iOS 17 AirPlay Features

With the iOS 17 update, Apple is updating and refining almost every iPhone app and feature, and that includes AirPlay. ‌AirPlay‌ is Apple's wireless communication protocol that allows music and video content from iPhones, iPads, and Macs to be beamed to devices like the Apple TV, HomePod, and third-party speakers, smart TVs, set-top boxes, and receivers.

iOS 17 AirPlay Feature
This guide highlights the changes that Apple is making to ‌AirPlay‌ in iOS 17, with these features also available in iPadOS 17 and macOS Sonoma.

AirPlay Preferences

iOS 17 improves on-device intelligence for ‌AirPlay‌, and it is able to better learn your preferences over time. If you typically ‌AirPlay‌ from your ‌iPhone‌ to the ‌Apple TV‌ in the living room, it will learn that behavior and show the ‌Apple TV‌ first in your ‌AirPlay‌ list over other ‌AirPlay‌ devices that may be in the home.

ios 17 airplay
Devices are shown in the ‌AirPlay‌ interface based on relevance, and you'll also now see suggested connections proactively based on your prior ‌AirPlay‌ usage.

The ‌AirPlay‌ interface is smarter from the outset, and it shows the devices that are located closest to you first rather than offering up a more arbitrary list. The ‌AirPlay‌ interface also makes it clearer which device content is AirPlaying to and whether ‌AirPlay‌ is active.

Automatic AirPlay

The Automatic ‌AirPlay‌ feature that was available for TVs in iOS 16 has expanded to include speakers as well in iOS 17. You can opt in to have the ‌iPhone‌ automatically connect to nearby speakers and TVs when playing content from apps that you regularly use with ‌AirPlay‌.

ios 17 airplay automatic
Previously, this setting was limited to ‌AirPlay‌ TVs.

AirPlay in Hotel Rooms

Apple is teaming up with hotel chains and TV manufacturers to introduce smart TV sets that will let hotel guests automatically ‌AirPlay‌ content from their Apple devices to the hotel TV.

airplay hotels
The option will let guests watch their own TV shows and movies without having to sign into streaming accounts on shared televisions, providing more security for viewing content when traveling.

IHG Hotels and Resorts will be the first hotel company to bring ‌AirPlay‌ to its hotels, and LG plans to introduce AirPlay-compatible smart TVs designed specifically for use in hotels.

Read More

You can get more information on the changes coming in iOS 17 in our comprehensive iOS 17 roundup.

Related Forums: iOS 17, iPadOS 17

Popular Stories

M5 MacBook Pro

Apple Announces New 14-Inch MacBook Pro With M5 Chip

Wednesday October 15, 2025 6:07 am PDT by
Apple today updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro base model with its new M5 chip, which is also available in updated iPad Pro and Vision Pro models. In addition, the base 14-inch MacBook Pro can now be configured with up to 4TB of storage on Apple's online store, whereas the previous model maxed out at 2TB. However, the maximum amount of unified RAM available for this model remains 32GB. Like...
Apple iPad Pro hero M5

Apple Debuts New iPad Pro With M5 Chip, Faster Charging, and More

Wednesday October 15, 2025 6:16 am PDT by
Apple today announced the next-generation iPad Pro, featuring the custom-designed M5, C1X, and N1 chips. The M5 chip has up to a 10-core CPU, with four performance cores and six efficiency cores. It features a next-generation GPU with Neural Accelerator in each core, allowing the new iPad Pro to deliver up to 3.5x the AI performance than the previous model, and a third-generation ray-tracing ...
maxresdefault

Here's Everything Apple Announced Today

Wednesday October 15, 2025 3:54 pm PDT by
We didn't get a second fall event this year, but Apple did unveil updated products with a series of press releases that went out today. The M5 chip made an appearance in new MacBook Pro, Vision Pro, and iPad Pro models. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. We've rounded up our coverage and highlighted the main feature changes for each device below. MacBook Pro M5...
iphone air thickness

Apple Said to Cut iPhone Air Production Amid Underwhelming Sales

Friday October 17, 2025 8:29 am PDT by
Apple plans to cut production of the iPhone Air amid underwhelming sales performance, Japan's Mizuho Securities believes (via The Elec). The Japanese investment banking and securities firm claims that the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are seeing higher sales than their predecessors during the same period last year, while the standard iPhone 17 is a major success, performing...
HomePod mini and Apple TV

Apple's Next Rumored Products: New HomePod Mini, Apple TV, and More

Thursday October 16, 2025 9:13 am PDT by
Apple on Wednesday updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Vision Pro with its next-generation M5 chip, but previous rumors have indicated that the company still plans to announce at least a few additional products before the end of the year. The following Apple products have at one point been rumored to be updated in 2025, although it is unclear if the timeframe for any of them has...
Vision Pro M5 Announcement

