iOS 17 Features: The Ultimate Mega Guide

Friday November 17, 2023 12:22 AM PST by Juli Clover

During the iOS 17 beta testing process from June to September, MacRumors wrote a series of in-depth feature guides highlighting every major new addition, plus how tos that walk you through using the new features.

iOS 17 Ultimate Guide Feature 2
This comprehensive guide rounds up all of our coverage, making it a great resource for casual users who haven't had a chance to test out ‌iOS 17‌ and those who might not remember all of the new features. Everything is organized by app or feature to make it easy to find what you might be looking for.

Will My iPhone Run iOS 17?

Lock Screen Updates

Apple made further updates to the Lock Screen in ‌iOS 17‌ with StandBy, a feature that turns an iPhone into a home hub when it's charging and positioned in a horizontal orientation. The update also brings interactive widgets and other features.

Every new feature for the Lock Screen is outlined in our iOS 17 Lock Screen guide.

Messages

The Messages app got a redesign that makes it less cluttered and simpler to use, plus it has a revamp to the stickers function. Emoji are now stickers and can be placed anywhere on an iMessage, and you can even create your own stickers from photos. A new Check In feature keeps you safe by allowing friends and family to track your trips when you're alone.

There are more than 10 new features in the Messages app, all of which can be found in our iOS 17 Messages guide.

Privacy and Security

There are multiple privacy and security improvements in ‌iOS 17‌, including restricted access to the private browsing tab, the removal of tracking URLs, secure ways to share passwords, and more.

All of the privacy and security enhancements in ‌iOS 17‌ are listed in our Privacy and Security guide.

Safety

New safety-related features in ‌iOS 17‌ range from sensitive content warnings that block unwanted nude photos to offline maps and critical reminders for medications.

All of the updated safety features in ‌iOS 17‌ are included in our dedicated iOS 17 Safety guide.

CarPlay

Apple didn't preview the promised next-generation CarPlay experience, but ‌CarPlay‌ did get SharePlay for allowing everyone in the car to contribute to the music, plus it includes improvements for locating EV charging stations.

Everything new in ‌CarPlay‌ can be found in our dedicated CarPlay guide.

Siri

In ‌iOS 17‌, you no longer need to say "Hey Siri" to activate ‌Siri‌, and you can instead just say "‌Siri‌." ‌Siri‌ can also read web articles and recognize back to back requests.

For more on what's new with ‌Siri‌ (and Spotlight), we have a dedicated iOS 17 guide

Safari

Safari supports profiles for separating work browsing and home browsing (or any kind of browsing you want to segregate), plus there's now a locked private browsing window that you can't open without Face ID or Touch ID authentication.

Apple has also improved anti-tracking features, boosted password functionality, and more, with full details available in our iOS 17 Safari guide.

Phone and FaceTime

The Phone app and the FaceTime apps have some of the most notable changes in ‌iOS 17‌. You can set up a Contact Poster that people see when you call them, and you can see the voicemails people are leaving in real time so you can pick up if it's important. ‌FaceTime‌ supports audio and video messages so you can leave ‌FaceTime‌ voicemails too.

For more on what's new with ‌FaceTime‌ and the Phone app, we have a dedicated iOS 17 Communications guide.

Autocorrect and the Keyboard

Apple is using a new machine learning algorithm for autocorrect so it's smarter than before, plus it's easier to correct the mistakes that it makes. Autofill is quicker, and stickers are now found in the same place as emoji so you can use them everywhere in the operating system.

How to Use Predictive Autocorrect

A more detailed overview of what's new with autocorrect can be found in our iOS 17 autocorrect guide.

AirDrop

AirDrop has a new NameDrop option for quickly sharing contact information with someone by touching two phones together, plus there are new proximity sharing options.

There are a few other new features available in AirDrop, which can be found in our AirDrop guide.

AirPlay

There are a couple of new features in AirPlay, including automatic AirPlay functionality with TVs and a smarter ‌AirPlay‌ function that puts the device you ‌AirPlay‌ to most often at the top of the ‌AirPlay‌ interface.

Later this year, Apple also plans to bring ‌AirPlay‌ functionality to hotel TVs so you can watch your content without having to log in to your streaming services when traveling.

How to Use Automatic AirPlay With Speakers

Weather

In the Weather app, Apple has added a new widget for viewing moon phases, plus an option to see yesterday's weather in the 10-day forecast. There are several other small but useful changes, all of which are outlined in our iOS 17 Weather guide.

How to Switch Measurement Units in the Weather App

Health

In the Health app, the major new feature is mood tracking, which is designed to help you catalog your emotions throughout the day and over a long period of time, determining what influences how you feel and how activities like exercise impact mood. The Health app has also expanded to iPad, and there are a few other new features.

Everything new in the Health app is outlined in our iOS 17 Health guide.

Maps

In the Maps app, Apple has added offline maps for the first time, so you can download maps for the area that you're in or visiting and have access even without a cellular or WiFi connection.

How to Download Offline Maps in Apple Maps

There are also changes to the Maps interface and a few other tweaks, with details available in our iOS 17 Maps guide.

Photos and Camera

The ‌iOS 17‌ Photos app is able to recognize pets in addition to people, correctly identifying different cats and dogs. Visual Look Up works with recipes, laundry symbols, and more, plus it can be used with videos. The Camera app has an improved interface for QR codes and new leveling tools.

A walkthrough of all of the new features in the ‌iOS 17‌ ‌Photos‌ and Camera apps can be found in our dedicated guide.

Apple Music

In ‌iOS 17‌, Apple has added long-requested features like collaborative playlists and crossfade for a non-stop music experience. There are also new ‌CarPlay‌ sharing tools, song credits, and more.

A full list of everything new in Apple Music can be found in our iOS 17 Apple Music guide.

Notes and Reminders

The Notes and Reminders app in ‌iOS 17‌ have a number of useful new features. You can link one note to another for the first time, so you can create wiki-style documents, and in Reminders, there's new grocery sorting, custom sections, and a column view option.

A complete rundown on what's new with Notes and Reminders can be found in our guide.

Other How Tos

We have a complete overview of all of the new features in ‌iOS 17‌ in one handy place in our iOS 17 roundup, which is also well worth checking out for all of the little details that didn't make it into our guides and how tos.

Related Roundups: iOS 17, iPadOS 17

Related Forums: iOS 17, iPadOS 17

Top Rated Comments

hortod1

8 months ago

Someone at Apple doesn’t understand how the 24 hour clock works.

Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)

orionquest

Did they fix the lock screen so you don't accidentally enter this customization theme mode. That keeps happening in iOS 16, need to be able to turn that off.

Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)

jz0309

nope, the most annoying iOS feature ever! a Lock Screen is a LOCK screen ...

Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Populus

Wow. Such a comprehensive list of features linked to their own articles! Great work @jclo !!

EDIT: I think it would be useful to pin this mega-ultimate-guide on the from page. Especially now that iOS 17 just got released.

Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Thanks for posting this. You guys do an awesome job putting this together!

Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Bryan Bowler

Thank you MacRumors!! This is wonderful!!!

Read All Comments