Apple has released iOS 16 to the public, with the iPhone operating system update adding the Freeform app for all users.

Following a beta period that started on October 25, the update for iOS 16.2 is now downloadable to iPhone. While a milestone release, like iOS 16, provides many changes, a minor version number will typically add in features that missed the initial release, as well as the usual performance improvements and bug fixes.

An early discovery for the betas was the inclusion of the Freeform app, a collaborative tool that allows multiple people to work together and brainstorm on the same page.

There's also Apple Music Sing, a sing-along mode for Apple Music that allows you to adjust the vocals of a song so you can sing along with it. The lyrics are also displayed in a beat-by-beat manner, to make it easier to follow along.

Users of iCloud will also benefit from a new advanced data protection option, with an expansion of iCloud data categories protected with end-to-end encryption. The list now includes 23 categories, with the inclusion of iCloud Backup, Notes, and Photos.

There have also been updates to the Weather app to link related News stories by location and weather conditions, while Live Activities could be updated more frequently, and started directly from Spotlight search.

The Lock Screen gains a new medications widget in two different sizes, as well as a Sleep widget. There is also a fix for a bug in the camera, which if opened from the Lock Screen, it prevented the "swiping up" gesture to head back to the lock screen.

For users who find they accidentally trigger Emergency SOS, there's a new option to report when it has gone off at the wrong time.

Source: Appleinsider