iOS 17 discussion thread

Apple MacOS / iOS
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Some nice new features in iOS 17, available now.

The headline features according to MacRumors:

And Gizmodo listed some bigger and smaller changes that also sound pretty handy.

Full details from Apple

Phone

  • Contact Posters let you customize how you appear on other people’s devices when you call them with a customized poster
  • Live Voicemail displays a live transcription as someone leaves a message and allows you to pick up the call

Messages

  • Stickers iMessage app brings all your stickers into one place including Live Stickers, Memoji, Animoji, emoji stickers, and your third party sticker packs
  • Live Stickers can be created by lifting the subject from photos or videos and stylizing them with effects like Shiny, Puffy, Comic, and Outline
  • Check In automatically notifies a family member or friend when you arrive at a destination safely and can share helpful information with them in case of a delay
  • Audio message transcription is available for audio messages you receive so you can read them in the moment and listen later
  • Search improvements help you find messages faster by allowing you to combine search filters such as people, keywords, and content types like photos or links to find exactly what you are looking for
  • Swipe to reply to a message inline by swiping to the right on any bubble
  • One-time verification code cleanup automatically deletes verification codes from the Messages app after using them with AutoFill in other apps

FaceTime

  • Leave a video or audio message to capture exactly what you want to say when someone does not pick up your FaceTime call
  • Enjoy FaceTime calls on Apple TV by using your iPhone as a camera (Apple TV 4K 2nd generation and later)
  • Reactions layer 3D effects like hearts, balloons, confetti, and more around you in video calls and can be triggered with gestures
  • Video effects allow you to adjust the intensity of Studio Lighting and Portrait mode

StandBy

  • Full-screen experience with glanceable information like clocks, photos, and widgets designed to view from a distance when iPhone is on its side and charging in places such as your nightstand, kitchen counter, or desk
  • Clocks are available in a variety of styles including Digital, Analog, Solar, Float, and World Clock, with elements you can personalize like the accent color
  • Photos automatically shuffle through your best shots or showcase a specific album you choose
  • Widgets give you access to information at a distance and appear in Smart Stacks that deliver the right information at the right time
  • Night Mode lets clocks, photos, and widgets take on a red tone in low light
  • Preferred view per MagSafe charger remembers your preference for each place you charge with MagSafe, whether that’s a clock, photos, or widgets

Widgets

  • Interactive widgets let you take actions, like mark a reminder as complete, directly from the widget by tapping it on the Home Screen, Lock Screen, or in StandBy
  • iPhone widgets on Mac enable you to add widgets from your iPhone to your Mac desktop

AirDrop

  • NameDrop lets you exchange contact information with someone new by bringing your iPhones close together
  • New way to initiate AirDrop allows you to share content or start a SharePlay session over AirDrop by bringing your iPhones close together

Keyboard

  • Improved autocorrect accuracy makes typing even easier by leveraging a powerful transformer-based language model (iPhone 12 and later)
  • Easier autocorrect editing temporarily underlines corrected words and lets you revert back to what you originally typed with just a tap
  • Enhanced sentence corrections can correct more types of grammatical mistakes when you finish sentences (iPhone 12 and later)
  • Inline predictive text shows single and multi-word predictions as you type that can be added by tapping space bar (iPhone 12 and later)

Safari and Passwords

  • Profiles keep your browsing separate for topics like work and personal, separating your history, cookies, extensions, Tab Groups, and favorites
  • Private Browsing enhancements include locking your private browsing windows when you’re not using them, blocking known trackers from loading, and removing identifying tracking from URLs
  • Password and passkey sharing lets you create a group of passwords to share with trusted contacts that stays up to date as members of the group make changes
  • One-time verification code AutoFill from Mail autofill in Safari so you can log in without leaving the browser

Music

  • SharePlay makes it easy for everyone to control and play Apple Music in the car
  • Crossfade smoothly transitions between songs by fading out the currently playing song while fading in the next so the music never stops

AirPlay

  • Intelligent AirPlay device list makes finding the right AirPlay-compatible TV or speaker even easier by showing your devices in order of relevance, based on your preferences
  • Suggested AirPlay device connections are proactively shown to you as a notification to make it even more seamless to connect to your preferred AirPlay devices
  • Automatic AirPlay device connections are made between your iPhone and the most relevant AirPlay-compatible device so all you have to do is tap “Play” to begin enjoying your content

