Apple Insider Beta Testing: Everything New in iOS 16.1 Inaugural Beta

As Andrew here at Apple Insider, I'm excited to dive into the first beta of iOS 16.1 and share all the new features and changes that will be arriving with this update later this year. The first change we're going to tackle is editing the lock screen. When you go into edit a lock screen, tap on "Customize," it will immediately ask you whether you want to customize the lock screen or your home screen. You can choose either one, and if you want to jump directly to the lock screen, you can do so by clicking on the lock icon.

Once you're in the customization mode, you'll see a plethora of options at your fingertips. You can change the background color, add a gradient, attach a photo, or even customize the font size and style. One of the features we've noticed is that you can now choose to customize both your lock screen and home screen simultaneously. This makes it much easier to get everything just right.

Another change worth noting is down at the bottom of the screen, where previously there was a focus mode button. That button has been removed in iOS 16.1, and instead, you'll need to go into Settings and then select "Focus" to set up your lock screen with specific rules or modes. What's new here is that you can now choose multiple lock screens at once, which means you can have different focus modes on different screens. This should be a great feature for those who use their phone to stay focused throughout the day.

Moving on to Settings, we've got another exciting update: General > Carplay. Previously, carplay was linked together with Airdrop and AirPlay in one place, but now it's been moved into its own section, which we believe will make it easier for developers to create seamless experiences across different platforms.

Next up is Matter Accessories, a new feature that allows you to access accessories like Apple AirPods Pro. We don't have any actual accessories available yet, but it sounds promising. Apple says they're working on a full release this fall, possibly aligning with iOS 16.1.

Now, let's talk about the battery section of Settings. Two notable changes are here: battery percentage and clean energy charging. With iOS 16.1, you can now see your battery percentage on smaller screens like the iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 13 mini. The other change is a new option for reducing your carbon footprint by using clean energy charging. This feature will reduce your charging in different times of the day when there's reduced emphasis on the grid.

In terms of screenshots, we've noticed that this menu has moved up to the top. You can now save photos, files, and even create quick notes right from within the screenshot menu. From here, you can copy, delete, or even share your screenshot as needed.

Finally, there's one last feature worth mentioning: deleting the Wallet app. If you're not signed in to iCloud on your iPhone, running iOS 16.1 won't prevent you from accessing this new feature. Once you have it working, though, you can remove the wallet app from your phone and redownload it if needed.

Speaking of iCloud Shared Photo Library, we've noticed that it's back in iOS 16.1, but only for those who are signed in to iCloud on their iPhone. This feature allows you to share photos with family members or friends by syncing them across all devices connected to the same account. With this feature, your shared library can be accessed from the camera roll based on location or content.

