iOS 10 release date, news and features

When will iOS 10 be released in the UK? What are iOS 10's best new features, and in what ways has it been redesigned? What are the differences between iOS 10 and iOS 9? And is it possible to install iOS 10 right now?

iOS 10, Apple's latest mobile operating system software for iPad & iPhone, was announced at the company's WWDC 2016 get-together in San Francisco on 13 June 2016. Read on for our detailed analysis of its 10 best new features and everything else you need to know about iOS 10, from the iPads and iPhones that can run iOS 10 to the best way to install it right now.

Read next: Advanced iOS 9 tips and Apple rumours & predictions for 2016.

Updated 8 July with Public Beta information and on 6 July with new features found in the new iOS 10 Beta 2 update.

iOS 10 release date rumours: How to get iOS 10 now - Public Beta out now

iOS 10 became available to non-developers in the form of a Public Beta on 7 July, which means even non-developers can download the preview version of the software now ahead of its final release later in the year. But bear in mind that it still won't be officially finished, and there are likely to be bugs and compatibility issues with some apps. If that doesn't concern you, find out more about downloading iOS 10's public beta here. 

The developer preview beta version of iOS is also available, but you'll need a developer account to get it. If you're keen, read more here: How to get iOS 10 on your iPhone/iPad now. (If you change your mind afterwards, see How to remove iOS 10 and reinstall iOS 9.

Typically, Apple announces its new iteration of iOS every June at its WWDC event in the US, with the final release date scheduled to coincide with the launch of new iPhones in the following September: this year, we'd expect iOS 10 to be made available for consumers at some point in September 2016, days before the (as yet unannounced) iPhone 7 is released.

This three/four-month gap between the announcement and its release gives developers a chance to squash any bugs and add any new features to their third-party iOS apps, in time for general release.

iOS 10 release date rumours: Which iPads, iPhones and iPod touch devices can run iOS 10?

iOS 10 will be released as a free upgrade for the following devices:

• iPad 4 and later (ie, iPad 4, iPad Air, iPad Air 2, iPad Pro (9.7in and 12.9in)
• iPad mini 2 and later (iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3, iPad mini 4)
• iPod touch 6th generation
• iPhone 5 and later (iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone SE)

iOS 10 release date rumours: New features

At its WWDC unveiling, Apple focused on 10 new, redesigned or tweaked areas of iOS 10's feature set:

1. General redesign and user experience

Apple says it has "redesigned the experience of the lock screen". But before we get to that, there's a new feature that will mean you'll see more of the lock screen.

At the moment, particularly with the faster second-gen Touch ID fingerprint sensor in the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, there's a tendency to hit the Home button and blast straight to the Home screen, But Apple has unveiled Raise to Wake, which makes the iPhone light up, and go to the Home screen, when you just lift it up. One of several features where we'll see the influence of the Apple Watch on the iOS ecosystem, incidentally.

Onscreen notifications have become more interactive. There are now lots of 3D Touch shortcuts that let you respond to notifications in clever ways without leaving the lock screen, and plenty of dynamic features that can happen in the notification itself.

You can accept invitations, respond to messages, and stay in a messages thread, live, all on the lock screen. You can see live animated progress of your Uber driver after 3D Touching an Uber notification. And - exactly like on the Apple Watch - you can do 3D Touch press and then clear all notifications. That's a handy one, that.

Control Centre has been redesigned. We didn't see much of it in detail, but it looks like it's either customisable or varies in look depending on the context. At any rate it has multiple screens, so if you swipe from the right you get to a special music section. More generally, you can swipe from the right in the lock screen to bring up the camera. That'll be less fiddly than the small icon you had to swipe upwards in iOS 9. You can also swipe from the left to get a list of customisable widgets.

'Slide to Unlock' has been removed, and instead you'll see 'Press home to open'. Doing so will prompt you to enter your passcode or will unlock the phone if you use Touch ID.

2. Siri

The biggest change to Siri (other than the fact that it's launching on Mac! See our macOS Sierra update for that) seems to be that Apple is opening it up to 3rd-party developers. This means that you'll be able to activate non-Apple apps and functions via voice control.

As an example, Craig Federighi explained that you can now ask Siri things like "Send a WeChat to X" (or, using natural language, "WeChat Nancy that I'll be five minutes late" and so on). There will be Siri support in Slack, WhatsApp, Uber, Lyft, Shutterfly, Pinterest, Map My Run, RunKeeper and lots more apps.

