Apple takes a cue from the Watch UI for iOS 16

CUPERTINO, Calif. — iOS 16 is coming to iPhone later this year, and as expected, it brings major changes.

Apple executives and product managers took the stage at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference to talk about upcoming features and changes, including the lock screen.

It includes additional personalization options such as a “depth effect”with which you can make the selected photo appear ahead of time. You can also press and hold to customize the lock screen, and swipe to try out different styles, such as black and white and other color filters, as well as font and time options.

You can also click on items like time to try out different colors, including a slider to adjust the hues.

The lock screen now also supports widgets. Apple demonstrated moving the selected photo down on the lock screen to make room for widgets such as the calendar and weather. A block can contain multiple widgets. There’s also a new wallpaper gallery where Apple showcases a variety of options, including animations, nature photos, and “suggested photos”based on your photo library.

You can also save lock screens and select them by swiping the screen.

Apple briefly mentioned a set of widgets for developers.

In iOS 16, notifications will also appear at the bottom of the lock screen, along with the ability to hide them throughout the day.

For those times when you get multiple notifications from the same app, Apple announced Live Activity to make real-time notifications more manageable and “small and convenient.”The Live Acitivites API won’t be available until later this year after iOS 16 launches, however