IOS 16
sixteenth major release of iOS, a mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc.
iOS 16 is the sixteenth major release of Apple's iOS mobile operating system for the iPhone. It is the successor of iOS 15, and was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 6, 2022, alongside iPadOS 16, and released on September 12, 2022. It was succeeded by iOS 17 on September 18, 2023.
It is the first iOS release to be exclusive to iPhones, as it drops support for the seventh-generation iPod Touch. The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, and first-generation iPhone SE would also be dropped. It is also the final iOS release to support the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus and iPhone X, as iOS 17 dropped support for these iPhones in 2023.
System features
Freeform
Freeform is a whiteboard app that lets users collaborate in real time. The whiteboard is an "Infinite" space where users can draw, import files, FaceTime, message, all fluently in sync.
AirDrop
In iOS 16.2, the default setting is "Contacts Only", and the "Everyone" setting was changed to "Everyone for 10 Minutes," which reverts to "Contacts Only" after 10 minutes "to prevent unwanted requests to receive content." This was enabled in iOS 16.1.1 for iPhones in China.
Lock screen
The lock screen's appearance is customizable and can host Widgets.
The public source identifies “IOS 16” as sixteenth major release of iOS, a mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around sixteenth, major and release.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q112252770. The first chronological checks are 2022 and 2023.
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This entry incorporates text from “IOS 16” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.