How to Fix IOS 10’s Biggest Annoyances

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With every launch of a new operating system, there are several quirks and annoyances. iOS 10 is no different, but luckily, most of these quirks are fairly easy to fix.

Make Touch ID unlocking work the same as in iOS 9

Phone unlocking works in a completely different way than it used to be. “Slide to Unlock” is no longer and will likely never return, and now you also need to actually press the Home button to unlock the phone. If you’re missing the ability to simply tap your Touch ID-enabled Home button with your finger to unlock it, you can return it:

  1. Go to Settings> General> Accessibility> Home Button.
  2. Enable Rest Finger to unlock.

Now your phone will unlock when you put your finger on the Home button, no need to press the button.

Disable the ability to reply to messages from the lock screen

If you’re concerned about privacy and don’t like how easy it is to reply to text messages from the lock screen, you can turn off this feature entirely:

  1. Go to Settings> Touch ID & Password.
  2. Enter your password.
  3. Scroll down to Reply with a Message and turn the switch to Off.

You will no longer be able to reply to messages on the lock screen, which should help with initial privacy issues. It’s worth noting here that you can do a lot more with the rich notifications of the new lock screen these days, so be careful about which apps have notifications enabled. If you’re uncomfortable with someone who could potentially interact with an app from the lock screen, don’t let notifications show up there.

In my tests, when Reply with Message was turned off, I just didn’t get notifications from many third-party apps. I am guessing this is because these apps have not been updated yet, so stay tuned to the App Store for updates.

Disable lift to wake up

Raise to Wake automatically lights up on your screen when you pick up your phone, but it’s not for everyone. If it annoys you or lights up too often or at the wrong time, it’s easy to turn it off, although the switch is in a weird place:

  1. Go to Settings> Display & Brightness.
  2. Uncheck the “Raise to Wake Up” box.

Then you can go back to the old way of pressing the button to turn on the screen.

Clear Spotlight Search Results

For some reason, I like to save your Spotlight search keywords, so when you open the search menu, you get a list of everything you are looking for. There is no obvious way to remove these results. If you are not a fan of this strange and potentially awkward behavior, you can turn it off:

  1. Go to Settings> General> Spotlight Search.
  2. Uncheck the box next to Siri Suggestions.

This also disables app suggestions in Spotlight, but at least removes the keyword cache. However, “Suggestions for Siri Apps” will still appear on the lock screen.

Prevent apps from automatically adding themselves to messages

Messages now has an iMessages app store where you can add custom widgets and stickers for Messages. On top of that, regular old apps can add their own iMessage extensions.

For example, popular apps like Yelp and OpenTable have iMessage extensions that let you search for restaurants directly from Messages. This is great, but unfortunately, by default in iOS 10, these extensions are added automatically without your permission. This will ruin your messages quickly. It’s easy to disable it:

  1. Open Messages and tap the arrow icon> Apps.
  2. Tap the four-circle icon in the lower left corner and then the Store icon.
  3. Tap the “Control” tab.
  4. Set Automatically Add Apps to Off.

Now you need to manually add the apps you want to use. You can do this from the same menu screen, just go through and set the switches to the “On” position. For the apps you want to display in Messages.

Disable Safari autocomplete for contact information and email addresses

Safari now includes a dedicated QuickType-style keyboard that offers personal information options when filling out forms. It is convenient for some, but it hinders others. You can turn this off:

  1. Click Preferences> Safari> AutoComplete.
  2. Set Use contact information, names and passwords and credit cards to Off. (Or just switch the ones you don’t want to display).

Safari will no longer offer you options for filling out forms.

Disable motion reduction if message effects don’t work

If you’re playing with the new Messages app and can’t open the effects panel (long or hard press on the send button after typing a message), then you most likely have the Reduce Motion accessibility option turned on. … To get these animations back, you need to turn off motion reduction:

  1. Go to Settings> Accessibility> Reduce Motion.
  2. Set the “Reduce Motion” switch to the “Off” position.

This should allow you to open the message effects window.

Remove the dictation button (again)

For some reason, it seems that some of us who have disabled the dictation button are facing an error that reappears after installing iOS 10. To fix this, you just need to login and toggle it back and forth:

  1. Tap Settings> General> Keyboard.
  2. Turn the Turn Dictation button on and off again.

This dumb microphone icon should disappear again.

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