Sync Extensions and Website Settings

When you install or uninstall an extension on one device, Safari can now sync those extension changes to your other devices. If you want to turn that off, go to Settings > Safari > Extensions and disable Share Across Devices.

Even if you want to leave extension sharing enabled, you should visit Settings > Safari > Extensions on each device, because you may have to manually install the related app by tapping the download icon.

Likewise, Safari now syncs website settings like zoom level and Reader View between devices. If you don’t want those settings to sync, you can turn off Share Across Devices in Settings > Safari.

Shared Tab Groups

You can collaborate on tab groups with others running iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS Ventura. You and any other participants see the same tab group and can open and close tabs in that group, which could be useful for things like vacation planning.

To share a tab group, tap the pages icon while viewing the tab group you want to share, tap the Share icon in the Safari window, and then tap a Messages contact to share with. A new message is created with the collaboration link. Tap the send button.

When you tap the pages icon again while viewing the tab group, instead of the share icon you’ll see the profile picture of anyone the tab group is shared with. Tap the icon and then Manage Shared Tab Group to see options to share with more people or stop sharing the tab group (Figure 3). You can also tap the name of someone you’ve shared with to restrict their access to view only or remove their tab group access entirely.

Website Push Notifications

Coming in 2023, you’ll be able to allow websites to send push notifications to your iPhone or iPad. This means websites may prompt you to allow them to send notifications to your iPhone or iPad, even if you’re not current browsing the site. This could be helpful—like getting news updates from a website without having to check the website or install an app. It could also be super annoying.

Smart Search

Search is now smart enough to ignore your spelling mistakes (like searching for “cheese” if you type “cheez”) and search for synonyms for your query. At least, in theory—I haven’t been able to get those to work in my testing.

It’s also supposed to offer more helpful search suggestions, but in my testing it’s not much different than iOS 15/iPadOS 15, though it can now search attachments for your search term.

Missing Recipient and Attachment Notifications

Mail is now supposed to warn you if it thinks you’ve forgotten to include a recipient or an attachment. In our testing, this is based on specific phrasing in your emails like “I’m copying name on this email” or “I’ve enclosed the document.” If mail thinks you forgot something, a message appears at the bottom prompted you to add the missing recipient or attachment (Figure 4).

Scheduled Send

Instead of sending a message instantly, you can delay it until later. For example, if you think to draft an email late at night, you may want to schedule it to send in the morning so it’s at the top of the recipient’s inbox. Instead of tapping the send button, touch and hold it and a menu appears letting you adjust the send time (Figure 5). If you tap Send Later, you can set any custom time and date.

Undo Send in Mail

After sending an email message, you have 10 seconds, by default, to undo the send by tapping Undo Send on the bottom toolbar (Figure 6). That reopens the message. You can either edit and resend it or tap Cancel to change your mind entirely.

After scheduling a message, a Send Later mailbox appears on the Mailboxes screen (iPhone) or in the sidebar (iPad). Tap it to see your scheduled messages. Tap the message and then Edit to set a different time and date or cancel.

Mail Reminders

Do you have the bad habit of forgetting to respond to emails because they get buried in your inbox? You can now have Mail remind you of those messages. Swipe a message from left to right and tap Later, then choose when to have it remind you. Tap Remind Me Later to specify a time (Figure 7).

When the designated time comes, the message should float to the top of your inbox with a Remind Me label.

Mail is also supposed to remind you about sent messages that haven’t received a response. I haven’t been able to get that to work yet.

Rich Links

You know how in Messages, when you paste in the URL of an article, it shows a little graphic preview of the website? Now you get the same thing when composing a Mail message.

Live Text in Videos

The Live Text feature now works in videos, at least in the Photos app, and possibly in other apps in the future. To get it to work, you must first play then pause the video; then you can either select text directly or tap the Detect Text button.

