It's Time To Update Your iPhone With iOS 13.6 For Car Key, Health App That Tracks Cough & More

Apple has released another iOS update for the Apple iPhone line-up and is making iOS 13.6 available for all users today. There are significant changes that arrive with iOS 13.6, including the Apple News+ audio content in some regions, Car Key, a more versatile Health app and other improvements under the hood. One suspects that this must be one of the few remaining releases of iOS 13 ahead of the expected release of the much-awaited iOS 14 update later this year. The iOS 13.6 update is now available to download and install on all iPhones that already run iOS 13 or any of its subsequent updates, which means phones as far back as the original iPhone SE continue to get the latest software updates. You can now head to Settings -> Software Update on your iPhone to check for the new update, download and install.

The highlight has to be the Car Key feature, something Apple first showed off at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) last month. It basically creates a digital key for your car, on your iPhone and will function for starting, locking or unlocking compatible vehicles. Users will also be able to share digital keys with someone else who may be driving their car for a while. The first car to get this feature will be the new BMW 5-Series, though more manufacturers and vehicles are expected to be added to the compatibility list in the coming weeks and months.

The Health app has been updated to track a lot more about your health as well. You will now be able to log fever, chills, sore throat or coughing for a more wholesome tracking of your health—and can be shared with third-party health tracking apps as well. The Health app on the iPhone will now also track for symptoms logged from Cycle Tracking and ECG.

The Apple News+ audio briefing is now available in the US, and this curation that will include audio stories will include content from regional news outlets. There will be 20 audio stories every week, narrated by professional voice actors and include news pieces as well as long form articles. Apple CarPlay now also supports the Apple News app, allowing you to catch up on the audio stories as you drive to and from work.

iOS 13.6 Complete Release Notes

iOS 13.6 adds support for digital car keys, introduces audio stories in Apple News+, and contains a new symptoms category in the Health app. This release also includes bug fixes and improvements.

Digital car keys

• Unlock, lock, and start your compatible car with your iPhone

• Securely remove digital keys from a lost device via iCloud

• Share digital keys easily with iMessage

• Driver-specific profiles so you can configure shared keys for full-access or restricted driving

• Power reserve lets you unlock and start your car for up to five hours after iPhone runs out of battery

Apple News

• Audio stories are professionally narrated versions of some of the best reads from Apple News+, selected and produced by the Apple News editors as part of your Apple News+ subscription

• Apple News Today is a new, free audio briefing on the day’s top stories from the Apple News editors, also available in the Podcasts app

• A new Audio tab makes it easy to find Apple News Today and Apple News+ audio stories

• CarPlay allows you to listen to Apple News Today and Apple News+ audio stories while on the road

• Local news in your Today feed provides extensive coverage of San Francisco, the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Houston, and New York City

• More stories available from local news providers with a subscription to Apple News+

• Your daily newsletter from Apple News can now be personalized with stories that reflect your interests

Health

• New category for symptoms in the Health app, including symptoms logged from Cycle Tracking and ECG

• Ability to log new symptoms, like fever, chills, sore throat or coughing, and share them with third-party apps

This update also includes bug fixes and other improvements.

• Adds a new setting to choose if updates automatically download to your device when on Wi-Fi

• Addresses an issue that could cause apps to become unresponsive when syncing data from iCloud Drive

• Fixes an issue that could cause data roaming to appear to be disabled on eSIM even though it remained active

• Fixes an issue thats causes some phone calls from Saskatchewan to appear as originating from the United States

• Addresses an issue that could interrupt audio when making phone calls over Wi-Fi Calling

• Fixes an issues that prevented some iPhone 6S and iPhone SE devices from registering for Wi-Fi Calling

• Resolves an issue that could cause the software keyboard to appear unexpectedly when connected to certain third-party hardware keyboards

• Fixes an issue that could cause Japanese hardware keyboards to be incorrectly mapped as a U.S. keyboard

• Addresses stability issues when accessing Control Center when Assistive Touch was enabled

• Provides a mechanism for administrators to specify domains to exclude from traffic carried by always-on VPN connections