For your reading pleasure, Apple redesigned its Books apps in iOS 16 and iPadOS 16. When those operating systems hit your devices later this year, you should find the Books interface less distracting and more customizable.
Apple simplifies Books app for less distraction and adds customization options
If you’re accustomed to the Book app in iOS 15, you know there’s a toolbar at the top of the app screen where you can access the chapter index, font adjustments, bookmarks and search tools. In iOS 16 and iPadOS 16, all of that moves to the bottom of your view.
And now just one icon sits at the bottom of the book interface where you can tap to get to the settings. That reduces distractions when you’re reading. But you can’t make that button go away with a tap or slide, even temporarily. It stays put.
When you tap it, you see all of the Books app’s settings. The top menu bar includes the table of contents. And you can tap in to see all of your highlights and bookmarks.
The search interface is still there, too, and it appears to be unchanged.
Apple’s streamlining of the app means you can use one tap to change the locking orientation, bookmark a page or access the share sheet.
More customization
When you tap Themes and Settings, you get options to change the font size and the background color. New color options in iOS 16 include a lighter gray, a light yellow and a different shade of white.
In the interface you can turn on vertical scrolling and activate Light Mode, Dark Mode, match the device setting or match the ambient lighting with True Tone.
Tap on Options to bring up a choice of fonts and the option to bold the text. Accessibility settings help you adjust spacing between lines, words and characters. You can toggle full justification on or off. Apple also changed the way that pages turn. You swipe the whole page to the left to move on to the next one.
Generally, the changes offer you more customization options when you crack open the Books app on iPhone and iPad.
