iOS 16
i
Developer	Apple
Announced	June 6, 2022 (WWDC)
Initial release	September 12, 2022
Final release	16.7.x security series (2024)
Launch devices	iPhone 14 generation
Preceded by	iOS 15
Succeeded by	iOS 17

iOS 16 is the sixteenth major release of iOS, released on September 12, 2022, ahead of the iPhone 14 generation. It rebuilt the platform's front door: the Lock Screen became customizable and collectible — fonts, colors, widgets, layered photo subjects that overlap the clock, and a gallery of switchable screens bound to Focus modes — the biggest change to the phone's first surface since lock-screen notifications.

The release also carried the system half of the year's hardware stories: Live Activities, the real-time notification class that powers the iPhone 14 Pro's Dynamic Island, plus Emergency SOS via satellite support and Crash Detection integration.

The customizable Lock Screen and wallpaper gallery; Live Activities (16.1); editable and unsendable Messages (with time limits and edit history after public debate); Mail scheduling and recall; passkeys — the passwordless WebAuthn credentials Apple pushed first at scale; Safety Check for abusive-relationship escape; iCloud Shared Photo Library (16.1); Freeform (16.2); Advanced Data Protection's expanded end-to-end encryption (16.2); the battery-percentage indicator's return; and haptic keyboard feedback. Visual Look Up learned to lift subjects out of photos — the tap-and-drag sticker trick that became the cycle's shared delight.

iPhone 14 and iPhone 13 generations back through iPhone 8 and iPhone X — the first cull in four years, dropping the iPhone 6s and iPhone 7 generations and the first iPhone SE, and with them the iPod touch line entirely.

The Lock Screen platform became the personalization surface every subsequent release builds on, Live Activities became the interaction model the Dynamic Island — now on every iPhone — depends on, and passkeys began the industry's slow walk away from passwords. Editable Messages and Safety Check showed the platform absorbing social criticism directly into feature design; Advanced Data Protection extended the privacy franchise into open conflict with government access demands.