5 hidden iOS 16 features and settings you’ll want to know about

The release of iOS16alongside the iPhone 14 series, is near, and you might want to know more about what you can expect from Apple’s latest mobile software update.

If you haven’t heard yet, cancel sending SMS and one redesigned lock screen are two of your iPhone’s most important features, but these things are just the beginning. You’ll be thrilled to learn that there are several hidden new features that could completely change the way you use your iPhone.

If you want to take a closer look at some of the hidden gems iOS 16 has to offer, like password-protected photo albums and easily accessible Wi-Fi passwordshere’s what you need to know.

Read more: Will your iPhone run iOS 16? Some will not be compatible

And if you want to know more about Apple’s latest mobile operating system, we have new iOS 16 features you’ll love and a couple Apple Maps features that will improve the way you travel.

You can also get your hands on iOS 16 right now. Find out how Download and install the second beta on your iPhone.

Hidden and recently deleted albums are now password protected

The Hidden album in the Photos app is clearly not hidden because you can easily find it, which makes it inconvenient to properly hide private photos and videos. Although Apple has the ability to make the hidden album “invisible”, anyone with access to your phone can make it visible again and see everything in it.

Thanks to iOS 16, you can now lock the hidden album. You don’t have to do anything to enable this feature. If you want to check it, launch the Photos app and go to the Albums tab at the bottom of the screen. If you scroll down you will see a small padlock next to the Hidden and Recently Deleted scrapbooks. To see what’s inside, use Face ID or your password.

View and share saved Wi-Fi passwords

Apple has allowed iOS users to share Wi-Fi passwords for quite some time now, but only by placing two Apple devices next to each other. And if this feature didn’t work automatically, you couldn’t just extract the password from your settings. Also, if you wanted to share a saved Wi-Fi password with someone else, like an Android user or someone on a computer, you needed to know the password. So far.

Read more: You Can Finally See Your Saved Wi-Fi Passwords on an iPhone

In Settings, go to Wireless and tap the little information icon to the right of the network you want the password for. To view the network password, press the Password then use Face ID or enter your password to view it. You can then touch Copy to copy the password to your clipboard and share it.

Find and remove duplicate photos and videos

Maybe you’ve saved the same photo multiple times or downloaded a video multiple times, so you have duplicates in your photo album. This might not be a problem if you have storage space, but if you don’t it might be a good idea to go back and delete every duplicate, which is now easy to do on iOS 16.

In Pictures > Albumsyou should now see a new Doubloons album under Utilities, where Apple goes through all your photos and shows you any photos or videos you’ve saved more than once. From there, you can either remove duplicates or just tap Mergewhich will keep the photo with the best quality (and relevant data) and then move the others to the trash.

Although you probably want to cycle through each set of duplicates, to make sure they are exact copies and not similar photos, you can also tap Select > Select all > Merge to remove all the photos and videos that Apple considers duplicate, all at once.

Pin your favorite tabs in Safari

Safari limits your open tabs to 500, and if you get close to that limit, it can be really hard to find the exact tab you’re looking for. You can scroll endlessly, but now there’s an easier way to find the exact tab you’re looking for.

In Safari, if you tap on an open tab, you now have the option to tap pin tab. This will move that tab to the top of Safari, where it will exist as a small tab preview, permanently pinned, which you can then tap to view.

If you tap and undock a tab, it will go first in your grid of open tabs.

Pair Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons with your iPhone

Apple has long allowed you to pair third-party controllers, such as the Sony DualSense PS5 and Xbox Core controller, to your iPhone and iPad to more comfortably play mobile video games like the apple arcade library, Minecraft and Call of Duty. And you can add another console controller to this list.

If you own a nintendo switchyou can now pair your Joy-Con controllers to your iPhone or iPad running iOS 16. To get started, press and hold the small black pairing button on the Joy-Con, until the green lights begin to cycle back and forth. This means the device is in pairing mode. Next, open your iPhone and go to Settings > Bluetooth and select the Joy-Con from the list. Repeat this step with the other Joy-Con.