The new iOS 16 is now available for compatible iPhones, which means if you own an iPhone 8 or newer, you can download it right now. Unfortunately, even if your iPhone is capable of running iOS 16, that doesn’t mean it’s getting all the cool new features like a battery percentage icon in the status bar or the new drag-and-drop photo cropping trick.
Depending on your iPhone’s age and processor, your software update may be missing some of the new settings and features that others enjoy on iOS 16. Here’s how to find out if you might be missing any of these features too, let’s take a look!
Battery percentage in iPhone status bar
Apple used to show off battery percentages in the status bar until the iPhone X and notch were released. In iOS 16, the battery indicator has been reintroduced and redesigned, but not for everyone with the latest update.
According to this Apple support page, the status bar battery feature has been excluded from the iPhone XR, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 mini, and iPhone 13 Mini. If you want to see a visual indicator of battery level, you can add a battery widget to the home screen, or swipe down to see the numbers in the control center.
Elevate subject from photo background
On iOS 16, you can hold your finger on a clear subject in a photo to crop it out, then drag and drop it somewhere else, like in your notes, emails, or text messages. It does this using Apple’s Visual Look Up feature, which recognizes objects in photos, but both features require a newer iPhone model.
This feature is only available on iPhones with A12 Bionic and above (starting with iPhone XS/XR), not iPhone X and iPhone 8 series.
Wallpaper depth effect on lock screen
With the release of iOS 16, the lock screen adds major customization tools, allowing you to use fonts, colors, wallpaper profiles, widgets—and new depth effects. As long as your wallpaper has a clear theme in the foreground, the time on the lock screen may appear below the object, giving your wallpaper a layered effect. However, the feature also uses Visual Look Up to identify your theme, so it won’t work on every iPhone.
Again, this feature is only available on iPhones and later with the A12 Bionic chip, so iPhone XS/XR and later.
Live Text Copy text from video
Introduced in iOS 15, Live Text on iPhone allows you to copy text from an image and paste it elsewhere. In iOS 16, the feature has received an update, and now you can also copy text from paused videos, but only if you have a specific iPhone.
This feature is only available on iPhone XR/XS and later.
New and improved dictation experience
In iOS 16, Apple has redesigned how dictation works, making it easier to combine speech-to-text and keyboard for a smoother experience when sending text messages and drafting emails. This feature uses on-device machine learning, which unfortunately is not available on all iPhones.
Again, this feature is only available on iPhones with the A12 Bionic chip and above, which includes the iPhone XS/XR and above.
Live captions for FaceTime calls and videos
Live Captions for iOS 16 creates live captions for any video playing on your iPhone, whether it’s in your text messages or camera roll, or even a FaceTime call. The new accessibility feature is designed to improve communication for the hearing impaired, but not everyone will get the changes that enable it.
Like most of the features on this list, it’s only available on iPhone models with the A12 Bionic chip and above, which includes the iPhone XS/XR and above (excluding the iPhone 8 series and iPhone X).
Additional features not available on all iPhones running iOS 16
The above features aren’t the only new or updated features that won’t be on every iPhone with iOS 16. Here is the full list of missing features and which iPhone models are included:
Blur foreground objects in portrait photos: Available on iPhone 13 and iPhone 14.
Use your camera to track your medications in the Health app: iPhone XS/XR and later.
Hang up with your voice and other Siri improvements: iPhone XS/XR and later.
Use the camera to detect and describe nearby objects, such as doors: Available on iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro.
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