iOS 17 is here: Top 10 features you get by updating your iPhone today

As India celebrates the auspicious occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi, iPhone users in the country have another reason to celebrate. That’s because the much-awaited iOS 17 update is finally here for eligible devices, and it brings a ton of new features. Excited? So are we! Here are the top 10 features iOS 17 brings to your Apple iPhone starting today.

StandBy mode

StandBy mode allows your iPhone to be turned into a nightstand-like device whenever you’re charging the phone via wired or wireless charging. All you need to do is set the device on its side, and everything from live activities and music playback to your clock and calendar can now take over the screen.

iOS 17’s StandBy feature will even quickly show Siri results at a glance and visuals across the various elements are now larger and clearer to see from a distance. There’s also a large degree of customisability, letting users define which photos they want to look at during StandBy, or how their clock looks.

Contact Posters

With Contact Posters, iPhone users on iOS 17 can now personalise how their incoming calls will look like on other iPhones. The feature lets you select an image, a matching background, and even some text, all of which can be fine-tuned to your liking.

When another iPhone user sees your call, this is the image they will see, while you can see their Contact Posters when they call. The feature makes calling more fun, and lets you personalise your iPhone a little more.

Check In

Do you remember dropping that text to your friends and family to let them know you’ve safely reached home? So do we. That’s where the new Check In feature on iOS 17 comes in. Easily set a Check In reminder, based on either timers or location.

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When you have safely reached home, or the set amount of time has passed, your iPhone will remind you to let your dear ones know that you’ve made it. More importantly, should things not go according to plan, they will receive an alert of the same.

Live Stickers

Communicating with stickers is fun, but iOS 17 takes it up a notch with Live Stickers. The new feature lets you create stickers from your own photos and add 3D animated effects to them. You can even pull animated stickers straight from Live Photos to immediately make them available to use.

All stickers are now available in the dedicated Stickers drawer in the emoji keyboard, which allows you to use them in more apps. Stickers are also synced with iCloud, allowing them to be used with your other Apple devices.

New FaceTime features

FaceTime also gets new features with iOS 17. Users can now record an audio or video message for another user when they aren’t available to take a FaceTime call. Hand gesture support also makes FaceTime video calls more fun with full-screen AR effects triggered simply by specific hand gestures.

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Users can also now transfer their FaceTime calls to and from an Apple TV setup easily, using their iPhone camera as a webcam.

NameDrop

If you love AirDrop, it gets better on iOS 17 with NameDrop, a new feature that lets you hold your iPhone close to someone else’s iPhone to share pre-selected phone numbers, email addresses and your Contact Poster instantly like magic.

Initiating an AirDrop is now also easier. Simply bring two iPhones close to initiate transfer over AirDrop. AirDrop transfer will also continue over the internet when you move away, but this functionality will be added later this year.

Improved Autocorrect

iOS 17 improved the autocorrecting abilities of your keyboard for a simpler, more accurate typing experience across apps. Autocorrected words are now temporarily displayed with an underline so you know what’s changed. Tapping the space bar is now an easy way to complete predictions, for words and also entire sentences.

Interactive widgets

Widgets on iOS 17 get better and now allow users to tap and swipe on them for added functionality. This applies to widgets on the Home Screen, Lock Screen and even StandBy.

You can now do things like complete to-do lists, play or pause music and access home controls with one tap, and without opening the respective apps.

Offline Apple Maps

If you’re one of those users who prefers Apple Maps over other alternatives, you’ll be glad to know that iOS 17 finally brings offline maps support to eligible iPhones. The feature allows you to download map data for a region ahead of time so you can seamlessly use maps even when connectivity gets spotty.

‘Hey Siri’ to ‘Siri’

Siri gets easier to use with iOS 17, as users can now simply say “Siri” instead of “Hey Siri” to trigger the voice assistant. This makes conversations easier to initiate and chain together.

Those are the best new features coming with the new update. You can check a list of all new features on the Apple iOS 17 page. All iPhones launched since the iPhone XS and iPhone XR (including those models) are eligible for iOS 17, along with the iPhone SE Gen 2 and Gen 3. To update your iPhone, simply head to Settings > General > Software Update and follow on-screen instructions.