Whether you’re getting an iPhone 14 or updated an old phone, these iOS 16 hacks will make you get the most out of your iPhone.
iOS 16, Apple’s latest iPhone operating system, is a worthwhile update, adding a range of useful and enjoyable features as well as patching security holes and tweaking the overall look and feel. But it’s not quite a perfect experience out of the box, as it were.
With these 10 simple iOS 16 hacks you’ll find that iPhone becomes an altogether richer experience.
And once you’re done, check out this list of 16 iOS 16 Settings You Should Change Right Now.
iOS 16 Hacks
1. Get back the battery percentage indicator
With the launch of iOS 16, Apple has brought back the battery percentage indicator that was taken from the iPhone’s status bar in 2017. But you have to specifically choose to turn it on.
- Start the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Go to Battery.
Tap the toggle labelled Battery Percentage. A number will be superimposed over the battery icon at the top of the screen–if your iPhone supports the feature.
2. Turn off the search button
If you look on an iOS 15 home screen, you’ll see a little icon between the dock and the other app icons. It shows a row of dots indicating how many home screens you’ve got, and which one you’re on. Once you update to iOS 16, this icon is replaced by a Search icon, which duplicates the Spotlight function accessed by swiping down on the Home screen.
If you find this unnecessary and/or distracting, you can revert to the dots by following the steps below:
- Start the Settings app on your iPhone.
Go to Home Screen.
Tap the toggle labelled Show on Home Screen under Search.
3. Turn on the haptic keyboard setting
Most of us turn off the iPhone’s keyboard sounds, which can be irritating when typing out long messages in public. But doing this means you miss out on the useful haptic feedback that helps with typing accuracy.
In iOS 16, Apple finally gives an option to turn on haptic keyboard feedback without keyboard clicks, which is both discreet and useful and thus combines the best of both worlds.
- Start the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Go to Sounds & Haptics.
- Tap Keyboard Feedback and flip the Haptic toggle green.
4. Give yourself more time to unsend emails
As of iOS 16, Mail lets you unsend emails within a certain time limit. But the odd thing is that the time limit is up to you–to a degree.
The feature is set to 10 seconds by default, but you can change that by following the steps below:
- Start the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Go to Mail.
- Tap Undo Send Delay.
- From here, you can change it to 20 or 30 seconds.
5. Stop accidentally ending calls
Many iPhone owners will have experienced the inconvenience of accidentally pressing the side button during a phone call. By default this action will end the call—but using this iOS 16 hack, you can change that.
- Start the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Go to Accessibility.
- Tap on Touch.
- Tap the toggle labelled Prevent Lock to End Call. Just try to remember you’ve changed this, or you might get caught saying rude things about the person you thought you just hung up on.
6. Hands-free hang-ups
While we’re talking about hanging up on calls, there’s a new iOS 16 hack that lets you do this using Siri–which makes life a lot easier if you’re talking hands-free through the speaker. You just need to say “Hey Siri, hang up.” To activate this option, follow the steps below:
- Start the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Go to Siri & Search.
- Tap Call Hang-up, and tap the toggle so it turns green.
7. Send messages without a confirmation
Here’s another iOS 16 hack when sending messages using Siri, you can now skip the confirmation step.
- Start the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Go to Siri & Search.
- Tap Automatically Send Messages,
- tap the toggle so it turns green, and Siri will know not to bother asking you to confirm.
8. Share (some of) your Focus Statuses
iPhone users had access to multiple Focus modes in iOS 15, but a cool iOS 16 hack heavily expands this feature. One change is greater control over the sharing of status information: it’s much easier now to audit and control the specific modes that are shared and those that are not.
- Start the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Go to Focus,.
- Make sure that Share Across Devices is set to on.
- You can now tap Focus Status, and pick and choose which modes, if any, will be synced.
We found that all modes were set to share by default, but you might not want everyone to know that you’re asleep, for example, or working out. (Driving is a good one to share, in our opinion, as it not only explains why you’re not replying but also hints to those who are expecting you that you’re on your way.)
Finally, note that this sharing permission still only applies on a per-app basis. Go to Settings > Messages, for example, and you can toggle Allow Messages To Access Focus on and off.
9. Fine-tune your notifications
Apple has changed the way that notifications display on the lock screen, with those from the same app organised together under what Apple calls the Stack view. This iOS 16 hack is enabled by default, but those who’d prefer to use the old method can go back if they’d prefer.
- Start the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Go to Notifications.
- Select List at the top to revert to the iOS 15 notifications style. Or pick Count if you’d rather not see the notifications at all, and just get an unobtrusive number at the bottom of the screen.
10. Stop your personal photos from popping up unexpectedly
This iOS 16 hack lets you add a cute AI-based feature that finds what it thinks are significant photos and videos and pops them up in various places (widgets, search, the For You tab in Photos, and so on) as a reminder of happy memories. This is a charming feature, but it’s not for everyone–particularly if you’ve got embarrassing photos on your phone or just don’t want people on the train peering at your vacation pics.
You can turn off this feature by following the steps below:
- Start the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Go to Photos.
- Tap the Show Featured Content toggle so it turns light gray.
Your favorite iOS 16 hacks?
So these were some of the best iOS 16 hacks you would love to try today. My favorite iOS 16 hacks include hands-free call hangups, and ability to allow more time to unsend emails. There’s surely plenty more hidden iOS 16 hacks to discover, so I’ll keep tapping, swiping and noting anything I find. Did we miss out on something important that needs to be added to the list? Which are your favorite iOS 16 hacks? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.