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UPDATE October 24, 2022

New Security and Collaboration Features Come to Safari

Browsing in Safari is even more secure with passkeys, a next-generation credential that can’t be phished or leaked, making it safer and easy to use. Designed to replace passwords, passkeys use Touch ID or Face ID for biometric verification, and are securely synced with end-to-end encryption using iCloud Keychain so they are available across Apple devices including iPad, iPhone, and Mac. Created as a joint effort in collaboration with the FIDO Alliance, Google, and Microsoft, passkeys will work across apps and the web, and users can sign in to websites or an app on non-Apple devices using just their iPad.

A Real-Time Collaboration Space Using Freeform

Coming to iPadOS 16 in an update later this year, Freeform — a powerful productivity app with a flexible canvas — will give users the ability to see, share, and collaborate all in one place without worrying about layouts and page sizes, and with full support for Apple Pencil. Users will be able to view others’ contributions as they add content or make edits, all while enjoying a real-time collaboration space. Freeform will allow collaborators to add virtually any kind of file — images, video, audio, PDFs, documents, and web links — to the canvas and preview it inline, without leaving the board.

Additional iPadOS 16 Features

  • Dictation offers a new on-device experience that allows users to easily move between voice, touch, and Scribble with Apple Pencil. Users can type with the keyboard or write with Scribble, tap in the text field, move the cursor, and insert QuickType suggestions, all without needing to stop Dictation. Dictation also features automatic punctuation and emoji dictation.5
  • Siri adds the ability to run shortcuts as soon as an app is downloaded without requiring upfront setup. Users can add emoji when sending a message, choose to send messages automatically — skipping the confirmation step — and hang up phone and FaceTime calls completely hands-free by simply saying “Hey Siri, hang up.”6
  • The Home app gets an all-new design that makes it easier to navigate, organize, view, and control smart home accessories at a glance, as well as Matter support — a new smart home connectivity standard that allows compatible accessories to work together seamlessly across different ecosystems, and provides more choice and interoperability — all while maintaining the highest level of security.7
  • Desktop-class apps enable new capabilities optimized for the iPad display, so apps are more capable with new elements and interactions, including a consistent undo and redo, a redesigned inline find-and-replace experience, a new document menu, customizable toolbars, and the ability to change file extensions, view folder size in Files, and more.
  • Apple News introduces a new My Sports section, where users can easily follow favorite teams and leagues; receive stories from hundreds of top publishers; access scores, schedules, and standings for the top professional and college leagues; and watch highlights right in the News app. Favorites will sync with the Apple TV app to offer a seamless sports experience.8
  • Notes allows users to create neater handwritten notes with the ability to automatically straighten the handwriting, use their iCloud password to lock personal notes, add screenshots in Quick Note, and take organization even further with powerful Smart Folders and filtering capabilities.
  • Game Center makes it easy for users to play with or compete against their friends through the redesigned dashboard that shows friends’ games activity and accomplishments all in one place.
  • Handoff in FaceTime allows users to start a FaceTime call on one of their Apple devices and seamlessly hand it off to another Apple device nearby. When switching to a different device, the connected Bluetooth headset transitions simultaneously so users don’t miss any of the conversation.
  • New accessibility tools include Live Captions in FaceTime;9 a new Magnifier mode that delivers richer descriptions of the surroundings;10 Hover Text, which helps users to easily read input fields, menu items, button labels, and other text on iPad; support for over 20 additional languages in VoiceOver and Spoken Content; and more.

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  1. Users can edit a message for up to 15 minutes after sending it and can unsend a message for up to 2 minutes after sending it. Users can make up to five edits to a given message, and recipients will be able to see a record of edits made to the message.
  2. Users can cancel delivery of a message within 30 seconds of hitting send, or they have the option to change the duration that the message is in the outbox. In addition, Undo Send can be turned off.
  3. Available on 12.9-inch iPad Pro (3rd generation and later), 11-inch iPad Pro (1st generation and later), and iPad Air (5th generation).
  4. Available on 12.9-inch iPad Pro (5th generation and later), 11-inch iPad Pro (3rd generation and later), and iPad Air (5th generation) in a software update later this year.
  5. Available on iPad models with A12 Bionic and later. Requires download of speech models. Available in Arabic (Saudi Arabia), Cantonese (China mainland, Hong Kong), English (Australia, Canada, India, Singapore, UK, US), French (France), German (Germany), Italian (Italy), Japanese (Japan), Korean (South Korea), Mandarin Chinese (China mainland, Taiwan), Russian (Russia), Spanish (Mexico, Spain, US), and Turkish (Türkiye).
  6. This feature is available on iPad models with A12 Bionic and later.
  7. Matter accessories require an Apple TV or HomePod device as a home hub.
  8. Apple News is available in the US, the UK, Canada, and Australia.
  9. Live Captions will be available in beta in English (US, Canada) with iPadOS 16 on iPad models with A12 Bionic and later. Accuracy of Live Captions may vary and should not be relied upon in high-risk situations.
  10. Door Detection and People Detection features in Magnifier require the LiDAR Scanner on 12.9-inch iPad Pro (4th generation and later) and 11-inch iPad Pro (2nd generation and later). Door Detection should not be relied upon in circumstances where a user may be harmed or injured, in high-risk or emergency situations, or for navigation.