Announced in June at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 are Apple's next-generation operating systems for iPhone and iPad.
On iPhone, iOS 16 includes a completely overhauled Lock Screen with extensive personalization features and widgets. There are new Focus filters, Passkeys, Safari Shared Tab Groups, a new iCloud Shared Photo Library, and more.
iPadOS 16 gets a Weather app for the first time, and also offers a range of "pro" features that are exclusive to iPad models with the M1 chip. For example, Stage Manager brings a new way to multitask with multiple overlapping windows and full external display support.
iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 also share a number of new features and changes such as updates to apps like Notes, Mail, and Messages, Live Text, Visual Look Up, and Dictation Enhancements.
iOS 16 Release Date
iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 became available for registered members of Apple's developer program immediately following the WWDC keynote on June 7, and Apple released the public beta on July 11.
Apple originally said iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 would be officially be released in "the fall" of 2022, without specifying a precise date, but the timeline of previous releases can give us a ballpark idea of when that might be.
For example, last year, when Apple announced the iPhone 13 series on September 14, the company revealed that iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 would be released six days later on September 20.
Usually that would mean iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 will likely appear shortly after the iPhone 14 series is announced, and that is expected to happen in September 2022. However, in early August, Bloomberg reported that Apple is planning to delay the launch of iPadOS 16 until October, which means the iPad software will not launch alongside the new iOS, as it typically does.
Device Compatibility
iOS 16 is compatible with the iPhone 8 and newer, while iPadOS 16 is compatible with the iPad (5th generation and later), iPad mini (5th generation and later), iPad Air (3rd generation and later), and all iPad Pro models.
