPhone, check out our iOS 16 cheat sheet.

Technologies

In photos: Key takeaways from day one of the UN General Assembly

World leaders descended on New York for the annual United Nations General Assembly, where the agenda covers topics from wars to the risks posed by AI.

World leaders descended on New York this week for the annual United Nations General Assembly, where the agenda spans the U.S.-Iran war and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to the fragile ceasefire in Gaza and the risks posed by artificial intelligence.

Nearly 130 heads of state and government started taking the podium on Tuesday, including U.S. President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani are also attending.

Motorcades, road closures and security details for visiting leaders have choked midtown Manhattan. Inside UN headquarters, delegates face a week of back-to-back speeches and sideline meetings that come at a crucial time for a world order already under strain.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping will skip the assembly but head to Washington for a high-level summit with Trump on Wednesday. Leaders from India and Russia are also staying away.

Trump on Tuesday told world leaders at the assembly that he faces a “big decision”: make a deal with Iran or “annihilate” the Islamic Republic. He later told reporters that U.S. officials held a “very good” three-hour meeting with Iranian envoys on the sidelines, reviving fragile hopes for a diplomatic off-ramp to the seven-month war.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung set out a three-part plan for “peaceful coexistence” with North Korea. It calls on Pyongyang to “first halt the advancement” of its nuclear program before reducing it.

Brazil’s Lula spoke first, as his country traditionally does. “Brazilian democracy belongs to Brazilians,” Lula said. “Brazil is nobody’s backyard.” He said the UN “is failing in one of its highest missions: to save humanity from the scourge of war.”

Trump also signed a security agreement with Denmark and Greenland that expands U.S. military access in the semi-autonomous Danish territory of Greenland.

Trump then met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for about 40 minutes. He pressed for a Russia-Ukraine energy truce and backed a ban on U.S. diesel exports as fuel prices hit records before the midterms.

French President Emmanuel Macron gave his own UN address. “There can be no peace without justice,” he said. After meeting Trump, he pledged to push for a moratorium on strikes on Ukraine’s energy grid.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Gaza “the most inhumane, most shameful concentration camp of our time,” prompting Israel’s delegation to walk out. Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, will address the assembly by video after being denied a U.S. visa.

Continue Reading

Technologies

Oil Prices Drop as U.S. and Iran Hold Hours-Long UN Talks

Oil prices fell as U.S.-Iran talks at the U.N. raised expectations that supply disruptions could ease. Brent and WTI futures declined, while optimism grew around a possible diplomatic settlement.

Oil declined on Wednesday as optimism grew that supply disruptions could ease after U.S.-Iran talks, lifting hopes for a diplomatic resolution to the Middle East conflict.

Futures on the international benchmark Brent crude for November delivery fell 0.71% to $98.55 a barrel as of 3:04 a.m. ET. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures for November slipped 1.26% to $89.36 per barrel.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that U.S. officials had a “very good meeting” with Iran’s delegation, which lasted about three hours. Earlier, during his address to the U.N., Trump said he faced a “big decision” over whether to make a deal with Tehran or “annihilate” the country.

Reuters reported Tuesday that Iran could reopen the Strait of Hormuz within a week if the U.S. agrees to reduce military pressure and lift its blockade of Iranian ports.

“Pakistan’s mediation efforts with Tehran could also reduce the risk of a broader escalation,” said Paolo Broccardo, chief executive officer at private digital bank BankPro.

He said oil prices were also unlikely to surge sharply in the near term.

“Over the past five consecutive sessions, the price has fallen by almost 12%, retreating once again from the ‘intervention zone’ above $100, where we have repeatedly seen intensified peace-building efforts from both sides,” Broccardo said.

Continue Reading

Technologies

CNBC Daily Open: Nothing artificial about ‘Super Intelligence’

President Donald Trump seeks to rebrand AI ahead of his meeting with China’s Xi Jinping, while rejecting a “globalist scheme” to regulate the technology.

This content is blocked because you are not allowing cookies.

To view this content, click on Cookie Preferences here or at the bottom of the page to allow all cookies.

Hello, this is Leonie Kidd coming to you from London. Welcome to another edition of CNBC’s Daily Open.

President Donald Trump’s passion for renaming places is now extending to renaming technological developments.

His latest effort is to rebrand AI as ‘Super Intelligence.’

However, it will take more than a facelift for the most transformative technology in a generation to meet the expectations for a global safety approach, especially ahead of the meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who will be welcomed to Washington D.C., later on Wednesday.

Read on for more.

What you need to know today

“The use of the word artificial makes intelligence fake… It is not fake. It’s actually amazing.”

The words of U.S. President Donald Trump as he used his keynote speech at the United Nations General Assembly to call for the renaming of AI as “Super Intelligence.”

His support for allowing AI (or Super Intelligence) to develop at a winning pace comes as his global peers look to reach an agreement on safety rules around the powerful technology.

Later on Wednesday, Trump will greet China’s Xi Jinping in an arrival ceremony ahead of Thursday’s state visit, where AI has become one of the key talking points between the two superpowers.

Speed versus safety

The CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman and Anthropic boss Dario Amodei are expected to address the United Nations Security Council later on Wednesday. They are set to be joined by Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue to debate AI safety and regulation.

The appearance follows calls to slow the breakneck pace of the model frontier — warnings Trump has called a “hoax” and “scam.”

Frontier FOMO

Investors are taking an optimistic view, with a rally in technology stocks on Tuesday leading the Nasdaq to another fresh high. The tech-heavy index hit a new all-time intraday peak and achieved a record close.

Futures are flat in early trading on Wednesday amid a broadly positive handover from Asia.

Oil oscillations

Crude prices are lower on Wednesday following news that U.S. officials had a “very good meeting” with the Iranian delegation on the sidelines of the UN meeting.

President Trump said the discussion with officials lasted about three hours. Earlier in his address to the U.N., he said he has a “big decision” over whether to reach a deal with Tehran or “annihilate” the country.

According to regional media reports, Iran has been communicating its conditions for ending the seven-month war with the U.S. through a Qatari mediator.

— Leonie Kidd

*Please note, the Daily Open EMEA will be coming to you from my colleagues in Singapore for the next few days*

This content is blocked because you are not allowing cookies.

To view this content, click on Cookie Preferences here or at the bottom of the page to allow all cookies.

And Finally…

Anthropic and OpenAI roll out cheaper models in first release since call for slowdown

Anthropic and OpenAI on Tuesday each announced new, less costly artificial intelligence models as both frontier labs continue to face stiff competition from cheaper, open-weight competitors.

OpenAI introduced additional tiers to its GPT-6 family, with GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna, slashing the API prices by 50% compared with GPT-5.6 promotional pricing.

Sol, which is a tier below Astra, is meant for more complex workloads like coding, while the company’s Luna offering is geared toward “high-volume tasks” such as extracting information or summarizing documents, the company wrote.

Anthropic unveiled Claude Opus 5.5 on Tuesday, its latest release in the new Claude 5.5 model family.

— CJ Haddad

This content is blocked because you are not allowing cookies.

To view this content, click on Cookie Preferences here or at the bottom of the page to allow all cookies.

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © Verum World Media