Apple has officially released iOS 10.2 update that has come with hundreds of new & redesigned emojis for iPhone and iPad users. Apart from this, Apple has brought an India-specific feature “SOS or panic button” in its update for the first time, following the Government of India (GoI)’s mandate. As per Government’s ruling, the SOS feature will be compulsory in all phones starting from January 1, 2017. Therefore, the upgraded iOS 10.2 emergency option “SOS” can be found under ‘General’ in the Settings menu. Under this option, the SOS settings can be personalized. You have the option of setting how many times the Power button will have to be pressed to make the Emergency SOS call and whether to assign a countdown to the call or not and more.
On installing iOS 10.2, emergency number 112 is automatically saved as the Distress Number in Contacts. Additionally, you could even add more numbers via the Health app to alert during emergency.
What’s New in iOS 10.2
TV App: One of the major addition is the new TV App. You can use Up Next to see the movies and shows you’re currently watching and pick up where you left off, you can also get recommendations for new movies and TV shows in Watch Now, discover new apps and the latest iTunes releases in the Store, it is easy to access the Library for your iTunes purchases and rentals.
Emojis: The new & redesigned emojis has come with superior diverse characters, new professions like scientist, teacher, pilot and firefighter to better reflect people everywhere, sports, food, animals, expressions like face palm, shrug and fingers crossed, and many more ways to express yourself in Messages. Now, emojis appear 3-times larger in Messages and with Tap to replace, highlighted words can be replaced with emoji. Apple has also introduced the Unicode 9.0 emoji standard, which basically means 72 new emoji characters.
iMessages App: There has two new screen effects love and celebration full-screen effects and lots of small changes, which fixes an issue that prevented the keyboard from displaying inside messages.
Music App: The upgraded music app allows you to swipe up the Now Playing screen more easily to access Shuffle, Repeat and Up Next. You can also choose how to sort Albums, Playlists, and Songs in Music’s Library screen.
News App: The upgraded news app has come with new saved section in which Saved stories appear. You can go to the next story just swipe left or can tap next story while reading news. Paid stories will also appear in different section.
Mail App: The upgraded mail app includes the problems with long presses activating copy and paste. It fixes a problem where the wrong message would be selected after deleting a Mail conversation and also fixes the issue that caused the Move sheet to show for long after sending a message via mail.
Camera App: The upgraded Camera app allows users to preserve the previously used settings. It fixes the zooming problem with the camera and also fixes an issue where the camera would stay zoomed in after switching back from the Camera Roll on iPhone 7 Plus. Users can also preserve the last mode, like video or square and also get additional support for RAW digital cameras.
Photos: Improves stabilization and delivers faster frame rate for Live Photos, improves accuracy of groupings of similar photos of the same person in the People album and fixes an issue where memories might generate a memory from photos of screenshots, whiteboards or receipts.
Safari Browser: The Safari browser issues have also been fixed, where articles opened as empty pages and the issue where the browser closed unexpectedly.
Accessibility:
- Adds BraillePen14 support to VoiceOver
- Fixes an issue where the braille table could switch unexpectedly with VoiceOver
- Fixes an issue where sometimes Siri enhanced voices were unavailable to VoiceOver
- Fixes an issue where VoiceOver users could not re-order items in lists
- Fixes an issue where Switch Control was sometimes unable to delete Voicemails
Other improvements and fixes:
- Adds notification support for HomeKit accessories including window coverings, occupancy, motion, door/window, smoke, carbon monoxide, and water leak sensors.
- Adds notification support for HomeKit accessories when software updates are available to HomeKit accessories.
- Improves Bluetooth performance and connectivity with 3rd party accessories.
- Fixes an issue that could cause FaceTime participants to appear out of focus.
- Fixes an issue that could cause FaceTime calls to appear with incorrect aspect ratio and orientation.
- Fixes an issue that prevented some Visual Voicemail from completing playback.
- Fixes a Safari Reader issue that could cause articles to open as empty pages.
- Fixes an issue that could cause Safari to quit unexpectedly after marking an item as read in Reading List.
iOS 10.2 Update Compatible With
| iPhone | iPod Touch | iPad | iPad Mini |
|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone 5 | iPod Touch | iPad | iPad Mini 2 |
| iPhone 5C | iPad Air | iPad Mini 3 | |
| iPhone 5S | iPad Air 2 | iPad Mini 4 | |
| iPhone 6 | iPad Pro 12.9 | ||
| iPhone 6 Plus | iPad Pro 9.7 | ||
| iPhone 6S | |||
| iPhone 6S Plus | |||
| iPhone SE | |||
| iPhone 7 | |||
| iPhone 7 Plus |
How to Install iOS 10.2
To upgrade your Apple device to iOS 10.2:
- Go to ‘Setting
- Select ‘Genera’
- Chose ‘Software update’
Users may also download the iOS 10.2 update using iTunes on the PC.