iOS 17 is Apple’s operating system for its iPhone models. Here’s what we know about the newest iPhone software update.
iOS 17 is Apple‘s newest operating system for its iPhone models. Announced during the WWDC 2023 keynote, the Cupertino firm focused on three main features: communication, intelligence, and new experiences. Here’s everything you need to know about this operating system.When does iOS 17 come out? September 18
After previewing iOS 17 during the WWDC 2023 keynote on June 5th, Apple released the first beta for developers to try out the upcoming features. On July 12, a public beta was made available to users.
After the iPhone 15 event wrapped up, Apple announced that iOS 17 would be available as a free update on September 18.Features
iOS 17 is full of new features for iPhone users. BGR has compiled the most important ones here for you.Phone, Messages, and FaceTime
For the first time since iOS 7, Apple revamped the Phone app. It brings personalized Contact Posters, which provide a new way for users to express themselves by customizing how they appear, bringing a completely new look to incoming calls. They can choose treatments for photos or Memoji and eye-catching typography and font colors.
After customizing your contact info, you can share it with NameDrop. It allows users to easily share contact information by simply bringing their iPhones together. This is the same gesture to start SharePlay to listen to music, watch a movie, or play a game.
With Live Voicemail, you can see real-time transcription when someone leaves a voicemail. Calls identified as spam by carriers won’t appear as Live Voicemail and will be instantly declined.
For FaceTime, when users call someone who is unavailable, they can share a message in audio or video that can be enjoyed later. In addition, the app adds Reactions such as hearts, balloons, fireworks, and more.
Messages app, for example, lets you create Live Stickers, and a new drawer in the keyboard puts all of a user’s stickers in one place for easier access across iOS. An expandable menu can be accessed with a simple tap to display iMessage apps. In addition, a new catch-up arrow indicates where the user last left off in the conversation, and replying inline is as simple as swiping on a text bubble.Check-In is one of Apple’s most important security features ever made
Although this is a Messages feature, Check In deserves its own subheadline. This is an important feature when a user wants to notify a family member or friend that they have made it to their destination safely.
After a user initiates a Check In, their friend or family member will automatically be notified as soon as the user arrives. If they are not making progress toward their destination, useful information will be temporarily shared with the selected contact, such as the device’s location, battery level, and cell service status. Any information shared is end-to-end encrypted.Autocorrection and Dictation are more intelligent than ever
Apple says Autocorrect received a comprehensive update with a transformer language model for word prediction. It also received a refreshed design to better support typing, and sentence-level autocorrections can fix more types of grammatical mistakes.
Users can receive predictive text recommendations inline as they type, so adding entire words or completing sentences is as easy as tapping the space bar, making text entry faster than ever. Dictation also has a new speech recognition model to make it even more accurate.Siri now understands bilingual queries on your iPhone
During the beta phase of iOS 17, Apple added one of the most interesting features users could have ever asked for Siri: support for bilingual queries starting with select Indic languages.
That said, users can ask questions to Siri by mixing English and Hindi. People can also mix English with Telegu, Punjabi, Kannada, or Marathi.
There’s no AI here, but there are already rumors Apple could introduce an AI Siri assistant as soon as iOS 18.Apple Music now offers new tweaks
Apple Music has also added a few new things with iOS 17. For example, with this new operating system, Apple Music users will be able to use SharePlay to control the music in the car through CarPlay, so everyone can play their favorite songs and contribute to what’s playing.
In addition, animated covers don’t appear solely on the artist’s album page anymore but also on the music player. After years of this Android-only feature, Apple has added crossfade support between songs on iOS. Crossfade will smoothly transition between tracks, so the music never stops. In addition, you can finally see all the credits in a song.
In 2024, Apple Music on iOS 17 will let users invite friends to join a playlist so anyone can add, reorder, and remove songs. It will also be possible to use emojis to react to the song choices in Now Playing.StandBy offers glanceable information while the iPhone is charging
StandBy is a new function that gives users a full-screen experience with glanceable information designed to be viewed from a distance when the iPhone is on its side and charging.
With support for Live Activities, Siri, incoming calls, and larger notifications, StandBy makes the iPhone even more useful when viewed at a distance.
When charging with MagSafe, StandBy remembers a user’s preferred view. It is easy to bring up StandBy anytime by tapping the screen, and on iPhone 14 Pro with the Always-On display, it is always available.
