Apple has announced the release of iOS 17, which makes several significant upgrades to the communications experience across Phone, FaceTime, and Messages. It also makes it easier to share content with AirDrop and provides more intelligent input that improves typing speed and accuracy. In addition, iOS 17 introduces two new apps. Journal makes it easy for people to practice gratitude, while StandBy provides a new way to view glanceable information when an iPhone is set down and charging.
Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering, said:
“With iOS 17, we’ve made iPhone more personal and intuitive by deeply considering the features we all rely on every day. Phone, FaceTime, and Messages are central to how we communicate, and this release is packed with updates we think our users are going to love. We’ve also reimagined AirDrop with new ways to share, autocorrect gets even better, and we’re introducing all-new experiences with Journal and StandBy, plus so much more. We can’t wait for everyone to try it.”
The Phone app is a central part of the iPhone experience. It now has a major update that includes personalized Contact Posters. Users can customize how they appear when receiving incoming calls, choosing from a variety of treatments for photos or Memoji, as well as eye-catching typography and font colors. Contact Posters will also be available for third-party calling apps.
Live Voicemail is a new feature that allows users to see real-time transcription of voicemail messages. It also allows them to pick up the call while the caller is leaving a message. Calls identified as spam by carriers won’t appear as Live Voicemail and will be instantly declined. The Neural Engine handles Live Voicemail transcription on-device, ensuring that it remains entirely private.
FaceTime Adds Audio and Video Messages, Reactions, and Extends to Apple TV
FaceTime now includes support for audio and video messages, allowing users to send messages to someone who is not available to talk and can be enjoyed later. In addition, FaceTime calls now have more expression with Reactions such as hearts, balloons, fireworks, laser beams, rain, and more. You can activate these new effects with simple gestures, and third-party video calling apps can also use them.
Apple TV 4K has an exciting update that extends FaceTime to the largest screen in the home. With Continuity Camera, you can initiate a video call directly from Apple TV, or start the call on your iPhone and then hand it off to Apple TV to chat with friends and family on your television. With Center Stage, you’ll always be in perfect framing, even as you move around the room.
A Fresh Look and Big Updates to Messages
iOS 17’s Messages app now offers an updated stickers experience that includes new emoji stickers and the option to create Live Stickers by lifting subjects from photos. Users can add effects to Live Stickers to bring them to life, and a new drawer in the keyboard puts all of a user’s stickers in one place for easier access across iOS.
New features within Messages enhance the way users communicate. An expandable menu is accessible via a simple tap displays iMessage apps, giving Messages a sleeker look. Search is now more powerful and precise with search filters, allowing users to start a search and add additional filters to narrow down results and find exactly what they’re looking for. 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. If a user shares their location, it will update in real-time within the conversation. Audio messages are now automatically transcribed so users can read them in the moment or listen later.
Messages introduces Check In, a feature that allows users to notify their family members and friends that they have arrived at their destination safely. When a user initiates a Check In, their friend or family member will be automatically notified as soon as the user arrives. If the user is not making progress toward their destination, useful information such as the device’s location, battery level, and cell service status will be temporarily shared with the selected contact. It is important to note that all information shared is end-to-end encrypted.
Easier Sharing with AirDrop and NameDrop
AirDrop simplifies file sharing with colleagues or sending photos to friends within seconds. With iOS 17, AirDrop now has new sharing features. NameDrop enables users to share contact information by bringing their iPhones together or by bringing an iPhone and Apple Watch together. With the same gesture, users can also share content or start SharePlay to listen to music, watch a movie, or play games while in close proximity between iPhone devices.
Improvements to Autocorrect and Dictation Enhance Input Experience
Autocorrect has been updated with a transformer language model, a state-of-the-art on-device machine learning language model for word prediction. This upgrade improves accuracy and the overall experience for users every time they type. Additionally, Autocorrect now has a refreshed design to better support typing, and sentence-level autocorrections can fix more types of grammatical mistakes. Users will now receive predictive text recommendations inline as they type, making text entry faster than ever. Dictation has also been enhanced with a new speech recognition model to boost accuracy.
StandBy Displays Glanceable Information While iPhone Is Charging
iOS 17 introduces StandBy, which displays a full-screen experience with information that’s easy to see from a distance when the iPhone is on its side and charging. StandBy is great to use on a nightstand, kitchen counter, or desk. You can personalize it to display a variety of clock styles, favorite photos, or widgets including Smart Stacks, which surface the right widgets at the right time. StandBy also supports Live Activities, Siri, incoming calls, and larger notifications, making the iPhone even more useful when viewed at a distance. If you’re charging with MagSafe, StandBy will remember your preferred view. You can easily bring up StandBy anytime by tapping the screen, and on iPhone 14 Pro with the Always-On display, it is always available.
Journal: A New App for Practicing Gratitude and Improving Wellbeing
Journal is an iPhone app designed to help users reflect and practice gratitude through journaling, which has been shown to boost wellbeing. By utilizing on-device machine learning, personalized suggestions are provided to inspire a user’s journal entry. Suggestions are intelligently curated from recent activity, including photos, people, places, workouts, and more, making it easy to start a journal entry. Scheduled notifications can help build a journaling habit. To protect user privacy, the app can be locked and uses on-device processing and end-to-end encryption. Journaling Suggestions API is also available for developers to add journaling suggestions to their own apps.
