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

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

We tell you about the most important ones.

Voice isolation during phone calls

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

Previously, this feature was only available for FaceTime calls and messengers. Now it’s available for cellular communication as well. To activate the technology, you need to swipe Control Point during a call and click on “Microphone” > Voice Isolation.

21 new emoji

To be more precise, even 31: Some of the emoticons are available in several variants. Among them are goose, moose, pushing hand, shaking face, ginger, peas, pink, gray, blue hearts and other icons.

 If you send a new emoji to a conversation partner who hasn’t upgraded to version 16.4 yet, you’ll see a question mark instead of an emoji.

Swipe-keyboard in Russian and Ukrainian

This feature has been awaited for almost four years. And now you can type on the iPhone in two more languages: Russian and Ukrainian.

To type text, simply move your finger from one letter to another: this will help increase the speed of entering words. Space bar is pressed automatically when you take your finger off the screen. But you’ll need to enter punctuation marks manually.

Push notifications in Safari on iPhone

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

“Pushes” will only work through native Safari and if the user has added the web app to the home screen. To do this, open the desired web page and tap the Share icon >Home screen.

What else?

There are other innovations in iOS 16.4 that aren’t noticeable at first glance. Among them:

• iPhone now knows how to find duplicate photos and videos not only in the smartphone gallery, but also in the shared iCloud media library.
• Videos will automatically dim if they have excessively bright flashing lights, flashes or strobe lights.
• A separate Apple ID for downloading beta versions of software. Ordinary users will no longer be able to download beta versions of the new iOS, but only developers registered with Apple through the Apple Developer Program. And for anyone who doesn’t want to pay $99 a year, Public Beta iOS versions will remain.
• Home screen site shortcuts will open in any default browser (not just Safari).
• Podcasts has a new Channels section.
• There is a new app for listening to Apple Music Classical. It is not available for download in some areas.

You can upgrade to iOS 16.4 with iPhone 8 or newer.