iOS 10 is here and it’s a massive, easily the most significant update to the mobile operating system powering the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. iOS 10 packs in important new core technologies like Differential Privacy, plus a bunch of improvements across most stock apps.

Apple has opened up additional aspects of iOS to developers, turning Siri, Phone, Messages and Maps into extensible software platforms in their own right. It also fixes a number of pain points, makes expanded use of 3D Touch and haptic feedback and completes Apple’s overhaul of iOS, that began with iOS 7, with its refined look and subtle design changes.

There’s a lot to look forward to in iOS 10 and this massive roundup is our attempt at giving you guys a comprehensive overview of the more than a hundred new capabilities and enhancements that you’re going to fall in love with.

iOS 10: VIDEO HANDS-ON

My colleague Andrew O’Hara has been burning lots of midnight oil to bring you this comprehensive video overview of the new iOS 10 features, improvements and tidbits, so please give him a shoutout in comments.

Don’t see the clip? Watch it on YouTube!

Be sure to like, comment and subscribe to iDownloadBlog on YouTube on your way out and stick around as we’ve got a lot more coming!

Our detailed overview of the best new feature in iOS 10 follows below.

iOS 10: NEW SYSTEM-WIDE FEATURES

iOS 10 packs in many improvements for services and features used throughout the system that elevate your experience, including enhancements for the following aspects of iOS:

• Accessibility
• Control Center
• Keyboards & Typing
• Lock screen
• Home screen
• Notifications & Notification Center
• Siri
• Spotlight Search
• Widgets

It also improves overall user experience with improvements like iOS’s Data Detector feature that’s now expanded to more places, a new iOS 10 wallpaper, a new Continuity feature allowing for copy-pasting across devices and Differential Privacy, a new technique Apple started using with iOS 10, adds more intelligence to your mobile computing while strengthening iOS’s security and your privacy.

Continue reading for an in-depth look at the aforementioned features.

ACCESSIBILITY

Camera as a magnifying glass

A new Magnifier feature can be accessed in iOS 10 by triple-clicking the Home button, which takes you to a Camera-like interface with the zoom slider, flash button, exposure lock and live effects. Magnifier basically turns you iOS device’s camera into a magnifying glass and lets you zoom in on a scene and take a picture to examine details.

Pictures taken with Magnifier are not kept in Photos. Go to Settings → Accessibility → Magnifier to turn Magnifier on and off. If you want, you can tell Magnifier to automatically adjust brightness and contrast used on ambient light settings.

Software TTY

Software TTY is a new Accessibility feature in iOS 10 that lets people with disabilities place phone calls to non-TTY numbers through their carrier, without any special hardware. This feature also provides TTY-specific QuickType predictions.

Tint entire display a certain color

iOS 10 enables some new improvements to help vision-impaired users. In Settings → Accessibility → Display Accommodations → Color Filters, you can easily tint the entire display a certain color and reduce the intensity of bright colors.

Voice Over reads back typed text

With an enhanced typing feedback, another Accessibility enhancement on iOS 10, people with Dyslexia can enable a new audio feedback feature that uses Voice Over to read back text typed into iOS.

CONTROL CENTER

Control Center in iOS 10 has a refined look and uses a card-based interface letting you swipe between system toggles, Music controls and HealthKit devices. 3D Touch now works with app shortcuts in Control Center (but not with toggles at the top) while AirPlay and device icons in the output menu have a new look to them.

Cards-based interface

Control Center in iOS 10 can be swiped as its features have been divided into three distinct cards: default controls, music controls and your HomeKit accessories. The Music cards displays information about the currently playing song, including cover artwork, lyrics, playback controls and a popup menu at the bottom for selecting a Bluetooth or AirPlay output device.

You can tap the cover artwork, or the Music button at the top of no song is playing, to launch the stock Music app. The HomeKit card will be unavailable if you don’t use any iOS-compatible accessories for the connected home.

Choose camera mode

Pressing the Camera icon in Control Center with 3D Touch brings up a menu with the following shortcuts: Take Photo, Record Slo-mo, Record Video and Take Selfie. Before iOS 10, these Camera shortcuts were only available through the shortcuts menu on the Home screen.

Copy last calculation’s result

Pressing Control Center’s Calculator with 3D Touch lets you copy last calculation’s result to the clipboard. In iOS 9, the Copy Last Result shortcut only appeared if you pressed Calculator’s icon on the Home screen. The new Control Center shortcut isn’t possible without 3D Touch.

Selectable flashlight intensity

On devices with 3D Touch, you can press Control Center’s Flashlight icon to choose between three pre-defined intensity settings for the LED flash: Low Light, Medium Light and Bright Light. This handy shortcuts is new to iOS 10 and inaccessible without 3D Touch.

Quick timers

Pressing the Clock icon in iOS 10’s Control Center with 3D Touch allows you to quickly fire up one of the pre-defined timers: 1 Minute, 5 Minutes, 20 Minutes and 1 Hour. This shortcut is new to iOS 10 and unavailable without 3D Touch.

HOME SCREEN

Your Home screen has learned a few new tricks in iOS 10. For starters, there’s a new Lock and Home screen wallpaper in iOS 10 to boot. Widgets now live on Home screen 0 and show up in the 3D Touch shortcuts menu. 3D Touch can be used to share apps, prioritize downloads and rename folders. Folder animations have been sped up, design improved and with a press of a folder you’ll see its notification badge breakdown.

App sharing

You can still share an app with friends and family via the App Store’s Share menu, but iOS 10 simplifies the process by automatically nesting an app-sharing option inside 3D Touch shortcuts menus. It’s easy as pie: just press the app icon, then select the “Share [APP NAME]” shortcut. iOS’s multi-purpose Share sheet pops up, allowing you to select among installed sharing services on your device.

Folders show per-app badge breakdown

Pressing on a folder with 3D Touch now gives you a per-app breakdown of any underlying notifications, right in the shortcuts menu. Without lifting your finger, select an app that has new notifications and let go to launch it. That’s right, no longer do you have to poke around pages inside the folder like an animal just to find an app with new notifications like before.

Hide unwanted Apple apps

For the first time, iOS lets you remove built-in Apple apps like Mail, Contacts, Music and more from the Home screen. Just tap and hold the app icon until it jiggles, then hit “X” and tap Remove. Some apps like that provide system-wide or core functionality cannot be removed, like Safari, Phone and Messages. Apple’s support document provides a handy list of removable stock apps along with important information on their dependencies.

Hiding a stock app also removes its related user data and configuration files, which can affect things like related system functions. iOS won’t let you set default apps for core functions like browsing the web or checking email. In other words, you can remove, say, Mail from the Home screen but you cannot tell the system to use Gmail or Airmail to handle MAILTO: links.

Keep in mind that Apple apps built into iOS 10 use less than 150MB. This is important as you’ll gain very little storage space by removing stock apps from the device. To re-add the previously removed stock app, simply download it again from the App Store.

