Later today (September 18), iOS 17 is expected to roll out to all the top iPhones. On Tuesday, September 19, if you live in Australia, it will likely arrive at 3am AEST, 10am PT, 1pm EDT, or 6pm BST.
But you don’t need to wait till then to find out everything. As expected, Apple used its annual developer conference, WWDC 2023, to unveil new gear and software for Mac and macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS, and even augmented reality, with the introduction of its Vision Pro headset.
What little information was released at Apple’s September 2023 announcement came from that June event. Along with the name, these also introduced significant new elements like StandBy and Check In.
iOS 17: To the point
- What is it? The next big update for iOS – the iPhone’s operating system
- When does it come out? Later today (September 18)
- How much does it cost? It’ll be a free upgrade
- Which phones are supported? iPhone XS and newer
IOS 17 RELEASE DATE
Just days after the iPhone 15 line went up for pre-order, iOS 17 is scheduled to be launched later today (Monday, September 18).
While the exact time on September 18 is unknown, based on Apple’s customary release schedule, we’d assume that it will arrive at 10am PT, 1pm EDT, and 6pm BST. That would be 3 a.m. AEST on Tuesday, September 19 for those in Australia.
Apple formally revealed iOS 17 on June 5 as part of their yearly developer conference, WWDC 2023, prior to this rollout.
Apple released a sign-up page for developers and early adopters interested in obtaining access to the developer preview releases of iOS 17 right after WWDC, and a number of public betas have since been released.
The newest of these at the time of writing is iOS 17 public beta 4, which relocates the end call button from its previous location to that of iOS 16—possibly for the better. Other minor adjustments made in this beta include ones to the mood tracking feature’s animations, the way you access the photo picker in Messages, and the wallpaper icon in the settings screen.
If you’re eager to try out the beta build, view our tutorial on “How to download the iOS 17 beta on your iPhone” for the complete download procedure.
IOS 17 AVAILABILITY
Following the Apple September event, Apple revealed the release date for iOS 17, setting it for Monday, September 18.
iOS 17 will no longer support the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X, according to a MacRumors source “with a proven track record,” and the sad news is that this cut-off seems to have stayed true now that the release is real.
Since Apple’s 2017 iPhones didn’t make the cut, practically all of the company’s A11 Bionic-powered devices will no longer be supported.
The iPhone 6s, iPhone 7, and iPad Air 2 were among the models abandoned by iOS 16 and iPadOS 16, for example. The iPhone X and iPhone 8 are both now five years old, which is typically grounds for the chopping block. Apple routinely discontinues support for older devices with every new edition of iOS and iPadOS.
By the way, your iPhone will probably download iOS 17 automatically if it is eligible for Apple’s upcoming major update. Apple apparently believes that by making iPhone upgrades automatic in iOS 16.4, it would assure that the majority of users are on the most recent version of iOS.
CONFIRMED FEATURES OF IOS 17
The unveiling of iOS 17 at WWDC 2023 provided us an in-depth look at a ton of innovations that will be included in the following significant iPhone software release, and there’s more to it than we initially anticipated.
Since then, beta versions of further features and improvements have been appeared. Here is a list of every update Apple has so far confirmed, along with information on which feature of the iOS user experience each one relates to:
- (Phone) Contact Posters
- (Phone) Live Voicemail
- Menu for all apps (Messages)
- Enter (Messages)
- Up to Date (Messages)
- Responses within messages
- Filters for searching messages
- Location inline (messages)
- transcription of an audio message
- Stickers Drawer (for third-party apps and messages)
- Live Stickers (for Messages and outside apps)
- Send a FaceTime video message.
- Effects of AR activated by gesture (FaceTime)
- FaceTime (FaceTime) on Apple TV
- (iPhones with Always-On displays in StandBy)
- Home screen, lock screen, and StandBy interactive widgets
- (AirDrop) NameDrop
- AirDrop, a proximity-based sharing system
- transfers made via the internet (AirDrop)
- AirDrop’s proximity-based SharePlay
- Journal (general iOS)
- improved keyboard autocorrect
- (Safari) Work and personal profiles
- Swifter Safari search
- Safari’s Enhanced Private Browsing
- Verification codes using Mail (Mail / Safari) auto-fill
- Sharing passwords with trusted contacts (generic iOS)
- collaborative music playlists
- Suggestions for mobile devices (AirPlay)
- Your hotel room’s AirPlay (AirPlay)
- Adaptive Audio (second-generation AirPods Pro)
- For the second-generation AirPods Pro, press to mute or unmute.
