Following a lengthy beta period, Apple has now released iOS 9.3 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. iOS 9.3 is a significant feature update for Apple’s mobile operating system, with brand new additions like Night Shift, Touch ID Notes and more. iOS 9.3 runs on every iOS 9-capable device, including the brand new iPhone SE. The update appears to weigh in at a hefty 1.7 gigabytes.
See our full walkthrough of all the new iOS 9.3 features after the break …
iOS 9.3 runs on every iPhone all the way back to the 2011 iPhone 4s, although older device owners may want to wait on upgrading in case of performance issues. Performance issues are not a problem on newer hardware, with iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus as smooth as ever.
iOS 9.3 is supported by every iPad generation since the iPad Air. iOS 9.3 also runs on the fifth and sixth-generation iPod touch. We’ve embedded Apple release notes … but read on for our coverage of iOS 9.3
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- iOS 9.3 Release Notes Page 1
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iOS 9.3 features a lot of new stuff, somewhat uncharacteristically for a .x update, including Night Shift (official Flux for iOS), Touch ID Notes, Verizon WiFi Calling, changes to Apple News, many new 3D Touch gestures and more. We go through everything new below …
Everything New In iOS 9.3
Night Shift, Automatic Color Temperature Changes
Night Shift is long-awaited for many iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users … the feature automatically shifts the color temperature of the screen over the course of the day, gradually reducing the amount of blue light the IOS display emits as daylight ends. This makes your screen look more yellow, but ostensibly has health benefits: it should let your eyes more easily relax and there are studies that indicate this feature can make it easier to fall asleep after using your iPhone in bed.
Night Shift can be enabled in Settings to turn on and off automatically with a schedule; you’ll probably want to set it based on the automatic sunset and sunrise schedule option. However, you can also enable it manually through Control Center: Tap the sun/moon icon in the center of the bottom row of Control Center.
Night Shift is limited to a certain subset of supported hardware, unfortunately. iPhone 5, 5c, 5th-generation iPod touch, iPad mini, iPad 2, iPad 3 and iPad 4 owners all lose out on the ability to adjust the color temperature of their screens.
Notes With Password Protection And Touch ID
As part of iOS 9.3, Apple has added some security features to the Notes app. You can now secure specific notes with a password. On devices equipped with a fingerprint sensor, you can also secure them with Touch ID protection.
Tap the lock button in the Share Actions and set a passphrase, along with a hint reminder. One password is used to protect every note you lock — it’s not a unique password per note. When you back to view this note, you will need to supply either a valid fingerprint or the password to see the contents. The title of the note is always visible in list view, so be sure not to include sensitive data in the first few lines.
Be aware that on non-updated devices, these protected notes are not available. Check all your devices are up-to-date with the latest OS version before using the new Notes features to keep everything in sync.
Landscape Apple News, Top Stories Improvements
Apple has rolled out some enhancements to the News app in iOS 9.3 You can now play embedded videos inline with the main news feed; play buttons replace images where appropriate. You can also view the entire app in landscape on iPhone, useful to take advantage of the additional real estate on an iPhone 6s Plus. There’s a new swipe gesture too, revealing Like, Save and Share actions. Moreover, iOS 9.3 News has a new presentation for Top Stories putting them right at the top of the feed.
Add Activity To Health Dashboard, Discover Health Apps
In iOS 9.3, you can now add Apple Watch Activity statistics (Move calories, Exercise minutes and Stand hours) to the Health app Dashboard. The dashboard is black in appearance, matching the Activity app. When in Day view, the widget shows the Activity rings and three lines of stats. In other timelines (Week, Month, Year), the widget instead shows a graph over time of the tracked Activity metrics.
Health has some other changes too. In detail views for health data, there are new App Store suggestions which track that particular data type. For instance, viewing Steps recommends apps like Movesum, Pedometer++ and CARROT Fitness.
Workout Tab In Activity App
The Activity app, revealed on the Home Screen when pairing an Apple Watch, now includes an additional tab to show detailed information for Workouts conducted using Apple Watch. There are filter options to drill down by workout type or date recorded. You can also see an overview summary on a month-by-month basis with totals and averages.