Widgets on Home screen

In addition to the Lock screen and Notification Center, iOS 10’s redesigned widgets also appear on the Home screen. If an app comes with a widget, press its Home screen icon and you’ll see the widget with live information right in the shortcuts menu. This is great if you want to check the weather for your location or see latest stock quotes without ever launching Weather or Stocks app.

If there’s an Add option in the widget’s top right corner, tap it to add the widget to the Lock screen and Notification Center right from the shortcuts menu. Most Apple apps in iOS 10 now ship with widgets, including Contacts, Notes, Phone, Photos and others.

KEYBOARD & TYPING

Delete text faster

This is yet another small, time-saving 3D Touch enhancement in iOS 10: pressing the Backspace key with 3D Touch will delete text a lot faster than tapping the key. The harder your press, the faster the text is deleted.

Emojify your messaging game in a cinch

With Tap to Replace in iOS 10, automatic Siri-powered suggestions make it easy to replace words with emoji in a fun way. Simply type some text in Messages using your preferred iOS keyboard, then switch to the built-in Emoji keyboard.

iOS will highlight all the emojifiable words that could be replaced with appropriate emoji. For instance, if you tap “pizza”, the word will transform into the appropriate pizza picture. In case of emoji with multiple variations—like “heart”, ”love”, ”smile” and so forth—a popup menu appears where you can select the exact emoji symbol that best conveys the message you’re trying to impart.

“Home screen” option in Command-tab overlay

iOS 10 brings a pair of new shortcuts for external keyboards on the iPad Pro and other iPad models. Now when you invoke the Command (⌘)-Tab combo to pull up iOS’s Mac-like app switcher overlay, you’ll see a new “Home screen” option on the far right. This lets you navigate back to your Home screen without needing to press the physical Home button. Like before, you can also get to the home screen by pressing the Command (⌘)-H combination.

Multilingual typing

Predictive typing on iOS 10 now supports multiple languages without switching keyboards. To set it up, first select two or more languages you wish to use with the stock QuickType keyboard in Settings → General → Dictionary. After dictionary files for your preferred languages have downloaded to the device, go to Settings → General → Keyboards right Keyboards → Add New Keyboard and select the languages you just downloaded.

You can now type away at your heart’s content in these languages and receive appropriate suggestions without switching between different keyboards manually like on iOS 9.

Predictions for locations and contacts

Contextual keyboard predictions in iOS 10 now includes locations and contact entries so you can send someone your current location or an email address from Contacts with a single tap.

If your girlfriend pings you asking to meet up with her for dinner or coffee, iOS 10 automatically provides a Current Location button right above the keyboard, letting you send a map of your current location with a single tap.

Likewise, if a colleague texts you about someone’s email address and you happen to have an entry for that person stored in Contacts, iOS 10 analyzes the contents of the message and automatically provides relevant contact information right above the keyboard, ready to be shared instantly in a message with a tap.

Softer keyboard clicking sounds

The sound of pressing keys on the iPhone’s keyboard hasn’t changed since its inception, but typing in iOS 10 sounds different thanks to some softer keyboard clicking sounds. Special keys like Shift, Return, Space, the symbols key and more have a sightly lower-pitched sound from the alphanumerical keys and the Backspace key has a notably flat sound to it.

LOCK SCREEN

iOS 10 introduced vastly improved Lock screen experience. With Raise to Wake, you can glance at notifications on the Lock screen by raising the device. Redesigned widgets are just a swipe away, as is the Camera app. Slide-to-unlock is gone so you’ll now press-to-unlock. And thanks to deeper 3D Touch integration, you can interact with rich Lock screen notifications by pressing them.

All-new locking sound

iOS 10 introduces a brand new sound when locking the device. Assuming Settings → Sound → Lock Sound is on, pressing the Power button to send your device to sleep will now play the new sound that resembles the sound of a door closing.

Press Home to unlock

On iOS 10, slide-to-unlock is no more. You must now press the Home button to unlock the device and get to the Home screen. To unlock it without being taken to the Home screen, rest your finger on the button until the padlock icon in the iOS status bar animates with an “Unlocked” message and “Press Home to open” appears at the bottom.

This lets you see private information in widgets or access features you disallowed on a locked device, like Siri and the Notification Center.

Raise to wake, because why not?

Simply pick up the device to wake it up and read your Lock screen notifications without pressing any button. Before iOS 10, you had to either press the Home button—which often took you straight to the Home screen courtesy of super-fast Touch ID—or press the Sleep/Wake button instead. Disable this feature in Settings → Display & Brightness → Raise to Wake.

Disabling Settings → General → Accessibility → Home Button → Rest Finger to Open reverts to the previous behavior where you get past the Lock screen with Touch ID without having to press the hHome button.

Spotlight is on your Lock screen, too

Spotlight in iOS 10 is available in more places than before, including on the Lock screen. To search your device on the Lock screen, swipe right to get to the widgets screen or pull down from the top of the screen to show the Notification Center. Both the widgets screen and the Notification Center now integrate Spotlight Search at the top of their interface, on both the Lock and Home screen.

Quick camera access with a swipe

Swiping left on the Lock screen swooshes you right into the Camera interface. And with Raise to Wake enabled, you can pick up your phone the moment a photo opportunity presents itself and invoke this time-saving gesture to instantly start shooting. Previously, you had to drag a tiny Camera icon in the bottom right corner and drag it all the way up to get to Camera.

Widgets have a new home on Lock screen

Widgets on iOS 10 have a refined look and are now accessible right from the Lock screen: just swipe right to get to a dedicated widgets side panel where you can see your favorite widgets. Tap Edit at the bottom to reorder, add or remove your widgets.

Some widgets won’t display private information on the Lock screen if the device is locked, but be sure to disable Settings → General → Accessibility → Home Button → Rest Finger to Open or you won’t be able to unlock it without landing right on the Home screen.

Landscape Lock screen changes on iPad

Waking an iPad in landscape mode produces a little differently designed iOS 10 Lock screen, with rich notifications moved to the left column and any media you’re playing shown in the right column. The design needs some work but at least you can see both your notifications and what’s playing without even touching your iPad.

NOTIFICATIONS

Both the Notification Center and notification banners have received a facelift in iOS 10, with Raise to Wake making it easier to view all your notifications at a glance, right from the Lock screen.

Clear all notifications

If you own a 3D Touch-compatible device, you can now press the “x” in the Notification Center and select Clear All Notifications to do just that.

More interactive notifications

Notifications on iOS 10 are now more interactive than before: you can view photos, watch videos and listen to audio—and even scroll through the conversation and respond to a message—from inside the notification itself.

To interact with a rich notification in iOS 10, press it with 3D Touch. On devices without 3D Touch, pull down on its banner or slide it in the Notification Center, then select View.

Enhanced Quick Reply

First introduced in iOS 8, the Quick Reply feature has been deeply enhanced on iOS 10 with more interactivity than ever before. This is especially evident for notifications from Messages.

Pressing a Messages notification brings up an overlay containing a text entry field at the bottom, with your current conversation thread taking up the rest of the screen. The interface is persistent until you dismiss it so you can type out multiple responses without leaving the notification.