3. QuickType

Apple is "bringing Siri intelligence to the keyboard". Which mainly manifests itself in the use of artificial intelligence and context cues to offer more suitable and relevant suggestions when typing. QuickType is pretty handy and a genuine time-saver at the moment, but remains unsophisticated. If it's half as good in iOS 9 as the demos suggested, it's about to get a lot better at predicting what you want to say.

What's more, QuickType is going to become more proactive at bringing in data from other apps and offering it as part of your responses. If someone asks where you are, it will offer your location as a suggested response; if someone asks for a person's email address and iOS thinks it knows who that is, it will suggest the relevant contact details.

There will be support for multilingual typing - in other words, not in just one language or another, but in a blend of the two. You won't have to switch keyboards to do this, Apple said, although they didn't offer details. Will you have to tell iOS that you want it to make suggestions in English and Spanish, say, but not French or Italian? Or will it learn your preferences on the fly? We really hope it's the latter.

4. Photos

Like QuickType, Photos has been given an injection of artifical intelligence. Apple says it will use deep learning techniques to analyse faces, places and objects - the company boasted, if we didn't mishear, that 11 billion computations are made per photo - and use its findings to build smart albums for you.

Photos can draw together linked photos and videos by place, people and time, and automatically create highlight reels and trip mementoes; Apple calls this 'Memories'. It demonstrated a good-looking photo/video album created from a holiday, where individual videos had been cut to include the most relevant bits of footage. Federighi was then able to adjust some sliders and see it remade with a different mood and length. All very impressive on stage, but we'll obviously need to test this for ourselves.

5. Maps

Maps gets a new design in iOS 10; like some of the other apps that have been revamped for this update, it looked broadly simpler and cleaner. Apple says the controls are easier to access.

Maps now does more in advance, with the proactive elements we've seen before in iOS coming to the fore. Slide upwards from the bottom of Maps and you get suggested destinations. If you normally go to work at this time, then your workplace will be on there. Another location may be drawn from a calendar appointment for this time.

You can sub-filter when searching for nearby businesses. Fitter for restaurants; then filter for seafood restaurants.

Like Google Maps, Apple Maps in iOS 10 takes traffic into account dynamically, and offers alternative routes on the fly if traffic makes them preferable. Unlike Google Maps (we think), its interface will zoom in and out cleverly, depending on the distance to the next turning and other factors.

And, like many of the other features here, Apple is opening Maps up to developers. (Openness is a theme tonight.) This means you'll be able to book a ride with Uber and pay for the ride using Apple Pay, all without leaving Maps.

6. Music

As we expected, Apple Music has had a major visual redesign - and to be fair, it looks good. It also gets onscreen lyrics for some songs, although you may have to wait for the lyrics for your favourite song to be added.

Better still, whilst taking Live Photos, your music will continue playing - allowing you to have uninterrupted music sessions.

We really like the look of Apple Music 2.0, and we've discussed it in far more detail in a separate article: Complete guide to Apple Music's new features.

7. News

Quick one, this: Apple News has been redesigned - like the other apps here, it becomes cleaner and simpler. But more interestingly, Apple has added subscriptions in News. (More and more this is becoming the app that Apple wanted Newsstand to be.)

Oh, and there will be 'Breaking news' notifications from News.

8. HomeKit & new Home app

And now a bigger one. Apple is getting serious about smart homes and the internet of things, launching a dedicated app, Home, for controlling all the appliances that are compatible with HomeKit.

If you open up Home, you'll see all your HomeKit-compatible accessories, no matter which company makes them, and you can easily control them all from one hub. Many of these will have 3D Touch shortcuts: you can force-tap and slide on a dimmer app, for instance, to adjust light levels.

There are some really nice features in Home. One is called Scenes, which is effectively a pre-customised set of adjustments across a range of accessories that you can activate with a single tap or Siri command.

In the demonstration, the user is getting ready for bed and taps a button in Home labelled 'Goodnight'. This invokes an entire raft of smart-home instructions: it locks the door, adjusts the thermostat, draws the curtains and so on. Similarly, there could be a 'Good morning Siri' command that gets your home ready for the day.

Home will be built into iOS's Control Centre, and Home notifications will be interactive - Apple demonstrated a door notification that can be 3D Touched, bringing up a live feed of the door camera and the ability to unlock the door.