AirPods

  • Adaptive Audio delivers a new listening mode that dynamically blends Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency to tailor the noise control experience based on the conditions of your environment (AirPods Pro (2nd generation) with firmware version 6A300 or later)
  • Personalized Volume adjusts the volume of your media in response to your environment and listening preferences over time (AirPods Pro (2nd generation) with firmware version 6A300 or later)
  • Conversation Awareness lowers your media volume and enhances the voices of the people in front of the user, all while reducing background noise (AirPods Pro (2nd generation) with firmware version 6A300 or later)
  • Press to mute and unmute your microphone by pressing the AirPods stem or the Digital Crown on AirPods Max when on a call (AirPods (3rd generation), AirPods Pro (1st and 2nd generation), or AirPods Max with firmware version 6A300 or later)

Maps

  • Offline Maps allow you to select an area you want to access, search, and explore rich information for places to download for use when your iPhone doesn’t have a Wi-Fi or cellular signal
  • EV routing improvements give you routes based on real-time EV charger availability for supported chargers

Siri

  • Option to say “Siri” in addition to “Hey Siri” for an even more natural way to make requests
  • Back-to-back requests can be issued without needing to reactivate Siri in between commands (iPhone 11 and later)

Visual Look Up

  • Expanded domains in Visual Look Up help you discover similar recipes from photos of food, Maps information from photos of storefronts, and the meaning of signs and symbols on things like laundry tags
  • Multiple or single subjects can be lifted from the background of photos and videos and placed into apps like Messages
  • Visual Look Up in Video helps you learn about objects that appear in paused video frames
  • Visual Look Up for subjects in photos enables you to look up information about objects you lift from photos directly from the callout bar

Health

  • State of Mind reflection allows you to log your momentary emotion and daily mood, choose what factors are having the biggest impact on you, and describe your feelings
  • Interactive charts give you insights into your state of mind, how it has changed over time, and what factors may have influence such as exercise, sleep, and mindful minutes
  • Mental health assessments help you understand your current risk for depression and anxiety and if you might benefit from getting support
  • Screen Distance leverages the TrueDepth camera that powers Face ID to encourage you to increase the distance you view your device to reduce digital eye strain and can help reduce the risk of myopia in children

Privacy

  • Sensitive Content Warnings can be enabled to prevent users from unexpectedly being shown images containing nudity in Messages, AirDrop, Contact Posters in the Phone app, and FaceTime messages
  • Expanded Communication Safety protections for children now detect videos containing nudity in addition to photos that children may receive or attempt to send in Messages, AirDrop, Contact Posters in the Phone app, FaceTime messages, and the system Photo picker
  • Improved sharing permissions give you even more control over what you share with apps, with an embedded photo picker and an add-only Calendar permission
  • Link tracking protection removes extra information from links shared in Messages, Mail, and Safari Private Browsing that some websites use in their URLs to track you across other websites, and links still work as expected

Accessibility

  • Assistive Access distills apps and experiences to their essential features in Phone and FaceTime, Messages, Camera, Photos, and Music, including large text, visual alternatives, and focused choices to lighten cognitive load
  • Live Speech lets you type what you want to say and have it be spoken out loud in phone calls, FaceTime calls, and for in-person conversations
  • Personal Voice enables users who are at risk of losing their voice to privately and securely create a voice that sounds like them on iPhone, and use it with Live Speech in phone and FaceTime calls
  • Point and Speak in Magnifier Detection Mode uses iPhone to read text out loud on physical objects with small text labels, such as keypads on doors and buttons on appliances

This release also includes other features and improvements:

  • Roadside Assistance via satellite lets you contact AAA to help you with vehicle issues when out of Wi-Fi or cellular range (iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max)
  • Pets in the People album in Photos surfaces individual pets in the album just like friends or family members
  • Photos Album widget lets you select a specific album from the Photos app to appear in the widget
  • Item sharing in Find My allows you to share an AirTag or Find My network accessory with up to five other people
  • Activity History in Home displays a recent history of events for door locks, garage doors, security systems, and contact sensors
  • Grid Forecast in Home shows when your electrical grid has cleaner energy sources available (Contiguous US only)
  • Grocery Lists in Reminders automatically group related items into sections as you add them
  • Inline PDFs and document scans in Notes are presented full-width, making them easy to view and mark them up
  • New Memoji stickers in Keyboard include Halo, Smirk, and Peekaboo
  • App Shortcuts in Spotlight Top Hit offer you app shortcuts to your next action when you search for an app
  • Redesigned Sharing tab in Fitness provides highlights of your friends’ activity like workout streaks and awards
  • Email or phone number sign-in lets you sign into your iPhone with any email address or phone number listed in your Apple ID account
  • New drawing tools in Freeform include a fountain pen, watercolor brush, ruler and more to create expressive boards
  • Crash Detection optimizations (iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max)