Quick Actions

After selecting Live Text, you may see buttons in the lower-left corner that let you quickly take action on the Live Text, like copying all text or converting currency (Figure 14). These appear somewhat sporadically, but if you see them pop up, at least now you know why.

Translate Camera

The Translate app now has a camera feature that can pick up text and translate it directly:

1. Select Camera in the Translate app (it’s in the sidebar on the iPad).

2. Set your input and output languages at the top. The left-most language is the input language and the right-most language is the output language.

3. Point the camera at the text to translate.

4. Press the capture button.

5. Identified text is highlighted and automatically translated. Tap a highlighted block of text to see more details.

This could be a useful feature when traveling.

Multi-Stop Routing

You can now add multiple stops to a trip when getting directions in Maps. This is handy when you’re going on a road trip and need to pick up somebody or have a side destination you want to visit.

When planning a route, tap Add Stop to enter an address or search for another location (Figure 15).

Transit Fares

When planning a public transit route in Maps, it now shows you how much the fare will cost—at least, if you live in a supported area. (Figure 16)

Transit Cards in Maps

If you store a transit card in the Wallet app, you’ll be prompted to reload it from Maps if it’s running low.

Quick Note on iPhone

The Quick Note feature is now available on iPhones. Just as the name implies, this feature lets you take a quick note. It’s accessible from Control Center. See Other Control Center Functions.

Lock Notes with Device Passcode

Until now, if you wanted to lock notes, you had to come up with a separate passcode, and if you forgot that passcode, access to locked notes was lost forever. Now you can use your device passcode to lock notes. To do so, go to Settings > Notes > Password > Account and tap Use Device Passcode or Use iPhone/iPad Passcode.

Collaborate with a Link

You’ve been able for some time now to share documents with other iCloud users so that you can all work on them at once, but now you can send out a URL to let anyone jump in on a note:

1. Tap the Share icon to reveal the share sheet in Notes.

2. Keep the pop-up menu set to Collaborate.

3. Tap “Only people you invite can edit.”

4. Tap “Anyone with the link.”

5. Under Permissions, leave it as “Can make changes” or “View only.”

6. Tap Done.

7. Tap Copy on the share sheet to copy the link so you can paste it elsewhere. The top of the share sheet should look like Figure 17.

Enhanced Smart Folders

Apple has greatly expanded filtering options for smart folders. Previously, you could create them based only on tags, but now you can also add dates, mentions, checklists, attachments, and other criteria. To play with these new options, go to the folder list, tap the new folder icon, tap iCloud, and then tap Make Into Smart Folder.

Straighten Handwriting

It’s easy to take handwritten notes in the Notes app, and it’s also too easy to write things down at weird angles. You can now easily straighten out your handwriting. Unfortunately, it won’t fix sloppy penmanship.

Here’s how to try it out:

1. Tap the markup button to enter drawing mode. Tapping an Apple Pencil into the note does the same thing.

2. Write some words in the note.

3. From the tool palette, choose the selection tool (highlighted in red in Figure 18) tap the markup button if you don’t see the palette).

4. Draw around the handwritten text with the selection tool. A dotted outline appears around the handwriting.

5. Tap the selected handwriting to display the text popover.

6. Tap the right-hand arrow if necessary to reveal more options.

7. Tap Straighten (Figure 18).

The selected handwriting rotates so that it’s straight (Figure 19).

Shapes and Typed Text in Drawings

You can now insert shapes and text boxes in the drawing area. These tools have been available in Markup for years, but are now finally available in notes.

There are two new buttons in the tool palette. The first one is text , which displays options to add a text box or a signature. The other is shapes , which quickly lets you insert a shape like a square or speech balloon.

For more, see my book Take Control of Notes.

Add Screenshots to a Quick Note

You can now add screenshots to a Quick Note on the iPad. Swipe up from the lower-right corner of the screen to bring up a Quick Note. In the Quick Note window, tap the More button and then Add Screenshot.