Whole conversations may be inaccessible through alerts from apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger until they’re properly updated to take advantage of iOS 10’s rich notifications. As notifications are now permitted to display live information, don’t be surprised if you see a friend typing a response to a text or watch as a map updates in real time.

New design

iOS 10’s Notification Center is no longer divided into Today and Notifications sections. In fact, Today section where widgets used to live has been dropped altogether in favor of a Notification Center that’s fully focused on, well, notifications. Swiping right reveals the widgets screen, which can also be accessed on the Lock screen and Home screen 0.

Spotlight integration

Spotlight Search has been added to the top of the alerts and widgets sections in the Notification Center.

SIRI

In iOS 10, Siri can provide basic integration with the following types of apps: messaging, mobile payments, ride hailing, photo search, phone calls and workouts. An app advertises so-called “intents” with the system, which are basically highly focused actions like placing a VoIP call, sending a payment and more. Apple’s natural language processing engine and Siri intelligence take care of the rest, allowing users to ask Siri to perform a certain action in a myriad of ways.

You can also use Siri in iOS 10 to control CarPlay apps, access climate controls or adjust radio settings within automakers’ apps.

Where did my Siri App Suggestions go?

Siri App Suggestions is now available as an optional Spotlight widget.

SPOTLIGHT SEARCH

DESCRIPTION

Search in apps

When you search for something on your device with Spotlight, you’ll notice a new “Search in App” link to the right of app headings in search results. Tap it and Spotlight will take you to the app of your choice and automatically run the query inside it, provided the app is integrated with Spotlight.

For instance, typing “iPhone” into Spotlight produces a bunch of email messages that I don’t want to tap blindly in Spotlight, so I just tap Search in App to the right of Mail heading because it lets me preview any matched emails with 3D Touch.

Spotlight can be accessed from apps

Before iOS 10, you couldn’t get to Spotlight unless you were on the Home screen. With iOS 10, you can get to Spotlight from any app in an instant by swiping down the Notification Center about an inch (you should feel haptic feedback when you hit the threshold) to reveal the Spotlight field.

This only works when you are in an app. Like before, you can still swipe down on any Home screen to reveal Spotlight. Lastly, Spotlight is also integrated at the top of the widgets screen shown on Home screen 0, your Lock screen and in the Notification Center.

WIDGETS

All-new look

Like notifications, widgets in iOS 10 have adopted a softer design incorporating rounded edges, nicer layouts and light (stock widgets) or dark background (third-party widgets). Widgets are now accessible on the Lock screen, Home screen 0, in the Notification Center and on the Home screen 3D Touch shortcuts menu.

New Apple widgets

In addition to default iOS 9 widgets (Batteries, Calendar, Stocks, Reminders, Today Summary, Tomorrow Summary and Traffic Conditions), iOS 10 packs in a bunch of new Apple widgets: Activity, Up Next (Calendar), Favorites (Phone), Mail, Maps Destinations, Maps Nearby, Maps Transit, Music, Notes, Memories (Photos), Siri App Suggestions, Tips and Weather.

Widgets have a new home on your Lock screen

Widgets cannot display personal information on the Lock screen unless the device is unlocked. With Apple’s new way of unlocking iOS 10 devices, you can prevent Touch ID from taking you immediately to the Home screen, which is useful if you want to just unlock the device to see personal data in widgets on the Lock screen.

And that concludes our tour of what’s new in iOS 10 for system-wide services and features like Accessibility, Lock screen, Home screen, Keyboards, Control Center, Notification Center, Siri and Spotlight Search that form the overall user experience.

MISCELLANEOUS

Data Detectors in more places

iOS’s Data Detectors, a feature that automatically turns certain words in messages like dates, times, events and more into actionable links, are uses more prominently throughout iOS 10 under advertised to the user under the umbrella Look Up moniker.

In addition to powering word definitions via built-in Dictionary like before, Look Up on iOS 10 also delivers suggestions from App and iTunes Store, movie showtimes, details on actors and artists, nearby locations and more.

After selecting any word or phrase in your favorite app, choose Look Up from the bubble menu to bring up its definition along with any available content preview. And if you see a suggested movie, tapping its poster displays showtimes based on your current location.

Differential Privacy

Differential Privacy is a new on-device intelligence technique used throughout iOS to deliver more smarts without uploading your user data to the cloud for mining purposes. That’s because Differential Privacy uses the full power of Apple-designed chips and taps into a locally stored 200-megabyte “brain” for machine learning and artificial intelligence.

With Differential Privacy, Apple is able to discover key usage patterns of a large number of users without compromising individual privacy. In iOS 10, this technology is used to identify the people, objects and scenes in Photos, deliver more accurate QuickType and emoji suggestions, power smarter Spotlight deep link suggestions, Lookup Hints in Notes and more.

Meet your iOS 10 wallpaper

Every major iOS upgrade includes a brand new wallpaper and iOS 10 is no exception. In Settings → Wallpaper, you can select iOS 10’s new splashing wave image as the backdrop for your Lock and Home screen on both the iPhone and iPad.

Universal Clipboard

Continuity, Apple’s broad umbrella term denoting various features that facilitate communication between iPhone, iPad, Mac and other Apple devices, is even better in iOS 10. Now you can copy text, images, photos, videos and other content from one Apple device and paste it in another. Simply select a piece of content on one device and copy it to the system clipboard, then choose the Paste command on the other device.

Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Handoff must be on, your devices need to be signed into the same iCloud account to trust each other and be within range of each other in order for Universal Clipboard to work. This feature uses secure peer-to-peer connections so devices don’t require an active Internet connection nor do they have to be connected to a Wi-Fi network.

iOS 10: NEW FEATURES IN STOCK APPS

What follows below is our breakdown of new iOS 10 features by apps.

ACTIVITY

Activity goes social

iOS 10’s Activity app enhances motivation through social engagement by giving you the ability to share and compare your workouts with others. It’s also a great way to share your workouts and Activity data with your personal trainer. To get started, tap a new Sharing tab in Activity on your iPhone, then invite some people to compete with.

You’ll receive notifications about their progress, including completed Activity rings, finished workouts and earned achievements. To engage in a little bit of smack talk, tap the chat bubble to automatically jump into the conversation thread in Messages.

Your Activity sharing friend list is associated with your iCloud account, meaning it’ll be restored in a cinch on any other iOS device you sign in to using the same iCloud account.

APP STORE

Ads in search results

Developers can now promote their apps with banner ads at the top of your search results on the App Store. Denoted by a light blue background and “Ad”, these advertisements are always relevant to your current search, not your previously searched terms.

App Store ads don’t mine any user data and you’ll only see a single ad banner per search. Oh, and ads for apps you already have installed on the device won’t appear.

Categories tab makes a comeback

The App Store on iOS 10 ditches the useless Explore tab, replacing it with the more focused Categories tab. Explore used to provide a location-based list “Popular Near Me”, followed by a list of app categories. The same app categories are now accessed through the new Categories tab, which also includes a Popular section listing currently trending app categories.