Additional features in iOS 17 include:
- Safari adds greater protection for Private Browsing, both from trackers as a user browses, and from people who might have access to a user’s device. Advanced tracking and fingerprinting protections go even further to help prevent websites from tracking or identifying a user’s device. Private Browsing now locks when not in use, allowing a user to keep tabs open even when stepping away from the device.
- For easier and more secure password and passkeys sharing, users can share passwords with a group of trusted contacts. Everyone in the group can add and edit passwords to keep them up to date. Since sharing is through iCloud Keychain, it’s end-to-end encrypted.
- The Health app offers new mental health features. Users can log their daily moods and momentary emotions; see what might be contributing to their state of mind; and easily access depression and anxiety assessments often used in clinics, plus resources available in their region. Additionally, increasing the distance the device is viewed from can help children lower their risk of myopia and gives adult users the opportunity to reduce digital eyestrain. Screen Distance in Screen Time uses the TrueDepth camera to encourage users to move their device farther away after holding it closer than 12 inches from their face for an extended period of time.
- Maps adds offline maps, so users can download a specific area and access turn-by-turn navigation, see their estimated time of arrival, find places in Maps, and more while offline. Maps also makes it easier than ever to discover thousands of trails in parks across the United States, and supports electric vehicle drivers with real-time charging availability information.
- AirTag can be shared with up to five other people, allowing friends and family to keep track of an item in Find My. Everyone in a group will be able to see an item’s location, play a sound, and use Precision Finding to help pinpoint the location of a shared AirTag when nearby. This also works with all other Find My network accessories.
- Apple Music introduces Collaborative Playlists that make listening to music with friends easier than ever before, and SharePlay in the car allows all passengers to easily contribute to what’s playing.3 Listeners can control the music from their own devices, even if they don’t have an Apple Music subscription.
- Sharing content using AirPlay is even easier with on-device intelligence now learning a user’s preferences. AirPlay will also work with supported televisions in hotels, allowing users to easily enjoy their favorite content on the TV when traveling. Built with a foundation of privacy and security, this capability will be available before the end of the year in select hotels, starting with brands from IHG Hotels & Resorts.
- AirPods receive powerful new features, including Adaptive Audio, Personalized Volume, and Conversation Awareness, that redefine the personal audio experience. Plus, improvements to Automatic Switching and call controls make AirPods even easier to use.
- The Home app adds the ability for users to view up to 30 days of activity history across door locks, garage doors, alarm systems, and contact sensors. Additionally, two popular HomeKit lock features — tap to unlock and PIN codes — are now available for Matter-compatible locks, providing even more ways to connect the home.
- Remindersfeatures a grocery list that automatically groups added items into categories to make shopping easier. Users can change how the items are grouped and the list remembers their preferences.
- Visual Look Up is now available in paused video frames. Now users can identify food, storefronts, signs, and symbols, and lift individual subjects from photos and videos.
- Sirican be activated by simply saying “Siri.” Once activated, users can issue multiple commands in succession without needing to reactivate the assistant.
- In Photos, the People album uses on-device machine learning to recognize more photos of a user’s favorite people, as well as cats and dogs.
- Privacy updates include the expansion of Communication Safety beyond Messages to help keep kids safe when sending and receiving content via AirDrop, Contact Posters, a FaceTime message, and when using the Photos picker to choose content to send. It also expands to cover video content in addition to still images. A new feature, Sensitive Content Warning, helps adult users avoid seeing unwanted nude images and videos. As with Communication Safety, all image and video processing for Sensitive Content Warning occurs on-device, so Apple does not get access to the content.
- Accessibility updates include Assistive Access, a customizable interface that helps users with cognitive disabilities use iPhone with greater ease and independence; Live Speech, which gives nonspeaking users the option to type and have their words spoken in person, or on phone and FaceTime calls; Personal Voice, which gives users at risk of speech loss the option to create a voice that sounds like theirs; and Point and Speak, which helps users who are blind or have low vision read text on physical objects by pointing.
In iOS 17, the Health app provides new mental health features. Users can log their daily moods and momentary emotions.
Maps now has offline maps. Users can download a specific area and access turn-by-turn navigation, see their estimated time of arrival, find places in Maps, and more while offline.
Apple Music introduces Collaborative Playlists, making it easier to listen to music with friends.
On-device intelligence now learns a user’s preferences, making it even simpler to share content using AirPlay.
A new Privacy feature, Sensitive Content Warning, helps adult users avoid seeing unwanted nude images and videos.
The developer beta of iOS 17 is available to Apple Developer Program members at developer.apple.com starting today, and a public beta will be available next month at beta.apple.com. New software features will be available this fall as a free software update for iPhone Xs and later. For more information, visit apple.com/ios/ios-17-preview. Features are subject to change. Some features may not be available in all regions, all languages, or on all devices. For more information about availability, visit apple.com.