9. Phone

The all-important but often neglected Phone app gets a single big enhancement: voicemail transcription. iOS will convert speech into text so you can glance through a voicemail without having to listen to it. Will be great if it's accurate enough (and remember that it doesn't need to be that accurate, since you're just trying to get the gist; if it's clearly important, you can just listen to the message).

One other update: Apple has pledged to work with third parties to provide more information about known voicemail spammers, so you can be warned when one is ringing.

10. Messages

And to finish up, a huge (if often slightly silly) update for what Apple pointed out is the most frequently used app in iOS. There are lots of small updates here, many of them clearly aimed at a young audience.

You'll be able to use rich links in Messages. Share a link and, as it would in Slack or Twitter, artwork and a precis of the article may be pulled in, so your friends can get an idea of the gist without having to click.

Emoji will be three times the size, and emoji will be incorporated into predictive text: bad news for those who are sick of all the emoji in messages they get from iPhone-owning mates. In fact it goes even further: Messages can scan a message you're about to send and highlight all the words that could be replaced with emoji. Tap them one by one and they'll transform into the appropriate pictures.

You'll be able to add various bubble effects to your messages, too.

You can make a message (including pictures, if you wish) come up in 'invisible ink', which means it's blurred out until the recipient swipes across it with a finger. This is designed for situations when you want to surprise someone with a nice message and want to delay the moment of gratification for a little longer. We'd hope that iPhone owners won't use this for dumping their other halves.

Other effects include 'Slam', which makes the speech bubble briefly bulge outwards dramatically, and others that make the text initially smaller than normal.

Wait, there's more. You can send handwritten messages; you can use Digital Touch and send your heartbeat (another nod to watchOS). You can use full-screen visual effects on your messages, so that the entire screen lights up with a garish laser show if that's what you want. It's all a bit much for us oldies but, to quote Marty McFly, your kids are going to love it.

Other features: Delete preinstalled apps

Apple didn't mention this in the keynote presentation for obvious reasons - it doesn't want to highlight the fact that users have been crying out for the ability to delete its apps. But they have been crying out for that, and for the ability to get back the storage space they were taking up. (Although Apple stresses that they don't take up much space anyway: "all of them together use less than 150MB".)

It's a huge relief that in iOS 10, you'll be able to ditch many of Apple's preinstalled apps from your iPhone or iPad, but it's worth pointing out that the apps aren't really "deleted" in the strict sense; all that happens is the app icon is hidden, links to functions like Siri are temporarily severed, and user data associated with the app is deleted. But the app itself remains on your system, albeit hidden from your view.

Amusingly, if you want to bring back the app after deleting it, iOS forces you to go through the charade of visiting the App Store, finding the app and 'redownloading it' - but really this could have been accomplished by just flicking a toggle switching in Settings. Apple does it this way in order to keep the user experience consistent.

We explain how to delete (or perhaps we should say, as Apple does, "remove") preinstalled apps in iOS 10 - and some workarounds that let you do roughly the same thing in iOS 9 and earlier - in a separate article: How to delete Stocks, Maps and other preinstalled apps on iPhone or iPad.

Other features: Apple Maps in iOS 10 remembers where you parked your car

If you happen to have a car with CarPlay you'll be pleased to know that iOS 10 now remembers where you've left your car. First discovered by 9to5Mac, Apple Maps now knows when you disconnect your iOS device with your phone from the car's Bluetooth.

The phone will remember where you last parked the car and give you directions back to it, so if you are often forgetful the new added feature is a nice addition. You can also edit the location of the parked car with an updated location and even add more context to the dropped pin, by adding the level/parking lot number.

Other features: RAW images in iOS 10

If you've got an iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone SE or 9.7-inch iPad Pro, there's good news: you're going to get the option to take RAW images, meaning captured images will offer a lot more level of detail for those wanting to professionally edit the photos. The RAW images will be bigger in file size, of course, so there are down sides.

The RAW images functionality will only be available through the rear-facing camera and you won't be able to use image stabilisation.

Other new features

You'll now be able to enable or disable the read receipts that were introduced back in iOS 7 on an individual basis. Currently you can only universally change it, but now you'll be able to change it per contact or group.

There are very slight changes to the app and folder animations, which make the folders in your app drawer zoom in from the centre of the screen, rather than the folder's location on your screen.

Live Photos now feature image stabilisation, which will hopefully help make the images a little clearer.

