Apple highlighted a few of the new features coming in iOS 17 this autumn at the WWDC keynote on June 5, 2023. They include Live Voicemail, a brand-new app called Journal, and a different method to utilize Stickers. Learn more about all the updates and additions that will be made to your iPhone later in 2023 by reading on.
There are several interface improvements, bug fixes, and new features included in this free software update. It’s comparable to receiving a new iPhone without spending a dime.
We go over everything you should know about iOS 17 in this post. We discuss the new operating system’s release timeline, including the dates for the beta and final releases, how to download it when it becomes available, the iPhone models that are most likely to support iOS, and the features we anticipate and hope will be included in the new OS.
At its annual developer conference today, Apple revealed iOS 17, which came as absolutely no surprise to anyone. Its phone-centric mobile operating system will be released later this autumn in its most recent edition. Within the next few hours, the first developer preview is anticipated to be released, followed by a public beta release the following month.
iOS 17: Features
Despite the fact that nothing in iOS 17 truly leaps out as a game-changing innovation, it does include a number of little upgrades. Even yet, many of the enhancements have the potential to be incredibly helpful, and in typical Apple fashion, many of the new functions integrate perfectly with one another across devices. Let’s take a look at iOS 17’s new features.
- Live Voicemail
- Contact Posters
- FaceTime
- Journal
- Check-in
- Standby
- Keyboard and iMessage
- Stickers
- Siri
- Apple Maps
- Airdrop
Shall we take a more in-depth look at the new features that come with iOS 17?
Live Voicemail
First, there is Live Voicemail, which eliminates the need for you to answer unknown calls since the phone will do it for you and show you a live scrolling text transcript of the caller’s conversation so you can quickly decide whether or not to pick up. Calls that are flagged by carriers as spam won’t show up as Live Voicemail but will be immediately rejected instead. Everything related to transcribing is done on a device.
Contact Posters
Then there is the new, editable call screen that Apple refers to as Contact Posters. Photos or Memoji may be given lovely makeovers, including “eye-catching typography” and vibrant font colors. These also function in third-party apps, and you can use them to swap contact cards with someone using the new NameDrop feature, which just requires you to tap two compatible devices (or an iPhone and an Apple Watch).
SharePlay may now share a concurrent music/video stream on two devices, which is also connected to sharing. Additionally, it would enable you to stream music from the owner’s iPhone to the playback units.
FaceTime
When contacting someone on FaceTime and they aren’t accessible, you may now leave voice and video messages. FaceTime conversations may also trigger a variety of video reactions, like hearts, balloons, fireworks, laser beams, and rain.
These are triggered by straightforward gestures and will also be supported by third-party apps. The ability to make and receive calls on your Apple TV, or to start a call on your iPhone and transfer it to Apple TV, is maybe the biggest FaceTime-related news.
Journal
The Journal app is a brand-new addition to iOS 17 and, as its name suggests, it’s all about journaling. According to Apple, journaling “has been shown to improve well-being” if you “reflect and practice gratitude” through it. Your recent activity, including images, people, locations, and exercises, is used to select ideas for diary entries, making it simple to get started.
Check-in
A new safety feature called Check In replaces the need to check in with family members when you are away from home. Once you’ve started a Check-In, a friend or member of your family will be alerted immediately once you’ve reached your location. The chosen contact will get information on your device’s location, battery life, and cell service status if you aren’t moving closer to your destination.
StandBy
Apple’s new fullscreen application, dubbed StandBy, appears when you wish to use your iPhone in landscape mode on a desk, nightstand, or other flat surface. It displays lovely clocks, beloved pictures, or widgets, such as Smart Stacks, which surface the appropriate widgets when they are needed. To improve usability when seen from a distance, there is support for Live Activities, Siri, incoming calls, and bigger alerts.
Keyboard and iMessage
A new voice recognition model, inline predictions, and AI-enhanced autocorrect are added to the keyboard. Naturally, the goal of all of them is to enhance the typing experience. With filters, a swipe-to-reply feature, voice message transcription, support for in-app real-time location updates, better emoji stickers, and Live Stickers with subjects taken from photographs, iMessage has increased search capabilities.
Stickers
The stickers will all be visible in one location. Nowadays, all emoji are stickers. You can stick, peek, and resize it. It is possible to extract subjects from images and transform them into stickers. Live Stickers allow you to create dynamic moving stickers from live photographs. Everywhere you can access emoji, stickers have been introduced system-wide.
Siri
There is no longer a requirement to say “Hey Siri” to activate Apple’s voice assistant, which sadly has not benefited from recent advancements in broad language models. The assistant’s callsign is just “Siri” with iOS 17. Additionally, back-to-back instructions are supported, something that Google Assistant has long supported; however, Siri is still attempting to catch up.
Apple Maps
Offline maps are now supported in Apple Maps, which is one of those features you think, “Wait, this wasn’t already baked in?!” And it wasn’t, no. But it is now.
Finally, the Health app now has a new set of mental health features, Safari now offers more safety for Private Browsing, and Apple Music now has Collaborative Playlists that you can share with your pals.
AirDrop
Apple is revamping AirDrop so that it is much easier to use. You may share information by just placing your phones close to one another. You may choose who you want to share your phone numbers and email addresses with quite effortlessly. Sharing is also possible with an Apple Watch.
To exchange images, for instance, just bring your phones close together and start sharing. And even if you leave, the material will still spread online. You may just bring your phones together to share what you are viewing because this works with SharePlay as well.
iOS 17: Supported devices
iPhone 8 and iPhone X will not be supported by iOS 17. This confirms our earlier assumption that iOS 17 will be compatible with the iPhone XS and subsequent models.
