Apple on Monday announced the next generation of its iPhone operating system, iOS, at the Worldwide Developers' Conference at its headquarters in Cupertino, California. The tech giant said iOS 17 will feature revamped phone, messages and FaceTime apps with what it claims are quality-of-life updates.
One of the highlights of iOS 17 is enhanced safety, ensuring a more secure user experience. Additionally, a built-in journaling app called Journal has been introduced, allowing users to effortlessly document and commemorate significant moments. The new nightstand mode turns the iPhone into a status display while charging in landscape mode.
Contact cards have received an update with a feature called posters. These posters transform contact cards into visually appealing marquee-like images that appear fullscreen on the recipient's iPhone when receiving a call. Users can customise the posters by selecting various designs, including bold typography options and the ability to add Memoji. Furthermore, this feature works seamlessly with third-party VoIP apps.
The voicemail experience — for users in countries that support voicemails — has been revolutionised with the live transcription feature. Users can now view real-time transcripts of incoming voicemails, allowing them to decide whether to answer the call or let it go to voicemail. FaceTime has also been enhanced, enabling users to leave messages during video calls.
Messages have received several updates as well. Users can now filter searches with additional terms, making it easier to find specific messages. A new feature called Check In enables users to share their live location and status with others, automating notifications when arriving home and providing battery and cell service status updates.
Stickers have undergone a significant overhaul, offering users more creative options. Users can now add any emoji or photo cutout as a sticker, which can be positioned on iMessages or anywhere within the system. Live photos can be converted into animated stickers, and effects can be applied to stickers to enhance their appearance.
AirDrop has also received an update called NameDrop, enabling users to send contact information, including email addresses and phone numbers, by simply bringing two iPhones close to each other. This functionality also extends to Apple Watch and facilitates seamless sharing of photos. In addition, iOS 17 allows for continuous file downloads even if the devices move out of range.
Keyboard updates include improvements to autocorrect, leveraging a new language model for enhanced accuracy. Users now have the convenience of reverting to their original word with a simple shortcut if necessary. In-line predictive typing and sentence-level autocorrections have been introduced to correct grammatical errors more effectively. The keyboard also learns user-specific vocabulary, including commonly used profanity.
A new app called Journal has been introduced, offering automatic suggestions for journal entries based on significant moments in a user's life. Entries can include photos, music, and activities, and users can set reminders to prompt them to write. To ensure privacy, Journal employs end-to-end encryption.
Siri has also received significant improvements, including the ability to omit the "hey" from "Hey Siri." Users can now initiate commands more naturally. Furthermore, Siri now supports back-to-back commands, enhancing the voice assistant's overall usability.
iOS 17 follows the significant update of iOS 16, which introduced a revamped lock screen, useful iMessage features such as editing and unsending messages, and the introduction of time-sensitive Live Activities on the Dynamic Island. While iOS 16 provided valuable quality-of-life upgrades, it didn't fundamentally change how users interact with their phones. The update also accentuated the differentiation between the iPhone 14 Pro and the regular iPhone 14, as only the Pro model offered features like an always-on display and Dynamic Island, which maximised the utilisation of the updates.
First Published: Jun 5, 2023 10:58 PM IST
