It’s a big moment when Apple introduces a new version of iOS at WWDC every summer. After all, this software runs on more than a billion iPhones and can fundamentally change how they behave: iOS updates add new features, fix flaws and UI issues, improve reliability (hopefully) and generally improve the iPhone experience. All this without installation costs.
In 2023, according to rumor mongers, the portion of new features in that equation will be relatively minor, and the company’s mixed reality headset will apparently cost so many engineering hours to develop that the iOS 17 project had to be scaled back. Several experts have warned that while some small new features will be included, there will be no “tent improvement” to base the event on iOS 16’s customizable lock screen.
But it’s not a disaster. Not for Apple, which will spend most of the event talking about the headset anyway, and not for iPhone owners, who will get a great update anyway. Because the real value you get from an iOS update is the under-hyped tent feature. Instead, it comes from the sum of small tweaks that improve the overall experience in many ways. In fact, one could argue that so-called “maintenance updates” are better for the user because they are less prone to breakage and focus on the small details that matter most.
With that in mind, here are five small changes we’re looking forward to this year and why (assuming the information is correct) they’ll make a difference to your iPhone (plus one that won’t make a difference as much as people do). think). For a complete coverage of everything we know about this year’s iPhone update, check out our iOS 17 super guide.
Custom Application Library Folders
The App Library, introduced in iOS 14, is a single screen containing all of your iPhone’s apps organized into categories for easy searching. Apple realized it needed to offer a simplified way to navigate iOS as users installed more and more apps on more and more screens, and demanded the ability to hide apps from the traditional home screen view.
So the app library makes a lot of sense as a navigational concept, but its categories leave a lot to be desired. Scrolling through mine, you’ll find a mixture of the useful (games, social media, and music speak for themselves), the misguided (such as the subtle distinction between productivity and finance and business, and a bizarrely wide range of information and reading), and the downright useless (Utilities and classic Other). My colleague Jason has two Fender guitar apps on his iPhone and they somehow ended up in different folders… and neither of them fit. I don’t use the app library very often, mostly because it’s a mess.
Foundry
However, with the launch of iOS 17, I may no longer have that excuse; There are rumors that Apple will allow us to create our own categories. Further details are scarce. Does this simply mean that in the App Library, just like on our home screens, we can create a folder, name it whatever we want, and add apps to it manually? The strength of the concept is that users with hundreds of apps don’t have to manually sort and organize them, so we hope that iOS 17 will allow us to create our own categories instead. rules that are applied to our app collections en masse.
Smart Search
The main alternative to the App Library if you have a lot of apps is to navigate through search. Swipe down from any home screen and you’ll open the Spotlight screen, where Siri suggests various apps and activities it thinks you might be interested in, and where you can type in a search term and display apps, contacts, photos, settings, web -pages. and much more that fits.
Because the app library doesn’t do this for me, Spotlight is how I navigate through a whole range of apps that don’t quite fit in position on my first few home screens. But things seem to get better with the launch of iOS 17: Twitter leader @analyst941 stated that in the update we will see “greatly improved search/spotlight”.
As with the App Library, the details are minimal so far, but as good as Spotlight is, there are two main areas where it could be improved. First, the search function itself could be improved, either by being able to better understand typos (although it can already recognize some, such as “gaem” as a misspelling of the word “game”), or by being able to search in applications such as Notes and “Messages” when it’s most relevant. And secondly, the AI behind Siri Suggestions could be improved so that it has a better chance of predicting what you want to do at the moment. Either way, the useful navigation center will become even more useful, and I can’t wait.
Managed control center
No one likes to wade through the iOS Settings app, and the Control Center is a great way to avoid that hassle and jump straight to your most used toggles. But its design is tired and customization options remain limited. (The top half is carved in stone; for the bottom half, you can choose from a list of 23 additional controls.) All of that could change in iOS 17.
Foundry
An anonymous user of the MacRumors forum with one successful past prediction believes that Apple is going to update the Control Center in 2023, and that it will be so important that it will be the highlight of the iOS 17 announcement.
focused focus
In recent years, Apple has adopted an amazing “use your iPhone less” strategy, encouraging customers to limit screen time and reduce distractions while sleeping, working, exercising, and above all, driving. A key part of this remarkable effort are iPhone Focus Modes, which let you fine-tune notifications, alerts, auto-replies, and even the layout of your home and lock screen in such a precise way that fits and focuses your attention where you want it. specific activity.
Starting with iOS 16, there are four preset focus modes — Driving, Fitness, Sleep, and Work — as well as a generic Do Not Disturb mode. You can customize each one and set up your own personal mode with a separate set of options, making Focus an impressively powerful tool…if you take the time. But Apple goes above and beyond when it does the work for you, and we look forward to additional pre-written Focus filters that sources predict will be added in iOS 17.
I’d like to suggest a drinking mode that prevents you from sending messages to selected “dangerous” contacts, displays contact information for taxis and pizzerias, and automatically lowers the brightness and volume the next morning.
Precision flashlight
Activate iPhone flashlight with one tap from Control Center and it’s either on or off. Power users know, however, that you can long press the icon to turn it into an adjustable flashlight with four brightness levels. Advice for you there.
But who is ready to be content with a baby with four brightness levels? Not me! I want the “stepless flashlight brightness adjustment” that one Weibo source said was offered in iOS 17. Changes to the game.
But side loading? Not so much
I’m joking a bit about the grainy flashlight, which will often be useful to a very small minority of users and only occasionally useful to the rest of us. But I’m sure it matters more than sideloading.
An unpublished download is when a phone owner installs software through unofficial channels, which in the case of iOS means a source other than the Apple App Store. For now, this requires you to jailbreak your iPhone, a relatively technical and possibly risky process that can void your warranty and, if you’re not careful, could leave your device with malware. But all this should change with the launch of iOS 17.
As a result of political, legal and PR pressure, Apple is expected to open up the iPhone this year and allow third-party app stores, a major concession from a company facing mounting allegations of anti-competitive behavior. On a corporate level, this would be a huge move… but I suspect it won’t make much of a difference to the average iPhone owner.
The problem is that Apple, whose engineers and designers will create the structure in which third-party stores exist, is actively encouraged to make it work poorly in order to maximize revenues through the official store. And just as the self-service program that Apple doesn’t want you to use turned out to be surprisingly complicated and expensive, downloading the unpublished is sure to be as clunky and unintuitive as Apple can make it. And I’m pretty sure that iPhone owners who are used to a smooth, simple, and user-friendly interface will either avoid it altogether or try it once and promise never to come back. (Many, indeed, will never hear that this is possible.)
The theory is that increased competition from third parties will force developers to cut prices in the official App Store, and Apple to reduce its share and loosen its stricter policies. But this only works if people are really actively using the new option, and I just don’t see it happening.
Oh, and sideloading might be limited to Europe, so that’s it too.