iOS 17 Trivia | 116 facts about the operating system

iOS 17 is the most recent release of Apple’s iOS operating system for the iPhone and the successor to iOS 16.

Let’s find out some trivia and facts about the system.

1. It was announced on June 5, 2023, at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference
2. It was released publicly on September 18, 2023
3. According to Mark Gurman, iOS 17’s internal codename was Dawn. Apple leaders initially intended iOS 17 as a “tuneup release” similar to Mac OS X Snow Leopard
4. Allowing them to focus on their new mixed reality headset
5. Still, several major features were added later in the development cycle
6. The widgets are now interactive, on the Home and Lock screens
7. For example, users can turn on the lights or shutters of the house by pressing the corresponding button of the Home widget
8. Or mark a task complete by pressing directly on a reminder in the widget, etc
9. The brightness of the wallpaper image changes depending on the dark or light mode
10. Resized photos are automatically extended to the top with a gradient that fills the missing space
11. Live Photos are now also supported
12. The font weight for the text on the lock screen can be adjusted more freely
13. StandBy mode is automatically enabled when the phone is charging while horizontally oriented
14. It displays information via widgets in intelligent stacks and Live activities
15. The appearance of this information changes according to the ambient light, so at night they appear with less flashy and less bright colors
16. The keyboard’s autocorrection and dictation are powered by a new on-device transformer model, which Apple says is more accurate and personalized to users’ writing styles
17. Unlike previous versions of iOS, it can learn not to autocorrect swear words
18. Autocorrected words are underlined, and can be reverted with a tap
19. Word predictions are shown inline, and added when the spacebar is tapped
20. AirDrop file transfers continue over the Internet if devices become out of reach
21. NameDrop: by tapping an iPhone or Apple Watch against another, users can start a file transfer, a shared activity with SharePlay, or exchange a customizable contact card
22. The global search now allows users to change system settings directly from the search results
23. For example, if the user searches for “wifi” from the Home Screen, the switch to turn the Wi-Fi off or on appears directly in the search results
24. Silence Notifications: a new option for notifications in focus mode that allows users to choose to mute notifications Always or When blocked
25. Visual Lookup is now able to recognize in photos the symbols of the various lights in the car, the symbols in the labels of clothes, etc
26. Users can now simply say “Siri” instead of “Hey Siri” to activate Siri with their voice
27. Subsequent questions asked to Siri do not require the user to re-say the “Siri” command
28. Users can now say “Hey Siri, send a message” and then choose the application to use through a drop-down menu. After the first change, Siri will remember the choice and speed up the operation
29. Users can ask Siri to read a page in Safari
30. Ability to find a lost Apple TV remote with Siri
31. In the Haptic Touch duration settings is a new third duration that is even shorter than the other two available on iOS 16
32. The information saved by the user in Contacts can be used to automatically and securely fill in the fields of a form of a PDF or scanned document
33. Personal Voice uses machine learning to let users recreate their own voice as a text-to-speech model
34. Using Point and speak, the phone will read what is written on the push-button panels of household appliances
35. Assistive Access: it is an extremely simplified iOS user interface that can be activated from the Accessibility settings, useful for people with cognitive disabilities
36. Private 5G and LTE networks: iOS 17 adds support for private cellular networks
37. Allowing to connect an iPhone to a private 5G or LTE cellular network
38. Using an eSIM or physical SIM that has been specifically provisioned for that network
39. A new setting for cellular networks allows users to disable cellular data usage statistics if they do not care which apps are consuming data
40. iPhone Storage now shows the space occupied by data shared between multiple apps from the same manufacturer
41. With Contact Posters, users can customize the appearance of the incoming call screen shown to other iPhone users
42. Customization options are similar to iOS 16’s revamped lock screen
43. With the ability to pick a custom picture or Memoji as the contact photo, and change their name’s font and color
44. On the incoming call screen, a new Live Voicemail button sends the call to voicemail and shows a live transcript on-screen, so the user can decide whether to pick up the call
45. Other improvements are Different ringtones for each SIM
46. Increased the number of calls in call history to 2000
47. Users can choose which SIM to use to call all unknown numbers
48. The buttons to end a phone call, mute the microphone, etc. are positioned at the bottom instead of being in the center of the screen
49. So they are more accessible when using the phone with only one hand
50. Added more than 20 new ringtones
51. The Messages app has a new “Check In” feature
52. The user picks a contact and sets a destination, and Check In notifies the contact once the user reaches the destination safely
53. If the user stops moving towards the destination and does not respond to prompts, the user’s location, route, and battery level are automatically shared with the contact
54. The contact otherwise has no access to the user’s location, and this information is encrypted end-to-end
55. The Messages app also shows a transcript of voice messages
56. Emojis and photo cutouts (created through the “remove subject from background” tool) can be used as stickers, and stamped on bubbles in iMessage conversations or in other apps
57. iOS 17 bundles a new app, Journal, an end-to-end encrypted journaling app that lets users log their daily activities
58. FaceTime supports the ability for callers to leave a video or audio message when the recipient is unavailable
