Apple’s iOS 17 is a lot of little updates that make a big impact

iOS 17 is one of the best iPhone updates in years, and I can’t explain why.

There are many small tweaks, but none stand out above the rest. Standby mode, however, is an honorable mention. Keyboard improvements, live voicemail, and new stickers couldn’t be more appealing. What excites me is the overall effect of these gradual updates.

Some of the new features are a little less bonkers, but it’s as if Apple engineers thought so. can Why don’t you add this feature?” I don’t think you’re going to record your mood on your phone on a regular basis. It feels a little “meh” to remove “Hey” from “Hey Siri” when saying “Hey Siri” wasn’t so much of an issue in the first place. Also, Siri is still not feeling well.

But those features don’t really stand out as much as the few moments that left me with a “wow, that’s really cool.” I made a grocery list in Reminder and watched “Rice Wine Vinegar” automatically fall into a section called “Oils and Dressings.” It’s real magic.

Beyond that, iOS 17 feels like another step towards making your iPhone feel more authentic. yours. The lock screen customization introduced in iOS 16 carries over to the Phone app, where you can express a little personality with contact cards. You can enter your vows freely without the auto-correction popping up with a ‘dah! Live voicemail feels like an acknowledgment that no one really wants to answer the phone. Related: I don’t answer calls anymore.

Here are five of my favorite iOS 17 features that I can’t wait to use this fall, in no particular order. If you’re feeling the pain, sooner than later, the public beta is available today.

iOS 16 added the ability to crop a friend’s photo. This was fun.But it was never clear what to do do with them. The answer is to turn it into a sticker. With iOS 17, tap and hold on a photo to separate the subject from the background and you’ll see the option to turn your photo into a sticker.

You can add a white border to make it look more sticker-like, or apply a reflective holographic-like effect found in all Lisa Frank stickers in Trapper Keeper. This seems silly until you realize you’re using your phone’s gyroscope to alter your reflections as if you were moving your phone through the light. It makes me really happy.

Now you can even stick these stickers across your iMessage conversations. Live Photos also turn into animated stickers, so I’m excited to reply to all my husband’s texts with an image of a toy beaver dancing with the Canadian flag. Many third-party apps also allow you to access stickers directly from your keyboard, but they don’t always reflect the effect or quality.

Also high on iOS 17’s list of fun features is Standby Mode, which turns your iPhone into a little bedside clock. Just turn your phone sideways while charging. Choose from several watch faces, a calendar view with widgets, or view your photos. This works with any charger, including wired, Qi, or MagSafe.

When you attach your phone to the official MagSafe charger, the phone remembers which standby screen you’re using, so you can set different presets for your desk and nightstand. This is one of the motivations for wanting a genuine his MagSafe instead of a MagSafe compatible (Qi with magnets). But the fact that StandBy works with older chargers is an advantage, and frankly not Apple-like.

If you have an iPhone 14 Pro, the standby display will stay on, but if you don’t have a 14 Pro, you can tap the screen to wake up the display. or the surface it rests on It’s the same as using your Apple Watch in bedside mode. Tapping the nightstand just doesn’t work no matter how many times I try. Success depends on the type of table and charger you’re using. But I like this as an option to check the time in the middle of the night.

This year, the keyboard received a series of updates, very small individually, but together they form a sort of Captain Planet update that is greater than the sum of its parts. First of all, her favorite 4-letter words will no longer be auto-corrected. You’ll still see the “ducking” suggestion as you type, but the swearing will remain when you tap the spacebar.

the word that is Auto-corrected ones are underlined in blue, making it less likely that you’ll miss an inaccurate change before hitting the submit button. If you ever need to undo an AutoCorrect change, simply tap the icon in the line of text to undo the change. This makes it a little less of a burden when typing texts and emails every day. At least it felt that way to me.

This is self-explanatory. When someone calls you, you now have the option to send to voicemail from the call screen and read a live transcription of the caller’s message. He can even silently marvel at how one robot tells another how he can answer calls, block callers, read transcripts, and save 50% on cable bills. What a wonderful time to be alive.

Recent Pixel phones (and to some extent other Android phones) have a similar feature that lets you “answer” the call to the Google Assistant and ask the person what the call was about. I’m here. But in a good way.

Apple omits excuses and simply tricks callers into believing they are leaving a voicemail. That’s kind of true, but in both cases, the message is on your device, not your wireless carrier’s voicemail. I strongly suspect that most people don’t care about this difference.

Personally, I am a fan of live transcription. My area code is different from the area code where I live, so like many people, I’ve used it as a shortcut to keep spammers out by only taking local calls. This clever little hack fell through recently when every real estate agent in the greater Seattle area started calling me asking if I wanted to sell my house. (I don’t.) I’m already using this feature a lot while testing this iOS beta. I plan to continue using it for the rest of my natural life to not answer the phone.

With iOS 17, the Reminders app automatically sorts your grocery list. That’s it, that’s the feature. If you tell Siri to add “strawberries” to your list, the list will automatically fall into the section titled Produce, rather than being arbitrarily dumped under laundry detergent. I don’t use reminders often when I’m on iOS, but it’s a feature that keeps me coming back for more.

This feature also works well with one of Siri’s new features, the ability to process a series of commands without getting Siri’s attention each time. This makes it a little easier to create a grocery list when checking your cupboard. Siri still has a long way to go before it becomes as useful as the Google Assistant, but at least now it can help you create decent shopping lists.

I’m a big fan of enabling our phones to do things better for us, and so far I’m a fan of the features iOS 17 adds. There are many other features that I would like to try. A diary app is expected to arrive later this year. Some of them become more prominent – ​​be prepared for an onslaught of contact cards – but many of them are hidden deep in the weeds of our daily phone calls. Flashy new features are fun, but let’s be honest, I live for weedy stuff, and iOS 17 has a lot of it.

Photo: Alison Johnson/The Verge