New 3D Touch Quick Actions For Stock Apps
iPhone 6s launched with 3D Touch in September but it didn’t seem like iOS 9 was completely ready for the new hardware feature, with many apps not taking advantage of the pressure-sensitive screen. Apple has filled out the available Quick Actions for stock apps in iOS 9.3. You can now press firmly on the app icons for Settings, Weather, Compass, App Store, iTunes Store and Health to reveal new quick shortcuts. Quick Actions for Settings is notable; 3D Touch is now the fastest way to open WiFi and Bluetooth settings.
CarPlay Updates For Music And Maps
As CarPlay displays render from the iOS device itself, updates to iOS seamlessly improve the CarPlay experience too. With iOS 9.3, CarPlay users will see For You and New tabs in the Apple Music app as well as the addition of Nearby to the Maps app. Nearby brings local points-of-interest and businesses (restaurants, coffee shops, etc) to just one tap away.
Full Screen Video In Podcasts And Apple Music For iPad
An obvious omission in previous versions of iOS is the lack of full-screen option for video podcasts and music videos. This has been rectified with iOS 9.3. There is now a double arrow button in the top-right corner, representing a full-screen control. Tap it to open the usual full-screen iOS video player. Unfortunately, there is still no Picture-In-Picture support.
Sync PDFs With iCloud For iBooks, New Purchased Screen
Finally, iOS will sync user-supplied eBooks and PDFs over iCloud. When launching iBooks on iOS 9.3, the app will ask if you want to enable iBooks for iCloud. Going forward, all devices automatically sync all content, not just purchased iBooks. This relies on iCloud, so what you can store and sync depends on your available iCloud storage space. With the inclusion of comprehensive sync, iBooks becomes a first-class location to manage PDFs on iOS.
The Purchased tab in iBooks has also been revamped to allow filtering by content type: Books or Audiobooks. Apple has recently allowed users to re-download previously purchased audiobooks from iTunes. This change exposes that content.
Multi-User Mode For iPads In Education
For iPads used in education, Apple is introducing a multi-user shared iPad mode for the first time. This will let just one device be used by multiple students in the classroom. iOS 9.3 will automatically download the logged-in user’s data as necessary, including apps, books and documents. The data of previous users is intelligently deleted when the iPad runs low on space. Perhaps this foreshadows a multi-user mode for all customers in iOS 10.
Pair Multiple Apple Watches To One iPhone
For Apple customers owning multiple Apple Watch models, iOS 9.3 includes a handy improvement to how device pairing is handled. Users can now pair multiple Apple Watches to one iPhone. Previously, users would have to repeatedly unpair and repair to switch between different smartwatches. iOS 9.3 includes a toggle to Auto-Switch between paired watches, when the user puts it on and raises their wrist. To take advantage of this feature, you must update your Apple Watches to watchOS 2.2.
Suggested Apps In Wallet
A small change to Wallet is included in the iOS 9.3 release. The app now places App Store recommendations for contextually-relevant apps in the lower-left corner of the screen, in respect to the selected Wallet pass. For instance, for my Santander bank card, I get a quick link to the Santander banking app.
Miscellaneous
Although the above roundup deep dives into every significant change in Apple’s newest mobile operating system, there a few more miscellaneous enhancements in iOS 9.3.
- iOS 9.3 includes Verizon WiFi calling support, so customers on that carrier can use the Internet to make and receive phone calls without relying on the traditional cellular phone signal.
- Apple continues to expands the international availability of Siri; you can now speak voice commands in Malay (for Malaysia), Finnish and Hebrew.
- Live Photos can be duplicated to make a full resolution still photo, from the original moving image.
- On iPhone 6s, using 3D Touch to activate the app switcher triggers haptic vibration for additional feedback.
- Apple has improved support for the iPad Pro with Smart Keyboard across the System. There are more shortcuts in native apps, and some system-wide shortcuts have been simplified (Home is now Cmd+H). You can jump between Spotlight Search results using the arrow keys.
- For developers, iOS 9.3 includes some new APIs to enable developers to manage the Apple Music media library and display Activity rings in third-party apps.
