The Journal app, Contact Key Verification and more were included in the update.
Apple released iOS 17.3 on Monday with a few new features, but the tech giant’s release of iOS 17.2 was packed with new things you may have missed. The update was released in December and came with security fixes and patches, plus over a dozen new and useful features, like the long-awaited Journal app and Contact Key Verification. It also has fun features like the ability to react to messages with Live Stickers.
To download the update, go to Settings > General > Software Update, tap Install Now and follow the onscreen prompts.
Here’s what you may have missed in iOS 17.2. The Journal app
Apple finally released the Journal app with iOS 17.2. The tech giant announced the app at the company’s WWDC event in June alongside iOS 17, but it was absent from the update’s launch on Sept. 18.
Apple said at WWDC that the app uses on-device machine learning to create personalized writing suggestions. Some of these suggestions are created using information on your iPhone, like photos you’ve taken and music and podcasts you’ve listened to throughout the day. If you forget what podcast you listened to earlier in the day — like I regularly do — the app shows you that information when you go to make an entry.
Journal shows you multiple Reflections at a time by default.
The app also shows you a handful of topics to write about, called Reflections. Some of mine included, “Write about a time you gave someone an unexpected gift,” and “Who cheers you up when you’re feeling down?”
If you don’t want to write about whatever you listened to or use a Reflection, you can just write by tapping the New Entry button. In New Entry, you can write whatever you want, create a voice note, take a photo or create a video to add to your journal entry.
You can also lock the app after it’s closed for a set amount of time for some privacy. If you close the app and don’t reopen it for a certain amount of time (like five minutes) it will ask for your Face ID or passcode to open it again. Contact Key Verification in Messages
Apple announced Contact Key Verification in December 2022, and the security feature finally appeared in iOS 17.2.
“With iMessage Contact Key Verification, users who face extraordinary digital threats — such as journalists, human rights activists and members of government — can choose to further verify that they are messaging only with the people they intend,” Apple said in a news release last year.
Apple wrote that many people won’t be the target of a cyberattack, but Contact Key Verification gives people who might be a target an additional security layer.
To enable Contact Key Verification go to Settings > Apple ID > Contact Key Verification, tap the slider next to Verification in iMessage and follow the on-screen prompts. React with Live Stickers
This is how you react to a text with a Live Sticker, but honestly, the heart reaction would suffice in this instance.
Live Stickers is a new feature Apple introduced in iOS 17 at launch. The feature lets you create your own stickers from pictures you’ve taken. In iOS 17.2, you can react to texts in Messages with your Live Stickers. To react with a Live Sticker, long-press on a text like you would to add a reaction, then tap Add Sticker in the dropdown menu to pull up your stickers. New Apple Music settings
If you subscribe to Apple Music (which costs $11 a month) iOS 17.2 lets you automatically add songs you’ve favorited to your library. If you don’t like this, you can turn the setting off by going to Settings > Music and tapping the toggle next to Add Favorite Songs. More Memoji customization
In iOS 17.2, there’s a new menu in the Memoji editor called Body that lets you edit the appearance of your Memoji’s body. You can adjust your Memoji’s waist, bust, shoulders and arms in this menu. Only three options are available in each of these sections at this time, so Memoji isn’t a full-on character creator menu as you’d see in a video game. Change your default notification sounds and haptics
In iOS 17.2, Apple allows you to change the default notification sound. This is the first time Apple has allowed iPhone users to change the default notification sound. To change this sound, go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Default Alerts, and you’ll be able to select new and classic tones.
In the Default Alerts menu, you can also change your haptics by tapping Haptics near the top of the page. Here you can choose between a handful of haptic patterns, and you can create a custom haptic by tapping Create New Vibration. Photos and Apple Music working together
If you go into the Photos app after updating to iOS 17.