59. Effect reactions have been added to FaceTime calls, similar to the reactions feature in Messages
60. Collaborative playlist: it allows a group of users to add and remove songs from a shared playlist
61. Cross-fading effect between played songs
62. Animated album artwork in music player: Albums that support animated album artwork will now show the animation in the music player on Apple Music
63. Offline maps: maps can now be downloaded for use without an internet connection
64. Charging stations for electric vehicles: it is possible to see in real time the availability of charging points for electric vehicles, in particular how many free slots there are at that particular charging point, the type of connection, etc
65. Search for people by name: users can search people on the map by name if they have shared their location
66. Profiles: Safari supports Profiles to keep users browsing activities separate when they are at work or school from those at home or personal
67. Individual Safari extensions can be enabled or disabled by profile
68. Private browsing protected by Face ID: the pages previously opened in Private browsing mode require Face ID to be reviewed
69. Private search engine: in the Safari settings, users can set a separate search engine to use in private mode
70. Listen to Page allows users to listen to the entire page as audio read from the phone
71. The browsing history now shows favicons next to the site name and description
72. Added support for JPEG XL and HEIC image formats
73. Users can create links between notes to quickly jump from one note to another
74. Users can view and annotate PDFs directly within the app
75. The list of a reminder can now be organized into sections
76. Recipe search: users can search for recipes on the Internet using a photo containing food
77. Pet recognition: dogs and cats are automatically recognized and categorized within the people section
78. Simplified cropping: when a user zooms in on a photo, a button automatically appears to crop the photo without having to go into photo editing first
79. Search for objects in videos: in the search box, users can type the name of an object to find the exact frame in the video where that object appears
80. The Camera app has two new optional settings: “Level” shows a horizontal line that turns yellow when the subject is aligned to the horizon
81. And “Lock white balance” can disable automatic white balance adjustments when recording a video
82. Deferred Photo Processing: the Deep Fusion post-processing process is performed in the background, instead of taking place at the same time as the “shot” and only when the camera is not in use
83. This ensures significantly higher recording sessions, without shutter blocks, allowing the user to capture new photos at any time
84. Find My supports sharing AirTags with up to five people
85. The Clock app supports multiple simultaneous timers
86. The wind map has been added
87. The Weather app now lets users compare today’s weather with yesterday’s
88. Moon phase: a new section shows the current state of the moon, the time until the next full moon, the times of moonset and moonrise and the lunar calendar
89. Screen Distance checks and warns users if they are holding their iPhone too close to the user’s face for a considerable period of time
90. The Health app lets users log and label their mood, and see how their mood correlates to various lifestyle factors over time
91. The app also let users take standardized assessments for anxiety and depression
92. Users can be notified if they forget to log that they have taken their medication
93. Added summary of users’ friends’ training results
94. Commands associated with various apps are shown in Spotlight search when users search for that app
95. For example, when searching for the Camera app, commands to open the app in Selfie, Portrait, Cinematic, Time-Lapse, etc. modes are shown
96. Developers can define the background color of commands created for their app
97. For example, for the Books app, the commands to open the current book and listen to the current book appear in an orange box like the color of the Books app
98. Apple Fitness+ can give users custom workout plans, set workouts or meditations to play consecutively, or separately change the volume of the music and the instructor’s voice
99. One-time verification codes received in Mail can be filled in with a tap without leaving Safari
100. Link-tracking protection detects user-definable tracking parameters in link URLs and automatically removes them
101. It is automatically enabled in Mail, Messages, and when browsing with Safari in Private Mode
102. Shared group passwords allows the user to create groups of passwords to share with family and friends
103. Users can recover passwords for up to 30 days
104. After changing the lock screen passcode, the old code can be used for 72 hours to reset the new passcode if it is forgotten
105. There’s also a button to expire previous passcode immediately
106. iOS 17 contains several changes for app permissions. When an app wants to add an event to the user’s Calendar, the event is added without the app being able to read the entire contents of the calendar
107. When apps ask to access the user’s entire photo library, the user can share specific photos with apps while keeping the rest of the library private
108. A sensitive content warning detects nudity in photos and videos received in AirDrop and other apps, obscuring them with a blur effect before they are displayed
109. Lockdown mode can block the iPhone from connecting to 2G cellular networks and from auto-joining insecure wireless networks
110. It disables more APIs in Safari susceptible to being attacked, such as IndexedDB, File API, FileReader API, WebSpeech API, WebLocks API, and more
111. Apple’s simultaneously-announced watchOS 10 gains support for Lockdown mode
112. The mode is automatically enabled on Apple Watch when it is enabled on a paired iPhone
113. iOS 17 requires an A12 Bionic chip or later
114. It drops support for devices with A11 Bionic SoC
115. However, devices with either the A12 Bionic SoC or A13 Bionic SoC have limited support
116. Devices with an A14 Bionic SoC or newer are fully supported