Prioritize downloads

iOS 10 lets you prioritize app and media downloads from the App and iTunes Store with 3D Touch. Press the Home screen icon of the app or media being downloaded or updated, then select Prioritize Download in the shortcuts menu.

Installation of other apps pauses temporarily until the prioritized download completes. You can also pause/resume/cancel any in-progress download by choosing Pause/Resume/Cancel in the shortcuts menu.

CALENDAR

Events found in apps

iOS 9 introduced a neat Events Found in Mail feature where it scans bodies of your emails for events to add to your calendar. iOS 10’s Calendar rechristened this feature as Events Found in Apps because it now discovers unconfirmed events in Messages as well. No longer will you forget about that dinner with Dad you discussed through iMessage but never actually gotten around putting on your schedule.

When Proactive finds an event in Mail or Messages, you’ll see an Add link at the top. Just tap it to add the event with intelligently populated fields to your calendar. To disable suggested events from Mail and Messages, go to Settings → Calendar → Events Found in Apps.

Location suggestions for Time to Leave

Like iOS 9, iOS 10 keeps an eye on traffic conditions between your current location and your next appointment to help you make it to your next meeting punctually rather than show up late just because there’s a traffic jam ahead that you knew nothing about.

Setting up an alert in Calendar for “Time to Leave” is same as it’s been in iOS 9, but Calendar in iOS 10 suggests locations based on your past events and places you visit frequently. In most cases, you’ll just tap a suggested location rather than type it in. You can disable this feature in Settings → Calendar → Location Suggestions.

I’m loving these proactive calendar alerts a lot. They go a long way toward helping me make it to my next meeting punctually rather than show up late just because there’s a traffic jam ahead I knew nothing about.

CAMERA

One-handed camera switching

I’ve always hated that I couldn’t easily reach the Front/Back button in the Camera app while holding my iPhone in one hand. It seems many people were complaining to Apple about this to the point where they relocated the button to the bottom right corner where it’s a lot easier to reach with my thumb. To facilitate this change, Camera’s Filters button had to be repositioned from the bottom right to the top right corner.

Record a lip sync

An annoying oversight in iOS has bee driving many people crazy: the music automatically pauses every time you launch the Camera app. Thankfully, iOS 10 changes that behavior so now you can record a lip sync video while listening to music on your iPhone.

Shoot Live Photos with life filters

Camera in iOS 10 supports capturing Live Photos with live filters being applied in real-time. Tap the Filters button at the top of Camera’s interface to choose between stock filters provided by Photos. You will see a live preview of the chosen filter in Camera so go ahead and hit the shutter button to capture a Live Photo. Remember, stock Photos filters are nondestructive so later in the Edit interface you can easily apply a different effect or revert to the original Live Photo.

RAW shooting and editing

iOS 10 brings rear camera RAW shooting to the iPad Pro, iPhone SE, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus using any third-party camera app which has been updated for iOS 10 with this feature in mind.

Professional photographers will love working with data that the camera sensor captured when they took the image. That’s because RAW file format preserves much more of the color gamut, dynamic range and other information for each pixel in the captured image, which makes a big difference when adjusting exposure, white balance, contrast and more. In short, editing RAW images allows you to bring out details in images that are normally lost when iOS applies its post-processing and converts raw data into a JPG image file.

iOS 10’s Photos app supports editing of RAW images, handling each image as a pair of files: one stores RAW image data in the Adobe DNG and the other is a JPG preview that Photos uses to speed up things a bit as RAW files are quite large and require a lot of processing power. You can also save these DNG and JPG assets separately, but they’ll lose their associated pairing.

CLOCK

Clock has switched to an all-dark interface, gained a gorgeously designed chronograph stopwatch a la Apple Watch and introduced a new Bedtime and Wake alarm feature.

Bedtime and Wake alarm

You can still set up various alarms in the Clock app like before, but now there’s a new way to keep yourself well rested: Bedtime and Wake alarm. It’s based on a fresh new interface which allows you to tell iOS when you usually go to bed and when you want to wake up.

Your custom sleep schedule includes additional options like days of the week, how far ahead you’d like to be reminded about nap time, choosing your wakeup sound or song and—you’re going to love this—a separate alarm volume.

A graph at the bottom with Sleeping History bards provides an overview of the current week’s sleep analysis. Try to keep the bars aligned by going to bed and waking up at the same times you specified.

Unlike the existing Alarm feature, Bedtime and Wake alarm saves the results accrued over time into the Health app’s database that other apps can use to analyze your sleep, or simply tap your Sleep Bars to be taken right to the Sleep Analysis card inside the Health app. If you need some help with going to bed and waking up at the same times every day, which is key to healthy sleep, Bedtime and Wake alarm in the Clock up is for you.

Chronograph goes beautifully analog

The Stopwatch features inside the Clock app can now be swiped to reveal a second page with a beautifully designed analog version of the chronograph joining its digital counterpart. It looks exactly like the analog chronograph in the Stopwatch app on the Apple Watch.

Dark theme

iOS 10’s Clock app has switched to a brand new dark interface so you don’t get blinded by the jarringly white interface when setting your alarm in the middle of the night.

HEALTH

iOS 10’s Health app has been overhauled significantly, replacing its Dashboard, Health Data and Sources tabs with the new layout—Health Data, Today, Sources and Medical ID—while adding videos, more prominently displayed app recommendations and more.

Like before, the app consolidates health data from your iPhone, Apple Watch and third-party apps and the refreshed design makes it easier than before to see all your progress in one convenient place.

Becoming an organ donor

iOS 10’s Health app integrates organ donations. After launching Health, you’ll be prompted to sign up to the National Donate Life Registry as an organ, eye or tissue donor. Don’t worry, Apple does not store your donor information in iCloud.

You can also add organ donor information by editing your Medical ID card under the Medical ID tab. According to Donate Life America, over 120,000 people in the U.S. are in need of an organ transplant that could save their lives.

Interface: Activity, Mindfulness, Nutrition & Sleep

iOS 10 does a much better job highlighting four key metrics which help paint a picture of your general wellbeing: Activity, Mindfulness, Nutrition and Sleep. These sections are available under the Health Data tab as thumbnails at the top.

The Activity section gives you an overview of your activity rings along with other related information like flights climbed, steps taken, walking and running distance covered, cycling distance and more.

The Mindfulness category gives you an overview of your breathing exercises you completed in the new Breathe app on your Apple Watch while keeping track of your total mindful minutes captured by other meditation apps.

The Nutrition category lets you see your food and water intake and vitamin levels, track caffeine and carbohydrate levels and other metrics important to your health, growth and foods. The Sleep category is for sleep analysis. If you use Bedtime and Wake alarm in iOS 10’s Clock app, your Sleep Bars will be stored here along with other data collected by apps for tracking sleep.

Further below on the Health Data tab you can watch Apple’s general introductory video designed to motivate you to start a healthier life and delve into a list of other data types divided into Body Measurements, Health Records, Reproductive Health, Results and Vitals categories.

