Apple releases iOS 16.3 with support for new HomePod and watchOS 9.3

As promised last week, Apple today released iOS 16.3 to all supported devices. If you have a compatible iPhone and it hasn’t notified you about the update yet, you can retrieve it by going to Settings > General > Software Update. That’s the beauty of Apple’s deployments, they’re not staged.

The new version supports Apple ID security keys, enabling physical two-factor authentication for Apple ID logins. You also get a new Unity wallpaper and support for the just-unveiled second-gen HomePod.

The Emergency SOS feature has been tweaked to prevent accidental calls – you activate it by pressing and holding the side button with the volume up or volume down button together, but the call won’t go through until the buttons will not be released.

Of course, there’s also an assortment of bugfixes, including an issue in Freeform where certain strokes created with a finger or Apple Pencil weren’t appearing on shared boards, an issue that caused the wallpaper to appear in black on the lock screen, one that caused horizontal lines to appear temporarily when waking up the iPhone 14 Pro Max, and one that caused the Home app lock screen widget not to show a status precise.

An issue that prevented Siri from responding correctly to music requests has also been resolved, as have issues with Siri requests in CarPlay, which may not have been correctly understood.

For those still using iOS 15, Apple also released iOS 15.7.3, and for those with a much older device stuck on iOS 12, there’s iOS 12.5.7, two security updates you probably should install sooner rather than later.

Finally, watchOS 9.3 is now live and it comes with a new watch face, along with some unnamed performance improvements and bug fixes. This is available through the Apple Watch app on the iPhone.

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