The default Clock app now has a Wake Alarm and Bedtime feature. As well as waking you up, you can choose to be reminded when it's time to go to sleep in order for you to get your desired hours of rest.

Like macOS Sierra and its storage optimisation option, iOS 10 can be instructed to automatically remove files from your device that haven't been used in a long time, such as songs you rarely play.

Game Center is no more, and has been completely removed from the default stock apps - this is the result of apparently less than 1% of people actually using it. There are

The Safari app has also received some love, with the mobile browser now having the ability to open unlimited tabs, whereas in iOS 9 you could only open 36 tabs. Speaking about tabs, you can now close all tabs, rather than individually going through each tab and closing it - a useful feature for those who tend to leave many tabs open at once. To do this in the new iOS 10, tap and hold on the new Tab button within Safari and you'll be presented to close all your Tabs at once.

Within Safari, you can also play in-line videos without having to watch the video in fullscreen mode. This simple functionality allows you to continue reading the given article, whilst having a video play in the background.

You can now clear all of your notifications within the Notification Center, allowing you to quickly clear those Instagram likes...or messages.

3D Touch can be used to rename folders, control downloads and have Siri suggest recommended apps.

With tvOS, you can now use the new Apple TV Remote app, to control your Apple TV.

New features in iOS 10 Beta 2

On 5 July 2016, Apple released its iOS 10 update, Beta 2. The update is currently only available to developers and not the general public; however we expect the public beta to be released this summer.

Here's a list of best new features present in the iOS 10 Beta 2:

The iMessage App has received an update with new animated stickers. Classic Mac,hands, hearts and smileys are the four new sticker packs freely available to download. We're sure there will be even more packs available in the future, especially from third-party companies.

Speaking of messages, you're now able to send low quality images through the Messages app, which lets you conserve data.

You can now 3D Touch Quick Action items. This makes using the Quick Actions within your Control Centre a lot faster and easier. For example, you can now change the Flashlight's intensity with three separate levels of brightness - very handy!

Widgets can now work in a larger format. Previously certain apps, such as the calculator or calendar apps wouldn't display properly due to widget limitations. Now with larger widgets, these apps work a lot better in a widget-format.

As Slide to Unlock has disappeared in iOS 10, Apple has provided the option to simply rest your finger on the screen to unlock it. You can find the 'Rest Finger to Unlock' option within the Accessibility settings.

Folders are no longer transparent. With the first iOS 10 Beta came transparent folders. Apple has since gone back on its choice to make it transparent and reverted to a glassy look.

In other features that have been reverted back, the iOS keyboard now has the same click sounds in iOS 9. This comes from a very slight sound change in the iOS 10 keyboard. Some didn't like it and it seems Apple agrees.

A feedback app has been added, allowing you to report crashes and bugs to Apple. We're not sure if the app will be present after iOS 10 comes out of beta, but it's in there now!

Widgets in the Notification Centre are now accessible through the Home Screen. Previously, you were only able to see widgets through the 'Today' section. That's now a thing of the past, as you're now able to view it in both sections.

Dark Mode: the new feature that got away

It was widely expected that iOS 10 would feature a new viewing mode called Dark Mode, with black backgrounds more suitable and restful for nighttime viewing. In the event, Apple announced exactly that, but for tvOS instead, and iOS Dark Mode remains missing in action.

Oddly enough, one of the principal planks supporting pre-launch Dark Mode speculation has shifted, too.

Several Apple fans noticed that, if you asked Siri in iOS 9.3.2 to turn on Dark Mode, it responded by saying "Sorry, but I'm not able to change that setting." That setting - suggesting that the setting existed or soon would, but Siri could not yet control it.

(Generally speaking, if you ask Siri to do something that it can't, it will either say that it doesn't understand, or run an internet search of your phrase. For some other modes we invented, ranging from "Privacy Mode" to "High-Speed Mode", Siri got confused and turned on something that it seemed to think was close enough. But we couldn't get him to say "I'm not able to change that setting" for any fictional setting other than "Dark Mode".)

In the developer preview of iOS 10, however, the instruction to "turn on Dark Mode" gets a different response: "I can't find that scene." Siri now associates Dark Mode with the Home app, and assumes it must be a Scene - a preconfigured group of settings for various smart-home appliances, obviously including in this case the lights - that it hasn't been properly briefed about. The plot thickens.

