iOS 17: Finally, some useful changes

Maybe it isn’t the most groundbreaking update, but I see the value.

Another end to the spring season means another WWDC from Apple. This time, they really surprised us all with the Vision Pro headset (blowing the Metaverse out of the water – not like that was going anywhere though). A new 15” Macbook Air was announced which seems interesting but only has two USB-C ports. And, of course, the yearly software updates with iOS/iPadOS 17 and MacOS Sonoma.

I was particularly interested in the iOS update. There’s always some “who cares?” features: in this case, Standby (like an alarm clock) and the Health app changes. But for a decent portion of the other changes, I really thought “wow, I can see myself using that” often. In no particular order, here’s what I think is useful.

Messages

Considering a decent portion of my phone usage is from messages, any changes to how that works is bound to have an impact.

I think Apple finally acknowledged iMessage apps weren’t all that great and put all of them in their own menu. Photos should have stayed on its own, I think.

Check In is one of those things you didn’t really think you’d need until they actually implement it. Saves you the “Text me when you get home!” game that seems to happen after every night out. I’d use this but it depends on how easy it is to initiate. Will it be a one-tap and done? You leave the bar, the phone estimates your time to get home on foot, and sends the message out to the person of your choice. Or will it require some setup each time you use it? “Where are you going? When do you think you’ll get there?” If it is the latter implementation, I can’t see myself doing it that much. Maybe if we can hook it up to Shortcuts that could change things.

Swipe-to-reply is another one of those quality of life features. Snapchat and Instagram (sometimes) have already got this. Holding down a message to open up the reply button just doesn’t have the same curb appeal. The corresponding “catch up” feature is something I’ve been missing too, especially in the active group chats.

Finally, search filters. Thank god. While it’s true that iMessage search has been better over the years, granular search parameters would have made life so much easier when you’re trying to find that one message. Discord’s implementation in their mobile app is akin to what I expect for this.

Phone/FaceTime

It’s not voicemail, it’s… facemail? Google Duo did it first, I think, but Apple takes time to implement changes we’ve seen on Android. The use cases are probably a little limited here. I can think of one, though: train is going by, gotta FaceTime Dad, he doesn’t answer – boom, video voicemail.

Speaking of voicemail, live transcriptions just dropped. I think Apple should push this one hard. First off, how many people call each other anymore? There’s times I give somebody a call and they’re confused as to why I didn’t just text them. Two, those that do call, now you have to train them to actually leave a voicemail instead of just hanging up. Maybe Apple will shorten that 30 second “after the tone, please record your message” prompt. I grew up in a time where cell phones weren’t entirely the norm until I was around middle school age, and even then, I had a flip phone for the longest time. Voicemail is just what we did.

Now, phone/contact posters. That looks pretty cool. They started this idea with the “share name and contact photo” thing in iMessage, and this seems to branch off from that. Upload a high-resolution photo, get everything adjusted, add a filter perhaps, and your contact poster is done. Phone calls become a fullscreen experience. Here’s my concern: what if you sync your contacts with Google, and not iCloud? Is that going to massacre any custom contact changes and inhibit those fullscreen posters? I hope not. I’ve been silently suffering with that contact sync issue for years.

Airdrop

Sharing between devices can now be done by tapping phones together. Great for networking, because I’m sick of seeing those “revolutionary” NFC business cards. Same thing goes for Airdrop things such as photos, links, etc. Should be a game changer for getting someone’s number. No more of the awkward “pull up the contact page and wait for them to type it in” dance.

Here’s a great question: will it work with phones that haven’t updated? Will the 17 phone recognize the other phone as being on 16 or below and treat it like a normal Airdrop request?

So many questions to be answered about all these cool new features in the coming months once the public beta gets out and around. I’ll probably install it, too.