Some features may not be available for all regions or on all Apple devices. For more information, please visit this website:

iOS 17 - Apple

Some features may not be available for all regions or on all iPhone models. For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website:

Apple security releases - Apple Support

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My favorites so far:

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If you guys don’t mind me talking to myself here… :slight_smile: WatchOS 10 is apparently a 1.2GB download. Holy cow, how how complicated is this OS exactly??

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I’m appreciating your take on this so far…

My favorite new feature so far is a minor one. They aren’t the first to do it, but as is often the case, when they do, it has a level of polish that’s often lacking.

I typically put my phone on a qi charging pad at night on my bedstand and already use it as my alarm clock. The new standby mode when your phone is tilted on it’s side, is quite nice including the use of color as well as brightness so that the info is visible if you look, but isn’t distracting or overly brightening the room.

One thing I do wonder about though is the possibility of burn in since it is an OLED display.

Of course todays OLEDs are far better in that regard than the early ones, but OTOH we are not talking about somewhat static images being displayed for roughly 6-8 hours in my case.

Apple told me that I have no reason for concern and since I also switch phones at a minimum every couple of years, they are likely right.

OTOH I wonder about someone like my dad who basically uses his phone until it no longer functions and/or can’t be updated.

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Yeah that sounds nice. Apparently you can set a different mode for each MagSafe charger, I didn’t expect that :

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Yes, discovered that too as the with charger I have at my desk at work where I have it show me email and teams notifications, where as at home, I suppress those and just show time/weather/apple music now playing info.

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Not strictly IOS 17, but related, I’m not real happy with the updates to WatchOS. It seems that Apple has significantly upped the nanny/nag quotient as multiple actions especially those related to fitness which used to be a one and done command now have a "are you sure? " attached to them… :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

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Same, but I’ll see if I find other ways of doing things. I was a very active user of the dock. Had a bunch of apps there that I use frequently.

Right now it seems we get widgets (turn crown or swipe up from bottom), a list of all apps (push crown; list always starts at the top :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:, maybe this can be changed to the old bubble view) and the control center (push side button).

So how do I quickly get to my shopping list app? Hmm. Edit: the weird 2D scrolling bubble view has been replaced by the Windows Mobile 6.5 honeycomb grid. :slight_smile: Meaning alternating rows of three and four app icons. That works well, you can have your seventeen most used apps on one screen, and scroll down to see the rest of your apps in this same list format. That’s plenty, and the icons are big enough to actually successfully tap them.

They also removed the option to swipe between watch faces, which amazingly I also used regularly, for example to switch to one that featured charge status. I guess I’ll start automating these with Siri shortcuts, if that’s possible.

So far nothing that I actually like better, except that I’m able to use Flighty’s widgets/complications.

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Unrelated, but some people on Reddit love the new option to reduce the response time of haptic touch on the iPhone. I switched mine to fast (feels snappier) and see if it ever gets in the way.

Oh, and the fact that we can now have multiple simultaneous timers with custom names is great (and years too late).

Another detail that I really appreciate is the much simpler way to use private tabs in Safari. That was always a very convoluted step, and I could never quite get there with muscle memory. In the new Safari, in the tab view you can swipe to any private tabs, and it’s clearly labeled. Much better!

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Ars’ take on iOS 17:

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One thing I forgot: iOS 17 allows you to train the iPhone to speak in your own voice. It’s not a quick thing, they need you to spend fifteen minutes to set this up. Still potentially very cool though. Apparently Carrot weather already added an option to use that personal voice as its tts method.

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Unrelated, buy something isn’t quite optimized yet in iOS 17. My 12 mini gets hot enough from normal indoor user that the screen dims to protect the device! :scream:

The corresponding battery drain since 10am is also pretty impressive.

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Maybe it’s because iOS is working on indexing and analyzing the too many photos on this device, and it’ll return to normal soon. :crossed_fingers:t2:

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Yeah it’s a bug that they looked to have fixed in the 17.01 update, even though the big fix was fixing a fairly major exploit hole (just need to go to a bad web page)

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