You can download iOS 9.3 for free from Settings. Open Settings -> General -> Software Update to begin the process. Let us know what you think of iOS 9.3, Apple’s latest release of its mobile operating system, in the comments below.
Here’s how Apple describes its latest software update:
With this update your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch gain improvements to Notes, News, Apple Music and a new feature called Night Shift that may even help you get a better night’s sleep by shifting the colors in your display you the warmer end of the spectrum at night. This release also includes additional improvements and bug fixes.
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My phone is refusing to check for updates.
Probably too many people trying to download now.
I think the most interesting aspect of 9.3 is that it dropped support for iPad 2 and 3 mid cycle. This is a first for Apple.
They didn’t. It’s an error in the article. There was an article this morning on 9to5Mac that made the same error, but was updated.
They say: “iOS 9.3 is supported by every iPad generation since the iPad Air.”
But then later they say: “Night Shift is limited to a certain subset of supported hardware, unfortunately. iPhone 5, 5c, 5th-generation iPod touch, iPad mini, iPad 2, iPad 3 and iPad 4 owners all lose out on the ability to adjust the color temperature of their screens.”
iPad 2, 3, and 4 are still supported, but do not have Night Shift mode. It’s pretty normal for some older models to not support all new features. The iPad Air doesn’t support split screen multitasking. Only the iPad Air 2 got that in a software update.
Downloading now :)
That was quick! Updated and installed already. Update came in at 354MB for me.
Is the animation-reducing glitch still working? I hate the time-wasting effects!
Hoping to hear an answer on this too. Faster springboard is important enough to me that I’d be willing to not update and skip these new features just to keep the animations away.
No NightShift mode on iPhone 5? Or is it a bug?
Night shift requires a dual core cpu.
Ment to say requires 64bit CPU
yet F.lux works perfectly on 32 bit CPU devices…
f.lux for iPhone does that, huh?
A tiny tweak that I loved is that the brightness and volume sliders in control centre are far more natural & fluid compared to 9.2 & below
No iphone 5 Night Shift support for me ….
64-bit devices only mate … sorry :)
Final build number is 13E234?
Installed with no issues one and a half hour ago :)
Whats the build number?
Do you know if its good to update 5S? mine got a lot slower past 9.1. Any 5S users? Thanks
5S updated here. Zero issues, feels smoother and quicker, but that’s probably because of the restart.
Sir New Update Se Mera Phone Hang Ho Raha Hai
After upgrading to iOS 9.3, i lost majority of the Google Apps (Youtube, YT Kids, Sheets, Docs, Slides, Wallet, G+, Play Music, Keep, Street View, Handsfree) and I had re-download all of them.. :(
Apparently, there are some other apps missing too.. I see some blank spots and am trying to recollect what app was there, as I have 10+ pages of apps :(
The solution is to power off then power back on – they will all reappear on the final page of your device. I flipped out too thinking I had lost them. In fact, when I searched through the App Store, they showed to be on the device, but would not open. Power cycled it, problem solved.
Mine installed but the stock app quick actions dont appear!
Any body having activation issues?
Activation server temporarily not available
I’am having activating issue. Here is a simple answer: http://howtoiph.one/2016/02/05/welcome-to-howtoiph-one/
Thanks Alexey, after a few restarts and updating iTunes i was able to activate it from iTunes.
I’m seeing a discrepancy with toggling Night Shift off and on between my iPhone 6s Plus and my iPad Air 2. When I toggle it on my iPhone 6s Plus, it just turns off or on. I don’t get the pop up menu displayed in the screen shots in the article. If I toggle it on my iPad Air 2, I do get the pop up menu asking me if I want to toggle it or go to settings.
Is anyone else seeing this?
If you have the “Scheduled” toggle turned on in the settings, you won’t see the pop-up in the control center.
Turns out if you have every toggled that setting you won’t get the popup. I turned it on and then off and I still don’t get the popup.
Rebooted iphone and now have stock app quick actions but not on Weather
Had the same issue but it turned out that you need to open the app, add some city and then it will show. Or at least this is how I turned it “on” and it now works. Check it out and let us know what happened.
Just needed to launch Weather first and now all good :)
Oh, didn’t see you found your way… :D
On the 5S the Night Shift option for sunset/sunrise is not there. Odd.
iphone 5 badluck :(
No per-app sounds. Sigh.
