21 emojis, call noise isolation, and Russian swipe keyboard: what’s new in iOS 16.4?

On March 27, Apple released an operating system update for the iPhone – iOS 16.4. The latest version has a lot of interesting innovations, for the sake of which it is worth updating.

Let’s talk about the most important ones.

Voice isolation during phone calls

This feature cuts out external noise during calls, giving priority to your voice. Very useful when talking on the street, in transport, or other noisy places: everyone will hear you more clearly.

Previously, this feature was only available for FaceTime calls and messengers. Now – for cellular communications. To activate the technology, you need to swipe down a Control Center during a call and click on the Microphone > Voice isolation.

21 new emoji

To be more precise, even 31: some of the emoticons are available in several versions. Among them, there are goose, elk, pushing hand, trembling face, ginger, pea, pink, gray, blue hearts, and other icons.

If you send a new emoji to someone who hasn’t updated to 16.4 yet, they’ll see a question mark instead of an emoticon.

Swipe the keyboard in Russian and Ukrainian

This feature has been waiting for almost four years. And now it happened: now you can type text on the iPhone without lifting your finger in two more languages: Russian and Ukrainian.

To type text, simply move your finger from one letter to another: this will help speed up the speed of typing words. A space is set automatically when you take your finger off the screen. But punctuation marks must be placed manually.

Safari Push notifications on iPhone

This feature allows you to receive full alerts when using web applications. They will appear right on the Home screen, just like other apps. But only if the mobile version of the site is adapted specifically for PWA (a technology that allows you to install the site on a smartphone as an application).

“Push” will only work through native Safari and provided that the user has added a web application to the home screen. To do this, open the desired web page, tap the Share icon > Go to Home Screen.

And what else?

Other innovations in iOS 16.4 are invisible at first glance. Among them:

• iPhone can now find duplicate photos and videos not only in the smartphone gallery but also in the shared iCloud library.
• The video will automatically dim if it has excessively bright flashing lights, flashes, or a strobe.
• Separate Apple ID for downloading beta software. Regular users will no longer be able to download beta versions of new iOS – only developers registered with Apple through the Apple Developer Program. And for anyone who doesn’t want to pay $99 a year, there will be Public Beta versions of iOS.
• Website shortcuts on the home screen will open in any browser that is set by default (not just Safari).
• Podcasts have a new section “Channels”.
• There is a new application for listening to classical music Apple Music Classical. It is not available for download in some regions.

You can upgrade to iOS 16.4 from iPhone 8 and later.