It’s a tradition now. Every September Apple releases its new iOS version alongside its new iPhones. And this year is no exception. Available as of September 12, iOS 16 comes with a bunch of brilliant new features that will be game-changing for security, privacy, and multitasking. A good reason for enterprise users to make the move.
When it comes to iOS 16, it is no surprise that most new features are consumer-friendly updates. However, there are plenty of reasons for enterprise users to upgrade, including privacy, productivity and security-enhancing tweaks boosting reinforcing working from anywhere, anytime and on any device.
1. A new and highly secure Lockdown Mode
When you believe that you may be personally targeted by a highly sophisticated cyberattack, you can turn on Apple’s newest security feature, Lockdown Mode. Lockdown Mode temporarily switches off certain core features of your iPhone that are frequently used by spyware makers to break through the security defenses. By blocking these features, the iPhone’s attack surface is vastly reduced, making it more difficult to plant spyware on the device.
2. Say hello to Rapid Security Response
Rapid Security Response is an important update for enterprise security. When Rapid Security Response is enabled, security patches will be automatically downloaded and/or installed when they are available. Besides, Apple has created two new APIs for MDM service providers, enabling IT admins to either enforce or prevent the use of this new feature across their fleet of Apple devices.
3. The introduction of Passkeys
The end of passwords is a long way off, but Passkeys might be the mass adoption to passwordless authentication that we have been hoping for. With Passkeys, Apple gives us a more secure and even faster way to log into our accounts without the need to enter a password. Passkeys let you sign into websites and apps by authenticating with your face or fingerprint using Face ID or Touch ID.
4. Big improvements in Single Sign-On
To further enhance the user experience, Apple launches Enrollment Single Sign On (SSO), a new and faster method to enroll personal devices in MDM. This new technology is combing account-driven enrollment with extensible SSO and delivers upon the promise: signing in once and gaining access to all corporate information.
5. Data separation in calendar and reminders
On iPhones enrolled with User Enrollment, Apple now supports full calendar and reminder data separation. When a user signs in with its managed Apple ID, the app will create a second database containing all events and metadata related to your business’ calendars and reminders, protecting both the user’s privacy and your sensitive corporate data.
6. Copy paste permissions
A small, but important security addition is the copy and paste permissions. iOS 16 now blocks apps from accessing the content of your phone’s clipboard, preventing apps from automatically reading sensitive information like a password copied from password manager or uploading the data without permission.
7. Welcome, Managed Device Attestation
Prior to remote work, IT departments focused a lot of their time on security by location, a model that doesn’t keep up with how people interact in modern and remote organizations. Apple’s response to this problem? Managed Device Attestation, a new security feature for iPads and iPhones that will use the device’s Secure Enclave to provide strong assurances that the device requesting access to corporate resources is the device that it claims to be. In use, Managed Device Attestation helps protect vulnerable endpoints and enterprise services against various forms of security compromises.
8. Declarative Device Management 2.0
Back in 2021, Apple introduced Declarative Device Management, a new way of managing devices that only requires lightweight server controls. With iOS 16, Apple aims at making managed devices even more proactive and intelligent. MDM systems will now gather early warning signs when unauthorized changes are made on an automated or profile-based enrolled device.
9. An upgrade for Apple Configurator For iPhone
With the introduction of iPadOS and iOS 16, Apple Configurator for iPhone can now add Macs, iPhones, and iPad devices to your Apple Business Manager and/or Apple School Manager account when you scan the required screen in the Setup Assistant. An excellent and efficient alternative to Apple Configurator in Mac where you had to connect the iPhones and iPads to the Mac device with a USB cable.
10. Managed per-app networking
Apple is extending the per-app managed networking capabilities it supports to include DNS proxies and web content filters for iOS 16 devices enrolled with User Enrollment. A new feature that helps ensure that only network traffic initiated by managed apps travels through a corporate web content filter or DNS Proxy, keeping your employees’ personal traffic separated and unfiltered. Two birds with one stone!
11. Easily swapping to eSIMS
With iOS 16, you will be able to transfer an eSIM onto another iPhone via Bluetooth. To do so, you just have to move your older iPhone close to your new one and follow the Set Up Cellular command dialog.
12. Improved Focus Mode
Focus Mode is a feature that was introduced with iOS 15 but is expended in iOS 16. The new software allows users to set a different Focus per Lock Screen. Besides, you now have the ability to set boundaries within Apple applications such as Safari, Mail, Messages, and Calendar, which will assist you in concentrating on more important endeavors.
13. Handoff in FaceTime
That Facetime is a powerful tool for making video calls is no secret. However, with iOS 16, Apple is making this tool even more powerful for business. By introducing Handoff in Facetime, business users can now seamlessly transfer a Facetime call between their iPhone, iPad and iMac devices. When being nearby other Apple devices, a handover button will appear in Facetime, allowing users to pick the device they want to transition to. What makes this new feature even better is that your Bluetooth headphones will also move with the connection, perfect for meetings on the go!
14. Enhancements to the Mail App
When you are an active user of Apple’s native mail client, we have some good news for you. Mail gets tons of improvements in iOS 16 including improved search, undo send, schedule send, and follow up. The latter reminds you to follow up if you haven’t had a response.
15. Easily sharing Wi-Fi passwords
Have you ever been frustrated by the inability to access the Wi-Fi password of the network that you are currently connected to? That’s changing in IOS 16! In the iPhone’s Wi-Fi settings, you can now see the password of the network that you are currently connected to.
16. Editing and unsending messages
With SMS and instant messaging playing an increasingly important role in business communications, it’s crucial that every message that your staff members send out is as well written. However, as mistakes happen to the best of us, Apple users can now edit their messages after they have been sent. When sending a message to the wrong person, the message can be unsent. When having made a typo or grammatical error, the mistakes can be edited and updated. All you have to do is long tap the message and the option to edit or unsend will appear shortly after.