Tapping a desired section and choosing a sub-section, if any, takes you to the details screen where you can see a graph overview inside a color-coded card, like before. Marking a graph as your favorite lets it appear in its parent menu and includes it in your Today summary. Scrolling down reveals overall description for the data type and lets you check out a list of recommended App Store apps designed to track that particular metric.

Store your HL7 CCD records

iOS 10’s Health app supports the Health Level 7 Continuity of Care Document (HL7 CCD) standard for storing your health records safely encrypted in Health. You can import properly formatted XML CCD files from Mail, Safari and other apps by selecting Add to Health from the Share menu.

This welcome addition will permit your doctor to receive your health data in an appropriate format, share it with other doctors with your permission and basically track years of health data about you way easier than before.

HL7 states that CCD “fosters interoperability of clinical data by allowing physicians to send electronic medical information to other providers without loss of meaning and enabling improvement of patient care”.

New data types

Health app has gained several new data types, including new workout types, locations and weather conditions (cloudy, clear, etc.) for workouts, plus specific workout types for wheelchair users.

Today view

You can now view your data at a glance under Health’s new Today tab. This section shows a visual summary of your health and activity data for the day. You can then tap any listed item to for a more detailed overview by Day, Week, Month or Year.

To jump quickly to any other day, use the scrollable day selector at the top or tap the month name in the upper left corner to bring up the full calendar view.

ICLOUD DRIVE

The built-in iCloud Drive has not seen any major changes in iOS 10 except for the fact that you can now access your Mac’s synced Documents and Desktop folder on iOS devices.

Documents and Desktop folder sync

If you run macOS Sierra on your Mac and enable a new syncing feature which automatically uploads all the files on your Desktop and in your Documents folder to iCloud, you can use the iCloud Drive on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to access them on the go.

Any changes made to the synced files on one device are pushed to all your other devices that use the same iCloud account. And when you log into a second Mac, your synced files will automatically appear on the Desktop and in the Documents folder, exactly where you saved them.

HOME

iOS 10 includes a brand new app, Home. With it, you can manage your HomeKit-compatible home automation accessories, create rooms, set up automation and more. Accessories can be managed individually or grouped into scenes and can respond with automatic triggers set by time of day, location or action.

You can also use your Apple TV or iPad as a HomeKit hub to turn on or off the lights, adjust heating, open or close the garage door and remotely control any HomeKit devices in your home with Siri, all within the Home app. And with a new Home card in Control Center, you can quickly access HomeKit devices anywhere in iOS with a swipe up from the bottom of the screen.

Nearly 100 home automation products will be adopting HomeKit this year and iOS 10 expands HomeKit support to new device types like thermostats, lights, window shades, door locks, video cameras and more. Apple says that home builders like Brookfield Residential, KB Home, Lennar Homes and R&F Properties will be integrating many of these HomeKit devices into new homes.

MAIL

Dedicated Mailbox button on iPad

Mail on the iPad includes a persistent Mailbox button in the top left corner. Tap it and your complete inbox and folder hierarchy slides into view so you can quickly navigate to any folder you like without navigating away from your current view.

Quick filters

No longer does Mail burry filtering options in layers of menus, like on prior iOS editions. On iOS 10, Mail puts a new Filter icon (it resembles three horizontal lines inside a circle) at the bottom of the screen. Tap it to toggle filtering on or off and then hit Filtered By for one-tap access to filtering options like “Only Mail with Attachments”, Only From VIP”, “Unread”, “Flagged”, ”To: Me”, “CC: Me” and more. It’s a welcome tweak that yields quick one-tap filtering no matter where you happen to be in Mail.

Suggested move folder

Mail takes advantage of iOS’s Proactive assistant to suggest a folder you might want to move the selected message, based on its contents and your past behavior. Don’t worry if you get the wrong suggestions as you can always tap Other to select a desired folder from the mailbox list.

Three-pane view on iPad Pro

iOS 9’s Mail does not take full advantage of screen real estate on the iPad Pro and iOS 10 changes that by introducing side-by-side mail composition in landscape mode where the compose sheet goes into a vertical column on the right side of the interface next to your message and mailbox views.

This useful new view lets you compose a new message in the far right pane while simultaneously browsing your mailboxes and folders in the left pane and scroll through messages in the middle pane. To switch to this view, just drag the compose sheet to the right edge of the screen.

Threading improvements

Mail in iOS 9 organizes your emails by thread. Mail in iOS 10 attempts to improve your productivity by giving you a pair of additional threading settings to view the most recent message in a thread at the top and view a complete thread in one threaded view, even if some have been moved to other mailboxes.

By default, individual responses in a thread are grouped together so they don’t clutter your view. Just tap the disclosure triangle next to a message to expand and see all of the responses in a thread. Don’t worry about enabling the new Most Recent Message on Top and Complete Threads switches in Settings → Mail as any moved messages will still remain in the mailboxes you moved them to, but Mail will display them all in a thread to simplify inbox organization.

Unsubscribe from mailing lists

If you’ve been inundated with unsolicited messages from mailing lists, no longer do you need to poke around your inbox looking for the unsubscribe link buried in tiny font at the bottom of each email, click it and then tap through a variety of options to confirm the action. Mail in iOS 10 makes it really simple to unsubscribe from unwanted mailing lists by hitting an “Unsubscribe” link found at the top of each message recognized as being from a mailing list.

MAPS

Maps has received a huge update in iOS 10, bringing out a completely overhauled and much more intuitive user interface than before with larger buttons and a darker theme. A new extension point lets apps such as OpenTable, Uber and Lyft integrate bookings and ride hailing services right into Maps. Taking advantage of machine learning and artificial intelligence, Maps in iOS 10 proactively delivers directions to where you most likely want to go next and you can now search along the route for points of interest and more.

Driving options

Maps provides several new driving options that can be adjusted in Settings → Maps. For starters, you can choose between your preferred transportation type (Driving, Walking or Transit) under the Preferred Transportation Type heading, which helps Maps determine best available directions and estimate travel time for upcoming calendar events.

If you’re planning transit trips, you can exclude certain vehicles like busses, ferries, subways and commuter rails under the Transit submenu. And in Driving & Navigation, you can tell Maps to avoid tolls and highways, show the compass in navigation mode and automatically pause spoken audio, like podcasts and audio books, during navigation prompts.

Dude, where’s my car?

Top wondering where you parked your car and let Maps worry about that. Now when Maps detects that you’ve disconnected from CarPlay or your car’s Bluetooth, and your location can be determined, it will automatically remember the location where you parked the car. You can later ask Siri “Where did I park my car?”, or search for “parked car” inside Maps. Turn this feature on and off in Settings → Maps → Show Parked Location.

Extensions

Maps now supports iOS extensions for third-party functionality, currently limited to bookings and ride hailing services. This lets developers integrate their services right into Maps so you can book a table through apps like OpenTable, and a ride with Uber, all within Maps.

If an app comes with a Maps extension, installing it on your device will automatically make the extension available through Maps. Removing an app also removes its Maps extension. Maps extensions are distributed in the App Store as part of their container apps, not standalone.

