Apple has been hyping iOS 16’s new features for the Photos app ever since the company previewed it in June. If you wait until the iOS 16 update comes out in the fall, you’ll see a few little tweaks to the photo-browsing and editing app on your iPhone.
The iCloud Shared Photo Library, a new feature in iOS 16, promises to make sharing and editing photos with family members a more convenient experience. Since it’s likely to be one of the first features you try out when you download the iOS 16 public beta, we’ve already explained how to set up an iCloud Shared Photo Library.
One of iOS 16’s best features is the ability to copy a photo’s subject and paste it into other apps on your iPhone, like as Notes, Messages, and Mail, simply by tapping on the subject of the photo. Even though you’ll mostly use this functionality with photos from your Photos library, as I discovered while working on my iOS 16 beta hands-on, you can also do the same with images in Safari and QuickLook, as well as screenshots.
Live Text, which was introduced by Apple last year and allows you to tap on the text in still photographs to either copy it or perform short actions like address searches, phone calls, and web browsing, is another high-profile inclusion in iOS 16. We’ve taught you how to copy text from a paused video using Live Text in iOS 16, which is now available in iOS 16.
iOS 16 Photos is getting a lot more than just three new features, though. Using the public beta, you’ll find a variety of new editing tools that make it easier to make adjustments to your various photographs, even if that means making those changes all at once. Additionally, new photo management options have been added to your library.
iOS 16 Photos has a lot to offer beyond the iCloud shared photo library and Apple’s enhanced artificial intelligence tools.
Copy and paste edits to photos and videos
Thanks to a new feature in iOS 16 Photos, you can now copy and paste alterations you make to one photo into a different one. For example, if you’ve found a particular filter for one photo that you’d like to apply to another photo that you took at the same event, copy and paste can help. You can also use it to copy over adjustments to the brightness and contrast, as well as other settings, rather than having to make the same adjustments over and over.
Photo editing copy and pastes look like this. Tap the Actions menu in the top right corner once you’ve finished editing a photo to your taste (the circle with three dots in the middle). Copying your adjustments is as simple as selecting “Copy” from the menu that appears at the bottom of the page. You’ll see a Paste Edits menu option when you tap the action items menu on the next photo you want to modify.
Batch processing allows you to apply modifications to numerous images at once. Pick a group of photographs from your library, select Action Items in the bottom right corner, and then select Paste Edits from the menu.
For iOS 16 Photos users, copy-and-paste photo modifications could be a major time-saver, especially those who employ batch processing.
New undo and redo edit commands
Let’s say you’re tinkering with a photo’s exposure and accidentally make one more change than necessary. You may now use the new Undo/Redo arrows that Apple is adding to iOS 16’s Photo app instead of having to drag the exposure setting back to where you started.
As soon as you start editing a photo, you’ll see these arrows appear on top of the screen. The option to undo or redo an edit is available by tapping one of these buttons. Undo/redo also allows you to go back to a previous edit phase if you choose.
A new folder for duplicates
The Duplicates category in iOS 16 beta 4 makes it much easier to find duplicate photos in the new iOS 16 Photos app. (That’s in the hands of developers right now, but an update to the iOS 16 public beta should arrive shortly.)
In Photos, go to the Albums tab and scroll all the way down to Utilities to discover the Duplicates folder. You’ll find a list of all of your Photos library’s duplicate images inside the folder. You can choose whatever photos you want to merge, and Photos merges them into a single, high-quality image.
More secure folders
In iOS 16, Apple improves the safety of the Hidden and Recently Deleted folders by encrypting their contents. You now have to unlock your phone with Face ID, Touch ID, or a passcode in order to access the photographs stored in these folders.
When it comes to Hidden and Recently Deleted, you’ll notice that there is a little lock icon by each folder to warn you of the new security measures. Even while you may conceal images from your main library, anyone searching through Albums would still be able to access them. This is a nice move.
Quick Actions for photo albums
The addition of Quick Actions in iOS 16 Photos makes it easier to conduct things such as adding photos to albums and performing other operations. After pressing and holding an album thumbnail, a menu of options will appear in the upper right corner of the screen. Photos can be added, the album can be renamed (if there are multiple photos in it), a Memory video can be played, and the album can be shown on a map showing where photos with location data were taken.
Turning off Live Photos
A few seconds of video and sound may have been captured when all you wanted was a still image. If you want to disable the live elements in your photos in iOS 15, you’ll have to go through the editing process first and find a special Live Photo section in the toolbar.
Only a few taps are required on iOS 16 to select an image. The Live menu will appear on the left side of the screen; simply select Off there. You’ll save a few more steps thanks to the addition.
New Memory Types
iOS 15 included so many new Memories features that I deemed it one of the most compelling reasons to upgrade. There aren’t quite as many changes in iOS 16 as there were last year, but the one big adjustment is likely to maintain Memories a fun feature.
iOS 16 Photos will have new categories of memories, according to Apple. Only two new features have been mentioned by Apple: This Day in History, which presumably displays images from a specific date, and a portrait of a child. As far as we can tell, it does exactly what it claims to do.) If these new memories show up in iOS 16 Photos, I’m sure they’ll add to the existing types of memories that are already supported.
Other iOS 16 Photos changes
Minor changes have been made to Photos in iOS 16, but they should still help you get more done with the app. Among the most notable changes is the ability to access picture actions more quickly. It is no longer possible to access these activities via the Share Sheet in iOS 16, however they may now be accessed from within the Actions menu.
People albums may now be sorted alphabetically in iOS 16’s new Photographs app, and selected memories and featured photos can no longer be viewed in any of these places.