In short
- Will WWDC 2022 be held on June 6
- New iOS 16 features for notifications, health, AR and VR
- The original iPhone 6s, 6s Plus and SE will no longer be supported
Let's go deeper
WWDC 2022 has been officially announced and the countdown has begun to discover all the news that Apple has in store for iPhones this year.
Let's summarize everything we know about iOS 16, rumors, supported devices and new features.
Let's go.
When will iOS 16 be announced?
Trivially, iOS 16 will be announced at Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference.
As per the practice of the last 2 years, WWDC will be streamed, then Apple will release the first beta versions for developers and then release a public beta in July and the official version between September and October 2022.
For more information about iPadOS 16, watchOS 9 and macOS 13 here are my articles about it:
- iPadOS 16: everything we know about the new features
- MacOS 13: new features, supported devices and rumors
- watchOS 9: new features and supported devices
iOS 16 supported devices
Let's face it, one of the biggest questions we ask ourselves every year is: will Apple stop supporting older iPhone and iPad models or not?
According to rumors, the devices supported by iOS 16 are:
- iPhone 7 Plus
- IPhone 8
- iPhone 8 Plus
- IPhone X
- iPhone XR
- iPhone XS and XS Max
- iPhone 11 (all models)
- iPhone SE 2nd generation
- iPhone 12 (all models)
- iPhone 13 (all models)
- iPhone SE 3rd generation
iOS 16 will not officially support:
- iPhone 6s
- iPhone 6s Plus
- iPhone 7
- Original iPhone SE.
No redesign of iOS 16
News as bitter as it is trivial, according to Bloomberg, iOS 16 will not offer an 'end-to-end redesign', which means that the overall design will remain the same again this year.
As sad as the news may be, I don't think there's a real need for an iOS redesign as it's still fresh and modern.
The last time Apple actually redesigned the entire iOS interface was with iOS 7 in 2013, a redesign obviously not without criticism and massively downsized during the beta testing process.
Since then, so for almost 10 years, Apple has only made gradual changes to the individual applications and aesthetic details of iOS.
New features coming with iOS 16
We assume that all the rumors that have come out so far are decidedly vague but, as stated by Bloomberg, iOS 16 will be a “fairly significant” update across the board, with a focus on notification systems, health and augmented reality.
Notifications
Apple's attention to notifications is interesting, in fact in the last two years it has made numerous changes to the iOS notification system, introducing features such as Notification Summary and Focus Mode.
So, for this year, let's expect big changes and, above all, adjustments for the entire notification system of iPhone and iPad.
Health App
Among the various rumors, there are also new health monitoring features.
Over the years Apple has made the Health app, and its integration with Apple Watch, a focal point of software updates in recent years and in fact, almost certainly, the new health-oriented features in iOS 16 will be related to those of watchOS 9.
Augmented and Virtual Reality
For years now, Apple has introduced new functions for AR and VR every year, but it seems that this year iOS 16 will lay the foundations for the Launch of Apple's first mixed-reality headset, due out not before the end of the year.
iPadOS 16
Finally, for iPadOS, the only rumor released so far speaks of a nNew multi-tasking interface for iPad.
Let's face it, although Apple has made some small changes to multitasking with iPadOS 15, we're not there yet and iPads, in particular the Pro models, are anything but solid devices to be used daily at 360°.
I'll never stop saying it, The iPad's biggest enemy is Apple and the operating system, deliberately limited, so as not to invade the Mac market.
Conclusions
In short, there are many leaked news and we will certainly have a WWDC full of surprises from an Apple that is increasingly on track, especially thanks to the astounding Apple Silicon M1.