Nevertheless, we expect iOS Dark Mode to appear before long. Andy Wiik, an app developer who previously released screenshots of Messages running in Dark Mode, has now posted images of the Settings app in Dark Mode that he obtained by using the iOS 10 Simulator.

Picture credit: Andy Wiik

Wiik postulates that Dark Mode will be controlled by a toggle button in Control Centre, and supports this theory with another screenshot from iOS 10 Simulator, this time showing a sixth, blank button to the right of the lock rotation switch.

The idea of Dark Mode is a sort of extension of Night Shift, but instead of simply warming up the colour output of the screen after sundown in order to reduce disruption to the human circadian cycle and loss of sleep, it proposes a radical, system-wide interface redesign for nighttime. Instead of basing the interface around the colour white, it would be based around black - a much easier colour scheme to see and use at night, as evidenced by the strategy already being used by many satnav interfaces, as well as some Apple apps.

"An iOS Dark Mode would be modelled after what Apple has already done with the Apple Watch app for iPhone and dark themes in iBooks," explains Federico Viticci, who featured Dark Mode in his iOS 10 concept video, made with the design Sam Beckett. Viticci cites benefits of such a mode including increased contrast, higher legibility and improved accessibility for those with limited vision.

Dark Mode concept designs

Here's how Viticci envisions Dark Mode. We think it's a terrific, and well-executed, concept.

iHelp BR has also shared concept images on how the dark theme could look like. Below is an image from iHelp BR showcasing how the settings menu could look like. With WWDC just around the corner, these latest rumours could make their way to all iOS 10-compatible devices soon.

WWDC 2016: Podcast - WWDC report

The UK Tech Weekly Podcast dissects the announcements of WWDC, including iOS 10, in its 19th episode. We've embedded the audio below in case you'd like to hear what the team have to say. The WWDC section starts at the 26:30 point.

Will you update to iOS 10?

Are you convinced by the new features we've discussed in this article?

WWDC 2016

Apple's WWDC 2016 conference starts tonight - 13 June 2016 - at 6 pm UK time, and will continue throughout the week. The latest versions of iOS, Mac OS X, tvOS and watchOS will be showcased to the developers who will creating apps for the various platforms.

Tickets for WWDC 2016 were distributed by lottery, but that closed some months ago. If you want to watch the announcements live (and read analysis of what they mean for you), head over to our dedicated WWDC 2016 page.

A new iOS lifecyle

Interestingly, our colleague Dan Moren over at Macworld US has a different idea and speculates that iOS 9 is the start of a new iOS lifecycle at Apple. Moren thinks that because the iPhone has matured over the years, it’s not necessary to keep adding major new features on a yearly basis for the purpose of generating interest.

"There's no denying that Apple’s current approach has worked fine so far. I certainly wouldn't argue that it hasn’t been successful. But the platform and the smartphone market as a whole have both evolved considerably…" Moren wrote."So, to me, the goal now seems one of sustainability: keeping the iPhone and its users updated and happy, possibly with a steady stream of smaller updates rather than a single major tentpole release every summer."

Moren uses the Apple's announcement of iOS 9.3 as evidence - historically, Apple prefers to save its more interesting updates for numerical updates which, up until now, happened once every 12 months. The release of the iOS 9.3 beta this late in the iOS 9 life-cycle is a weird move from Apple, especially as it includes features like Night Shift mode, Touch ID protection for Notes and a number of new 3D Touch shortcuts, which would usually be considered major additions to iOS.

It doesn't stop there either; Apple is offering a public beta for the iOS 9.3 update and has even dedicated a whole page to the update on its website. It's a strange move because they are moves that Apple would usually save for major new iOS releases, not incremental updates.

So, what can we expect to see from Apple's 10th iteration of iOS? Though no details are yet confirmed, we've scoured the internet for the most interesting rumours regarding iOS 10, which you can find below. We'll be updating this article constantly, so make sure you check back every now and again for more news and rumours.

See also: iPhone 6s review

iOS 10 new features rumours: Users will be able to hide Apple's own apps

Update, 7 April 2016: AppAdvice has discovered some new code that's been added to every app on the App Store, and it suggests that Apple is planning to add the ability to hide its own apps.