Now, On iPhone 6s, using 3D Touch to activate the app switcher triggers haptic vibration for additional feedback – this is something I would like to remove. It simply annoys me every time I use it (and I use the switcher a lot – it protects the Home button big time!)… Too sad there’s no way I can switch that off. Otherwise, the 9.3 is cool, even if the Night Shift is a bit too yellow to me (or maybe I am not used to it yet, we’ll see, it will probably grow on me). It’s strange that you can’t protect every single Note you’ve got rather than all with the same password.
I noticed the bug with iBooks after updating both iPad and iPhone to 9.3, which half of ePub books disappeared. All of them is still there in iBooks for Mac and synced with iCloud. I tried to reimport the missing ePub books from iCloud Drive and Dropbox, but they refused to appear in iBooks. I tried to import them to iTunes 12, but nothing happened.
It is so maddeningly frustrating when I can’t access to half of the reading material now and when I can’t find any documentation to fix this issue!
@olivertwist78
I have the same problem! All my ibooks disappeared from the ipad but they are on the mac. when i go into itunes to sync them, they don’t show up for syncing to the ipad. Did you find any fix?
I’ll wait a bit.
In a week or two we’ll get IOS 9.3.x which will fix all the foul ups – probably including the inevitable YouTube video of some 14 year old getting into a ‘locked’ phone via some unneeded feature of the lock screen.
‘Secure’ notes? If I was going to offer the ability to lock an in-built app., it would have been email – hopefully they can move on to that next.
iphone 5s downloaded ios 9.3 and turned off (as usual) to start installing but never turnred on after that, battery was 82% before update. Should I turn it on by holding the power button ? It’s been around 30 min
lol… I have tried to reproduce all the above noted iPad Air 2 issues and am unable to do that. Plus I didn’t have an option to download… It just did it. This my first apple product so for the most part I am clueless. No issues at this point. We’ll see when I start messing with my music. Last PC I had was XP5years ago
updated my touch 5 and it wiped out my music library of everything that was not purchased on iTunes
I am really mad about not supporting Night Shift on the iPad 4.
They have done bad by me on two counts because in lieu of Night Shift they have added a permanent warm filter to my display so that what is now a warm off white and all the colors are permanently distorted.
This does two bad things to me and my iPad 4.
First, as an avid amateur violinist, I jam more than once a week and I often read sheet music on my iPad. Most of the jams are in private homes with normal undimmed lighting and I depend heavily on a bright white screen background in order to see every note and very small fingerings to play the music. I usually turn up to the brightest setting possible. The brighter it is, the more quickly I can comprehend the music on the screen. My strong math background tells me that this is because there is more information content when the colors are correct and the screen Is brighter. The off color white is NOT as good as the white background previous to 9.3 and it is harder to comprehend the notes in some circumstances due to the color filtering.
Second, as I has some small interest in photography and with the permanent warming of the display it is now impossible to see whether the color is correct in my photographs. This will have some negative effect on every photograph that I take with the iPad.
Now I am a retired CAD designer/programmer/builder and during my collage years I had a summer school job on the film production IB at Technicolor Studios where the color correction of developed film was determined and corrected. The process involved adding small value linear approximation filters to the developed film in order to make the colors correct…a process similar to what Apple has done with the iPad 4 screen as well as Night Shift.
From these experiences I KNOW that to put Night Shift on the iPad 4 would have been a simple, straight forward task taking minimal effort if Apple had seen fit to do it. In fact it would have been no more difficult than to do than what they did by putting a permanent warm wash of color on the iPad 4. As I was also a Silicon Valley consultant I can tell you changing the iPad 4 different from the more recent models involved unnecessary complexity that might have been avoided if they had done all the 9.3 updates in a way that was similar as possible rather than having two different color correction schemes in OS 9.3. As far as I am concerned that may very well be just poor system design. The goal of high quality programming is to fo everything one way rather than two if you can and not lose anything.
why the hell won’t my audiobooks play after installing ios 9.3????? EVERY time an update installs my non-itunes audiobooks won’t play and I spend a day getting them to work again – pathetic.