All the iOS 16 Features You Won't Get Until Later This Year
There are usually multiple features that Apple is not able to finish before the first official release of a major new version of iOS, and this year looks to be no different, with a total of nine iOS 16 features now confirmed to not be present in the first public version of the new OS.
Last year, SharePlay, Digital IDs in the Wallet app, and Universal Control were among a large number of features in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 that were not available in their initial release, taking several months to trickle out to users.
Apple previewed each of the following features upon announcing iOS 16 at WWDC earlier this year, but they will not be present in iOS 16.0 when it releases to the public tomorrow:
- Live Activities: Follow activities happening in real-time like a sports match or a ride-share with just a glance at the Lock Screen. Third-party apps and App Clips can implement support thanks to the Live Activities API.
- Game Center SharePlay support: Games that use Game Center multiplayer support have SharePlay integration. You can start playing automatically with friends on a FaceTime call.
- Game Center Contacts integration: Contacts shows your friends' Game Center profiles. Tap through to see what they are playing and achieving in games.
- Support for Matter: The new smart home connectivity standard that enables compatible accessories to work together seamlessly and across platforms. Matter allows users to choose from even more compatible smart home accessories and control them with the Home app and Siri on Apple devices.
- Updated architecture for the Home app: Enhancements to the underlying architecture of the Home app to enable faster, more reliable performance and improved efficiency, especially for homes with lots of accessories and multiple controller devices.
- Freeform app: A new digital whiteboard app with a flexible canvas for diagramming projects, aggregating important assets, and brainstorming, with real-time collaboration features and rich multimedia support.
- iCloud Shared Photo Library: A new option in the Photos app to allow users to create a shared photos library and invite anyone with an Apple ID to view, contribute to, and edit it, including favoriting images and adding captions. There are no limitations, and all participants have the same permissions, making it ideal for families.
- Key sharing: The ability to securely share keys in Apple Wallet via messaging apps and Mail.
- Easy Shortcuts setup for iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X: Siri can run shortcuts from installed apps without any setup process (to be available for newer devices immediately without delay).
iCloud Shared Photo Library became the latest feature to be delayed following Apple's "Far out" event earlier this week, but all of the other delays were known upon the initial preview of iOS 16 at WWDC.
Apple says that all of these features are coming in an update to iOS 16 later this year, but it has not yet offered a more specific timeframe for any of them. After months of beta testing, iOS 16.0 will become officially available for download on every compatible iPhone tomorrow. For a detailed breakdown of all of the new features in iOS 16, see our comprehensive roundup.
Popular Stories
iPadOS 26 allows iPads to function much more like Macs, with a new app windowing system, a swipe-down menu bar at the top of the screen, and more. However, Apple has stopped short of allowing iPads to run macOS, and it has now explained why.
In an interview this week with Swiss tech journalist Rafael Zeier, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that iPadOS 26's new Mac-like ...
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup.
If you skipped the iPhone...
Alongside WWDC this week, Logitech announced notable new accessories for the iPad and Apple Vision Pro.
The Logitech Muse is a spatially-tracked stylus developed for use with the Apple Vision Pro. Introduced during the WWDC 2025 keynote address, Muse is intended to support the next generation of spatial computing workflows enabled by visionOS 26. The device incorporates six degrees of...
With iOS 26, Apple has introduced some major changes to the iPhone experience, headlined by the new Liquid Glass redesign that's available across all compatible devices. However, several of the update's features are exclusive to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models, since they rely on Apple Intelligence.
The following features are powered by on-device large language models and machine...
Apple this week announced that iPhone users will soon be able to watch videos right on the CarPlay screen in supported vehicles.
iPhone users will be able to wirelessly stream videos to the CarPlay screen using AirPlay, according to Apple. For safety reasons, video playback will only be available when the vehicle is parked, to prevent distracted driving. The connected iPhone will be able to...
iOS 26 features a whole new design material that Apple calls Liquid Glass, with a focus on transparency that lets the content on your display shine through the controls. If you're not a fan of the look, or are having trouble with readability, there is a step that you can take to make things more opaque without entirely losing out on the new look.
Apple has multiple Accessibility options that ...
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices.
Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a...
Apple today added Mac Studio models with M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips to its online certified refurbished store in the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore, and many European countries, for the first time since they were released in March.
As usual for refurbished Macs, prices are discounted by approximately 15% compared to the equivalent new models on Apple's online store. Note that Apple's ...
Apple today provided developers with a revised version of the first iOS 26 beta for testing purposes. The update is only available for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 models, so if you're running iOS 26 on an iPhone 14 or earlier, you won't see the revised beta.
Registered developers can download the new beta software through the Settings app on each device.
The revised beta addresses an...