This code adds an entry labelled "isFirstPartyHideableApp" for each app, and while this entry is universally labelled as "false" at present, the implication is that at some point in the near future you'll be able to hide at least some of Apple's own apps (such as Stocks, Game Center, Tips and so on) so they're not visible on your Home screen. Presumably not all, otherwise having two separate entries for "isFirstParty" and "isFirstPartyHideableApp" would be redundant.

The most obvious time to unveiled this new feature would be at WWDC 2016, alongside iOS 10 - although whether such a feature would be exclusive to iOS 10 users, or merely coincide with its launch, remains to be seen.

This would be a highly popular feature, of course, given how many people search forways to delete or hide preinstalled apps. It's disappointing that Apple is focusing on hiding rather than deleting its own apps, however - the (admittedly small amount of) storage space will still be wasted - but it would be a good start. 

iOS 10 new feature rumours: 'Rootless' security system will make iOS 9 impossible to jailbreak

Hard to see this one as good news: for those of us who don't jailbreak, it'll make no difference, and it'll be a nightmare for jailbreakers who want to update to the next generation of iOS.

It's believed that iOS 10 will be unprecedentedly difficult to jailbreak thanks to a new security system that Apple is working on called 'Rootless'.

Redmond Pie reports that this system "is aimed at preventing even administrator-level users from gaining access to certain file systems on an iPhone, iPad or Mac - though it's believed that it can be disabled on the company's desktop OS… Apple has been plugging holes in iOS for years, holes that jailbreakers have historically used to gain access to parts of the system that they would normally not be able to interact with. It's this opening up of iOS at a fundamental level that is likely to be thwarted by Apple's 'Rootless' technology, leaving jailbreakers very much at the beginning of what could be a long and difficult journey."

Since we don't know Redmond Pie's unnamed sources, we can't verify this report for ourselves; and the site admits that it doesn't know if Rootless will make an appearance in the next software updates (to both mac OS X and iOS) or at some point after that. But jailbreakers will be awaiting this year's WWDC announcements with some concern, we imagine.

See also: How to jailbreak an iPhone or iPad

iOS 10 new feature rumours: HomeKit hub, possibly called 'Home'

Update 12 May 2016: There were recent rumours about Apple developing standalone HomeKit apps. The rumour ended up being an internet hoax, but the principle of standalone apps might be something that Apple could potentially launch in the future. We don't see it happening in iOS 10, but Apple is always known for holding back its surprises!

HomeKit is Apple's take on the Internet of Things concept: a platform that will allow you to control home appliances and other non-traditional connected devices from your iPhone or Mac. Apple has announced the platform, but we are still waiting for an accompanying iOS app - especially with HomeKit-compatible devices now widely available for purchase. It’s worth noting that if you do own a HomeKit-compatible device, you’re able to control it via Siri in iOS 9.

Naturally it makes sense for this important new product area for Apple to be a focus of attention in future software updates, and we expect to see a new HomeKit-focused app in iOS 10 called, most likely, 'Home'.

This app would be a little like Health: a central hub that's used to communicate with a wide variety of external devices and collate their data. As my colleague Caitlin McGarry explains it, "The app will cluster your HomeKit devices by virtual rooms, so you can easily see which accessory you want to turn on, turn off, or adjust without actually looking at it."

We can't wait: by the end of next year, we could all be using our iPhones to examine the contents of our fridges and turn on the heating shortly before we arrive home.

iPhone 7 concept

iOS 10 new feature rumours: iCloud Voicemail

Apple is said to be conducting internal testing of a new feature of Siri; one that'll allow your virtual assistant to talk to your callers and transcribe your voicemail messages into text. The iCloud Voicemail is said to replace standard voicemail, with one particular feature being able to quickly glance at and read voicemail messages, rather than having to listen to them. Business Insider has reported that the service is expected to launch this year, depending on its reliability (hence why Apple employees are internally trialling the service).

So, how will this new feature work? Apparently, when someone using iCloud Voicemail is unable to take a call, Siri will answer instead of letting the call go to your standard voicemail. iCloud Voicemail should be able to relay information to (selected) callers regarding where the recipient is, and why he/she can't answer the phone. Siri will then transcribe the incoming voicemail as it does whenever the virtual assistant is used.

If the service passes internal testing and is reliable enough, we should see iCloud Voicemail launching next year along with iOS 10 - and we can't wait.

iOS 10 new feature rumours: Contact availability status

A patent that has recently been granted shows that Apple is considering a new feature that would enable iPhone users to view at a glance whether their contacts are available for a conversation, and where they are.

