Prior to its announcement, iOS 17 doesn't seem like it has much to offer thanks to the rumours. However, now that it was officially unveiled at the WWDC 23, let's find out what Apple has in store for us.
During the presentation, Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering announced that iOS 17 was designed to be more personal and intuitive for iPhone users. The Phone, FaceTime, and Messages will see some changes, as well as AirDrop with new ways to share. The Autocorrect function is improved and Apple also introduced an all-new Journal and Standby experience.
Starting with the Phone app, the contact posters will have a big personalised update that shows how iPhone users express themselves. So if your iPhone supports iOS 17, you will be able to customise how you appear in an incoming call with photos you choose, filters, Memoji, typography and font colours. Contact Posters will also be available for third-party calling apps.
On the other hand, FaceTime will support both audio and video messages. This is so that when users call someone who's unavailable, they can share a message later. New effects will be added to FaceTime as well such as emoji reactions, and third-party video calling apps can take advantage of them as well. FaceTime also got extended to Apple TV 4K with Continuity Camera, where users can have a direct video call on the Apple TV.
The Message will have new updates too with new emoji stickers and the ability to create Live Stickers by lifting subjects from photos. Currently, iPhone users can already make Stickers but Live Stickers mean adding effects. There will also be a new drawer in the keyboard that puts all of a user’s stickers in one place. Other upgrades are coming as well, such as a more powerful Search engine, a new catch-up arrow where the user last left off in the conversation, sharing location in real-time and Check In, an audio message with transcribed text and more.
Then for AirDrop, it will be easier to share a media file or document with friends and family. There's a new NameDrop too, which allows users to share contact information from their iPhone or Apple Watch together. This also shares content, SharePlay for music, movies or even games. We also mentioned the new Standby, which gives users to view information from a distance.
Last but not least, there will be a new Journal app for iPhone users to reflect and improve their well-being by journalling down their thoughts. The machine learning on the iPhone can send out personalised suggestions such as from recent activities, photos, people, places, workouts and more. Apple also said Journal is built to protect a user’s privacy and ensure no one — including Apple — can access a user’s entries.
iOS 17 developer beta test is now live and the public beta will be released 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.
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