The iPhone X, iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, and all three were released in the same year. However, they can all run iOS 16, so they should continue to receive support from Apple for a few more years. Not compatible with iPhone 7, iPhone SE (2016), and previous models
Although it’s conceivable that not all of them will support all of the new features, the following iPhones are compatible with iOS 17:
These are the mobile devices that support iOS 17.
- iPhone 14
- iPhone 14 Plus
- iPhone 14 Pro
- iPhone 14 Pro Max
- iPhone 13
- iPhone 13 mini
- iPhone 13 Pro
- iPhone 13 Pro Max
- iPhone 12
- iPhone 12 mini
- iPhone 12 Pro
- iPhone 12 Pro Max
- iPhone 11
- iPhone 11 Pro
- iPhone 11 Pro Max
- iPhone XS
- iPhone XS Max
- iPhone XR
- iPhone SE(2nd gen or later)
Even if your preferred smartphone receives an additional year of software support, it’s important to remember that older iPhones could not receive the complete set of new capabilities.
iOS 17: Release date
Although iOS 17 was introduced and shown seen at WWDC 2023 on June 5, it won’t be made available to iPhone users worldwide until the autumn, most likely in mid-September. (iOS 5 in October 2011 was the last iOS upgrade to be published outside of September.) It will probably happen soon after the debut of the iPhone 15’s successor.
In 2022, there were five days between the release of the iPhone 14 and the iOS 16 upgrade, compared to six days in 2021. The release of a new iOS version has been pretty regular throughout the previous few years:
- iOS 16: September 12, 2022, Monday
- iOS 15: September 20, 2021, Monday
- iOS 14: September 16, 2020, Wednesday
- iOS 12: September 17, 2018, Monday
- iOS 13: September 19, 2019, Thursday
As a result, we anticipate that iOS 17 will be released on September 11, 2023.
iOS 17 beta: Release date
A series of iOS 17 beta releases will be made available to testers before the final version debuts in the autumn, with the first developer beta probably going live on the first day of WWDC 2023. Here is the timetable we anticipate:
- iOS 17 is introduced at WWDC and the first developer beta is made available in early to mid-June 2023.
- Apple releases the initial public beta of iOS 17 in July 2023.
- Apple delivers a number of further development and public betas from June through September 2023.
- Early September 2023: The announcement of the iPhone 15.
The last public release of iOS 17 occurs in mid-September 2023.
iOS 17: Rumored features
The focus of our wishlist for iOS 17 this year was on little changes that would have a significant impact on how we use our phones.
To be fair, Apple did implement a few of the features from our iOS 16 Wishlist, so if iOS 17 offers us even more of the additions from this year’s list, we’ll consider it a success. What we hope to see this year is as follows:
- Smart display mode
- Control center
- Camera and Health improvements
- Sharing lock screen
Let’s examine the new features that were included to iOS 17 in further detail.
Smart display mode
When locked and oriented horizontally, iOS 17 will transform your iPhone into a kind of smart display, claims Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman (a generally trustworthy source of leaks and rumors). The feature will build on the lock screen widget functionality introduced in iOS 16 and utilize bright text on a dark background to make it easier to see.
Apple is also developing a new horizontal iPad interface, although the progress is being made more slowly. A new journaling app, modifications to the Health app, and updates to SharePlay and AirPlay are also mentioned by Gurman along with adjustments to the Wallet app and its location capabilities.
Control center
According to a forum user on MacRumors, Control Center will see significant updates in iOS 17 for the first time in a long time. Although a “website forum member” is not normally a reliable source for information leaks, this particular leaker has previously provided precise information regarding the Dynamic Island before it was publicly revealed.
Camera and Health improvements
Several new features were described in an April Twitter thread from the notorious leaker, who claims to be an insider on the development team. Although this leak is hazy, the several upgrades that have been published are all imprecise and predictable enough to look probable. They consist of:
- Significant UI and customization updates to the Control Center.
- updates to Dynamic Island’s features.
- Additional options for always-on displays.
- More filters for Focus Mode.
- UI updates for health apps.
- App modifications for cameras.
- Modifications to notifications and new options.
- Significantly enhanced Search/Spotlight.
Sharing lock screen
Some purported iOS 17 enhancements are described in a post on Weibo from an account that correctly anticipated the yellow iPhone 14 color (although rather late). They consist of:
- UI updates for Control Center.
- Custom folders are supported by App Library.
- The lock screen displays Apple Music lyrics.
- User interface upgrades for Apple Music.
- A flashlight with infinitely variable brightness.
- Sharing lock screen configurations.
- Changing the font size for the lock screen and the emoji background.
iOS 17: Conclusion
Apple’s announcement of iOS 17 at the WWDC keynote has revealed a range of new features and enhancements coming to iPhones later this year. While there may not be any groundbreaking innovations, the updates offer valuable improvements to the user experience. Live Voicemail introduces a convenient way to screen calls with live transcriptions, while the new Journal app focuses on promoting well-being through journaling.
Other notable additions include Contact Posters for customizable call screens, enhanced FaceTime capabilities, and safety features like Check-In. Additionally, iOS 17 brings improvements to Siri, Apple Maps, Keyboard and iMessage, AirDrop, and more. With a release expected in autumn and support for several iPhone models, iOS 17 promises to provide a fresh and feature-rich software update akin to having a new iPhone in hand.
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