Apple Releases iOS 16.1 and iPadOS 16.1; Bringing Many Fixes for VoiceOver Users

Apple has today released iOS 16.1 and iPadOS 16.1 to the public. Our testing suggests that these releases resolve a number of the issues introduced for blind and low vision users with the initial release of iOS 16.

Our experience is that the following accessibility bugs have been resolved or significantly addressed in iOS 16.1 and iPadOS 16.1:

• The use of the invert colors accessibility feature in combination with VoiceOver no longer causes the App Switcher to not work.
• When using the scheduling feature in the native Mail app, it is now possible to set a custom time.
• VoiceOver no longer finds extraneous UI elements on the Now Playing screen in the native Music app.
• “More” is once again available from the VoiceOver rotor on notifications on the Lock screen or Notification Centre.
• After clearing a notification from the Lock screen, VoiceOver will no longer on occasions behave as if it were still present on screen.
• When customizing the Lock Screen, VoiceOver users no longer have to rely on touch to be able to locate all available UI elements.
• When customizing the Lock Screen, VoiceOver will no longer on occasions wrongly behave as if the “Show Notifications” button is present and actionable.
• The Control Center toggle for Focus now clearly indicates its current status.
• Keyboard feedback sounds no longer intermittently disappear when typing.
• When viewing a data chart in the native Weather app, the “Chart Details” VoiceOver rotor menu item now works.
• In Settings, VoiceOver once again speaks the information displayed about devices linked to your Apple ID, such as the serial number and model.
• The pause/resume button in the Timer Live Activity on the Dynamic Island now has a VoiceOver label.

At the time of writing, we are aware of the following new bug:

When navigating a list of emails in a folder in the Mail app and previews are enabled, VoiceOver will on occasions speak the wrong preview. For example, you place VoiceOver focus on an email received from Bert. Instead of VoiceOver speaking the body of that email as the preview, it might instead speak the body of an email received from Ernie.

There appears to be no pattern to predict when this behavior will present itself or which email body will wrongly be spoken. In our experience, it's not been unusual for VoiceOver to speak the body of an email which isn't even in the same folder. For instance, speaking the body of an email that has previously been deleted. It's also been common for this behavior to be present on multiple emails at the same time.

When you double -tap on the email, the correct and expected email body is displayed and spoken by VoiceOver.

One change of note, is that Apple has made the shutdown chime available on all iPhone models, not just the iPhone 14 as was the case when this feature was first introduced. Note that the startup chime remains limited to the iPhone 14 models, as only these are capable of supporting this chime due to it needing to be hardcoded in to the iPhone's boot software.

As we always stress, we can make no claims on the completeness or accuracy of our testing. We are only a small team, and it is simply impossible for us to test all devices, configurations, applications, and use cases. Accordingly, to help us ensure that the information on this page is as complete and accurate as possible, please let us know in the comments of any additional fixes; enhancements; or regressions that you find in your own use of iOS 16.1 and iPadOS 16.1.

iOS 16.1 Release Notes

This update introduces iCloud Shared Photo Library making it easy to keep your family photos up to date. This release also adds support for third party apps in Live Activities, support for Apple Fitness+ on iPhone even if you don’t have an Apple Watch, and includes other features and bug fixes for your iPhone.

iCloud Shared Photo Library

• Separate library for seamlessly sharing photos and videos with up to five other people
• Setup rules allow you to easily contribute past photos based on start date or people in the photos when you set up or join a library
• Library filters for quickly switching between viewing the Shared Library, your Personal Library, or both libraries together
• Shared edits and permissions let everyone add, edit, favorite, caption, and delete photos
• Sharing toggle in Camera lets you choose to send photos you take straight to the Shared Library, or enable a setting to share automatically when other participants are detected nearby using Bluetooth

Live Activities

• Live Activities from third party apps are available in the Dynamic Island and on the Lock Screen for iPhone 14 Pro models

Fitness+

• Apple Fitness+ is supported on iPhone even if you don’t have an Apple Watch

Wallet

• Key sharing enables you to securely share car, hotel room, and other keys in Wallet using messaging apps such as Messages and WhatsApp
• Savings account enables Apple Card customers to grow their Daily Cash by depositing it in a high yield savings account

Home

• Matter, the new smart home connectivity standard, is supported enabling a wide variety of smart home accessories to work together across ecosystems

Clean Energy Charging

• New setting that can try to reduce your carbon footprint by selectively charging when lower carbon emission electricity is available

Books

• Reader controls are automatically hidden as you start reading

This update also includes bug fixes for your iPhone:

• Deleted conversations may appear in the conversations list in Messages
• Dynamic Island content is not available when using Reachability
• CarPlay may fail to connect when using a VPN app

Some features may not be available for all regions or on all Apple devices.