Pinch-zoom in navigation mode

While you’re navigating, you can now pinch to zoom on the display to see what’s ahead. Coupled with bigger and more prominently rendered buttons, this new feature makes it a lot easier to use turn-by-turn directions without being distracted from driving.

Proactive directions

iOS’s Proactive assistant has expanded to Maps. This means that Maps can now proactively deliver suggestions for where you’re likely to go next, based on your routine or appointments on your calendar, and the fastest way to get there.

Quick controls

Another featured designed with driver safety in mind, Maps in iOS 10 uses fullscreen mode to navigate your from A to B. If you need to use controls while in navigation mode, just tap to reveal them, or tap again to hide the buttons.

Search along your route

Once you have planned your route, Maps lets you search along it for points of interest like gas stations, restaurants, coffee shops and more. You also get handy estimates of how the stops impact the length of your trip.

Weather and temperature

Maps now shows current weather condition and temperature for any location in the corner of the map, making it easier to plan your trips.

MESSAGES

3x bigger emoji

But only when sent alone in a message.

Bubble effects

Now those chat bubbles animate, too! Instead of tapping the Send button, tap and hold it (or press it with 3D Touch) to choose among built-in Bubble effects: Invisible Ink, Gentle, Loud or Slam. Invisible Ink is especially amusing in that it requires the recipient to swipe on a chat bubble to reveal whatever was sent. Not quite a security feature per se though it does bring some privacy to your chats as people looking over your shoulder won’t see sensitive images or messages just like that.

Digital Touch

Digital Touch, a feature that debuted on the Apple Watch, has found its way inside iOS 10 Messages. Tap a new icon that looks like a heart and up pops the Digital Touch interface. If you haven’t seen Digital Touch yet, you can use it to doodle over images or send animated things like taps, heartbeats, fireballs, broken hearts, kisses and heartbeats.

To see a list of handy Digital Touch gestures, tap the icons along the right edge of the interface. You can even draw on live video and send that as an attachment: the recipient shall see your strokes reproduced on top of the video attachment precisely as you recorded them.

Edit attachments using Photos’ filters

In addition to Markup, you can also edit attachments before they’re sent with the same stock filters that are available to you in the Photos app. After attaching images to your message, tap the thumbnail in the chat bubble, then select Edit.

Enhanced camera functionality with live feed

Adding new photos is a lot easier in iOS 10 Messages. When you tap the Camera button, you’ll notice a new interface with live video feed with so you can instantly see what your iPhone’s camera sees. The camera preview has Front/Back toggled and shutter buttons, making it real easy to snap up new images to attach to your conversations.

Handwritten notes

For added personalization, add handwritten notes to chats. Taking advantage of Apple’s robust implementation of ink and handwriting recognition, you can now draw with your finger on the screen to quickly sketch a note to someone. Just turn your iPhone upside down to draw with your finger or select one of your previous handwritten notes. The recipient sees your note animate with ink settling in to the transcript as if it were flowing on paper.

Inline URL and video previews

Say goodbye to those long URLs in chats: Messages in iOS 10 takes pasted links and converts them into inline rich previews that include a title, thumbnail image and in certain cases even a short description. This makes it a lot easier to decide whether or not a link you just received is worth opening, right there and then, without even previewing it with 3D Touch.

Messages also displays YouTube videos inline, which is especially useful. The video plays inline, even as you scroll through the conversations, and can be taken fullscreen with a tap.

iMessage Apps

Because Messages is now a platform in its own right, third-party developers can write extensions that enhance Messages’ functionality. Like third-party keyboards, Messages extensions are distributed inside their container apps and cannot be downloaded standalone. Some of these iMessage Apps let you do stuff like personalize GIFs or edit photos, send payments or schedule dinner or a movie, all from within Messages.

Low-quality image mode

Images are saved through the iMessage system in their original resolution. A typical photo taken with an iPhone 6s can weigh 3-5 megabytes, or even more. If you exchange a lot of photos with friends and family via iMessage and are concerned about cellular data consumption as you should be, Messages now offers a new low-quality image mode.

After enabling it in Settings → Messages, any images sent or received through iMessage on this device will be always optimized to about hundred kilobytes per image, no matter its original resolution.

Messages App Store

Messages has a built-in app store where you can download any related content, from stickers to iMessage Apps. To access it, tap a small App Store icon in any chat. Your Recents and other downloaded content is show at the bottom. Tap the up arrow in the lower right corner to take this panel full screen.

Tap the icon in the lower left corner (it looks like four dots that form a square) to manage your downloaded content: tap and hold to reorder the icons, tap the “x” to remove a downloaded sticker pack or iMessage App or hit the Store button to browse the Messages App Store in an overlay: you can browse the Features section or hit the Manage tab to remove any installed content or tell Messages to automatically add any apps on your device that work with iMessage to your app drawer.

New way to add photos

Adding image attachments is now simplified with a horizontally scrollable thumbnails from your library allowing you to quickly select one or more photos to attach to the message (yes, you can now pick multiple photos in one go). Oh, you can swipe right to reveal hidden buttons for launching the Camera or your Photos library in full screen mode.

Read receipts for individual chats

Read receipts, which tell the other person when you’ve read an incoming text, can be enabled or disabled on a per-conversation basis in iOS 10. Tap the Details button in any chat and you’ll see a new Send Read Receipts switch below the Do Not Disturb toggle which tells the system whether or not to send read receipts to parties engaged in that particular conversation.

Screen effects

When Bubble effects won’t do, how about fullscreen animations? Tap and hold (or press with 3D Touch) the Send button and select between built-in animations: Balloons, Confetti, Lasers, Fireworks, Shooting Star. Messages may also automatically play an appropriate fullscreen effect upon receiving messages like “Happy Birthday,” “Happy New Year” and similar.

Stickers

Anyone can create free or paid Messages stickers and distribute them in the App Store. After downloading some sticker packs, tap the App Store button in Messages to browse and use them. You can simply peel off the sticker in the app drawer (tap and hold) and drop it on the chat bubble, image or anywhere inside the conversation.

Tapback reactions

If you don’t really know what to say, a simple reaction shall suffice. Tap and hold on a chat bubble to reveal a contextual menu allowing you to send one of the six built-in reactions to let your friend know what you’re thinking. You can also go back and add a Tapback reaction to a message received in the past.

Markup for images

iOS 10 enables Markup tools inside Messages and Photos. With Markup, you can draw on an image, add text and various shapes before sending them. To use Markup, attach an image to the chat bubble, then tap the thumbnail in the chat bubble and tap Markup.

MUSIC

All-new look

Apple Music in iOS 10 has an overhauled interface that’s a lot easier on the eyes than the confusing mess that is Music in iOS 9, with bold colors and typography helping you navigate the app more easily. The previous tab arrangement—For You, New, Radio, Connect and My Music—has been replaced with the following tabs: Library, For You, Browse, Radio and a new Search tab. Each of these tabs has been completely redesigned to make navigating and finding music easier.

