During today’s WWDC event, Apple announced this year’s new OS update for iPhones, iOS 17. The upcoming update will bring plenty of new features to your phone, including the ability to turn it into a small smart display, being able to seamless share your contact information to other iPhone users, and some new apps for your personal life.
While iOS 16 brought about a visual overhaul with its lockscreen customisation features, iOS 17 is offering an extension of that with Posters. This brings the lockscreen personalisation tools to your contacts and lets you give each person in your contact book a “poster” of sorts with a full-screen picture that shows up when they call.
Of course, you can make a poster for your contact information, which can easily be shared with NameDrop. An extension of AirDrop, this feature lets you quickly send your contact info to other iPhone users by bringing the two devices close to each other. Speaking of AirDrop, photos can also be shared by bringing iPhones in close proximity and downloading will continue even if the sender moves out of range.
Another interesting feature is StandBy, which turns your iPhone into somewhat of a smart display when its charging. The status display shows the time and date as well as allowing users to interact with widgets and smart stacks without having to unlock the phone. It automatically turns on when your phone is in landscape mode while charging.
Other additions to iOS 17 include FaceTime video voicemails, handing off to and starting FaceTime calls from Apple TV, a built-in sticker maker in the keyboard, better autocorrect, and a Check In feature that sends your live location to your loved ones along with battery status and cell service, along with notifying them automatically once you’ve reached home.
Apple is also introducing a new app called Journal, a digital diary that prompts you to write down your experiences based on a number of factors including location, contacts, pictures, music, workouts, and more. Last but not least, Siri is getting an update that cuts down the “Hey, Siri” prompt to just “Siri” to call on the digital assistant faster.
iPadOS is getting some tablet-exclusive features such as PDF support in the Notes app even a live collaboration feature that lets two people work on a shared PDF at the same time. Furthermore, it’s receiving some iPhone stuff that the iPad was previously lacking like a customisable lockscreen, Live Activities, and the Health app.
iOS 17, iPadOS 17, and other Apple ecosystem updates will be coming this fall and if the tech giant sticks to its usual schedule, it might be released sometime in September or October. For those who don’t want to wait as long, the public beta will be available in July.
(Source: Apple)
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