When iOS 16.3 arrives net week, it’ll have a few new interesting features, including support for the 2nd-gen HomePod and physical security keys. It’ll also contain two big fixes that iPhone users have been waiting for.
According to Apple’s release notes and the release candidate, which hit beta devices Wednesday, iOS 16.3 “fixes an issue where horizontal lines may temporarily appear while waking up iPhone 14 Pro Max.” Over the past several weeks, some iPhone 14 users have complained about horizontal lines flashing across their screens. According to reports on social media and discussion boards, the lines appear when the iPhone wakes up or restarts. Additionally, the release fixes some nagging bugs with the Lock Screen, Siri, and CarPlay:
- Addresses an issue where the wallpaper may appear black on the Lock Screen
- Fixes an issue where the Home Lock Screen widget does not accurately display Home app status
- Addresses an issue where Siri may not respond properly to music requests
- Resolves issues where Siri requests in CarPlay may not be understood correctly
The other issue is related to the new Home architecture that previously arrived in iOS 16.2. Just before the holidays, Apple pulled the feature, which improves reliability and efficiency, due to a sharing issue–but without providing an update on when it would be restored. The Home architecture upgrade re-appeared in the second iOS 16.3 beta, suggesting that Apple has fixed the issue. However, there isn’t a mention of it in the release notes, so it’s unclear whether it will be part of iOS 16.3 or arrive as a separate update.
iOS 16.3 is expected to arrive on Tuesday or Wednesday alongside macOS Ventura 13.2.