Contents

iPadOS 16 Release Notes

Update your apps to use new features, and test your apps against API changes.

Overview

The iPadOS 16 SDK provides support to develop apps for iPad devices running iPadOS 16. The SDK comes bundled with Xcode 14.1 RC, available from Beta Software Downloads. For information on the compatibility requirements for Xcode 14.1, see Xcode 14.1 Release Notes.

AVFoundation

New Features

  • AVCaptureSession.isMultitaskingCameraAccessSupported returns true on iPads that support Stage Manager. (88345287)

CoreGraphics

Deprecations

  • To improve security, CGImageCreate enforces parameter correctness on macOS 13 Ventura, iOS 16, iPadOS 16, watchOS 9, and tvOS 16. Passing an incorrect CGImageByteOrderInfo is no longer supported, and will result in images failing to load. (94855401)

Backup

New Features

  • Customers using iOS 16 can now back up their device over an LTE cellular connection, as well as a 5G or Wifi connection. (95276719)

DeviceDiscoveryUI

Known Issues

  • Devices running beta 4 or later aren’t backwards compatible with devices running earlier beta versions. (95233878)

Emoji

Known Issues

  • The search field for the emoji Lock Screen editor is missing. (88603664)

Game Controller

New Features

  • Many additional Bluetooth and USB game controllers are supported by the Game Controller framework on macOS 13, iOS 16, and tvOS 16 and later. (82409809)

HealthKit

New Features

  • HealthKit workout APIs now support multisport workouts with activities of swimming, cycling, and running. (82588168)

  • New data types for running workout metrics like running power, ground contact time, vertical oscillation, running speed, and stride length. (82974514)

  • A new data type is available to track AFib History. (95315701)

  • The HealthKit framework has a new Vision Prescription data type that allows developers and users to store prescription information received from eye care professionals. This feature includes a new set of HKSample subclasses that allow developers to encapsulate prescriptions for glasses and contact lenses. Users of iPhone can directly store their prescription information from the Health app as well. Because most regions require the actual prescription document to purchase glasses and contacts, this feature also allows the storage of attachment files in HealthKit. Due to the potential privacy concerns around sharing unintended additional details from the prescription, the HealthKit framework has a new authorization API to allow users to authorize prescriptions on a per-sample basis. See header documentation in HealthKit and watch the WWDC HealthKit session for more information. (82940646)

Home

Known Issues

  • You might receive an alert to turn on Wi-Fi when pairing a Matter accessory. (98460235)

    Workaround: Ensure your device is connected to your Wi-Fi network.

  • Adjusting the color or color temperature might result in an unexpected color set on a Matter accessory. (98578966)

  • Accessory details might not open if a Matter accessory is unreachable. (99232316)

  • The device that initiates the pairing needs to use the same iCloud account as the home hub. Only the owner of a home, not an invited user, can pair Matter accessories. (76012945)

Mail

Known Issues

  • Moving a Remind Me message to another mailbox doesn’t remove the Remind Me banner. (93671992)

Maps

Deprecations

Memory Allocation

Known Issues

  • The system memory allocator free operation zeroes out all deallocated blocks in iPadOS 16 beta or later. Invalid accesses to free memory might result in new crashes or corruption, including:

    • Read-after-free bugs that previously observed the old contents of a block may now observe zeroes instead

    • Write-after-free bugs may now cause subsequent calls to calloc to return non-zero memory

    To debug these issues, use Address Sanitizer and Guard Malloc (see libgmalloc(3)). (97449075)

Messages

New Features

  • Allows developers to classify incoming SMS from unknown numbers into 12 new sub-categories within Transaction and Promotion categories for improved organization. (95276296)

  • For Indian users, Messages now supports event extraction from SMS. These event and appointment messages are presented as Siri suggestions and also are presented to users in Messages thread and in Calendar Inbox. (95276513)

  • For selected US Carriers, Messages extends the “Report Junk” feature to enable users to report SMS/MMS junk to Carriers. The option is visible inside Messages from Unknown Senders. (95276623)

  • Messages now supports the ability for customers with a dual SIM iPhone to filter their messages based on their SIMs. (95276784)

Metal

Known Issues

  • When using the new Metal mesh shaders feature, render pipeline state objects (PSOs) created with a mesh shader stage but without a object shader stage can fail to compile or fail to work correctly on some devices. (89836551)

    Workaround: When creating render PSOs with a mesh shader stage, also include a (potentially trivial pass-through) object shader stage.

Deprecations

  • The MTLResource.gpuHandle is deprecated. Use gpuResourceID instead, which functions as a replacement. (92862429)

Metal Offline Compiler

Known Issues

  • MetalFX effect outputs aren’t designed to be consumed by the CPU. Outputting to a texture that is read only by the CPU might result in synchronization issues. (91515075)

    Workaround: If a CPU reading of the MetalFX output is desired, instead of encoding the MetalFX effect as the last item in a command buffer, encode a placeholder blit that consumes the MetalFX output texture (a 1-pixel region blit is fine) in the command buffer. After the command buffer with the placeholder blit is finished, reading of the MetalFX effect output texture with CPU synchronizes correctly.

