Apple has officially announced iOS 17. Here’s what’s in store for the next major iPhone software update. The update has four focuses: communication, sharing, intelligent input, and new experiences.
Phone:
- gaining personalized contact posts that you set for others to see when you call them; also available in Contacts app; similar to customizing Lock Screen
- gets Live Voicemail with voice-to-text transcription before answering; transcription is handled on device
- brings FaceTime voicemail through a quick video recording
Messages:
- Search has narrower terms for precision results
- Swipe to reply on any bubble
- Audio Messages are transcribed
- Location sharing now inline with conversation
- Check In is a new feature for notifying family when you arrive safely; automatically recognizes when you don’t make progress or respond and shares update with family
- iMessage apps “gracefully tucked away” under new + button
- All emoji are now stickers
- Remove background feature now turns subjects into stickers
AirDrop:
- NameDrop is a new way to share phone number and email sharing between nearby iPhones
- Sharing media is also redesigned, and long media transfers can continue over the internet
- SharePlay API adding AirDrop integration
Autocorrect:
- Keyboard now leverages “transformer language model” to improve predictions
- Keyboard can learn what you really mean by “ducking” … ffff
- Predictions personalized by your words and usage
- Dictation upgrade
Journal:
- Uses on-device machine learning to create personalized suggestions for journaling – Suggestions API for other apps
- Includes photos, workouts, and interactions as prompts
- Entries can be marked as important to standout
- Prompts will inspire you to write
- Journal can be locked and is end-to-end encrypted for privacy
Standby:
- New full-screen experience that displays information in landscape mode
- Can be personalized to show data like clocks, photos, widgets, weather, Home controls, and third-party widgets
- Supports Live Activities
- Siri works in Standby with special landscape user interface
- Red tone like Apple Watch Ultra used for displaying clock at night
More
- Siri no longer requires Hey before Siri for voice activation
- Live Stickers
- Offline maps
iOS 17 will be available as a developer beta and public beta over the summer. iPhone users can update to the final release this fall. See what’s new in iPadOS 17 here.
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