Apple on Monday took the wraps off iOS 16, its next major smartphone operating system release, detailing a slew of new features and enhancements.

The upcoming iOS 16 — which will be released this fall for iPhone 8 models and later — includes a new privacy tool: Safety Check, which Apple said is designed for users “whose personal safety is at risk from domestic or intimate partner violence” and can instantly disable information-sharing access to specific users.

Safety Check includes an “emergency reset” that helps users sign out of iCloud on all their other devices, as well as reset privacy permissions and limit messaging to just the device in their physical possession. It also is designed to let users manage which people and apps they’ve given access to.

Another major feature in iOS 16 is the ability to make new customizations to the Lock Screen, letting users change the look of the date and time with different type styles and color choices; create multiple Lock Screen iterations; and add widgets to provide at-a-glance access to things like upcoming calendar events, weather, battery levels and alarms. And with iOS 16, Apple redesigned notifications so they roll up from the bottom of the screen, so that users “have a clear view of their personalized Lock Screen.”

“iOS 16 is a big release with updates that will change the way you experience iPhone,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s SVP of software engineering.

In addition, iOS 16 introduces iCloud Shared Photo Library to allow sharing of photo collections with family and provides enhancements to Live Text and Visual Look Up.

The company unveiled the iOS 16 features at its Worldwide Developers Conference virtual streaming event Monday. WWDC22 runs from June 6-10. It also showed off a next-generation MacBook Air, powered by its power-efficient M2 silicon, as well as updates for watchOS and macOS.

Apple’s WWDC22 conference programming is free to access for all of the company’s estimated 34 million-plus developers globally. The event is a forum for the tech giant to announce and promote new technologies, tools and frameworks coming to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS.

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