New Drawing Tools

In addition to the other new features in Notes, Apple has slipped in a few new drawing tools: Monoline, Fountain Pen, and Watercolor. The Monoline tool is placed prominently in the palette (Figure 20), but where are the other two?

Swipe the tools from right to left and you’ll reveal the Fountain Pen and Watercolor tools (Figure 21).

Duplicate Detection

Photos can now help you clean up duplicate images. Under Albums on an iPhone or in the sidebar on an iPad is a new album under Utilities called Duplicates. Tap that and the detected duplicates are presented to you, alongside a Merge button for each set. Review the identified duplicates carefully before proceeding, because some sets may not be exact duplicates but rather similar images. You can tap an individual image in a set to see a larger version.

To merge duplicate images, tap Merge next to a duplicate set and then Merge X Duplicates, where X is the number of duplicate images. When you do that, Photos keeps one image, combining what Photos considers the “highest quality and relevant data” and moves the other images to the Recently Deleted album. If you want to restore the duplicate image, you can go into Recently Deleted, tap the image, and then tap Recover.

Hidden and Recently Deleted Albums Locked

Speaking of the Recently Deleted album, both it and the Hidden album are now locked with Face ID or Touch ID by default and you must provide authorization before viewing these albums, which keeps your most private photos private. You can turn this off in Settings > Photos by disabling either Use Touch ID or Use Face ID.

Sort People Alphabetically

You can now sort the People album by name. Previously, you couldn’t sort it at all. Tap the More button and then Name.

Disable Memories and Featured Photos

The purpose of the Memories feature is to resurface old photos that we’ve long forgotten about. But not all of us are nostalgic for the past. To disable these, go to Settings > Photos and turn off Show Featured Content. You can turn it back on at any time.

Copy, Paste, Undo, and Redo Edits

Are you finding that you’re applying the exact same edit to multiple photos? You can now do that faster by copying the edit from one photo and pasting it into another. While editing a photo, tap the More button, tap Copy Edits, and then open another photo, tap the More button, and tap Paste Edits. That also works when selecting multiple photos (tap Select when browsing photos, tap photos to select them, tap More , and then Paste Edits).

You can now also undo and redo multiple edits by tapping the undo and redo buttons repeatedly.

Copy Subject

A new feature of Photos lets you touch, hold, and drag out the subject of a photo. You can then switch to another app and drop in the subject. To try it, choose a photo with a clear subject that’s differentiated from the background. Touch and hold the subject for just a moment and—while keeping your finger on the screen—drag your finger away (Figure 22).

If you touch and hold too long it triggers the Live Photo animation, so it takes some practice. You should see a white flash across the subject when it’s selected.

You can also touch and hold the subject until you get the white flash, and then release. A Copy option appears, which copies the subject of the photo so you don’t have to drag.

You can also use this feature in other apps, like Safari.

Safety Check

Apple has implemented a new Safety Check feature on iPhones to help victims of domestic violence quickly review and reset privacy settings. It can be found in Settings > Privacy & Security > Safety Check.

There are two options in Safety Check. The first is an Emergency Reset, which:

• Immediately stops sharing your private information— like your location—with all contacts and apps

• Prompts you to change your Apple ID password

• Prompts you to review your emergency contacts

The second option, Manage Sharing & Access, is less severe and helps guide you through what information you’re sharing. On any screen, you can tap Select All & Stop Sharing to immediately stop sharing the information. Alternatively, you can tap Skip to skip that section.

Here’s how to manage your sharing and access settings:

1. Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Safety Check > Manage Sharing & Access.

2. Authenticate with Face ID or Touch ID.

3. Read the Manage Sharing & Access screen and tap Continue.

4. Review what you’re sharing with other people. You can filter by either people you are sharing with or the information you’re sharing, like location sharing, shared albums, and shared calendars. Tap either People or Information, select people or information to review, and tap Review Sharing. Follow the prompts to change your sharing settings.

5. You’re asked to review what you’re sharing publicly, like shared albums in Photos. You can select an option and then tap Stop Sharing to stop sharing that content. Otherwise tap Skip.

