Right after announcing new mac products and a new Apple Silicon, Apple previewed the upcoming iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 software at this year’s WWDC. The new iOS and iPadOS will arrive as a free software update in the fall of 2023, just in time for the new iPhone series. The developer beta for both OS is available to Apple Developer Program members while the public beta will arrive in a month’s time.
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According to Apple, iOS 17 focuses on four key aspects – Communication, Sharing, Intelligence and New Experiences. The communication aspect has to do with upgrades to the Phone, Messages and FaceTime apps.
- Communication – The phone app now has added two new features – Contact Posters and Live Voicemail. The former allows users customise profile appearance (photos or Memojis) on incoming calls while the latter uses the neural engine to provide real-time, on-device transcript of voicemails.
- Communication – Audio and Video messages support has been added to FaceTime. Other actions such as Reactions (hearts, rain, lasers and more) can be activated through gestures. Also, Apple TV 4K users will now enjoy Facetime on the big screen thanks to Continuity Camera on iPhone. Calls can be initiated directly from the TV or from the phone and handed-off to the TV.
- Communication – Messages has been upgraded to include a new stickers experience (emojis and creation of Live Stickers), new easily accessible and expandable menu, improved search with additional filters and a new Check In feature to notify loved ones when the user arrives safely. There is also a new Catch-Up arrow to pick up a conversation where it was left.
- Sharing – iOS 17 will introduce NameDrop, a new AirDrop-based feature for sharing contact information by bringing two iPhones or an iPhone and Apple Watch together. Users can also share and watch content through SharePlay when within proximity (Shared Activity using SharePlay).
- Intelligence – The Keyboard experience will improve with ML-based features such as Predictive Text and Sentence-Level Autocorrections while Dictation will become more accurate thanks to a new speech recognition model.
- Experience – iOS 17 will deliver two new features to boost user experience – StandBy and Journal. With StandBy mode, users will be able to access a new full-screen experience when the phone is plugged-in sideways (landscape). It is akin to the interface on Google’s Pixel Tablet, as it can customised with widgets, photos, and creative clock styles. It also supports Live Activities.
- Experience – The Journal app will help users curate journal entries. It uses on-device learning to suggest entries from recent activities, such as photos and places,
- Others – Better protection for Private Browsing in Safari, Password and Passkeys Sharing, New Mental Health features in Health App, Offline Maps, Collaborative Playlists in Apple Music, Assistive Access (accessibility), and Siri can now be activated by saying only ‘Siri’.
iPadOS 17
In addition to most of the features available in iOS 17, iPadOS 17 will deliver iPad-focused features such as the addition of interactive widgets, customisable Lock Screens with wallpapers and Live Photo, and Live Activities will now be available on iPadOS. Working with PDF will become easier as users will be able to fill out and add signature to documents.
Users will also be able to capture PDF in the Notes App, collaborate on the same documents, and make annotations with the Apple Pencil. The Health app is now available on the iPad, giving users the ability to track and interact with their health reports on a bigger screen. There has also been improvements to Stage Manager and new drawing tools has been added to the FreeForm app.