Overall, it seems like iOS 16.1 is off to a great start. We're excited to see what other updates and features Apple has in store for us later this year. If you have any thoughts on these new changes or spot anything else different, let us know down below in the comments or better yet, on Twitter at Andrew_0SU. Stay tuned for more coverage of iOS 16 and iOS 14 in the coming days!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enapple is now beta testing ios 16.1 here's everything new in the inaugural beta welcome everybody to apple insider it is andrew here and despite the fact that apple has just released ios 16 to everybody of earlier this week on monday apple's out with the first beta of ios 16.1 so i've gone ahead downloaded ios 16.1 on my testing device and i'm going to walk you through all of the new features and changes that will be arriving with ios 16.1 later this year the first change with ios 16.1 is editing the lock screen so now when i go into edit a lock screen and i tap on customize it will immediately ask me whether i want to customize the lock screen or the home screen so i can choose either or i can jump here into the lock screen change the background color add a gradient attach a photo anything like that i can hit done or going back into customized i can choose the lock screen itself where i can attach things like widgets customize the font color change the background all of that a second thing that's changed is down here at the bottom it no longer asks you which focus mode you'd like to connect to a lock screen if we look at ios 16 you can see there was that focus mode button down there at the bottom that button has removed inside a 16.1 instead if you want to tie a focus mode to your lock screen you have to go into settings and then into focus mode and then choose one of your focuses from here you have these customized screen options this was like that in ios 16.0 but what's different is now i can choose multiple lock screens so i can choose multiple at once and before i could only choose one now either of these lock screens can enable this focus that's new here in 16.1 speaking of settings let's go ahead and look inside of settings then general carplay used to be linked together with airdrop airplay handoff and picture-in-picture now it's been moved into its own little combination with a new option matter accessories jumping into matter accessories just gives you this right now there are none you can tap on edit to remove any that were added and apple does say that you'll need a profile to be able to use matter accessories that could just be during the beta maybe not the full release but apple is prepping matter for a full release this fall possibly aligning with ios 16.1 inside of settings again if we go into battery two things first battery percentage battery percentage was previously limited it wouldn't work on mini sized iphones but with 16.1 it does so now you can add that battery percentage on the iphone 12 mini and iphone 13 mini and it also works on the iphone 11 and the iphone 10 r the other change to battery if we go to battery health and charging we have a new option for clean energy charging this will reduce your charging in different times of the day when there's reduced emphasis on the grid to help improve your energy footprint your carbon footprint by using this clean energy charging option when you take a screenshot in ios 16.1 and you bring this up when you're done go hit done this menu has moved it used to be located down here in the lower left hand corner now it is located to the top you can save photos save the files save to quick note copy then delete the screenshot or just delete the screenshot altogether the last thing is the wallet application can now be deleted you can remove the wallet app from your iphone before that stock app could not be removed if you do remove it you can redownload it again from the app store so i'm not signed into icloud on my iphone that i'm running ios 16.1 on but when i move to my ipad you can see that the shared photo library is back i can create a icloud shared photo library share with family members other people all the rules that go along with it where you can have them automatically shared to the shared library from the camera roll or based on location or contents of the photo it's very neat but this was all added here back again in 16.1 it was not available in ios 16 at launch so that covers it that is the first beta of ios 16.1 what do you think of these new changes and have you spotted any other differences let me know down below in the comments or better yet on twitter at andrew underscore osu and stay tuned i have a lot more coverage of ios 16 and ios 14 in the coming days youapple is now beta testing ios 16.1 here's everything new in the inaugural beta welcome everybody to apple insider it is andrew here and despite the fact that apple has just released ios 16 to everybody of earlier this week on monday apple's out with the first beta of ios 16.1 so i've gone ahead downloaded ios 16.1 on my testing device and i'm going to walk you through all of the new features and changes that will be arriving with ios 16.1 later this year the first change with ios 16.1 is editing the lock screen so now when i go into edit a lock screen and i tap on customize it will immediately ask me whether i want to customize the lock screen or the home screen so i can choose either or i can jump here into the lock screen change the background color add a gradient attach a photo anything like that i can hit done or going back into customized i can choose the lock screen itself where i can attach things like widgets customize the font color change the background all of that a second thing that's changed is down here at the bottom it no longer asks you which focus mode you'd like to connect to a lock screen if we look at ios 16 you can see there was that focus mode button down there at the bottom that button has removed inside a 16.1 instead if you want to tie a focus mode to your lock screen you have to go into settings and then into focus mode and then choose one of your focuses from here you have these customized screen options this was like that in ios 16.0 but what's different is now i can choose multiple lock screens so i can choose multiple at once and before i could only choose one now either of these lock screens can enable this focus that's new here in 16.1 speaking of settings let's go ahead and look inside of settings then general carplay used to be linked together with airdrop airplay handoff and picture-in-picture now it's been moved into its own little combination with a new option matter accessories jumping into matter accessories just gives you this right now there are none you can tap on edit to remove any that were added and apple does say that you'll need a profile to be able to use matter accessories that could just be during the beta maybe not the full release but apple is prepping matter for a full release this fall possibly aligning with ios 16.1 inside of settings again if we go into battery two things first battery percentage battery percentage was previously limited it wouldn't work on mini sized iphones but with 16.1 it does so now you can add that battery percentage on the iphone 12 mini and iphone 13 mini and it also works on the iphone 11 and the iphone 10 r the other change to battery if we go to battery health and charging we have a new option for clean energy charging this will reduce your charging in different times of the day when there's reduced emphasis on the grid to help improve your energy footprint your carbon footprint by using this clean energy charging option when you take a screenshot in ios 16.1 and you bring this up when you're done go hit done this menu has moved it used to be located down here in the lower left hand corner now it is located to the top you can save photos save the files save to quick note copy then delete the screenshot or just delete the screenshot altogether the last thing is the wallet application can now be deleted you can remove the wallet app from your iphone before that stock app could not be removed if you do remove it you can redownload it again from the app store so i'm not signed into icloud on my iphone that i'm running ios 16.1 on but when i move to my ipad you can see that the shared photo library is back i can create a icloud shared photo library share with family members other people all the rules that go along with it where you can have them automatically shared to the shared library from the camera roll or based on location or contents of the photo it's very neat but this was all added here back again in 16.1 it was not available in ios 16 at launch so that covers it that is the first beta of ios 16.1 what do you think of these new changes and have you spotted any other differences let me know down below in the comments or better yet on twitter at andrew underscore osu and stay tuned i have a lot more coverage of ios 16 and ios 14 in the coming days you\n"