Automatic downloads

Music in iOS 10 can be told to automatically download any music you add to your library so you can play it offline. You must enable Settings → Music → Automatic Downloads to use this feature. Library. You can find your downloaded music in the Library tab along with your playlists, albums, songs, artists searches and more.

Lyrics

At long last, Music now integrates lyrics. To view the lyrics while you’re listening to your favorite tracks, tap the mini player at the bottom of the screen and access options by tapping the three dots in the bottom right corner. If lyrics are available, you’ll see a Lyrics button. Tap it to display the lyrics.

New personalized playlists

The For You section now includes two next personalized playlists: My New Music Mix, updated every Friday, and My Favorites Mix, which is refreshed every Wednesday. Different people will find different music in these playlists, based on their musical tastes and listening history. And if you add them to your library, fresh new music you might like will automatically update and downloaded to your device for offline listening. Of course, as you keep listening to Apple Music these recommendations and mixes will get better.

Optimize storage

You can manage your downloaded music manually in a new Settings → Music → Downloaded Music section where you can swipe to delete downloaded tracks and albums to free up storage space on the device. Music in iOS 10 also includes a brand new Optimize Storage feature in Settings that automatically removes tunes from the device that you haven’t played in a while.

As a bonus, Settings → Music → Optimize Storage has adopted a feature from the Apple Watch where you tell Music to keep at least x gigabytes of the downloaded music on your device.

Split View on iPad Pro

Music can be finally left running alongside another app in a side-by-side Split View multitasking mode on the iPad Pro and other compatible iPads, so now you can both browse your music collection and see what’s new in music while keeping a close eye on your emails, news and more.

NEWS

News in iOS 10 has a brand new icon and, like Music, makes good use of a lot heavier typeface to make headings and titles more readable. It For You tab has been reimagined to organizes articles into distinct sections, like Top Stories, Trending Stories, Featured Stories, topics you’re interested in and more.

News in iOS 10 also supports paid subscriptions for content hidden behind a paywall and breaking news notifications so you’re only informed about the stories you care about. Lastly, Spotlight’s Proactive News feature is no more in iOS 10 as News now handles that.

NOTES

Collaborative editing

You can now share a note with other people so that everyone will always see the latest changes without needing to email revisions all the time. To get started with collaboration, open a desired note and tap a new icon at the top which resembles a mugshot inside a circle with a plus sign.

You’ll be asked if you want to use Mail, Messages or a third-party app to send the invite link with. After they join your note, everyone will be able to edit it and see the changes in real time.

Three-pane interface on iPad Pro

Like Mail, Notes now takes full advantage of the iPad Pro’s screen with a brand new three-pane mode. To view all three panes, turn your iPad Pro from portrait to landscape and hit a new icon in the top left corner. The app will automatically expand, with your notes hierarchy in the far left pane, the notes list in the middle pane and your currently selected note in the far right pane.

PHONE

For the first time in iPhone’s history, iOS 10 opens up the stock Phone app to developers via new extension points. This means that developers can now write apps for Phone to extend its functionality, including a new caller ID extension for spam alerts. Phone in iOS 10 also adds full integration for third-party VoIP calls and voicemail transcription.

Spam alerts

Similar to how you can install and use third-party keyboards on your iPhone and iPad, iOS 10 allows you to install apps that use a new caller ID extension for spam alerts.

Voicemail transcription

Your voicemail, if you still use it, now serves up speech-to-text transcriptions in Phone’s Voicemail tab. Using Siri’s underlying speech-to-text engine, this Google Voice-like feature does a decent job of transcribing recorded voicemails into text, but it’s not perfect as the accuracy of transcriptions is dependent upon a variety of factors, like pronunciation, call quality, network conditions and so forth.

Perhaps that’s why Apple has launched voicemail transcription as a beta feature?

VoIP integration

Phone allows VoIP applications that have been updated for iOS 10’s new CallKit framework can now provide the same Lock screen and in-call experience like cellular and FaceTime calls, including full screen caller images, standard in-call buttons, call merging and more.

You can view and answer incoming VoIP calls like you would cellular or FaceTime calls. Previously, VoIP calls appeared as notifications on the Lock screen. VoIP calls can be muted, put on hold, switched from audio to video and more—right in the Phone app, using its interface and controls you’re already familiar with.

And because VoIP calls now appear in Phone’s Recents, returning a missed VoIP call is as easy as tapping its entry in Recents. As a bonus, VoIP contacts can be added to Phone’s Favorites.

CallKit-driven VoIP apps can also nest their own buttons in your contact cards, allowing you to, say, tap someone’s Skype user name to call them on Skype. And with Siri integration, you can call people via CallKit-enabled VoIP apps like Skype and WhatsApp using your voice.

VoIP apps cannot integrate with Phone without your permission. You can revoke permissions for VoIP apps in Settings → Phone → Call Blocking & Identification. CallKit-enabled VoIP apps honor your current Do Not Disturb setting and a list of blocked contacts.

PHOTOS

Brilliance adjustment

Photos has gained a new Brilliance slider that which can help emphasize subtle details on photos. When editing a photo, tap the adjustments icon at the bottom. Now tap the arrow next to Light to reveal various sliders, among which is the new Brilliance tool.

Edit Live Photos

You can now edit Live Photos fully, with your crops, color adjustments, filters and other effects applied to both the still and video portion of your Live Photo. In iOS 9, all edits were limited to Live Photo stills.

Apps that access the user’s Photos library and third-party Photos extensions can take advantage of new APIs in iOS 10 to gain the ability to apply edits to the video and still photo content of a Live Photo.

Facial, object and scene recognition

Using machine learning and artificial intelligence, Photos includes a feature that recognizes faces, objects and scenes on your photographs so you can search them more easily. Photos can recognize seven different facial expressions and a total of 4,432 objects and scenes.

The algorithm runs directly on your device and may take some time to complete scanning your library after you have upgraded to iOS 10 (leave Photos active and connect the device to its charger).

Intelligent search

With facial, object and scene recognition in Photos, you can now search your images by the people or things in them, like a beach, a football game or a puppy. Just tap the search field at the top to start searching. And before you even start typing, Photos serves you a list of smart search suggestions based on most common objects on photos as well as your past searches.

Markup

The Markup feature has expanded to iOS 10’s Photos and Messages. Markup lets you draw on images, add some text, enlarge certain parts with a loupe and more. To get started, tap any photo in an album, then hit the Edit button. Now tap the Extensions button that looks like three horizontal dots inside a circle and choose Markup in the list (you may need to tap More to enable Markup).

Markup’s interface lets you choose your preferred color and stroke type and lets you draw with your finger. When you draw an object, you can leave it as is or turn it into its closest vector representation. This lets you roughly sketch an object like circle, square, pyramid, arrow and more and trust Markup to do the right thing.

As mentioned, you can also add some text to your image and adjust its style, change typeface (Helvetica, Georgia and Noteworthy) and select alignment (left, centered, full width or right), use the loupe effect, undo/redo actions and more.

Memories

Memories scans all your photos and videos and finds favorite and forgotten events, trips and people, presenting them in a beautiful slideshow-style collection complete with music and cinematic transitions.