Networking

New Features

  • Added NSURLSession support for client-certificate based authentication. (24523955)

  • Added URLSession support for Private Access Tokens. (82937526)

Deprecations

  • FTP is deprecated for URLSession and related APIs. Please adopt modern secure networking protocols such as HTTPS. (92623659)

RoomPlan

New Features

  • The RoomPlan framework is now available in iPadOS 16, enabling 3D parametric model creation of an interior room. The framework uses a device’s sensors, trained machine learning models, and RealityKit rendering capabilities to capture the physical surroundings of an interior room. APIs are available for end-to-end scanning experience, real-time data structures for custom UI creation, and both USD and USDZ generation of 3D room models. (84170837)

StoreKit

New Features

  • All StoreKit APIs are now annotated for sendability and main actor isolation. (84157048)

  • A property recentSubscriptionStartDate is included in RenewalInfo. It represents the date that marks the start of the most recent period of continuous subscription. A period is considered a continuous subscription if there is no more than a 60-day gap between any two subscribed periods. (86599570)

  • Product has new properties for localizing prices and subscription periods. For iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS 12, tvOS 15, and watchOS 8 or later use priceFormatStyle to format numbers derived from price. Use subscriptionPeriodFormatStyle to format durations of time relating to a subscription period. On iOS 16, iPadOS 16, macOS 13, tvOS 16, and watchOS 9 or later use subscriptionPeriodUnitFormatStyle to format single units of a subscription period. (93780442)

  • AppTransaction allows developers to cryptographically verify that the app was purchased on the App Store. (86739279)

  • The recentSubscriptionStartDate property is included in Product.SubscriptionInfo.RenewalInfo. It represents the date that marks the start of the most recent period of continuous subscription. A period is considered a continuous subscription if there’s no more than a 60-day gap between any two subscribed periods. (86599570)

  • The priceLocale property is included in Product. Use this property to format price values deriving from the product’s decimal price. (81480683)

  • The StoreKit Messages API allows you to control when App Store messages are displayed in your app. (85321880)

  • Read the requestReview environment value to get an instance of a RequestReviewAction. Then, call this instance to request to display a review prompt from your SwiftUI apps. (86739003)

StoreKit

Resolved Issues

  • Fixed an issue where restoring transactions wouldn’t prompt for authentication or restore any transactions if there was no App Store account signed in. (99506258)

  • Fixed an issue where purchasing or restoring in-app transactions with hosted content would block new purchases or restores from processing. (100117681)

Deprecations

  • Deprecated the SKDownload API and removed the option to upload nonconsumable in-app purchase assets for Apple to host. In addition, support for managing these assets in App Store Connect is no longer available as of April 2022. (89764253)

SwiftUI

New Features

  • For control, Section, or other views that have a Label, the ViewBuilder content now automatically arranges and styles multiple views as hierarchical elements, such as title and subtitle. If the label views are intended to be arranged horizontally rather than hierarchically, wrap the views within an HStack. (85184563)

  • A TextField supports multiline text. Use a Axis.vertical axis on a text field to allow rendering of multiple lines in contexts like forms, where text is expected to be short to medium length. For long-form text editing, continue to use a TextEditor. (51463718)

  • Navigation bars have new default behaviors. A navigation bar defaults to an inline title display mode, if no title is provided. If a title is provided, the default remains large. Use the navigationBarTitleDisplayMode(_:) modifier to change this. By default, a navigation bar only renders if it has content to display. If a navigation bar has no title, toolbar items, or search content, it’s automatically hidden. Use the navigationBarHidden(_:) or the new .toolbar(.visible) modifier to explicitly show an empty navigation bar. (84996257)

  • A list supports Section footers. (78462739)

  • When the toolbar modifier is applied at multiple levels of a hierarchy, items from a child are appended to those from the parent that have the same placement. (65619097)

  • When using .windowResizability(.contentSize), windows created with SwiftUI set their resizable and fullscreen flags based on the size of their contents. (65791490)

  • List separator insets can now be customized using HorizontalEdge.leading and HorizontalEdge.trailing alignment guides. (74192080)

  • The implementation of list no longer uses UITableView. (81571203)

  • SwiftUI now enforces at runtime that view and view controller representables are value types. (82982458)

  • Symbol images now use an automatically determined symbol-rendering mode by default. To have a symbol image always use monochrome rendering, use the SymbolRenderingMode modifier. (85524479)

  • A Picker with a menu style in a list displays its label by default. To hide the label, use the labelsHidden() modifier. (88228016)

  • Pickers in list default to the menu style. (89186618)

  • Changes to text and image views now animate by default. Use .contentsTransition(.identity) to disable this behavior. (89558882)

  • Lists and forms automatically dismiss the software keyboard, if present, when a scroll gesture begins. Use .scrollDismissesKeyboard(.never) to restore the old behavior. (89588639)

  • Added View.scrollContentBackground, which permits customization of background colors for scrollable views like List. (45928055)

  • Added View.focusedObject(_:) and View.focusedSceneObject(_:) modifiers to be used in conjunction with the new @FocusedObject to allow an ObservableObject to be vended by the focused view or scene. (83637876)

  • Custom types conforming to ToolbarContent now support dynamic properties like @Environment. (94117842)

Known Issues

  • Providing actions to a navigationTitle modifier has been deprecated. Use the toolbarTitleActions() modifier or ToolbarTitleActions type in a toolbar modifier instead. (93658035)

  • Lists and tables might not clear their selection when exiting Edit Mode. (94093589)

UIKit

New Features

  • iOS apps can now request rotation using [UIWindowScene requestGeometryUpdate:errorHandler:] and providing a UIWindowSceneGeometryPreferencesIOS object containing the desired orientations. (95229615)

Deprecations

  • [UIViewController shouldAutorotate] has been deprecated is no longer supported. [UIViewController attemptRotationToDeviceOrientation] has been deprecated and replaced with [UIViewController setNeedsUpdateOfSupportedInterfaceOrientations].

    Workaround: Apps relying on shouldAutorotate should reflect their preferences using the view controllers supportedInterfaceOrientations. If the supported orientations change, use `-[UIViewController setNeedsUpdateOfSupportedInterface

Wallet

Known Issues

  • American Express cards might need to be removed and re-added to Wallet after updating to iPadOS 16 beta 6 or later. (97990752)

See Also

iOS & iPadOS 16