All you need to know about iOS 17

iOS 17 is here. It’s the newest version of iOS, Apple’s mobile operating system that runs on iPhone – and it comes with some exciting new changes to voicemail, emojis, Messages, Safari and lots more. Here’s all you need to know about it.

There are lots of new features in the iOS 17 update. Here are some of our favourites:

Standby

This handy feature lets you turn your iPhone into a bedside alarm clock every night. You can even use an old iPhone that’s gathering dust in the drawer! 

When your iPhone is charging and placed on its side, it now goes into standby mode and becomes a smart display. This shows the time in a range of clock styles, and you can also choose to display other things like your favourite photos and widgets.

Here’s a quick and easy new way of sharing your number and contact details with someone else. Simply NameDrop your info to them in the same way you pay for stuff on your phone. Turn on NFC, hover your iPhone over theirs, and they’ll automatically receive your contact info.

If someone calls you and leaves a voicemail message, you can see what’s being said as it happens, with a transcription appearing in real time on your lock screen Then of course, you can make the decision to take the call or ignore it.

You can now personalise how you appear in the contact lists of your friends (and when you call them). You can choose any image you want, and also change the fonts and colours. The choice is all yours.

Check-in is a great new feature that lets your friends and family know that you’ve arrived at a destination safely. If you aren’t making progress, Messages will ask you to respond. If you don’t, it shares information with your selected contacts, including your location, battery level, and mobile network status.

And there’s more! iOS 17 has lots going on behind the scenes to make your mobile life better:

New emojis and stickers. You can now turn emojis into stickers and resize them. You can also turn subjects from photos into stickers, and turn live animated photos into live stickers.

Accurate autocorrect.. Apple says autocorrect is now more accurate than ever, with machine learning adapting to your writing style and suggesting predictions that you actually need.

Faster Messages. Search in Messages has been improved with filters that let you add terms to narrow down the results. You can now also jump straight to the first unread message in a group chat, and swipe to reply on any message.

New ringtones. There are 24 new ringtones to choose from, and lots of new text tones too. You’ll find them in settings, under ‘Sounds & Haptics’.

Better browsing. Search in Safari will be more responsive, with suggestions that are more relevant than they were in the past. You can separate your work browsing from your personal browsing, and even choose a new default search engine.

iOS 17 is compatible with iPhone XR/iPhone XS and later. That means if you’ve got one of the following iPhones, you can update to iOS 17.

• iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max.
• iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max.
• iPhone 13, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro Max.
• iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max.
• iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max.
• iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max.
• iPhone XR.
• iPhone SE (2nd gen or later).

iOS 17 isn’t available for older phones including iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X. These will still run iOS 16 but can’t be updated to any newer versions.

iOS 17 was released on September 18, 2023. So, if you’ve got one of the iPhones mentioned above, you can update right now.

We always recommend that you fully backup your iPhone before updating operation system. And you’ll need at least 2GB of free space on your iPhone to update your iOS successfully. It sometimes takes a little more than that, so leave yourself plenty of free space.

Now follow these simple steps to update to iOS 17:

• Open your ‘Settings’ app.
• Tap ‘General’.
• Tap ‘Software Update’.

You’ll now see details of the iOS version currently running on your phone. If a new version is available you’ll be given the option to “Download and Install”, so go ahead and do that.

iOS 17 usually takes a few minutes to download. Your iPhone will then restart, and you’ll be introduced to iOS 17 and its new features.

Thinking about upgrading to a new iPhone to get the best out of iOS 17?

You can now buy the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max on a plan that gives you all the flexibility and control you need. You can enjoy ultra-fast 5G coverage, roll over unused data, cap your out-of-plan charges, and stay right on top of your expenses with the handy iD Mobile app.