With Apple focusing a lot of its development efforts on its long-rumored AR/VR headset, expected to be revealed at today’s WWDC 2023 keynote, iOS 17 won’t arrive with as many major feature introductions as iOS 16 did, but will still bring plenty of welcome upgrades and, in addition to new ways to use iOS 16's lock screen improvements.
Personalized Contact Posters in the Phone App
Although it’s the least used app for many of us, with iOS 17, the Phone app will be upgraded with a feature Apple is calling “Personalized Contact Posters” so instead of just your name and number showing up on the iPhone of someone you’re calling, they’ll see a customized image (or memoji) and text of your choosing which could help persuade them into answering your call. Apple also promises the Contact Posters will “also be available for third-party calling apps.”
Live Voicemail Transcriptions
Screening your calls? Although cellphones killed the answering machine, one feature that’s been sorely missing from modern voicemail is the ability to hear a message as it’s being recorded if you want to know what a call’s about before you answer it. With iOS 17, if you ignore a call and the person decides to leave a voicemail, you’ll be able to see a live text transcription of what they’re saying, with the option to answer the call after all if it seems especially important. Live Voicemail won’t be activated, however, for calls identified as spam.
FaceTime Video Voicemails
In previous versions of iOS, a missed FaceTime call simply left the person you were calling with a notification that you had tried to get in touch. With iOS 17, FaceTime users will be able to leave a custom video message for the person they’re calling that can be watched at any time after the fact. FaceTime under iOS 17 is also gaining Reactions, similar to what’s available in iMessage, like “hearts, balloons, fireworks, laser beams, rain, and more” that can be activated using gestures and appear on-screen as super-imposed effects.
iMessage Can Now ‘Check In’ For You
Forgetting to check in when you get home after visiting friends or family can sometimes lead to panicked calls or a string of messages asking where you are. With iOS 17, iMessage is getting an automated check in feature so that as soon as you get home, it will automatic notify friends or family on your behalf, reducing stress for all involved. Check In allows information about your progress to be shared to specific contacts, and if a user is “not making progress toward their destination,” those contacts will get details about the iPhone’s location, its battery level, and its connectivity, all end-to-end encrypted for privacy. Helicopter parents rejoice!
iMessage is also getting search improvements with the ability to apply filters to refine search criteria, and the ability to create custom Live Stickers using iOS’ AI-powered image extraction tools.
Maps Go Offline For When You’re Off the Grid
There’s now a good reason to bring your smartphone when you head off into the wilderness, even if you can’t make calls or surf the web. Apple’s Map app will allow users to download a section of maps to the phone locally, so even if there’s no data connection, users will still be able to pinpoint their location and continue to navigate using their iPhone.
Turn Your iPhone Into a Smart Hub With StandBy
The best reason to upgrade to iOS 16 last year was Apple’s major overhaul of the iPhone’s lock screen, which was made completely customizable with various font and color choices for the clock, wallpaper that could appear to interact with text on-screen, and widgets that provided far more information than just missed notifications. With iOS 17, the iPhone’s lock screen will soon go one step further and turn the device into a sort of smart hub when used horizontally and connected to a charger. Similar to Google’s Nest Hub devices, iOS 17's StandBy mode will provide at-a-glance information like calendars, photos, widgets, larger notifications, and even a “range of beautiful clock styles.”
Autocorrect Gets Smarter
Autocorrect was arguably the feature that allowed the original iPhone to compete against devices like Blackberry smartphones with physical keyboards that many found easier to type on. With iOS 17, Autocorrect is getting a major update with on device machine learning to improve word prediction, inline predictive text recommendations as users type, and even sentence-level grammar fixes.
Call on Siri Twice As Fast
Having to say both “Hey” and “Siri” isn’t really the reason why many iOS users stopped calling on Apple’s virtual assistant. But with iOS 17, activating Siri will now be twice as fast as users can simply say “Siri” and leave out the “Hey” altogether. The smart voice assistant will also be able to a series of multiple commands or in a row, without having to say its name again and again.
Document Your Day With Journal
All of the journalling apps already available for the iPhone can now officially consider themselves ‘Sherlocked’ as Apple is officially introducing its own journalling app as part of the iOS 17 update, which is promised to help “iPhone users reflect and practice gratitude through journaling, which has been shown to improve wellbeing.” Users will be able to document their thoughts and daily activities in the app, with the iPhone making suggestions on what to write about based on how the device has been used throughout the day: listening to music or podcasts, working out, talking to people, or where the person travelled.
Sharing AirTags With Multiple People
As welcome as Apple’s tools and features for preventing AirTag stalking are, they can sometimes be a pain amongst family members who get notifications about nearby AirTags owned by other family members. As part of the iOS 17 update, AirTags will be able to be shared with up to five other people who can track their location using the Find My app.
AirPods Will Automatically Turn Down Your Music When You Start Talking
It’s a feature we’ve come to love on headphones from competitors like Sony, but the iOS 17 update will also include some welcome software upgrades for Apple’s AirPods, including the ability for users to blend ANC and ambient sound boosting to their preference, and Conversation Awareness, which will automatically pause music when a user starts talking, while boosting the voice of the person they’re speaking to, without requiring the AirPods to be removed.
Sensitive Content Warnings
Apple is expanding the iPhone’s Communication Safety features, which will warn younger users when potentially explicit or sensitive images are being shared, outside of Messages to features like AirDrop, the new Contact Posters, FaceTime messages, and “when using the Photos picker to choose content to send.” The feature is also expanding in iOS 17 to monitor video content, through a “Sensitive Content Warning” for adults, with all of the image and video recognition being handled on the device, instead of sending it to Apple’s cloud for processing.