How To Undo iOS 16’s Most Annoying Changes

The iOS 16 replace is now firmly established on a big chunk of iPhones, however you won’t be utterly proud of each tweak and modification that’s been made. The excellent news is that at the very least a few of the adjustments will be reversed by delving into the iOS Settings display screen, and we’ll cowl a few of the most necessary ones right here.

How to eliminate the the iOS search bar 

Presumably the brand new search bar that sits on the backside of each residence display screen is designed to make it simpler to seek out no matter it is likely to be that you just’re in search of, however there’s a case to be made that it distracts from the minimal aesthetic that iOS often favors. Bear in thoughts that you may at all times get to the search field by swiping down with one finger, too.

With that different gesture in thoughts, you could possibly argue that the brand new search bar is considerably redundant. To cease it from showing, open Settings after which select Home Screen: Turn off the Show on Home Screen toggle change beneath the Search heading and also you gained’t must see it once more.

The remainder of the search choices will be configured by tapping the Siri & Search entry on the primary iOS Settings display screen. From right here, you’re ready to decide on which apps and different content material present up within the searches you run in your cellphone, and it’s also possible to stop urged searches and up to date searches from displaying up everytime you’re in search of one thing.

How to undo adjustments to notifications 

It feels as if each iOS replace brings with it a rejigging of the iPhone’s notification system, and iOS 16 is not any completely different: Notifications now seem in stacks on the backside of the lock display screen, for instance, which is meant to scale back muddle. Now, it’s not doable to utterly reverse this modification, however you possibly can partially deliver again the outdated habits.

From Settings in iOS, faucet Notifications, after which select List (relatively than Stack). This means, the notifications will nonetheless pile up individually as they did on earlier variations of iOS—they’re nonetheless developing from the underside, and you’ll’t presently modify that, however you may discover it extra palatable with this selection chosen.

Of course, the lock display screen is likely one of the areas that iOS 16 has targeted on probably the most, with the introduction of widgets and an always-on mode in case you’re utilizing the iPhone 14 Pro or the iPhone 14 Pro Max. While it’s not out on the time of writing, iOS 16.2 is anticipated to deliver with it the choice to cover notifications from the always-on show, providing you with one other method to customise the notification expertise.

Disable follow-up prompts in Apple Mail

Apple has tried to make the Mail app in iOS 16 just a little bit smarter: Like Gmail, Apple Mail will now introduce prompts to chase up despatched emails that haven’t had a response (“Follow-up”) in addition to providing you with the choice to get reminded a few message that you just’ve learn however haven’t despatched a reply to (“Remind me”).

While these form of improvements could make managing your e mail pile simpler, they will additionally come throughout as being too interfering. Remind me is opt-in on a person foundation for each e mail you open, whereas Follow-up is on by default, and makes use of some sort of algorithm to determine which emails you’re nonetheless ready on a reply to.

You can’t do a lot with Remind me, sadly, however that’s the much less intrusive of the 2 new options in iOS 16. You can flip off Follow-up to cease despatched emails resurfacing after just a few days: Open up Settings in iOS, then select Mail, then flip off the Follow-Up Suggestions toggle change.

Turn off featured content material

This is completely different in that we’re not undoing one thing launched in iOS 16—we’re utilizing iOS 16 to reverse an present characteristic. Go to Settings, select Photos, and switch off the Show Featured Content toggle change: Your iPhone will not robotically select your greatest snaps for the For You tab in Photos and the Photos residence display screen widget.

Previously, you wanted to go and choose particular person photos and particularly take away them from being featured. This remains to be an possibility, however the brand new toggle change makes extra sense, and provides you extra management over which pictures are randomly popping up in your machine if you don’t essentially need to see them.

iOS 16 additionally protects your hidden and lately deleted photograph albums with a passcode, Touch ID or Face ID. We’d say this is likely one of the higher adjustments within the newest replace, however it’s doable to roll it again in case you’d relatively have faster entry to those albums—you possibly can toggle the choice from the Photos web page in Settings.