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iOS 17: All the Features Apple Is Adding to Your iPhone

The iPhone software adds new features to the Phone app, FaceTime calls and iMessage chats.

Posted By Kimbo Online Store

iOS 17 will introduce new ways of showing and sharing contact info.

Kevin Heinz/CNET

The release of iOS 17 by Apple will alter how you use your iPhone to make calls, send texts, and quickly scan information. The company announced Monday during its Worldwide Developers Conference that iOS 17 will bring enhancements to FaceTime, Messages, and the phone app to make your iPhone feel more intuitive and personalized.

The iOS 16 software update from last year added Live Activities, Apple Pay Later, a significant redesign of the lock screen, and the option to edit or “unsend” messages you send over iMessage. These additions were spread out throughout the course of various iOS software updates throughout the year rather than all being released at once.

We can expect the same for iOS 17, which will likely be released just before the rumored iPhone 15 goes on sale.

Contact Posters

Contact Posters aim to make your contact cards more compelling.

Apple

We received programmable lock screens in iOS 16 last year. The contact cards on your iPhone have undergone a similar update this year with iOS 17 to make them more appealing. When you get calls and other notifications from your phone’s communication and sharing apps, Contact Posters, which are attractive treatments for contact photographs and emoji combined with sleek-looking typefaces, appear.

Similar to how you can alter your lock screen, you can alter your Contact Poster. Simply choose a picture, a typeface, and a color.

AirDrop gets easier to use

AirDrop is being updated in iOS 17. To share a Contact Poster, photographs, videos, or to start a shared activity using Share Play, all you need to do is bring your iPhone close to the other person’s. Apple, of course, has a term for sharing your Contact Poster with a new contact: NameDrop. It’s convenient that you may select which contact information is shared. NameDrop functions with both an Apple Watch and between iPhones. It makes me think of “bumping” a contact in the early iPhone days.

 

Standby turns your iPhone into an Amazon Echo Show

iOS 17 adds an attractive screen that shows photos, widgets and info when your iPhone is charging.

Apple

When you don’t have your iPhone in your hand, one of iOS 17’s major improvements is for you. You can now view a full screen with glanceable information when your iPhone is being charged by MagSafe while lying on its side. The Standby feature imitates the functionality of numerous smart home appliances, including the Amazon Echo Show.

The clock, pictures, widgets, and Live Activities are all displayed on the new screen; almost all of them may be customized. It resembles a combination of the always-on display on the iPhone 14 Pro and the nightstand mode on the Apple Watch.

On the Standby screen, you can view your favorite images or moments by swiping to the side. Additionally, iOS 17 will randomly shuffle images to select the one that best utilizes the screen space.

Glanceable widgets may also be displayed in standby. You can view the weather, your Apple Home smart controls, or your preferred third-party widget, for instance. You can also view the outcome of sporting events or the progress of a food delivery if support for live activities is provided.

The ability of Standby to remember your chosen view “setup” for each location you charge via MagSafe is one of its more intriguing capabilities.

The new Journal app

Apple

Journal is a new Apple app that generates tailored writing prompts as part of iOS 17. These recommendations are compiled using data from your iPhone, including images, location, music, and exercise.

You can pick a certain time in the journal, such as “morning visit, Ocean Beach,” and begin writing there. Notifications can be set to alert you when new prompts are available and to remind you to write. Important events can be marked so that you can think about them afterwards.

Live Voicemail

Live Voicemail lets you preview a transcription in real time as a voicemail is being recorded.

Apple

The voicemail feature in iOS 17 is another new feature. When a caller leaves a message for you, you can watch a live transcription of what they are saying as they are speaking. The brand-new service, called Live Voicemail, is similar to the time before answering machines, back when my dad had to review calls. You can choose whether to leave the room and answer the call by viewing the message directly on your screen using Live message. In order to protect your privacy, the feature is driven by the neural engine in your iPhone. It’s not a bad thing that Live Voicemail on Google Pixel phones appears to be the same as Call Screen.

FaceTime messages

iOS 17 will let you record a video message in FaceTime. It’s a heavily requested feature that will ensure you can document and share important moments, even if someone misses your call.

iOS 17 comes with a new location-sharing tool called Check In.

Apple/GIF by Arielle Burton/CNET

Apple is streamlining and enhancing location sharing through Messages. To let a loved one know you arrived at your location safely, use the new Check In tool. You can start a Check In with a family member or friend, and when you go home, it will instantly let your friend know, even whether you’re walking home after dark or out for an early morning run. However, if anything unforeseen occurs, it can detect that you’re not close to your destination and contact you. If you don’t react, Check In can end-to-end encrypt your present position, the path you took, your iPhone’s battery life, and the state of your cell service.

Messages get a handful of fixes and additions

The Messages app will get transcriptions for audio messages in iOS 17.

Apple

The tried-and-true Messages app receives a number of tweaks, including a redesign of your iMessage applications, which will now be accessed via a + symbol on the bottom left instead of being located above your keyboard.

On iOS 17, the inclusion of filters makes it much simpler to search through your Messages. In the Messages app, you may add terms to a search query to limit the number of results.

The addition of audio message transcription is also a great one. If you receive audio messages from friends or family members, you can read a transcription of the content immediately inside the Messages app.

A new “catch up arrow” has also been added to Messages. You can navigate to the first message you haven’t read by clicking the button in the upper right corner of your discussion. For managing group discussions, this functionality might be a game changer. Additionally, Apple accelerated inline replies. On each message bubble in iOS 17, you may just swipe to reply.

Apple fixes 'ducking' autocorrect

The ability of autocorrect to correct more grammatical errors will increase. It is simpler to convert words back to what you entered. Additionally, it appears that autocorrect will pick up on your swear phrases. Yeah, duck!

Messages adds a bunch of Sticker features.

Apple

A new drawer has been added to the iMessage sticker system to house all of your previously used stickers. Emoji are now available as stickers. Emoji stickers can be rotated and resized, and they can be peeled and adhered to a message bubble. As part of Visual Lookup, Apple provided the capability to remove a subject from a photograph’s backdrop last year with iOS 16. In Messages, you may use iOS 17 to make the subject of a photo into a sticker.

The Live Stickers tab in the Stickers drawer enables you to convert a Live Photo into a Sticker animation (also known as a GIF). System-wide access to stickers is available in applications like Tapback, Markup, and third-party ones; essentially, everywhere you can access emoji.

But wait, there are more iOS 17 features

As is typical with WWDC, there are a lot more additions and improvements to iOS 17 than Apple showed during the keynote. Some notable highlights include:

  • Triggering Siri by just saying, “Siri” instead of “Hey, Siri”
  • Download offline maps in the Maps app
  • New profiles for Safari and your passwords
  • Auto retrieval of one-time verification codes from the Mail app
  • Interactive widgets (which was featured in-depth during the iPadOS portion)

iOS 17 will be out in full this fall and work on the iPhone XS, XR and newer, including the 2020 iPhone SE.

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