iPadOS 16.1 Release Notes

iPadOS 16 takes the versatility of iPad even further with powerful new productivity and collaboration features. iCloud Shared Photo Library makes it easy keep your family photos up to date. Messages adds the ability to edit or undo a sent message and new ways to start and manage collaborations. Mail has new inbox and compose tools, and Safari adds Shared Tab Groups and next-generation security with passkeys. Stage Manager introduces an entirely new way to multitask on iPad allowing you to work with multiple overlapping windows and easily switch between them.

iCloud Shared Photo Library

• Separate library for seamlessly sharing photos and videos with up to five other people
• Setup rules allow you to easily contribute past photos based on start date or people in the photos when you set up or join a library
• Library filters for quickly switching between viewing the Shared Library, your Personal Library, or both libraries together
• Shared edits and permissions let everyone add, edit, favorite, caption, and delete photos
• Sharing toggle in Camera lets you choose to send photos you take straight to the Shared Library, or enable a setting to share automatically when other participants are detected nearby using Bluetooth

Messages

• Edit a message for up to 15 minutes after sending it and recipients see a record of edits
• Undo send allows you to recall any message up to 2 minutes after sending it
• Mark as unread makes it easy to come back to a conversation later
• SharePlay in Messages lets you enjoy activities like watching movies, listening to music, playing games, and more with friends while messaging
• Collaboration provides a simple way to invite others to collaborate on a file via Messages and get activity updates in the thread when someone makes an edit to a shared project

Mail

• Improved search delivers more accurate, complete results and provides suggestions as soon as you begin to type
• Undo send allows you to cancel delivery of a message within 10 seconds of hitting send
• Scheduled send for sending an email at a specific day and time
• Follow‑up surfaces sent emails that have not been replied to, to the top of your inbox so you can quickly follow‑up
• Remind me lets you schedule a date and time to be reminded about an email

Safari and Passkeys

• Shared Tab Groups let you share a set of tabs with others and see the Tab Group update instantly as you work together
• Tab Group start pages can be customized with different background images and favorites for each Tab Group
• Pinned tabs in Tab Groups enable you to pin frequently visited websites for each Tab Group
• Safari web page translation adds translation for web pages in Turkish, Thai, Vietnamese, Polish, Indonesian, and Dutch
• Passkeys offer support for an easier and safer sign‑in method to replace passwords
• Passkey syncing through iCloud Keychain makes your passkeys available across all your Apple devices while keeping them end-to-end encrypted

Stage Manager

• A new way to multitask on iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation and later) iPad Pro 11-inch (1st generation and later) and iPad Air (5th generation)
• Overlapping and resizable windows allow you to adjust the size of your apps and arrange your ideal workspace
• Recent Apps arranged on the left of the screen allow you to quickly switch between apps
• App groups allow you to create sets of apps that you can quickly get back to

New Display Modes

• Reference Mode delivers reference color for popular color standards and video formats on the 12.9-inch iPad Pro with Liquid Retina XDR display and with Sidecar, use it as a reference display for your Apple silicon Mac
• New display scaling setting that increases the pixel density so you can view more in your apps on iPad Pro 11-inch (1st generation and later), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th generation and later) and iPad Air (5th generation)

Weather

• Weather app on iPad is optimized for the larger display, including immersive animations, detailed maps, and tappable forecast modules
• Weather maps show precipitation, air quality, and temperature alongside the location view or in full screen
• Tappable modules reveal more detail such as hourly temperature or precipitation forecasts for the next 10 days
• Air quality displays a color coded scale for air quality, level and category, and you can view air quality on a map to see related health recommendations, pollutant breakdown, and more
• Animated backgrounds represent the sun position, clouds, and precipitation with thousands of variations
• Severe weather notifications let you know when a severe weather alert has been issued near you

Game Center

• In-Game Dashboard Activity shows you what your friends are accomplishing in this game, and what they are playing and achieving across all games in one place
• Game Center Profiles highlight your achievement and leaderboard activity across all of the games you play
• Contacts integration shows your friends’ Game Center profiles and lets you see what they are playing and accomplishing in games

Live Text

• Live Text video support allows you to interact with text in a paused video frame so you can copy, translate, lookup, share, and more available on iPad (8th generation and later), iPad mini (5th generation and later), iPad Air (3rd generation and later), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation and later) and iPad Pro 11-inch all models
• Quick actions let you take action on data detected in photos and videos with a single tap, so you can track flights or shipments, translate foreign languages, convert currencies, and more, available on iPad (8th generation and later), iPad mini (5th generation and later), iPad Air (3rd generation and later), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation and later) and iPad Pro 11-inch all models

Visual Look Up

• Lift subject from background isolates the subject of an image so you can copy and paste it into apps like Mail and Messages, available on iPad (8th generation and later), iPad mini (5th generation and later), iPad Air (3rd generation and later), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation and later) and iPad Pro 11-inch all models
• Visual Look Up adds recognition of birds, insects, spiders, and statues in your photos available on iPad (8th generation and later), iPad mini (5th generation and later), iPad Air (3rd generation and later), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation and later) and iPad Pro 11-inch all models

