[imagesource:pexels]

You may have already figured out all the little life/iPhone hacks as Apple released its iOS 16 update to the general public back in September already.

Then, just recently, new additional features have been added as a part of iOS 16.4, including new emojis.

There are always new features and settings to discover hidden within the iPhone’s latest software update, and CNET has been so kind as to walk us through the best-hidden gems in iOS 16.4.

Think password-protected photo albums, a customisable lock screen, a way to edit sent messages and a magic image editing tool.

You’re about to make your life a whole lot easier…

The ability to edit and ‘unsend’ messages

“Embarrassing typos are a thing of the past,” Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, said at WWDC as he introduced three of the most requested features for the Messages app.

You can easily make adjustments to a sent message, however, a tiny “edited” appears in the status under the message.

You can also recall a sent message, so if you accidentally send an unfinished message, you can use the Undo Send tool to prevent it from being read and making you seem chaotic.

A new customisable lock screen

Your iPhone’s lock screen is probably what you see the most, so you might as well make it just to your taste:

Press and hold to edit your lock screen. You can swipe to try out several different styles. Each style changes the color filter for the background photo and the font on the lock screen so everything complements each other.

You can also customize the fonts for the time and date, and add lock screen widgets like temperature, activity rings and a calendar. You can even set up multiple customized lock screens with different widgets and easily swipe to switch between them. There’s also a photo shuffle option that automatically changes the pictures on your lock screen.

Visual Look Up’s tap and drag for photos 

In iOS 15, Visual Look Up analyses your photos and can identify objects like plants, landmarks and pets but iOS 16 takes this to the next level.

When you touch a photo’s subject like the dog in the image above, you can lift it away from the background and add it to apps like Messages. Essentially it’s a tap-and-hold tool that removes a photo’s background.

Safety Check aims to help people in abusive relationships

Safety Check is a new feature intended to be helpful for people in abusive relationships. It lets you review and reset who has access to location information as well as passwords, messages and other apps on an iPhone.

Use Siri to send an emoji

If you asked Siri to Whatsapp a heart emoji, it would just type out ‘heart emoji’ but now, you can insert an actual emoji into your text with Siri. Granted, you need to know the name of the emoji, like “face with tears of joy emoji” or “red heart emoji”.

Speaking of emojis, the new iOS has a whole bunch of new ones, including maracas, a pink heart, a light blue heart and a folding hand fan arriving alongside animals like a donkey, moose and goose. Meanwhile, the shaking face could help you express shock and confusion.

Use Face ID while you’re lying down

It has not always been possible to unlock your iPhone while it’s vertical, like when you’re lying on your side for example, because you previously had to place your iPhone in portrait orientation, or upright, for Face ID to work.

Joy to Apple, you can do your thing without needing to lift your resting head upright. 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.

Speaking of which, if you’re after a more thorough update, like getting a totally new iPhone, then cast your attention over to South Africa’s largest independent Apple retailer, Digicape.

To really make things easier, you can even trade in your older model(s) – sort of like Leonardo DiCaprio, but less creepy –in order to score a solid discount on your iPhone upgrade.

Simply opt for Digicape’s trade-in option, hand over your preloved devices and use the value towards your next purchase.

The trade-in values of selected iPhones make it quite affordable to upgrade. Check out more at Digicape.

[source:cnet]