So you just got a brand new iPhone 16, transferred everything from your old phone, and now you’re ready to play with your shiny new toy. What do you do first? Obviously, you’ll want to check out the apps you’ve already been using on your old iPhone for so long, probably amazed at how quickly they load and how smooth and responsive everything is.
So what? Here are our suggestions for the next things you should do with your iPhone 16 or iPhone 16 Pro. And since the iPhone 16 will be the first iPhone most people will want that’s capable of running Apple Intelligence, there’s plenty of neat new stuff to try.
Update to iOS 18.2
If you have an iPhone 16 series handset, it came with iOS 18 and may even already be updated to iOS 18.1. But you should check if it already has the latest version of iOS on it: iOS 18.2. It arrived in mid-December and adds features primarily for iPhone 16 users such as Visual Intelligence, Image Playground, Genmoji and ChatGPT integration. In addition, there are several bug fixes and security updates, so you should install it ASAP. To get it, open Settings and then tap General and Software update.
Enable Apple Intelligence
You almost certainly got a pop-up screen during setup telling you about Apple Intelligence and giving you the option to turn it on. But it’s easy to just hit “next…next…next” on these screens and not really pay attention.
If you need to enable Apple Intelligence, you can open Settings, select Apple Intelligence & Siriand then press Get Apple Intelligence.
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Your iPhone must have the device language and Siri language set to one of the supported languages for Apple Intelligence (as of iOS 18.2, English (Australia), English (Canada), English (Ireland), English (New Zealand), English (South Africa ), English (UK) and English (US)).
You can enter a small waiting list, but it typically lasts minutes or hours rather than days. Then your iPhone will download the Apple Intelligence models and you’ll be ready to go in no time.
All the Apple Intelligence features may not work optimally until your phone has finished background processing and indexing, so it’s a good idea to keep it plugged in for a while while it updates.
Tweak Camera Control settings
One of the iPhone 16’s hot new features is Camera Control, the new bottom-right button that’s flush with the edge. It can launch your favorite camera app, act as a shutter button, and even adjust some camera functions with swipes and taps.
But it’s a bit touchy, and with the default settings it might be more of an annoyance than a benefit. We have a guide to fixing the camera control button that details the settings you can change.
A set of options is in Settings > Camera > Camera control and the other is inside Availability > Camera control.
Dive into both of these menus to set up the camera control knob and get it working the way you like it. It will make a big difference! And don’t forget – you can turn it all off if you can’t get it to work the way you want.
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You can do this on any iPhone, but many people don’t yet, and it could save your life one day. So setting up a new iPhone is the perfect time to open the Health app to enter important medical ID information and create an emergency contact. Medical ID information can display critical medical information or allergies on your lock screen to a first responder, and an emergency contact is someone who can be called in an emergency by pressing and holding the side and volume buttons.
- First, open the Health app.
- Then press your profile picture top right.
- Press on Medical ID.
- Enter any critical medical information that a first responder would need to know in the event of an accident and an emergency contact you would like to contact.
Customize your home screen and control center
If this is your first iPhone, or if you just haven’t spent much time with iOS 18 yet, you might not know that you can now greatly customize both your Home screen and Control Center.
You can add widgets and place them anywhere, tint icons, make icons large without text and much more. And you can add Control Center controls to all kinds of third-party apps now and resize or rearrange them.
Check out our guide to customizing your home screen or control center in iOS 18 and give your fresh new iPhone 16 a fresh new look.
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Adjust the new Photos app
Speaking of customizing iOS 18, the new Photos app definitely needs a few tweaks. If you’re a long-time iPhone user, you’ll notice that it’s completely overhauled, and if you’re new to the platform, you might see a lot of things you don’t necessarily want.
In just a few minutes, you can change the Photos app to show only the categories you want, in the order you want, and you can create (and rearrange) pinned collections that take you right where you go most.
Our guide to customizing the Photos app tells you everything you need to know.
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Read the manual
Did you know that your iPhone actually has a manual? No, it didn’t come in the box…it would never fit in there. Apple keeps it online. But it’s super helpful to have a nicely organized, hyperlinked guide to your iPhone hardware and iOS 15 online in the iPhone User Guide. You’ll be surprised how many helpful details there are and how much you’ll learn just by reading the instructions!