Apple Releases iOS 17, iPadOS 17, and watchOS 10

Apple has released today iOS 17, iPadOS 17, watchOS 10, and tvOS 17. The major updates have been available in beta for quite some time, and the public rollout begins ahead of the release of the new iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Pro, Apple Watch Series 9, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 this Friday, September 22.

iOS 17 brings a lot of new features for the Phone app, Messaging, FaceTime, Safari, and Maps. I’ll detail a couple of highlights below:

Live Voicemail: This feature lets you view a real-time transcription of a voicemail someone is leaving you as they speak.

Audio messages transcriptions: The messages app can now transcribe audio messages sent via iMessage

FaceTime on Apple TV: You can now hand off a FaceTime call from your iPhone to your Apple TV and use your iPhone as a camera.

StandBy: When your iPhone is turned on its side while charging, a new full-screen experience will display widgets and other glanceable bits of information.

Interactive widgets: You can now Interact with widgets on your Home Screen, Lock Screen, or in StandBy mode

Safari profiles: Apple’s web browser now supports different user profiles to segment your activity.

Offline Maps: The Maps app now lets you save an area of a map to use offline.

Siri improvements: You can now summon the digital assistant by just saying “Siri”, and it now supports back-to-back requests

For iPadOS 17, the main highlights include support for widgets on the lock screen, a native version of the iOS Health app, AutoFill in PDFs, and more flexible layouts for Stage Manager. This release also adds the ability to use an external camera for FaceTime calls, which is a useful addition as Apple only started to put the built-in iPad cameras in the right position (in landscape mode) with the 10th-generation iPad released in the fall of 2022.

For Apple Watch users, watchOS 10 introduces redesigned apps, a new Smart Stack with glanceable information, and a faster way to access Control Center from any by pressing the side button. This update also introduces new Watch faces and advanced metrics and experiences for cyclists.