Apple to roll out another iPhone update: Here’s everything you need to know

Here are the upcoming features:

Access Apple Fitness+ without Apple Watch

The iPhone users with iOS 16.1 would be able to subscribe to and access Apple Fitness+ even if they do not have an Apple Watch.

Fitness+ is a subscription service with guided workouts and meditations that costs $9.99 per month or $79.99 annually. The technology giant is offering three months of Fitness+ free with the purchase of a new iPhone, iPad or Apple TV.

Notably, if you work out on Fitness+ without an Apple Watch, you will not be able to see metrics like calories burned, or your real-time heart rate.

Clean energy iPhone charging

The iOS 16.1 update would also include Clean Energy Charging. Apple says this will let users optimise charging for when cleaner energy sources are available, helping to decrease your iPhone’s carbon footprint.

Clean Energy Charging is an option that can be selected in Settings> Battery> Battery Health & Charging. Under the Clean Energy Charging option, Apple says, “In your region, iPhone will try to reduce your carbon footprint by selectively charging when lower carbon emission electricity is available. The iPhone learns from your daily charging routine so it can reach full charge before you need to use it.”

iCloud shared photo library

The iOS 16.1 will allow users to create an iCloud Shared Photo Library instead of a standard shared iCloud album.

This will let users to invite up to five other people, or six in total, to a library where they can all add, delete, edit the favourite photos and videos,

The Camera app would offer a new toggle which allows users to choose to send photos to the shared library automatically. So, if a user is on vacation and taking a bunch of pictures at the beach with a group of friends, everyone can snap pictures with the option turned on and see all of the photos in the shared album.

Live Activity for third-party apps

Once a user updates to iOS 16.1, her lock screen would feature Live Activities, which shows information from sports games, ride-sharing apps like Uber, or updates on a food delivery order. So, users might see how long it will take for dinner to arrive.

This feature will be most useful on the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max which have always on displays so that users can flance to see new information.

Support for Matter accessories in the Home App

The iOS 16.1 would add support for new Matter accessories to the Home app. This lets users control smart home accessories.

Matter is a new connectivity standard which is trying to make it easier to use all of smart home accessories. The idea is to let smart home devices connect with home hubs whether the hub is made by Apple, Google or Amazon.