6. Step 1 of the Safety Check is complete. Tap Continue.

7. Review is your third-party app permissions, which again, you can filter by either app or the information shared. Many apps can leak your personal data. For instance, Google Maps might be recording your location to your Google Location History.

8. Step 2 of the Safety Check is complete. Tap Continue.

9. Select devices to remove from your account. For example, let’s say you flee your home with your iPhone but left an iPad behind signed into your Apple ID. An abusive spouse could read your messages on your iPad. Tap Remove Selected Devices to remove them from your Apple ID or tap Skip.

10. Finally, you’re prompted to change your Apple ID password, review your emergency contacts, and change your device passcode.

11. Tap Done to complete the Safety Check.

Lockdown Mode

In response to state-sponsored spyware, Apple has introduced Lockdown Mode, which maximizes the security of your device by:

• Blocking all Messages attachments except images

• Disabling “certain complex web technologies” like just-in-time JavaScript compilation

• Blocking incoming invitations and calls except from known contacts

• Preventing the installation of configuration profiles

Lockdown Mode is a massive pain and you shouldn’t enable it unless you believe yourself to be targeted by a state-sponsored actor. To turn it on, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Lockdown Mode.

Paste Permissions

When pasting content from one app to another, you may be asked if you want to allow the app to do so (Figure 23). This is because otherwise, app developers could read what’s on your clipboard and use that to extract personal information.

Face ID

Face ID now works in landscape mode on the iPhone 13 and later.

Pin Reminder Lists

You can now pin reminder lists to keep them at the top. Swipe one from left to right to pin it. That list will then appear as a tile at the top of Reminders, along with other lists like Today and Scheduled. To unpin a list, touch and hold its tile and choose Unpin from the menu.

Save Reminder Templates

You can use the new templates feature to create duplicates of lists. To create a template, tap a list, tap the More button, and then tap Save as Template. You can tap the template name to change it, and you can also flip a switch to include completed reminders. Tap Save to finish.

To see and use your templates, tap the More button in the sidebar (iPad) or on the Lists screen (iPhone). Tap a template to start creating a new reminder list from that template. Enter a name and tap Create.

Tap the info button while viewing Templates to see options to edit or delete a template.

View Completed Reminders

There is a new Completed smart list at the top of Reminders that displays all of your complete reminders. You can use this screen to quickly clear out old completed reminders. Tap Clear and then choose one of the options (Figure 24).

Create Rich Notes in Reminders

When you tap a reminder, there is a field named Add Note that you can tap to type in a note about the reminder. You can now add rich formatting to the text in the note by selecting it, tapping the selection to reveal the text popover, and then tapping Format. You can set bold, italic, underline, bulleted list, dashed list, or numbered list.

Skip Message Send Confirmation

Tired of having to confirm to Siri before sending a message? Turn on Automatically Send Messages in Settings > Siri & Search > Automatically Send Messages. When you enable that, two more options appear: Headphones and CarPlay. They’re enabled by default, but you can turn them off to disable automatic send whenever you’re connected to one of those devices.

Emojis in Text

You can now include an emoji when sending a message with Siri. In my testing, you have to be careful with how you phrase this or Siri gets confused. The format “Send an emoji name emoji to name” works.

What Can I Do Here?

You can ask Siri “What can I do here?” on any screen to see suggested Siri commands.

Hang Up Phone Calls

You can use a “Hey Siri” command to hang up a phone call if you turn on Siri Call Hangup in Settings > Siri & Search > Siri Call Hangup. Note that the other party will hear this. See Hang Up with Siri and Adjust Siri’s Pause Time.

Expanded Offline Support

Support for offline Siri commands has been extended to HomeKit commands, speaking over the HomePod Intercom, and listening to voicemails. Being able to issue Siri commands offline means you don’t need a cellular or Wi-Fi connection to use those commands, which also translates to better privacy and performance.