If These New iOS 16 Features Are Boring You, Here’s How To Get Rid Of Them

This story is part Focal Point iPhone 2022CNET’s collection of news, tips and advice on Apple’s most popular product.

There’s so much to discover in Apple’s latest mobile software update, iOS16.

To start, you can unsend and edit text messagesas good as emailsand you can easily crop people or objects from photos with just one touch. And there are several hidden functions you should know.

But not all iOS 16 features are universally loved. For example, the new iphone home screen search button and unexpected photo pop-ups are quickly reviled.

Luckily, most of these iOS 16 features and settings can be disabled or removed altogether.

I’ll walk you through how to “fix” the most unloved new iOS 16 features. And while you’re here, make sure you have changed these clutch iPhone settings and refresh two new Apple Maps features. If you haven’t done so yet, here’s how download iOS 16 on a Compatible iPhones (after 2017).

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Remove the new search button from your iPhone home screen

Your iPhone’s search feature lets you quickly find a text message, third-party app, file, note, or location — just about anything on your device or on the web. As you know, to get the search bar, you just need to swipe anywhere on the screen and it appears.

With iOS 16, Apple is adding another way to access Search from the Home screen, via a small button just above your dock.

However, the new search button is easy to trigger accidentally, as it’s close to where your thumb might go when swiping between your different home pages.

But, like many new features in iOS 16, you can disable this setting. Just launch the Settings app, go to Homepage and disable Show on home screen to remove the search button from your home screen.

The search bubble should disappear, replaced by a few small dots representing your various home screens.

Stop unexpected (and embarrassing) photo popups on your iPhone screen

Apple’s artificial intelligence allows photos and videos to appear in various places on your iPhone, such as a reminder of family vacations, couple photos, and vacations – but you might not always want your personal photos appear unexpectedly, especially if they are private, embarrassing or inappropriate.

With iOS 16, you can now prevent Featured Photos, as well as curated collections known as Memories, from appearing in photo widgets on your Home screen and the Find and For You sections in Photos.

To block these personalized photos, launch the Settings app, go to Pictures and disable View Featured Content. All featured content will no longer appear on your device – instead, it will only be available in your photo library and albums.

Avoid accidentally ending your own phone calls

The side/power button on the side of your iPhone lets you quickly sleep and wake your device, but if you accidentally hit it during a phone call, you’ll prematurely end your call. If this is something you’ve encountered in the past, iOS 16 finally lets you prevent it from happening.

In Settings, go to Accessibility > To touch and disable Lock to end call to prevent the side button from ending your calls. If you accidentally press the side button, your screen will go to sleep, but you’ll stay on your phone call, uninterrupted.

Revert to Using Old iPhone Lock Screen Notifications

Apple’s latest redesign brings customizable widgets, fonts and colors, a gallery of wallpapers and a stylized date and time on the lock screen, plus a sloppy change to notifications. Instead of appearing at the top of your lock screen, notifications now appear at the bottom, which you can then tap to appear full screen.

However, not everyone may be happy with this change. If you want to go back to how notifications appeared on iOS 15, launch the Settings app and go to Notice > Show as. You will then see three options:

• Count: Notifications are displayed as a number at the bottom of the screen.
• Stack: Notifications appear in a stack at the bottom of the screen.
• Listing: Notifications are displayed entirely on your screen.

To return to the old notification style, choose the Listing option.