The abstract of the patent reads:

"A command is received at an operating system of a first mobile phone for displaying contact information of a remote user having a mobile phone number of a second mobile phone. In response to the command, a request is transmitted to a remote server from the first mobile phone over a cellular network requesting an operating status of the second mobile phone. The operating status of the second mobile phone is received from the remote server over the cellular network. The operating status of the second mobile phone is displayed on a display of the first mobile phone as a part of contact information of the remote user associated with the second mobile phone, where the operating status includes current locality of the second mobile phone."

Which sounds complicated, but can be further summarised as a system that detects where your friends are, and whether they're available and the operating status of their iPhone (such as silent or Airplane mode), and presents that information in the Contacts app. If you're thinking that has the whiff of surveillance about it - well, it does, but only to the same extent as Find My Friends, and it would presumably be optional for both parties.

iOS 10 new feature rumours: Apple Music to receive an overhaul

With Apple Music always building on its success, we might see the app get overhauled or updated.

There are rumours around Apple Music getting a complete overhaul, whilst other think it will be a simplistic design change which will put a greater emphasis on making the app bolder and simpler to use.

Some even think that 3D Touch will be more prominently used within the app to help with navigation and sharing capabilities.

iOS 10 wishlist: Features we hope will make it to iOS 10

We at Macworld UK put our heads together and thought about some of the features we'd like to see included in iOS 10, from small changes to completely new ideas - and here are our best.

Smart Wi-Fi: The P9 is one of a number of Huawei phones to offer a feature called Wi-Fi+ (or Wi-Fi+ 2.0, to be more specific). This encompasses a number of elements, such as the prioritisation of stronger connections, but the one we like best is its ability to automatically turn Wi-Fi on or off depending on your location. It remembers the location of known networks and activates in order to join them, but when you leave the area it turns Wi-Fi off to save battery.

Given the iPhones' recent difficulty competing on battery life with the top-end Android devices, something along these lines would be a fine addition to iOS 10.

Ability to change video resolution in-app: One of the selling points of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus is that they're able to record in full 4K resolution at 30fps, as well as the standard 1080p at 60fps or 30fps. The only issue we have is that there is no easy way to change between the resolutions from within the Camera app, and we have to exit the app, head to Settings > Camera to be able to change it.

Certain situations, such as filming in low light, require a lower frame rate (less frames = more light captured) and changing it manually takes around 10-15 seconds, which isn't ideal. We would love a way to quickly change the resolution and frame rate, possibly by tapping an icon in the Camera app. It’s a simple change to make, and would be largely appreciated by those that like to capture video on their iPhones.

View Favourites in Contacts app: Another fairly simple change we'd like to see made in iOS 10 is the ability to view and edit the list of favourites, currently only found in the Phone app. It makes sense to be able to access your favourite contacts from within the Contacts app, and we're not quite sure why Apple hasn’t yet added this functionality. Sometimes we want easy access to our contacts for other reasons, not just for calling!

Customise the Control Center: The Control Center is one of the most underrated features of iOS, enabling easy access to various toggles and controls without having to open the Settings app. The only issue we have is that we can't personalise any of the toggles, as we'd like to be able to swap out little-used toggles for shortcuts to apps/settings we frequently use. For example, we very rarely use the Control Center to access the Calculator app – we’d much prefer easy access to Twitter, for example.

While on the topic of the Control Center, we'd like to be able to quickly access the settings of each of the toggles with a force touch on the latest iPhones. For example, we’d like to be able to force press the Wi-Fi toggle to quickly access the Wi-Fi menu to connect to a new network.

Designer Sam Beckett seems to have some similar ideas, as shown in the video below.

Lockscreen widgets: Taking a feature from Android, we would love to see lockscreen widgets being used in the new iOS 10. This would allow users to access certain features like direct lockscreen notification replies, weather apps displaying extra information and even the ability to change your alarm clock, all from your lockscreen.

A video below by iPhone-Tricks demonstrates a concept of how this would work.

iOS 10 concept videos

Update 12 May 2016: A concept video of rumoured features by iPhone-Tricks:

Update, 22 April 2016: Sam beckett, working with Federico Viticci, has come up with another iOS 10 concept video. It's a cracker:

Designer and animator Sam Beckett has come up with an interesting and good-looking iOS 10 concept video that shows a new Control Centre with 3D Touch features, a Dark Mode and more.