This iOS 16 trick makes your scribbly photo annotations look great

Hand-drawing on a screen is always hit-and-miss, and annotations usually end up looking scribbly and a bit, well, terrible.

This iOS 16 trick will make them look amazing and professional.

OK, take this photo of my morning coffee, and let’s say I want to annotate it.

It looks a bit terrible, doesn’t it? (Actually, it took me several attempts to get annotations that looked that good!)

But we can make it a lot better. 

Here’s how.

• Step 1: Go into Photos and find the image you want to edit.
• Step 2: Tap Edit.

• Step 3: Tap the pen icon.

• Step 4: Pick a drawing tool to get going.

• Step 5: Draw the shape you want to make as usual. Don’t lift your finger off the screen.
• Step 6: Then, once you’ve finished, keep holding your finger on the display, and iOS 16 will magically transform your arrow or shape (we’ll get to what works in a moment) into a smooth, professional one!

Here’s what the process looks like:

As for what shapes seems to work, here’s what I’ve found:

• Straight line
• Arrow
• Circle
• Ellipse
• Triangle
• Square
• Pentagon

There are probably more waiting to be uncovered, and Apple will likely improve this feature over time. I’d really like it to be able to make handwriting look better!

While there are other ways to annotate photos and diagrams — I use TechSmith’s SnagIt for most of my work — for people who want a simple, no-cost solution, this is definitely worth trying out.