Tap a new Memories tab in Photos to see the slideshows Photos has created from the images in your library. Tap any Memory to see its photos and remove ones that may not belong in the Memory: tap Select, choose one or more photos to be removed, the tap the trashcan icon.

To see your Memory in action, tap the Play button in the corner of the cover artwork at the top. As the slideshow is playing, tap once to see options. You can change the album’s title, music and duration, select between more than a dozen various visual styles and more.

Places

Photos has a dedicate Places album. Tap the Albums tab, then tap Places to see the photos on a world map depending on where you took them. You can switch between Map and Grid view for your photos or tap any group of photos to see all of the images taken at that place. To switch map modes, tap “i”, then choose Map, Hybrid or Satellite. A 3D Map view may be available in places where Maps serves three-dimensional Flyover view.

Like before, you can also tap on a location heading above above the photos to see them on a map.

People album

Photos in iOS 10 also has a dedicated People album that groups your photos according to people in them, as determined by Photos’ new facial recognition feature. Tap any face to see all of the photos featuring that person. You can rename an album by tapping its name at the top and selecting a person from Contacts, or + Add Name if it’s unnamed. If another album with that person already exists, Photos will offer to merge them into a single People album.

To create a new People album, tap the plus sign and select images to add to it. To rearrange thumbnails in the People album, tap and hold any thumbnail and drag it to a new position. You can also drag any thumbnail to your Favorites area (not to be confused with the Favorites album) at the top of People album so you can access them quickly.

SAFARI

Apple Pay on websites

After enabling Settings → Safari → Check for Apple Pay, Safari will check if the website you’re visiting offers Apple Pay integration. If so, you’ll be able to use Apple Pay at checkout. Apple Pay on websites adds another layer of security when you shop online because you don’t have to enter any payment details.

Like Apple Pay within apps and in-stores, its web-based counterpart uses Touch ID for verification and uses authorization tokens that don’t contain any payment or personally-identifiable information.

Close all tabs

With the ability to open an unlimited number of tabs, Safari on iOS 10 provides a nice shortcut to close all tabs in one fell swoop. To close all tabs at once, tap and hold the New Tab button in Safari and hit Close [xx] Tabs. Or, tap the New Tab button, then on the tabs overview screen tap and hold Done and choose Close [xx] Tabs.

Inline video playback on iPhone

Don’t you hate it when Safari plays videos embedded on webpages in full screen mode? Sometimes you just want to enjoy a video inside a webpage, and with Safari on iOS 10 now you can do just that. Safari still opens YouTube, Vimeo and other HTML5 videos in full screen mode, but you can now pinch to close or press the zoom button to continue playing back the video inline.

The video doesn’t stop playing as you scroll the page and even continues playing back when you switch tabs. That’s right, now you can finally leave a podcast or a music video playing in one tab and read your news in another tab while listening to it in the background.

With a few lines of code, web developers can force videos to start playing inline on iPhone rather than in full screen mode. Embedded videos without a “playsinline” HTML attribute still require fullscreen mode for playback on the iPhone and iPod touch.

And to protect you from unwanted cellular charges and speed up browsing, Safari stops animated GIFs from animating until you tap them and prevents spammy videos from autoplaying (silent videos autoplay when they’re visible and pause when the video is scrolled out of the viewport).

Revamped media attachment UI

Those who prefer to browse sites like Facebook rather than use dedicated apps, lo and behold a redesigned media attachment picker. If you need to upload some content to a website, tapping the file picker button on a webpage will prompt Safari to pull up a sheet with options to take a photo, select an image from your photo library or choose an image from apps on your device that come with a Document Provider extension for accessing a repository of local or cloud files.

Split-view browsing on iPad

12.9-inch iPad Pro owners will find side-by-side browsing in Split View mode a tremendously useful enhancement. Simply drag a tab to either screen edge or tap and hold a URL and select Open in Split View. Just like that, Safari creates two browser instances in Split View mode so you can examine two different webpages side by side. Even better, each view has its own controls, tabs, the Smart Search Filed at the top and more.

Unlimited tabs

For whatever reason, Safari on iOS lets you launch a maximum of 36 tabs. Safari on iOS 10 removes the cap and lets you open an unlimited number of tabs so if you keep many tabs open at once you’re going to love this nice-to-have.

SWIFT PLAYGROUNDS

Swift Playgrounds is a coding education app for the iPad from Apple designed for middle-school students. Available shortly as a free download from the App Store, it introduces basic computer programming concepts, like sequencing logic, by asking students to use word commands to move cartoon avatars through an animated world.

As its name suggests, the app uses Swift, Apple’s new programming language introduced back in 2014. You can learn more about Swift Playgrounds on Apple’s website.

WATCH

Explore and Featured tabs have been combined into a new App Store tab in iOS 10’s companion Watch app, but that’s not all. All-new Face Gallery and My Faces section let you create, customize, reorder and delete faces through your iPhone. Compared to adjusting faces from your wrist, which is really tiresome and poses the risk of Gorilla arm syndrome, the Watch app on iOS 10 represents a big difference in usability and user friendliness when it comes to creating perfect faces for your Apple Watch.

Customize faces to your heart’s content

Customizing watch faces on your wrist is really tiresome, but with a new Face Gallery tab in the Watch app, Apple Watch owners can now customize faces to their liking with some rather deep customization options not available before.

Face Gallery provides designs grouped into the following categories:

• New in watchOS
• Featured Complications
• Activity
• Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse
• Numerals
• Utility
• Modular
• Simple
• Motion
• Astronomy
• Color
• Solar
• Timelapse
• Chronograph
• Photos
• X-Large

Choose any design you fancy from a number of ready-made templates.

If you like what you’re seeing, tap the Add button to instantly send the face to your wrist or customize it first with colors, typeface, complications, dials, subdials, layouts and other options. Keep in mind that the Solar and Astronomy faces cannot be customized.

Creating, managing, customizing and removing faces through your iPhone makes a big difference from a usability standpoint. In fact, we are pretty sure that the Face Gallery will encourage many users to experiment with various looks for their favorite watch faces, especially those who loathe creating new faces on their Apple Watch’s tiny screen.

Reorder watch faces in a cinch

You’ve been always able to rearrange faces directly on your watch and now the companion Watch app, too, supports these features. Under the My Watch tab you’ll immediately notice a new section at the top headlined My Faces. You can swipe through a list of the faces currently installed on your watch, tap any watch face to customize it or hit the Edit button to remove a face by tapping the minus sign or reorder it by dragging its handle to a new position.

Did we miss anything?

And with that, boys and girls, we complete our excruciatingly detailed overview of everything there’s to love about iOS 10. Of course, this post is by no means the complete overview of every every single new feature and improvement in iOS 10.

That said, we do think it covers all the bases. If you have discovered a cool nice-to-have or lesser known feature not mentioned in this article, tell us in comments or shoot us an email at [email protected] and we’ll update.

Thanks everyone for watching and reading and happy iOS 10 day, everyone, hope you enjoy it as much as we do.