Siri

• Easy Shortcuts setup makes it possible to run shortcuts with Siri as soon as you download an app with no upfront setup
• A new setting allows you to send messages without Siri asking you to confirm before sending
• Hey Siri, what can I do here?” helps you discover Siri capabilities in iPadOS and apps just by asking, available on iPad (8th generation and later), iPad mini (5th generation and later), iPad Air (3rd generation and later), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation and later) and iPad Pro 11-inch all models
• Call hang up option for ending Phone and FaceTime calls with Siri by saying “Hey Siri, hang up”, available on iPad (8th generation and later), iPad mini (5th generation and later), iPad Air (3rd generation and later), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation and later) and iPad Pro 11-inch all models
• Emoji support lets you insert emoji using your voice when sending messages on iPad (8th generation and later), iPad mini (5th generation and later), iPad Air (3rd generation and later), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation and later) and iPad Pro 11-inch all models

Dictation

• All-new Dictation experience supports using your voice along with keyboard or Apple Pencil to enter and edit text, available on iPad (8th generation and later), iPad mini (5th generation and later), iPad Air (3rd generation and later), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation and later) and iPad Pro 11-inch all models
• Automatic punctuation inserts commas, periods, and question marks as you dictate
• Emoji support lets you insert emoji using your voice available on iPad (8th generation and later), iPad mini (5th generation and later), iPad Air (3rd generation and later), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation and later) and iPad Pro 11-inch all models

Maps

• Multi-stop routing supports adding up to fifteen stops along your driving route in Maps
• Transit fares show you how much your journey will cost in the San Francisco Bay Area, London, New York, and more

Home

• Redesigned Home app makes it easier to navigate, organize, view, and control your smart home accessories
• Home tab now integrates all your accessories, rooms, and scenes into a single tab for a whole-house view, allowing you to see your entire home at a glance
• Categories for lights, climate, security, speakers and TVs, and water let you quickly access all the relevant accessories organized by room, and displays more detailed status information
• New camera view displays up to four cameras front and center in the Home tab, scroll to see any additional camera views in your home
• Redesigned accessory tiles feature more visually recognizable icons that are color-matched to their category, and new behaviors for more precise accessory controls
• Matter, the new smart home connectivity standard, is supported enabling a wide variety of smart home accessories to work together across ecosystems

News

• My Sports enables you to easily follow your favorite teams and leagues and watch highlights right in the News app
• Favorites give you easy access to the channels and topics you read the most, in a consistent place near the top of your Today feed
• New homepages deliver visually updated and easier to navigate topic feeds for local news locales, sports teams and leagues, and more

Family Sharing

• Improved child account setup makes it easier to create an account for a child with the right parental controls, including age‑appropriate media restrictions
• Device setup for a child lets you use Quick Start to easily set up a new iOS or iPadOS device for your child with your selected parental controls in place
• Screen Time requests in Messages make it even easier to approve or decline requests from your child
• Family Checklist gives you tips and suggestions like updating a child’s parental control settings, turning on location sharing, or just reminding you to share your iCloud+ subscription with everyone

Desktop-Class Apps

• Customizable toolbars allow you to add the features you use most often in your apps
• Menus provide additional context for actions such as close, save, and duplicate, making it easier to edit documents and files in apps like Pages and Numbers
• Find and Replace is available in apps across the system, including Mail, Messages, Reminders, and Swift Playgrounds
• Availability view in Calendar shows availability of invited participants when you create meetings in Calendar

Safety Check

• Safety Check is a new section in Settings to help people in domestic or intimate partner violence situations quickly reset the access they’ve granted to others
• Emergency reset lets you quickly take action to reset access across all people and apps, including disabling location sharing via Find My, resetting privacy permissions for apps, and more
• Manage sharing and access helps you review and customize which apps and people can access your information

Accessibility

• Door detection in Magnifier locates a door, reads signs and symbols around it, and gives you instructions for how to open the door
• Live Captions (beta) automatically converts audio into text for users who are Deaf or hard of hearing to follow along more easily with calls and media content
• Buddy controller helps users with cognitive disabilities get support from a caregiver or friend while playing a game, by combining inputs from multiple game controllers into one
• VoiceOver is now available in over 20 new languages and locales, including Bangla (India), Bulgarian, Catalan, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese
• Voice Control spelling mode gives you the option to dictate names, addresses, or other custom spellings letter by letter

How to Update

iOS 16.1 and iPadOS 16.1 are available via Over-the-Air Update (Settings > General > Software Update) via Finder on a Mac with macOS Catalina or later, or via iTunes on a PC or Mac with macOS Mojave or earlier.