With the first iOS 17 beta released in the hands of developers, early adopters keep spotting smaller changes in the new version of Apple’s mobile operating system. Here are some notable differences that have come to light since Monday’s keynote at WWDC.
Bing Apple Watch
If you have an Apple Watch paired with your iPhone, Apple has added an optional button in Control Center that enables you to ping your watch if you’ve misplaced it. (Erosion Aaron.)
Improved Spotlight Siri suggestions
When you swipe down on the home screen to access Search, you’ll see some neat new contextual tricks added to Siri’s suggestions, like suggesting you create a timer or a new note if you’ve used those apps recently. When you search for a specific app like Photos, you’ll also get the app’s shortcuts to the next action, letting you go directly to your Favorites album, for example.
You can now also toggle certain system settings directly from within Siri Suggestions results. You can, for example, enable focus, turn on Airplane mode, or disable Always On Display on your iPhone 14 Pro.
multiple timers
It took this long, but iOS finally supports multiple timers.
Each counter you set can be given a label, which helps you identify it in a list. For added convenience, the list will also include any completed timers you’ve used recently. When several timers are running simultaneously, they will all be listed in the lock screen, and the last one set will appear in the dynamic island.
Safari’s “Listen to Page” feature
In Safari, Apple has added a new “Listen to page” option to the aA menu in the address bar. Tap it, and Siri will read aloud the contents of the currently loaded web page.
When Siri reads it out to you, the same option changes to “Pause listening,” and if you choose to pause, it turns into “Resume listening” so you can pick up where you left off.
Visual search for meals
When viewing photos, Apple has improved Visual Look Up in several ways, most notably the ability to find recipes for similar dishes when meals in the photo are recognized.
In addition, you can now search for information from a topic that you just lifted from a photo, and you can also pause the video on any frame to search for information on a topic.
Fitness + custom plans
Fitness + includes a new feature called Custom Plans, where you can create your own exercise schedule and weekly meditation to boost your motivation.
Plan options include the ability to set the total exercise/meditation time of the day, set the plan duration, and choose your activity types. You can also select your preferred Fitness + trainers and the type of music you want in your plan.
Other features and anecdotes
- Apple News + Crossword Puzzles
- New slider animations in Control Center
- Interrupt Siri and make consecutive requests without reactivating
- Improved spam filtering
- Dark mode release for AirPods pop-up card
Developers are still figuring out what changed in iOS 17, so be sure to check back with more coverage here. Mac rumors.
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