Although iOS 16 is still a few months away from dropping, that’s not stopping people from exploring some of its new features, such as opting out of texting and a custom lock screen, especially since Apple recently released the first public beta of iOS 16 which you can download and install right away.
Read more: Will your iPhone run iOS 16? Some will not be compatible
And while the biggest and most popular features usually offer instant gratification, smaller, overlooked changes can completely change the way you use your iPhone.
We’ll take a look under the hood of iOS 16 at some of the lesser-known features and settings that iOS 16 has to offer, such as password-protected photo albums and easily accessible Wi-Fi passwords.
If you want to learn more about iOS 16, check out the new iOS 16 features you’ll love and how to use the new Tap to Lift feature on your photos.
Hidden and recently deleted albums are now password protected
The hidden album in the Photos app is obviously not hidden since you can easily find it, making it impractical to adequately hide personal photos and videos. Although Apple has an option to make the Hidden album “invisible”, anyone with access to your phone can make it visible again and see everything inside.
Thanks to iOS 16, you can now lock the hidden album. You don’t actually need to do anything to turn this feature on. If you want to check it out, launch the Photos app and go to the Albums tab at the bottom of the screen. If you scroll down, you’ll see a small lock next to the Hidden and Recently Deleted albums. To see what’s inside, use Face ID or your password.
Hidden and Recently Deleted albums now require Face ID access.
Nelson Aguilar/CNET
View and share saved Wi-Fi passwords
Apple has allowed iOS users to share Wi-Fi passwords for some time, but only by placing two Apple devices near each other. And if this feature doesn’t work automatically, you can’t just dig up the password from your settings. Plus, if you want to share a saved Wi-Fi password with someone else, like an Android user or someone on a PC, you need to know the password. So far.
Read more: You can finally see your saved Wi-Fi passwords on iPhone
In Settings, go to Wi-Fi and tap the little info icon to the right of the network you want the password for. To view the network password, tap the Password tab, and then use Face ID or enter your password to view it. You can then tap Copy to copy the password to your clipboard and share it.
You can see the password for any Wi-Fi network you’ve ever connected to, as long as you’re currently connected to it or close enough for it to appear in My Networks.
Nelson Aguilar/CNET
Find and remove all duplicate photos and videos
Maybe you’ve saved the same photo multiple times or downloaded a video more than once, so you have duplicates littering your photo album. It might not be a problem if you have free storage, but if not, it might be a good idea to go back and remove every single duplicate – which is now easy to do in iOS 16.
In Photos > Albums, you should now see a new Duplicates album under Utilities, where Apple scans all your photos and shows you any photo or video you’ve saved more than once. From there, you can either delete any duplicates or just hit Merge, which will keep the highest quality photo (and relevant data) and then move the rest to the trash.
Merging will keep the highest quality photo and delete the others.
Nelson Aguilar/CNET
While you’ll probably want to go through each set of duplicates to make sure they’re actually exact copies and not similar photos, you can also hit Select > Select All > Merge to remove every single photo and video that Apple considers a duplicate, all at once.
Pin your favorite tabs in Safari
Safari limits your open tabs to 500, and if you’re getting close to that limit, it can be hellishly difficult to find the exact tab you’re looking for. You can scroll endlessly, but there’s now an easier way to find the exact tab you’re looking for.
In Safari, if you press down on an open tab, you now have the option to press Pin Tab. This will move that tab to the top of Safari, where it will exist as a thumbnail preview of the tab permanently pinned there, which you can then tap to view.
All your pinned tabs appear at the top of Safari.
Nelson Aguilar/CNET
If you press down and unpin a tab, it will move to the top of your grid of open tabs.
Pair Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons with your iPhone
Apple has long allowed you to pair third-party controllers, like the PS5 Sony DualSense and Xbox Core Controller, to your iPhone and iPad to more conveniently play mobile video games like the Apple Arcade library, Minecraft, and Call of Duty. And you can add another console controller to that list.
If you own a Nintendo Switch, you can now pair your Joy-Con controllers to your iPhone or iPad running iOS 16. To get started, hold down the small black Joy-Con pairing button until the green lights start moving back and forth . This means the device is in pairing mode. Then open your iPhone and go to Settings > Bluetooth and select Joy-Con from the list. Repeat this step with the other Joy-Con.
You can pair one or both controllers to your Apple device.
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