The biggest changes in iOS 10 are clear as day when you pick up your iPhone. The Lock screen is completely redesigned. There are widgets everywhere and 3D Touch is much more pronounced, across the OS. We tell you how to use all the new iOS 10 features in the Lock screen, Home screen and Control Center.
1. Raise To Wake
Just pick your phone up to see the screen light up. You can disable this feature by going to “Display and Brightness” section in the Settings app.
2. Widgets in Today View – Everywhere
Today View screen has been added to the Lock screen (you can disable them) and the Home screen, along with the Notification Center. Swipe right on the Lock screen or the first page of the Home screen and you’ll be right there.
Widgets on the Lock screen is one of my favorite new features in iOS 10. So helpful for quick interactions. To edit widgets, go to the bottom of the page and tap the “Edit” button.
Read: How to Add Widgets to Today View in iOS 10
3. Press Home To Unlock
Instead of “Slide to Unlock” You’ll now see “Press home to Unlock” text. You’ll now need to press the home button to unlock the phone. If you want to unlock the device simply by resetting your finger on the home button, you’ll need to turn on Rest Finger to Unlock option from Touch ID settings.
Read: How to Disable Press Home to Unlock Feature in iOS 10
4. 3D Touch Notifications
Notifications now look like cards. And they’re interactive – everywhere. Just 3D Touch the notification and you’ll see the message pop up, along with some Quick Actions. If the app supports iOS 10, you’ll also see a rich preview there. Like the entire conversation in the Messages app, or the tracking view for your car in Uber. Quick Actions lets you do things like archiving an email directly from the Lock screen.
Read: How To Quickly Reply To Messages From Lock Screen in iOS 10
5. Widgets in Quick Actions
When you 3D Touch an app icon that supports iOS 10 widgets, you’ll now see the compact version of the widget right there. You can tap the “Add Widget” button to add the widget to the Today view.
6. Two Sizes Of Widgets
Widgets have been redesigned now. Apple’ own widgets are more interactive, more media-rich, along with featuring shortcuts. Also widgets now come in two states, compact and large. You tap the “Show more” button to expand the widget.
Read: What All The New Stock Apple App Widgets in iOS 10 Look Like
7. 3D Touch Folders
You can how 3D Touch folders. Normally, it will show a “Rename” option.
But when apps inside the folder have notifications, Quick Actions will show a list of all the apps with unread notifications, and unread counts for each of them. You can then just tap on an app’s name to launch it.
Read: iOS 10 Hands-on: All The New Ways To 3D Touch
8. Clear All Notifications
Finally, after almost a decade, we get an option clear all notifications in iOS 10. You’ll need a device that supports 3D Touch though – iPhone 6s and above. Open the Notification Center, 3D Touch the “x” icon and select “Clear all Notifications”.
If you’ve got an iPad Pro, you can do the same using Apple Pencil.
Read: How To Clear All Notifications in iOS 10
9. Panes in Control Center
When you bring up the Control Center from the bottom of the screen, you’ll see that you now have different panes. The default is iPhone controls, used for toggles and shortcuts. The second is the all new Now Playing screen, this is where you’ll control the music from.
And if you have HomeKit accessories setup, you’ll see a Home pane here as well, where you’ll be able to control all your smart home devices.
10. Now Playing Screen
The Now Playing screen is totally new. The album art animates based on playback. The buttons are all big. And now the audio and video output options are at different places.
Tap the new “Now Playing on..” button to see all the available output options and select the other output.
Read: How To Control Media Playback and Change Output in Control Center in iOS 10
11. 3D Touch Shortcuts in Control Center
You can now 3D Touch in Control Center, but only for the 4 shortcut buttons in the bottom – Flashlight, Timer, Calculator, and Camera.
Flashlight option lets you select the intensity of the flashlight, Timer lets you quickly set a timer between 1 minute and 1 hour, Calculator lets you copy the last result, and Camera gives you option to directly take a selfie or a slo-mo video. For me, the Timer option to set a timer for 5 minutes has become very useful.
12. On iPad – Split View
The Lock screen and Today view on the iPad now show up in a split screen, as long as you’re in landscape mode. So you can now see notifications, as well as the Now Playing view on the Lock screen. Today view has two column view for widgets (just like iOS 9).
13. Share Apps
3D Touch an app icon and you’ll see a “Share app name” option at the end. This will bring up the standard share sheet. This is a great way to copy the App Store link for an app or to send the app to Messages or WhatsApp conversation. For people like me, who constantly get questions about which apps to use and which apps I’m using, this is a great way to share app links.
Read: How to Share App Store Links for Your Favorite App With Friends Using 3D Touch on iOS 10
Your Favorite iOS 10 Features
What’s your favorite new feature in iOS 10? Share with us in the comments below.
