Phone • With Contact Posters, users can now customize the appearance of the incoming call screen shown to other iPhone users. • Customization options are similar to
iOS 16's revamped lock screen, with the ability to pick a custom picture or
Memoji as the contact photo, and change their name's font and color. • On the incoming call screen, a new Live Voicemail button sends the call to voicemail and shows a live transcript on-screen, so the user can decide whether to pick up the call. • Other improvements: • Different ringtones for each SIM. • Increased number of memorized numbers in call history to 2,000. • Users can choose which SIM to use to call all unknown numbers. • The buttons to end a phone call, mute the microphone, etc. are positioned at the bottom instead of being in the center of the screen, so they are more accessible when using the phone with only one hand. • Added more than 20 new ringtones and 11 new alert tones, while moving the previous main ones into the classic section.
Messages • The
Messages app has a new "Check In" feature. • The user must pick a contact and set a destination, and Check In notifies the contact once the user reaches the destination safely. If the user stops moving towards the destination and does not respond to prompts, the user's location, route, and battery level are automatically shared with the contact. The contact otherwise has no access to the user's location, and this information is
end-to-end encrypted. • Other improvements: • The Messages app also shows a transcript of voice messages. • Emojis and photo cutouts (created through the "remove subject from background" tool) can be used as stickers, and stamped on bubbles in iMessage conversations or in other apps. • In iOS 17.2, a new feature called contact key verification was added. This adds an extra layer of security to iMessages, as these keys are exchanged by users when they meet up in person or can be automatically shared with FaceTime, and if at any point a device not registered with the key sends a message, the other user will be notified.
Journal • Journal is a
end-to-end encrypted journaling app that lets users log their daily activities. The app was not available at launch and was added in the iOS 17.2 update.
Apple Music • A new feature called a "Collaborative Playlist" allows a group of users to add and remove songs from a shared playlist. (This was removed in iOS 17.2 Beta 4, but later re-added in 17.3) • A new
Crossfade effect between played songs, supporting a range between 1 second and 12 seconds. • Animated album artwork in music player: albums that support animated album artwork will now show that animation in the music player on Apple Music. • In iOS 17.1, the "Love" system in Apple Music was replaced by a "Favorites" section that comes with expanded functionality. • In iOS 17.2, a Favorite Songs Playlist was added. • With iOS 17.2, users can now disable Listening History in a focus mode. • It is possible to see in real time the availability of charging points for electric vehicles, in particular how many free slots there are at that particular charging point, the type of connection, etc. • Users can search people on the map by name if they have shared their location.
Safari • Safari supports Profiles to keep a user's browsing activities separate when they are at work or school from those at home or personal. Individual Safari extensions can be enabled or disabled by profile. • Pages previously opened in Private browsing mode require Face ID to be reviewed. • Any extension that can read info on a page the user visits is disabled by default when private browsing. • The browsing history now shows favicons next to the site name and description. • Added support for JPEG XL and HEIC image formats. •
AV1 hardware decoding on
iPhone 15 Pro and
iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Notes • Users can create links between notes to quickly jump from one note to another. • Users can view and annotate PDFs directly within the app.
Reminders • The list of a reminder can now be organized into sections. • There is a new column view.
Photos • Users can search for recipes on the Internet using a photo containing food. • Dogs and cats are automatically recognized and categorized within the people section. • When a user zooms in on a photo, a button automatically appears to crop the photo without having to go into photo editing first. • In the search box, users can type the name of an object to find the exact frame in the video where that object appears. • Visual Lookup is now able to recognize in photos the symbols of the various lights in the car, the symbols in the labels of clothes, etc.
Camera • The Camera app has two new optional settings: "Level" shows a horizontal line that turns yellow when the subject is aligned to the horizon, and "Lock white balance" can disable automatic white balance adjustments when recording a video. •
Deferred Photo Processing: the
Deep Fusion post-processing process is performed in the background, instead of taking place at the same time as the "shot" and only when the camera is not in use. This ensures significantly higher recording sessions, without shutter blocks, allowing the user to capture new photos at any time.
Weather • A wind map has been added. • The Weather app now lets users compare today's weather with yesterday's. •
Moon phase: a new section shows the current state of the moon, the time until the next full moon, the times of moonset and moonrise and the lunar calendar.
Health • The
Health app lets users log and label their mood, and see how their mood correlates to various lifestyle factors over time. • The app also let users take standardized assessments for anxiety and depression, although this information is not diagnosis and should not be treated as such. • Users can be notified if they forget to log that they have taken their medication. • Added summary of users' friends' training results.
Shortcuts • Commands associated with various apps are shown in Spotlight search when users search for that app. For example, when searching for the Camera app, commands to open the app in Selfie, Portrait, Cinematic, Time-Lapse, etc. modes are shown.
Miscellaneous • The Home app now includes an activity history for up to 30 days, so the user can see who's accessed the user's locks, doors and alarm sensors, and when. •
Apple Fitness+ can give users custom workout plans, set workouts or meditations to play consecutively, or separately change the volume of the music and the instructor's voice. • Find My supports sharing
AirTags and similar third-party items with up to five people. • FaceTime supports the ability for callers to leave a video or audio message when the recipient is unavailable. Effect reactions have been added to FaceTime calls, similar to the reactions feature in Messages. == Security and privacy ==