How to Turn Off the 5 Most Annoying iOS 10 Features

By Josh Smith
Posted on 09/14/2016

The iOS 10 update changes how you use your iPhone. Change isn’t good for everyone though. Here’s how to turn off the five most annoying iOS 10 features. You can also use this to turn off the most annoying iOS 10.0.2 features.

For some users this will take you back to the way your iPhone worked with iOS 9, and for others you will simply turn off an annoying iOS 10 feature that is more trouble than it is worth.

If iOS 10 is too much change for you, and disabling these annoying iOS 10 features isn’t enough, you can still downgrade to iOS 9 for a limited time.

Turn Off Handwriting in Landscape Mode

Learn how to turn off iOS 10 handwriting in landscape.
Learn how to turn off iOS 10 handwriting in landscape.

When you are in Messages on iOS 10 there is a new handwriting option that can automatically trigger when you accidentally turn your iPhone on the side.

To Turn off handwriting in landscape mode go turn your phone to the side to activate it. Then tap on the keyboard in the bottom right. This should keep the iPhone to a keyboard when you go to landscape.

Turn Off Press to Unlock iPhone

iOS-10-how-to

When you open your iPhone you now need to press to unlock the iPhone. This is in place of swipe to unlock. You can go into settings and change it so that when you place your finger on your home button it will unlock without you pushing it. Go to Settings -> General -> Accessibility -> Home button and turn on Rest Finger to Open. Here’s more on how to unlock iPhone without pressing the home button.

Turn off Raise to Wake in iOS 10

Turn off annoying iOS 10 features

In iOS 10 the iPhone will turn on the screen when you pick up the iPhone. This is called raise to wake. If this annoys you, it is an iOS 10 feature that you can turn off. Go to Settings -> Display & Brightness -> Raise to Wake -> Off.

Turn Off Text Messages on Lock Screen in iOS 10

Turn off annoying iPhone Feature iOS 10

By default the iPhone shows your text messages on the lock screen and will allow anyone who picks it up to reply — even if the phone is locked. You can turn this off by going into settings.

Open Settings -> Touch ID & Passcode -> Enter PIN > Reply with Message -> Off.

Turn Off Automatically Installed iMessage Apps

Turn off annoying iOS 10 features iPhone

When you update an app or install a new app, you may also start to see iMessage apps show up in your Messages. This can get annoying quickly if there are iMessage apps you don’t use.

Open a Message -> Tap on the App icon -> Tap on four circles in the bottom left. Now tap on Store then on Manage and turn off Automatically Add Apps.

What’s New in iOS 10.1

What's New in iOS 10.1

What's New in iOS 10.1

This is a list of what's new in iOS 10.1, including new features like Portrait mode on the iPhone 7 Plus and a number of important fixes for the iPhone and iPad. 

Camera and Photos

  • Introduces Portrait Camera for iPhone 7 Plus that creates a depth effect that keeps your subject sharp while creating a beautifully blurred background (beta)
  • People names in the Photos app are saved in iCloud backups
  • Improved the display of wide color gamut photos in the grid views of the Photos app
  • Fixes an issue where opening the Camera app would show a blurred or flashing screen for some users
  • Fixes an issue that caused Photos to quit for some users when turning on iCloud Photo Library

Maps
  • Transit support for every major train, subway, ferry, and national bus line, as well as local bus systems for Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya
  • Sign-based transit navigation including layouts of all underground structures and walkways that connect large transit stations
  • Transit fare comparison when viewing alternative transit routes

Messages
  • New option to replay bubble and full screen effects
  • Messages effects can play with Reduce Motion enabled
  • Fixes an issue that could lead to contact names appearing incorrectly in Messages
  • Addresses an issue where Messages could open to a white screen
  • Addresses an issue that could prevent the report junk option from displaying with unknown senders
  • Fixes an issue where videos captured and sent in the Messages app could be missing audio

Apple Watch
  • Adds distance and average pace to workout summaries in the Activity app for outdoor wheelchair run pace and outdoor wheelchair walk pace
  • Fixes issues that may have prevented Music playlists from syncing to Apple Watch
  • Addresses an issue that was preventing invitations and data to appear in Activity Sharing
  • Fixes an issue that was allowing Activity Sharing to update over cellular when manually disabled
  • Resolves an issue that was causing some third-party apps to crash when inputting text

Other improvements and fixes
  • Improves Bluetooth connectivity with 3rd party accessories
  • Improves AirPlay Mirroring performance when waking a device from sleep
  • Fixes an issue where playback would not work for iTunes purchased content when the "Show iTunes Purchases" setting is turned off
  • Fixes an issue where certain selfie apps and face filters used with the FaceTime HD Camera on iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus did not display a live preview
  • Fixes an issue in Health where individual strokes are converted to separate characters when using the Chinese handwriting keyboard
  • Improves performance of sharing websites from Safari to Messages
  • Fixes an issue in Safari that caused web previews in tab view to not display correctly
  • Fixes an issue that caused certain Mail messages to be reformatted with very small text
  • Fixes an issue that caused some HTML email to be formatted incorrectly
  • Fixes an issue that in some cases caused the search field to disappear in Mail
  • Fixes an issue that could prevent Today View Widgets from updating when launched
  • Fixes an issue where Weather widget sometimes failed to load data
  • Fixes an issue on iPhone 7 where Home Button click settings would not appear in search results
  • Fixes an issue that prevented spam alert extensions from blocking calls
  • Resolves an issue that could prevent alarm sounds from going off
  • Fixes an issue where audio playback via Bluetooth would cause the Taptic engine to stop providing feedback for some users
  • Resolves an issue preventing some users from restoring from iCloud Backup
  • For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website:  https://support.apple.com/HT201222 

Keep reading to check out the iOS 10 features and iOS 10.1 features that these updates offer.

8 Comments

8 Comments

  1. Nat

    09/19/2016 at 2:23 am

    HOW to stop the new imessage tap heart stuff from sending automatically please?

    Reply

  2. Mare Barrow

    10/01/2016 at 5:08 am

    Thank you for this article, it really helped me.

    Reply

  3. Using my 1 GB of data wisely

    10/08/2016 at 8:32 am

    These are not “upgrades” – these are annoyances. Do you have any recommendations for a 3rd party app that just does texting? (no emojis, videos, music, any of that garbage)? I would really like to know, and I bet I’m not the only one

    Reply

    • peyton

      10/08/2016 at 6:20 pm

      I use FancyKey but if you want an even simpler one try SwiftKey. They both feature the dragging-across the keyboard which i love for fast typing. FancyKey is more like you get to customize your keyboard’s theme; SwiftKey is probably the simple one for you.

      Reply

  4. susan

    10/24/2016 at 6:18 am

    Thank you!!! I agree that most of the changes in iOS 10 are major annoyances, productivity inhibitors, just plain obnoxious and not improvements–especially the battery drain because of all of this stupid nonsense.

    Reply

  5. Wayne Gerber

    10/24/2016 at 10:30 am

    Turning off “Show Previews” under Settings > Notifications > Messages will also disallow responding to messages while the phone is locked.

    Reply

  6. noway

    01/07/2017 at 11:53 am

    Settings -> General -> Accessibility -> Home button and turn on Rest Finger to Open does not exist.

    Reply

  7. Kelly

    01/20/2017 at 4:10 am

    How do I stop the return key from sending my messages in Messenger when I am trying to just start a new paragraph?

    Reply

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