Apple Updates Vision Pro With M5 Chip, Dual Knit Band, and 120Hz Support

Wednesday October 15, 2025 6:14 am PDT by
Apple today updated the Vision Pro headset with its next-generation M5 chip for faster performance, and a more comfortable Dual Knit Band. The M5 chip has a 10-core CPU, a 10-core GPU with Neural Accelerators, and a 16-core Neural Engine, and we have confirmed the Vision Pro still has 16GB of RAM. With the M5 chip, the Vision Pro offers faster performance and longer battery life compared...
14 inch MacBook Pro Keyboard

New 14-Inch MacBook Pro Has Two Key Upgrades Beyond the M5 Chip

Thursday October 16, 2025 8:31 am PDT by
Apple on Wednesday updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro base model with an M5 chip, and there are two key storage-related upgrades beyond that chip bump. First, Apple says the new 14-inch MacBook Pro offers up to 2× faster SSD performance than the equivalent previous-generation model, so read and write speeds should get a significant boost. Apple says it is using "the latest storage technology," ...
MacBook Pro M5 Screen

New MacBook Pro Does Not Include a Charger in the Box in Europe

Wednesday October 15, 2025 6:59 am PDT by
The new 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M5 chip does not include a charger in the box in European countries, including the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, and others, according to Apple's online store. In the U.S. and all other countries outside of Europe, the new MacBook Pro comes with Apple's 70W USB-C Power Adapter, but European customers miss out....
airpods max 2024 colors

AirPods Max 2: Everything We Know So Far

Tuesday October 14, 2025 8:43 am PDT by
Apple's AirPods Max have now been available for almost five years, so what do we know about the second-generation version? According to Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the new AirPods Max will be lighter than the current ones, but exactly how much is as yet known. The current AirPods Max weigh 0.85 pounds (386.2 grams), excluding the charging case, making it one of the heavier...
macbook pro blue

Apple's M5 MacBook Pro Imminent: What to Expect

Tuesday October 14, 2025 4:35 pm PDT by
Apple is going to launch a new version of the MacBook Pro as soon as tomorrow, so we thought we'd go over what to expect from Apple's upcoming Mac. M5 Chip The MacBook Pro will be one of the first new devices to use the next-generation M5 chip, which will replace the M4 chip. The M5 is built on TSMC's more advanced 3-nanometer process, and it will bring speed and efficiency improvements. ...

Top Rated Comments

Apple Fan 2008 Avatar
29 months ago
Can't wait for AirPlay in hotels!
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ShivneelSingh Avatar
29 months ago
Just allow me to not include my HomePods as my speakerphone options on my iPhone.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
krell100 Avatar
29 months ago
Is Airplay still limited to 24/48? I'd like to see an updated Airplay that allows streaming the full bandwidth of high resolution files in Apple Music (24/192). Also, Apple, please fix the auto sample/bit rate changing in macOS, why does it work in iOS but not macOS??!!
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
PsykX Avatar
29 months ago
I hope it's more reliable, because I've been having a lot of screen flickers and then AirPlay quits right after... on multiple Apple TVs and iPhones in the last 5-6 years.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
arobert3434 Avatar
29 months ago
How about instead of all this fancy-schmancy guessing simply preserving your last airplay choice for more than 30 seconds or so if you pause the music? This has driven me crazy for years. A Mac will remember your selection until you change it, why can't iDevices do this?

Also in the missing-basics department, Music won't remember your play history across devices. Why do they make this fancy iCloud thing just to let each device be its own silo? It reminds me of the sad state of Books. Remembering the page across devices seems like the simplest possible cloud application. The Kindle app does it flawlessly. But it was always unreliable in Books, and then in iOS 16 rather than spending software development hours on stabilizing that, they invest in a hack-job UI rewrite AND apparently introduce a hard barrier so Books 16 devices and Books <=15 devices cannot sync the page together at all!

The emphasis on simple basic usability seems to have completely left Apple. If it weren't for so much legacy and existing convention in the software at this point they'd be worse than Windows.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
HVDynamo Avatar
29 months ago

Is Airplay still limited to 24/48? I'd like to see an updated Airplay that allows streaming the full bandwidth of high resolution files in Apple Music (24/192). Also, Apple, please fix the auto sample/bit rate changing in macOS, why does it work in iOS but not macOS??!!
There is literally no benefit to 24/192 outside of the mixing environment. 16/44.1 is enough to flawlessly reproduce any frequency in our hearing range.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)