- Improved Automatic Switching (second-generation AirPods Pro)
- (Maps) Offline maps
- improved EV navigating (Maps)
- The “Siri” wake word only
- simultaneous queries to Siri
- Top Hit’s (Spotlight) list of app shortcuts
- Visual outcomes of searches (Spotlight)
- improved visual lookup (pictures)
- Check-in on mental health (Health)
- Checking your eye health (Health)
- Messages, AirDrop, FaceTime, the phone, and third-party apps: Communication Safety
- Warning about sensitive content (messages, AirDrop, FaceTime, phone, and third-party apps)
- Auto-sorting the grocery list (Reminders)
- View and annotate PDF files
- Additional AutoFill (PDFs)
- History of Activity (Home)
- Recognizing cats and dogs (Photos)
- new drafting instruments (Freeform)
IOS 17 FEATURES
Despite everything we do know, there are still several unanswered questions regarding the cosmetic and functional features of iOS 17 that Apple has not yet addressed.
A Weibo user alluded to a number of aesthetic updates for Apple Music, the Control Center, the App Library, and the iPhone lock screen.
According to the Weibo user in question, iOS 17 will allow you to adjust the font sizes used on your lock screen and share your personalized lock screen designs with other iPhone users, presumably in a similar fashion to how Apple Watch faces can be exchanged amongst Apple Watch owners. Following WWDC, this might have been Contact Posters they unintentionally meant to mention, but lock screen sharing may still feature in the works.
Custom categories and other organizing capabilities are supposedly on the way for your iPhone’s App Library, while big UI improvements to the Control Center’s useful shortcut page are anticipated for iOS 17.
The ability to read song lyrics directly on your phone’s lock screen is one of the Apple Music enhancements planned for iOS 17, and the company also plans to emphasize lowering the amount of text in the Apple Music app in favor of new pictures and graphics.
In fact, there has been speculation of several app redesigns that might give some native apps on iOS 17 a drastically different look from what you might be accustomed to.
Mark Gurman of Bloomberg predicted that Apple would include app sideloading in iOS 17 in a newsletter entry. This action would be in response to EU regulations that were approved in 2022 and impose a March 2024 compliance deadline on tech corporations. To put it succinctly, the rules demand that platform owners like Apple allow for the installation of apps from third-party app stores and websites. Apple was forced to accept, much like USB-C, even if app sideloading on iPhone might only be relevant in Europe.
Other rumors about iOS 17 features have all corroborated Gurman’s reporting, although not coming from his more trustworthy sources. According to a more recent leak from Twitter user analyst941, “performance, efficiency, stability, and long-term support for older devices are the main features of [the] update.”
The following new features are under development, according to analyst941 (we’ve indicated in brackets which ones have been partially or completely confirmed since WWDC):
- Additional options for the Always-On Display on the iPhone 14 Pro (which was introduced at WWDC and may be in StandBy)
- additional focus modes filters
- “Changes and additional options” to control notifications
- Personalized Accessibility Mode
- “Improvements” to the Car Key feature and “more car implementations into the Wallet app”
- Changes to the “Favorites” interface in the Health app’s user interface
- Features for Search and Spotlight that have been “heavily improved” (confirmed at WWDC)
- “The behemoth of ARKit APIs and frameworks,”
- The Dynamic Island plans to take on much more.
- “Camera app changes; these were initially planned for the iPhone 14 Pro release, and MAY only be implemented into the iPhone 15’s OS, rather than all iOS 17 devices”
- Widgets will become more “dynamic” thanks to “active widgets” that “bring one-tap buttons, sliders, and more” (as announced at WWDC).
Despite the lengthy list above, these modifications do appear to be more surface-level than significant, supporting Gurman’s remarks about the absence of “tentpole improvements[s]” planned for iOS 17.
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