A
pple announced iOS 17 during its WWDC event on Monday and immediately made a preview available to developers.
The next major software update for iPhones brings a host of new improvements, including personalized contact cards, autocorrect improvements, a standby display for quick info while charging, and a check-in feature to notify someone you’ve arrived home are safe.
But when will it be released and on which devices can you get it? Here you will find all important information about iOS 17.
When will iOS 17 be released?
As mentioned above, iOS 17 is currently available in beta for developers, which means it might be prone to bugs and other issues.
The good news is that a public beta will follow in July, according to Apple. If you don’t mind one or two bugs, you can sign up to use it through Apple’s official website as soon as it’s available.
Contact posters on iOS 17 take over your iPhone’s screen when someone you know calls
/ Apple
While we don’t know exactly when it will be released, public betas are typically around three weeks behind development releases – so a release date could be early July.
For everyone else, iOS 17 will be available as a free software update in the fall.
Based on the release date of iOS 16, which rolled out alongside the iPhone 14 range last year, you can expect it to arrive around mid-September.
iOS 17 features: What are the most important updates?
Apple’s biggest iOS 17 features include updates to Contacts, Voicemail, FaceTime, Messages, Autocorrect, Airdrop file sharing, and the hands-free iPhone experience.
Here are the top improvements you need to know about:
Contact Poster
Soon you’ll be able to set custom contact backgrounds with photos or memoji that will take over your iPhone screen when someone you know calls you. The new posters even work with third-party chat apps.
Live Voicemail
Apple uses its speech-to-text technology to transcribe your voicemail messages in real time. This allows you to decide whether to answer while the caller is still speaking to your device. Spam calls are immediately rejected and your conversations are handled on the device, keeping them private, Apple says.
FaceTime Messages
With iOS 17, you can leave a FaceTime audio or video message if someone doesn’t answer your call. You can also use FaceTime on your TV thanks to an update to Apple TV 4K, the set-top box that lets you stream services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
The check-in feature tells your selected contact your location, battery level, and phone signal
/ Apple
Check-in Messages
As part of a series of improvements to Messages (including photos that turn into stickers, a new menu, and an improved search feature), Apple is introducing a handy check-in feature. With it, you can notify a friend or loved one when you reach your goal.
If you stop for any reason along the way, the feature will share additional information with the contact you’ve selected, e.g. B. Your location, battery level and signal strength of the phone.
According to Apple, all information will be end-to-end encrypted.
AirDrop makes sharing even easier
Apple’s AirDrop file sharing feature lets you share contacts with another iPhone or Apple Watch by bringing your devices closer together. You can also share content, listen to music, watch a movie or play a game in the same way.
Autocorrect recognizes swear words
Autocorrect gets a major upgrade with iOS 17 thanks to a new machine-learning language model for predicting words. It’s not quite SiriGPT, but it’s a cool AI-powered feature nonetheless.
For users with small mouths, autocorrect is even capable of detecting swear words. No more typing “crouch” and looking like an idiot in your group chats.
Standby turns your charging iPhone into a smart screen
Apple is trying to get you to use your iPhone while it’s charging by turning it into a display or picture frame. In standby mode, you can put your phone down or put it on a stand to see things like the time, date, weather, your favorite photos, and Apple Music playing. You can even talk to Siri and answer incoming calls.
The feature remains on the iPhone 14 Pro thanks to the always-on display, while everyone else can tap their device’s screen to activate it.
Apple wants to raise spirits with its iPhone journal app
Apple hopes the new Journal app will get you started jotting down your daily thoughts. It offers you writing suggestions based on your photos, contacts, places you’ve visited, and workouts. Other apps can also encourage you to update your journal by accessing Apple’s software.
Standby mode turns your iPhone into a clock or picture frame while charging
/ Apple
More features of iOS 17
Beyond the main attractions, iOS 17 also offers a full range of additional features, including an updated Health app, offline maps, the ability to share AirTags with up to five other people, collaborative Apple Music playlists, and more intuitive audio on AirPods.
The full list of updates can be found here.
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Which devices can get iOS 17?
Now for the bad news. Apple says iOS 17 won’t be coming to the iPhone X – something we’ve known for a while.
The full list of devices that support iOS 17 can be found in the image below. Other notable devices that will miss the new update include the iPhone
Apple states that the iPhone X 2017 does not support the iOS 17 software update
/ Apple
As if that wasn’t bad enough, some older iPhones capable of iOS 17 will still miss out on some of its features.
For example, gesture-based reactions with augmented reality effects in FaceTime require an iPhone 12 or later.
Ditto for some keyboard autocorrect improvements and inline autocomplete suggestions.
Finally, there’s a new accessibility feature called Point and Speak, designed to help blind or partially sighted people read text around them. However, this feature is limited to the Pro models of the iPhone 12, 13 and 14.
How to download iOS 17
When the beta period ends, the public version of iOS 17 will be free to download on your iPhone. As usual, you can access this by tapping “General” in your iPhone’s settings, then selecting “Software Update.” Then tap “Install Now” to download iOS 17 and you’re good to go.
